#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 19 Food and Drink: The Turkey Carving Rite of Passage

 

My family loves to celebrate the holidays together.  So at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, there would be somewhere between 50 and 80 people (Yes, it is a big family.) gathered to share the festive dinner, which always included a turkey and/or a ham or several turkeys and hams, depending on the expected crowd. Fortunately, we had a couple of houses in the family large enough to accommodate the masses.  

Dad at his carving station 1984

While my father was alive, the job of carving the turkey or ham fell to him.  But after his death, it was taken over by my brothers and then became a kind of rite of passage for all the young men in the family.  (Probably pretty sexist.  I think now we would include the young women as well.)

At each occasion, one of the teenage boys was carefully instructed in the art of slicing up the turkey or ham in the most efficient way.  He was often surrounded by a crowd waiting to snitch slices from the plate before it could make it to the table. Actually, that was an important part of the training—knowing how to fend off the hordes long enough to get a reasonably full plate out to the serving line, preferably without any bloodshed. 

I am fortunate to have a series of photos of this rite of passage for various of the young men in the family, which I share here:

This is my brother Phil carving up a stuffed ham. (And Maryland stuffed ham, if you don't know what that is, is worth a whole blog by itself.  The stuffing is spiced greens and the process of making this is very labor intensive.  My Mom used to make these for us and she taught one of my sisters-in-law to make them, so we still enjoy them every Easter.)

This is my son Matt (the oldest grandchild) about 1994, being shown the finer points of carving by my brother Rob.

This my nephew Vance being instructed by his father Jeff about 1996. Exact same location in Mom's kitchen.

Same location. Different nephew.  Different year. Very popular corner of Mom's kitchen. 

This is my nephew about 2003.

This one is from 2009.

Here my brother is instructing his son on the proper tool sharpening technique.

My nephew Scott practicing his skills at home. 

Although we now celebrate in a different location at my brother's house, this tradition still continues; I just don't have pictures of the more recent occasions.  Turkey carving is definitely a life-skill worth passing on.

I will just mention in passing another important rite of initiation: learning the secret recipe for Scrivener Eggnog.  Although I believe that the recipe originated with my uncle Robert Summers, we still refer to it as Scrivener Eggnog.  (Sorry, Uncle Robert.)

Here is the one picture I have of the secret being passed on to my son James by his uncle Jeff. Since I have never learned the secret myself, all I can tell you is that it involves a lot of eggwhite beating. James, of course, has taken an oath of secrecy.