Turkey Born on the Bayou

Like Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster, there’s another creature many have heard of but never seen. It’s called Deep-Fried Turkey, and it’s just now reaching the coasts, though it’s been a specialty in Louisiana’s Cajun country for years.

Mike Pizzolato, manager of Tony’s Seafood in Baton Rouge, says he sells about 1,600 deep-fried turkeys in the week before Christmas, but, he admits, most people still like to do it in the comfort of their own backyards.

Deep-frying a turkey involves injecting the bird with spicy seasonings, then frying it in an industrial-size caldron filled with 3 gallons of hot oil.

“At first, I didn’t want to approach that vat without firefighting equipment,” says Ernest Lupinacci, a New Yorker who developed a taste for the deep-fried bird while at a friend’s house in L.A. “But [when] the turkey hit the oil, it started to cook and it smelled unbelievably good.”

Hampton Finer, 28, and his sister Alice, 26, served fried bird to 12 guests for Thanksgiving after receiving a deep-fat turkey fryer as a gag gift. To play it safe, they baked one turkey and fried the other, but the taste test was unanimous--the deep-fried turkey was juicier, more tender and less trouble than the classic baked bird.

“It’s definitely a new tradition in our house,” Alice says. “We can’t wait to do one for the Super Bowl.”

Those with a patch of land can mail-order the necessary equipment--a large pot, long-stemmed thermometer, injector needle, propane stove and fryer basket--from the Cajun Shoppe ([800] 434-2809) or from Talk Turkey ([504] 863-3378). Busy urbanites can mail-order a fried turkey from Heads & Tails Inc. ([800] 259-4713).