Cracking the wishbone at Christmas
By Tom Gillespie
DID you ever crack a wishbone? I did, but it was many years ago. Usually it came from the Christmas turkey and it was traditionally pulled by two of the younger children in the household who would make a wish beforehand.
The one who ended up with the larger portion of the bone was supposed to have their wish come true.
The wishbone is an oddly-shaped forked bone that’s the fusion of two clavicles called the furcula. It’s located right between the neck and breast of a bird.
Removing the bone in one piece is a bit of a culinary but difficult art. However, your butcher will willingly do that for you, thereby making the bird easier to carve, a practice that has become very popular in recent years - but check that the wishbone accompanies the turkey home.
Nowadays, sadly, many households opt for a boned and rolled turkey, dispensing of the wishbone tradition and likewise the lack of the carcass for making a succulent stock for soup.
At this time of year turkey is on the menu in restaurants and by the time the 25th comes it is not a novelty any more.
But for me, the dark meat of the leg is supreme. It has a most delicious flavour, one that I never tire of eating. I particularly enjoy it on a slice of toast on St. Stephen’s morning.
For some reason it is almost impossible to get turkey thigh/legs in our supermarkets these days. When available, they are inexpensive and good value. I have seen the lone ‘leg’ on sale but this is not recommended because without the thigh, there is little meat on it and the rest is all sinew.
Years ago I recall removing the sinew from the Christmas bird with a pair of pliers, thereby making the leg meat more lean.
The ancient Romans were the first to see the wishbone as a symbol of luck, which eventually turned into the tradition of actually breaking it apart.
A chicken wishbone, much smaller that that of the turkey, would be snapped apart by two people while they were each making a wish. The person holding the longer piece was said to have good fortune or a wish granted. If the bone cracked evenly in half, both people would have their wishes come true.
If the bone splits up the centre into equal pieces, or breaks into three pieces, both people's wishes will come true!
As the Romans travelled through Europe, they brought this tradition with them, and the English and Irish eventually adopted this practice too. The tradition of breaking a turkey wishbone started with the Pilgrims, and the actually term of a wishbone was created in United States in the mid-1800s.
If you try to crack apart a wishbone that’s just been taken off a raw or cooked bird, it won’t crack properly.
The bone must be completely dry and brittle before it will snap, which can take up to a few days. Keep this little fact in mind and know that while you can’t actually crack the wishbone at the Christmas table, you can set it aside to dry and try your luck a few days later.
When we were young in Marian Row in Castlebar, the wishbone was removed and hung over the Jubilee range for several days after Christmas before my late sister, Mary, and I got to pull it. Usually I ended up with the smaller bone, so I never knew if a wish came true or not.
As best I can remember my first occasion to introduce a wishbone to my own children would have been in the late 1970s. We had just moved to Knockthomas in Castlebar and were celebrating our first Christmas there, and I had no car at the time.
I had ordered our free range turkey from Bernie Smith in McGreal’s Butchers on Main Street and I collected it on the morning of December 23.
It was a rather plump bird and I set off on foot with the turkey, which had been placed in a cardboard box.
Those auld stocks in Castlebar know the only route to Knockthomas is up Staball - the steepest street in the county town.
I had only reached Paddy Moran’s pub at the bottom of the hill when the weight of the turkey was beginning to weigh me down. Had he been open I would have willingly gone in for a medium or two.
I persevered on as far as Josie Armstrong’s house where I rested the bird on the windowsill until I got my breath back and the pain in my arms eased.
Now I was faced with the steepest section of the hill. I struggled on and eventually reached the entrance to Kennedy Gardens where the small wall brought much-needed relief. I rested there for several minutes before completing the journey home.
Thankfully, it was all worth the effort as the turkey was memorable and delicious.
The wishbone was carefully removed, dried out for a few days, and my two oldest girls had the task of pulling it apart.
Needless to say, for the following few years before I got my first car I had the turkey delivered to the door.
In looking up details on wishbones I see that several restaurants around the country are aptly named Wishbone.
So this year I will undertake the customary task of extracting the wishbone, scraping it clean, drying it, and having my great-granddaughter, Hayley, crack it with her mother Megan.