Turkey Parson ?

[Brian]

Perhaps 40 years ago, I say one of the TV chefs - I’m THINK it was the
great Keith Floyd- show how to make a very simple curry dish he called a
Parson from left over Turkey. It used onions, curry powder, cornflour to
thicken, and milk, besides the left over Turkey. He suggested adding
sultanas as an option. It looks like a Korma and is similar - a mild,
light coloured, curry.

For years it was a regular on our menu rota over the Xmas break - I’m not
sure why or when it dropped off.

The Parson recipe came to mind this evening but I wasn’t sure of the
origins. As above, I believe it was Keith Floyd and he said it was a
Victorian recipe.

Google hasn’t helped and I know Turkey wasn’t popular as a Xmas meal here
until the 1950s / 60s. That makes the Victorian claim unlikely.

Can anyone shed any light on this minor mystery?

[Malcolm Loades]

I think you can ignore the fact that Floyd used turkey, it is so
interchangeable with chicken. My mother made this type of leftover
chicken curry in the 1950's served with a ring of rice around the plate
and the curry in the centre. And Coronation Chicken from 1953 is little
more than a thicker cold version.

Victorian curries certainly used fruit in them, see
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-30718727

Malcolm

[Chris Green]

It's what we do with a lot of left over meat, we very, very rarely
waste any. If there's a lot left over from a Sunday joint we have a
repeat (réchauffé) on Tuesday or Wednesday. Otherwise and/or if
there's only a little left over it's made into a curry, we have a
useful supply of one or two person sized curries in the freezer! :-)

--
Chris Green
·

[Graham]

I never, ever, reheat meat leftovers. I find that reheated meat always
has an unpleasant taste that even curry can't mask. My Father was the
same so perhaps it's genetic.
Graham

[Malcolm Loades]

On 23/12/2021 16:10, Graham wrote:

> I never, ever, reheat meat leftovers. I find that reheated meat always
> has an unpleasant taste that even curry can't mask. My Father was the
> same so perhaps it's genetic.
> Graham
>

Out of curiosity, do you eat cold cooked meat?

For me I almost prefer rare, cold roast beef with rosemary fried
potatoes to a hot roast beef dinner. Also cold roast gammon, egg and chips.

Malcolm

[Graham]

Of course! leftover meat goes into sandwiches or is served up with hot
accompaniments much the same as your suggestions.
I can even taste that unpleasant flavour in the bits of pork in fried
rice from Chinese takeaways and many years ago, I gave up trying to make
soups or stews that included the turkey carcass.
I have brought up this subject on the cesspool that is rec.food.cooking
and have had responses from a few others that experience the same
phenomenon.
I have often wondered whether this taste quirk is analagous to asparagus
pee - some lack the receptors to smell it.

[Chris Green]

Weird, I doubt if I can tell the difference and curries need a good
long guggle anyway. We do this to all sorts of meat, lamb (usually
shoulder), beef (not very often), pork (often at the moment as it's so
cheap), chicken (quite often). I think the lamb *does* taste a little
different second time around but different most certainly isn't worse,
just different.

--
Chris Green
·

[Graham]

My mother had to put up with this quirk. Soups and stews were always
made with fresh meat and I often saw the very last bits of dried-up,
Sunday roast put out for the birds.
Graham

[Brian]

I’d not considered a link to Coronation Chicken, which I have a strange
aversion to. I was served it cold once ( it was apparently published as a
recipe for the Coronation, suitable for street parties etc and able to be
served hot or cold. I wasn’t around then but was served it cold much later
- cold curry really didn’t light my fire.

Floyd served his Parson with rice - perhaps a ring, certainly at the time
that was how curries tended to be presented. I’m sure some people still
remember Vesta Curries ;-) My mother was less than pleased when my elder
brother’s fiancé cooked him a Vesta Curry in our kitchen.

[Brian]

Each to their own of course but we tend to eat both cold meat and make
things like curries etc, plus using the carcass from a Turkey / Chicken to
make stock for soup with small bits of meat going into that.

I recently tried using Sous Vide to reheat gammon slices and pot roast meat
previously cooked. The gammon had been frozen the pot roast just popped in
the fridge after cooling etc the day before ( we needed to eat at lunch
time and it was easier to precook the day before).

I used the Sous Vide function on my Instant Pot. Taste / texture was fine.
The only down side was getting the quantities right. I cooked a large pot
roast. Estimated what I thought I needed for the lunch, allowing a bit over
for ‘seconds’, and froze the rest.

[Brian]

I often cook forward- a throw back to the days when we both worked, plus I
like stews, curries etc. - and bulk cook beef or pork based stews etc and
freeze them. Ditto Coq au Vin and a few other things. Plus soups -
especially Turkey and Chicken. We certainly find they taste more than
acceptable when reheated.

I also use cooked roast Turkey (or chicken) which has been frozen and
defrosted in stir fries and curries.

The one meat I don’t find responds well to reheating is roast lamb. It goes
tough / chewy. Perhaps there is a technique I don’t know.

