Thompson's Turkey (Modified) and a Family Legend
The family legend goes like this: some time in the sixties, my father took the Ford down to Johnson and Sons Lincoln-Mercury in Newport Beach for service. He had to drive the better part of an hour to get there, and as a consequence planned on staying in the dealer’s waiting room until the car was done. My father was not a gregarious person. He was rather quiet, and preferred solitude or the company of friends and family to being around strangers. Nevertheless, a conversation with another gentleman, also waiting for his car, developed. We can assume they probably talked about work, or football, or other such man subjects. But the approaching Thanksgiving holiday somehow came up, and before he knew it, my father realized he was in the presence of a turkey zealot. The man claimed to have a recipe for roast turkey that would forever change my father’s relationship to roast turkey. The recipe and resulting turkey was the pinnacle of human achievement, the man said, but it required co