It’s strange how we develop our traditions. Though many times they are produced by our experiences, dreams, and happy moments, other times they are a product of necessity. Even our local celebrations can be spawned by a need or a difficulty which caused them to occur in the first place.
Take Beaver’s local Cow chip throwing event. To outsiders, it seems a unique and unlikely thing for folks to get all pumped up about. They wonder why people would want to handle bovine excrement in the first place. But that little event has at its heart necessity. The pioneers who settled this land had to find fuel for stoves to cook and heat their homes in the winter. Traditional forms of fuel, wood and coal, were few and far between out on the open plains. So, they hitched up the wagon and got the family spread out over the countryside, and they walked around picking up the cow chips which they could burn., tossing them into the wagon. Before the cow chips, they were picking up buffalo chips, or making hay-ties.
Because of such necessity – the need to make the most out of every resource they had – our ancestors learned to like foods which most Americans rarely consider these days. Some of these traditions hold true for other cultures, within immigrant communities who have brought with them pieces of their culture, or perhaps in certain food dishes which have stood the test of time. Having to make use of everything, our ancestors learned to tolerate and even like foods which many modern Americans (who can pick and choose the foods they eat without the burden of necessity) would considered the leftovers of beef, pork, chicken, lamb and goat. Although, there are cultures which still celebrate the use of heart, liver, kidney, tongue, along with other parts of the animal meats we eat, most Americans would turn their noses up at foods which were derived from them.
Fermented foods, like sauerkraut, kimichi, kefir, sourdough, and certain cheeses were eaten because they were able to be kept longer. Meats were salted and smoked to cure and keep longer. But necessity didn’t just mean finding ways to store food, it also meant finding ways to use every piece of the animal from hoof to horn. When I was a kid, I can remember eating pickled pigs feet with my grandpa like it was cotton candy. Now, not so much. In college, when I needed to make twenty dollars stretch as far as it would go just so I had something to eat, those little cans of sardines and smoke oysters were a life saver at about thirty cents per can. Real excitement came when I found them four for a dollar. I bought a couple cans of sardines not long ago just to see if I actually liked them. I couldn’t force myself to open the cans. I can remember some old timers talking about head cheese like it was gourmet food. I’ll just kind of leave that one to them.
My dad loved mincemeat pie; something I just never got into. It smelled good, but the taste proved the smell to be a lie. Mincemeat was made as a way to preserve meat without salting or smoking it. Store bought minced meat actually has no meat and usually no liquor. However, traditional mincemeat was made with meat – beef, mutton, venison, or goose, or all of the above, blended with apples, dried fruit, spices, molasses, suet (beef or mutton fat) and doused with brandy. A way to make use of leftover meats and create a meal.
Sometimes our favorite food traditions come from our experiences. May be they stem from memories — Grandma’s biscuit recipe, Aunt Max’s Cherry fluff, Mom’s turkey dressing, Cousin Nan’s fruit cake — which probably got mailed from one home to another, being re-gifted until it fell in the lap of someone who was either adventurous or desperate. Sometimes they stem from cultures. Taco Tuesday has become the rage, and some food trailer vendors rake it in serving authentic Mexican tacos made from different meats. In the cities you have specialty restaurants which cater to specific cultures with exotic dishes.
Where am I going with this? Well, although far from a pioneer, I have my own favorite food traditions. Some of those are born from memories or from life experience. I”m not a big dessert eater, but moist carrot cake with chopped walnuts and cream cheese icing holds a special place in my heart. I can remember my dad taking us to a hot dog stand when my mom was in the hospital giving birth to our youngest brother. One of the few times I remember it was just us and dad going out to eat. So, hot dogs rank right up there. And I remember long shopping trips at the mall with my mom (all shopping trips through a clothing store with your mom are long), walking through an old Sears department store, stopping at a lighted case, and ordering a paper bag filled with roasted, salted cashews. Therefore, cashews became a favorite as well. But one of my favorite traditions comes around Thanksgiving, and its probably not what you’d expect.
For many years I worked at a job in retail. In general, retail workers work when others are off work. Holidays are a time to make more money by being open when your customers are off work. For many of those retail years, I worked on Thanksgiving. The store usually had some kind of Thanksgiving meal, so I can’t say that I went without, but by the time I got home, the family Thanksgiving meal had been put away, in containers in the refrigerator. After a stressful and tiring day, I didn’t want to stand around heating food in the microwave. So, I got in the habit of eating cold turkey sandwiches.
Eventually, I got to where I looked forward to those cold turkey sandwiches after the long Thanksgiving/Black Friday ordeal was done and put into the past. In fact, there were some years — dealing with Black Friday preparations, stacking out merchandise all day, and interacting with three thousand eager (sometimes aggressive) shoppers — thinking about that cold turkey sandwich was the only thing that saw me through. When I was home for Thanksgiving, the warm meal was fine, but I really couldn’t wait until that turkey was cold and ready to slap between two slices of bread spread with mayo.
Now, I’m out of retail. I can sit down with the rest of the family and eat a meal which is fresh out of the oven. No need to heat stuff up in the microwave until the second time around. But I still look forward to that cold turkey sandwich. I don’t mind if we have enough turkey left to eat cold turkey sandwiches for the rest of the week. Last year we had Thanksgiving with the kids away from home. I wasn’t sure how this turkey sandwich thing was going to work out. The weekend before Thanksgiving, I had my wife get a turkey breast, so we cold cook it and slice it up to make…. you guessed it… cold turkey sandwiches. It was heavenly.
When we got down to the kids’ house, I found there was more than enough turkey. They had both Cajun Turkey (ordered from a popular restaurant), and smoked turkey which came right out of the backyard smoker. Even smoked duck on hand for those with the hankering. We sat down and ate Thanksgiving dinner while everything was still hot; a dinner filled with tradition and even Aunt Max’s Cherry Fluff. It was a great time with family. One of those rare moments when those spread out over the country can get together. Still, deep inside, there was this little voice calling for my favorite Thanksgiving tradition. That evening, after the big meal of the day had settled and hunger was drawing out the leftovers, I was thrilled to discover — Cold Cajun turkey sandwiches are pretty darn good too.
