Chicken-Turkey Hash

History

"Turkey Hash" is recorded in Martha McCulloch-Williams's "Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" (1913) as a use for what is left of a roast bird. The meat is cut small and freed of skin and gristle. If there is rich gravy left, it goes into a skillet and cooks tender with half a dozen sliced tomatoes, three shredded green peppers, a small sliced onion and a cupful of raw potato cubes; lacking gravy, the vegetables are cooked in butter or bacon fat instead — and she notes the difference in seasoning that follows, since "gravy requires less seasoning than plain fat." The meat then goes back in with a cup of boiling water.

The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this particular dish.

"Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" is a mixture of recipes and plantation reminiscence. McCulloch-Williams was a white writer born near Clarksville, Tennessee, who grew up on a plantation before the Civil War, and the book's affection for that world goes unexamined in it: its dedication is "to our Mammys," and its opening holds that being "the best fed people in the world" let "we of the South Country... put up the best fight in history." Much of the cooking it records is the work of enslaved and formerly enslaved Black women the book does not name.

Ingredients

• chicken or turkey meat
• rich gravy
• 6 medium tomatoes
• 3 green peppers
• 1 small onion
• 1 cup potato
• 1 cup boiling water
• butter or bacon fat
• salt and pepper
• thin toast

Instructions

1. Cut the meat small, freeing of skin and gristle.
2. If there is rich gravy left, put it into a skillet, and cook tender in it half a dozen sliced tomatoes, three shredded green peppers, a small sliced onion, and a cupful of raw potato cubes.
3. Lacking gravy, cook in butter or bacon fat, and season to taste — gravy requires less seasoning than plain fat.
4. Add the meat, pour in a cup of boiling water, stir all well together, and cook for five minutes.
5. Serve in a hot dish lined with thin toast.