Thursday, November 26, 2009

Don't trust the internet with your giblets

I've just pulled the giblets from the turkey.  Well, there's a neck, liver, heart, and what I've always understood to be the gizzard.  What's a gizzard?

Well, I looked up giblets.  Here's why we have to be careful of what we find online.  Fortunately, these were all in the same place so obviously most of them had to be wrong.








From Topix:

Fermelda Hyde
United States

Turkey Giblets are those hangey downey things from a turkey's face.
they are best prepared if you suck them off instead of cutting them off. now if u cut them off be sure to boil them in water to have the same moisture affect as sucking them off. you may then eat them any way you please. i like mine on a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. now you can also try them on a torilla wrap with tomatoes and lettus. you can hardley tell the giblets from the tomatoes!

lilliebelle

No Ma'am. The Giblets are the edible offal of a fowl, typically including the heart, gizzard, liver, and other visceral organs. The term is culinary usage only; zoologists do not refer to the "giblets" of a bird. Giblets is pronounced with a "soft g" sound (jib-lit) as opposed to a "hard g", as in gizzard.

So enjoy those fine giblets this Thanksgiving
people! 

Harold Glackin
Look your all wrong, i worked in a meat abador for years and the giblets are the liver and the feathers of the turkey mushed up. Best served with vodka just before your dinner mmmmmm vodka how i would love some right now.Call me 079XX100198 
Lee Elliott
Are you all nuts?

The giblets include all the remains of the butchering process. These often include anything swept from the floor. Since the reign of King James, these must be included, in a paper bag, inside the gutted turkey. Traditionally, fingers of workers and slaves would find their way into the mix and mean good luck for the new year for those who pluck them from their teeth.

The traditional dish of giblets is served the next day as breakfast, the famous poem, "Ode To A Giblet Bag, Oh, Nonny-Noh!" is read out. Prepare with equal measure of porridge oats and drizzle with honey.
 here are a couple of definitions from the free dictionary:


gib·lets  (jblts)
pl.n.
The edible heart, liver, or gizzard of a fowl.

[From Middle English gibelet, from Old French, game stew, perhaps alteration of *giberet, from gibier, game.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

giblets [ˈdʒɪblɪts]
pl n
(Cookery) (sometimes singular) the gizzard, liver, heart, and neck of a fowl
[from Old French gibelet stew of game birds, probably from gibier game, of Germanic origin]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition 2003. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003


And the gizzard?  From Merriam-Webster online:

Main Entry: giz·zard
Pronunciation: \ˈgi-zərd\
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of Middle English giser gizzard, liver, from Anglo-French gesir, giser, from Latin gigeria (plural) giblets
Date: 1565
1 a : the muscular enlargement of the alimentary canal of birds that has usually thick muscular walls and a tough horny lining for grinding the food and when the crop is present follows it and the proventriculus b : a thickened part of the alimentary canal in some animals (as an insect or an earthworm) that is similar in function to the crop of a bird
2 : innards

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