[Chris Green]

Brian <no...@lid.org> wrote:
>
> The one meat I don’t find responds well to reheating is roast lamb. It goes
> tough / chewy. Perhaps there is a technique I don’t know.
>

We're fairly careful not to re-cook it. If we're repeating a roast
then it's been stored such that re-heating isn't necessary to make it
safe to eat so just warm enough to be good to eat is all we do. One
way we do this sometimes is to heat the gravy and then put the sliced
meat in that with very little heating (of the meat).

--
Chris Green
·

[Malcolm Loades]

On 23/12/2021 17:57, Brian wrote:
>
> I’d not considered a link to Coronation Chicken, which I have a strange
> aversion to. I was served it cold once ( it was apparently published as a
> recipe for the Coronation, suitable for street parties etc and able to be
> served hot or cold. I wasn’t around then but was served it cold much later
> - cold curry really didn’t light my fire.

It's brilliant as a sandwich filling!

Malcolm

[Brian]

I had the misfortune to try one once. Yuk. It seems cold and slimy.

I enjoy other sandwiches which some may consider cold and slimy - my wife
makes outstanding egg and tomato sandwiches - the best I’ve ever had. Prawn
sandwiches with a dressing are another favourite.

I won’t say how I describe Coronation Chicken - it may put you off it.

[Brian]

That could be it although lamb is normally fairly immune to over cooking -
at least if you cook it from raw. I’ve never known it go tough. Break up
yes, go tough no.

[Malcolm Loades]

On 23/12/2021 20:18, Brian wrote:

> I enjoy other sandwiches which some may consider cold and slimy - my wife
> makes outstanding egg and tomato sandwiches - the best I’ve ever had.

With salad cream or mayo?

Salad cream every time for me, with a pinch of black pepper.

Malcolm

[Brian]

A touch of Mayo and black pepper.

I’ve not had salad cream for decades. I like, my mother used to buy it, but
I don’t think I’ve had it since getting married in the mid 70s. I must get
some. I don’t think Senior Management likes it and I’m ok with Mayo so
we’ve always bought ( or made) Mayo.

[Graham]

Obviously, my reheating "phobia" doesn't apply to stews as they usually
benefit from 24 hours in the fridge before reheating.

[Graham]

On 2021-12-23 10:57 a.m., Brian wrote:
I’m sure some people still
> remember Vesta Curries ;-) My mother was less than pleased when my elder
> brother’s fiancé cooked him a Vesta Curry in our kitchen.
>

That takes me back to my Uni days in the 60s:-)

[Brian]

I don’t recall ever trying one- not due to snobbery etc, I just didn’t.

When I was young, my mother regarded any food that was remotely foreign as
( at best) dubious. The closest you’d get to foreign food was spaghetti
hoops from a tin. She wasn’t unusual at the time - this was North East
England in the 1960s, early 70s. We lived on a Council Estate. Food was
healthy enough, certainly not take a ways etc, but meat, fish, veg etc.

I remember having Gammon in a restaurant was considered the height of
sophistication, provided you had pineapple on it. This would have been the
as late as the mid 70s.

[Judith in France]

Have you read Parson Woodfords@ diary? He talks about food a lot and particularly about curry using leftovers?

[Judith in France]

Yum!

[Judith in France]

I mince it and make it into Shephers' Pie.

[Judith in France]

I must change my name, I am no longer in France, I came back 4 years ago when I was widowed.

[Malcolm Loades]

On 29/12/2021 21:38, Judith in France wrote:
>
> I must change my name, I am no longer in France, I came back 4 years ago when I was widowed.
>

Nice to see you still have access to usenet. No problem with 'in
France', change it later if it's easy for you.

Let's hope this small revival of uk.food+drink.misc isn't just a last gasp!

Malcolm

[Judith in France]

I hope it returns I got a lot of great advice and interaction on this site.

[Brian]

No, he isn’t someone I’ve heard of.

That said, I’m wondering if perhaps my memory is playing tricks. Perhaps
Keith Floyd ( assuming it was him who I remember making it) referred to him
and his diary. It was 4 decades ago.

[Brian]

Judith in France <judith...@googlemail.com> wrote:

On one of Rick Steins programmes in France, he showed a chicken version of
shepherds pie made with cooked chicken and tomatoes. I’ve made it with
Turkey. I think it is called Chicken Parmetiere.

[Malcolm Loades]

On 30/12/2021 20:16, Brian wrote:
> On one of Rick Steins programmes in France, he showed a chicken version of
> shepherds pie made with cooked chicken and tomatoes. I’ve made it with

> Turkey. I think it is called Chicken Parmetier.

Parmentier indicates that the dish is based on or includes potatoes.
Derived from Antoine Parmentier who introduced the potato to France.

I guess that would be Chicken Raleigh in English if we followed the same
convention.

Malcolm

[Judith in France]

Parson Woodford was alive during Victorian times, his diary makes great reading, I must read it again.

[Judith in France]

Living in France I was used to parmentier but never liked it, it was usually made with beef in the Auvergne and was a bit like corned beef hash.