ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 13, 1996 TAG: 9611130072
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Marketplace
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
Ah, it's almost Thanksgiving - when cranberry sauce flows like water, when Everests of mashed potatoes dwarf dinner tables, when deep-fried turkeys reign in all their greasy splendor over dishes of green-bean casserole.
Yeah, that's right. Deep-fried turkeys.
Blame it on Martha "Garnish this" Stewart. The most recent issue of Martha Stewart Living, her monthly opportunity to make the rest of us feel completely inadequate, includes an article on southern fried turkey - apparently a South Carolina delicacy - in which she tells us how to cook our Thanksgiving bird in the Fry Daddy.
Ever since then, the National Turkey Federation office has been getting calls about it.
"We don't recommend it," said Stephanie Bergman, a spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C., trade group. It's too dangerous to do it inside, she said, and you'd have to go out and buy the proper equipment - a 10-gallon vat, for one thing.
"I've heard that it's delicious," said an operator at the Butterball Turkey Talkline, the place to go for all your gobbler-related questions. "But it's nothing we've really ever done here, so I couldn't tell you how to do it."
Most folks still opt for the traditional roasting, Bergman said. Turkey prices have held steady since last year, she said. Expect to pay from 79 cents to $1.29 per pound, depending on where you shop, what brand you buy and whether you want fresh or frozen. Fresh birds usually are more expensive, she said, but there's no quality difference between the two types. Fresh turkeys may taste slightly different from their frozen counterparts, but that's only because the frozen birds typically are basted with a buttery or seasoned glaze.
If you're determined to serve turkey but aren't quite up to Martha's or mother's standards, you can take the easy way: carry-out from your grocery store's deli.
"Families are not celebrating Thanksgiving like we used to maybe 10 or 15 years ago," said Tom Webster, manager of the Harris Teeter store at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke. More people are opting for precooked dinners, or even for eating out, to cut down on preparation time and dishes and leftovers, he said.
Webster said he's seen a real increase in orders for the store's "heat-and-eat" Thanksgiving dinners. The deli sells a fully cooked 8-pound turkey, with stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy and cranberry relish for $24. For the same price, you can get 3 pounds of boneless spiral-cut ham, plus green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and spiced apples. You also can buy larger birds.
At Kroger, you can buy a "gourmet" dinner for $70: a fully cooked 16- to 18-pound bird, plus mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, dressing, gravy and cranberry relish. It feeds 18 to 20 people. A smaller dinner, for eight to 10 guests, is $30.
The sooner you order the better. Food Lion asks you to order its $25 turkey or ham dinner at least a week in advance, and Kroger offers a free pumpkin pie to people who order before Nov. 23.
Or, if you're really in the mood for deep-fried poultry but just can't find a suitable 60-quart pot anywhere, there's always KFC.
Gobble, gobble
We eat 45 million turkeys at Thanksgiving. That's just 15 percent of the annual total - 300 million birds.
Only 30 percent of the birds we buy at Thanksgiving are fresh.
Turkey prices will average about 97 cents per pound this year. That's about the same as last year.
If you'd like advice on cooking your turkey, call the Butterball Turkey Talkline, (800) 323-4848. The hotline is staffed Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The weekend before Thanksgiving, operators will be available 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. And on Thanksgiving Day, you can call from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. They're really nice folks, and they won't laugh at you if you say you want to deep fry your bird.
Although they'll probably try to talk you out of it.
Source: National Turkey Federation, Butterball.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: color.by CNB