by KYW's Lauren Lipton
If you wonder why we eat some of the things we do on Thanksgiving, who better to ask than chef Walter Staib (right). He's Philadelphia's award-winning culinary ambassador, and the chef-proprietor of the City Tavern restaurant in Old City (top photo), where the holiday dinner is as historically close as you can get to the early days.
"The turkey came about because it was plentiful. They weighed up to forty-five pounds and were all over the place at that time in Philadelphia. Can you imagine it? Forty-five pound turkeys dressed -- they were huge."
How about all that pastry with fruit in the middle?
"Fruit wouldn't hold up real good. There was no supermarket around, so once the apple got picked and it was in the wood cellar, well after a couple months, it looked shriveled up. The flavor was still there, but the looks weren't there, so strudels and cobblers camouflage the food."
And what about that Thanksgiving standard, the green bean casserole?
"Green beans done in a cream sauce would camouflage the green beans, because many of the green beans would be dried."
As for the cooking and slicing of the turkey...
"First thing I recommend for anyone who slices the turkey, have a little egg nog first and relax. Honestly, though, you shouldn't be afraid of a turkey. It's no different than a chicken."
Yeah, a really big chicken.
For more information on how to make your turkey, how to know when it's done, and how to slice it, plus more on Chef Staib and the the history of the City Tavern restaurant, at 2nd and Walnut Streets, click on the podcast at top right.
That's Positively Philadelphia!
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