Thanksgiving in the United States originated in Virginia in 1619. It was a day of thanksgiving for all of the settlers ships arriving on time. The origin of us eating turkey on Thanksgiving is unknown, but many people believe it stems from Benjamin Franklin believing the turkey is a much more respectable bird than the bald eagle.
This long cultural history makes me wonder if we eat turkey for the taste or simply because of tradition. I’m no food expert, but turkey is just not good. It’s dry and it needs gravy to be good enough to eat. To be fair, I haven’t tried deep fried turkey, which I hear is better than normal cooked turkey.
Turkey would be perfectly fine if it were a side dish, but it’s the main Thanksgiving dish. It is really not worth the title of main dish. The good news about Thanksgiving dinner is that there are many side dishes to make up for the lack of flavor of turkey.
I have a feeling that if we made steak the main Thanksgiving dish, then people wouldn’t be celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving like it just doesn’t exist. Instead of looking forward to dry, tasteless turkey, we could look forward to juicy, savory steak.
Thanksgiving is an important holiday steeped in tradition, but don’t let that prevent you from thinking outside of the box when it comes to the meat you eat.
