7/22/18

Dad Always Ate the Chicken Neck

David D. Wronski writes ...

My Mother was a good scratch cook. Polish specialties, of course. Chicken any which way was a bird selected and fresh killed from the local poultry market.

A vivid memory around Chicken soup was how my Father would always take the neck. When I was a boy my heart bled for his seeming self sacrifice. In my mind he took that 5th quarter part of the bird so we, his beloveds, would get the more prime parts.

Only after doing a lot of cooking myself did I come to realize the hard truth of it. The neck meat of the Chicken is a delicacy. Tender, flavorful. Just that there's not much there after cooked into a soup.

So, as you have surmised, Dad took the BEST part for himself. I don't begrudge him one bit. Just chuckle at this anecdote every time at how I got it so wrong* as a boy.

I am my father's son. I just finished prepping a fresh Pineapple. You know who gets to feast on the core trimmings, don't you? Probably not the ripest part of the fruit, but I have a genetic urge to take that for myself. 

If Pineapples had necks, that would be what I'm talking about.

*PS Like so many other things.