How to carve a Christmas turkey the Mr. Fix-It way
In 1962, Peter Whittall showed viewers how to sharpen and select their knives, and how to carve, too
Back when Mr. Fix-It was on TV, there were a lot of men looking for guidance on how to carve a turkey correctly.
Cue Peter Whittall, a.k.a. Mr. Fix-It himself, who had some handy tips to share with viewers when his show went to air about a week before Christmas in 1962.
For starters, he explained why a carver-to-be would want to have the right tools on hand to get the job done and why it paid to be prepared in advance.
"You're going to have enough stage fright as it is — the bird is going to faze you, let alone your mother-in-law and all the in-laws down there," Whittall said, while gesturing to the imaginary in-laws gathered around him.
Be careful when sharpening
Whittall showed Mr. Fix-It fans the correct way to sharpen a knife. And he drove home a key, if obvious, safety tip.
"Draw it away from you — away from you," he told viewers.
He also told them not to go overboard with the sharpening show.
"If it's not sharp to start with, it's not going to get much sharper with you doing this," said Whittall.
Be patient, be precise
Whittall advised that some knives are better suited for carving a turkey that is hot, while others are best used when the turkey has cooled.
In any case, he said you shouldn't start carving your turkey the moment it comes out of the oven.
"Take it out of the oven five, 10, 15 minutes before it's ready to carve, so it will start to cool and set," he said.
After that, he said it was a question of selecting the right type of knife.
For example, Whittall said long, thin carving knives were best for cold turkey. He warned, though, that while those knives could cut "showy," razor-thin slices of turkey that "look great ... there's not much meat in them."
Detach the drumsticks...
According to Whittall, the first step in carving was to take off the drumsticks.
"Now you don't need a course in anatomy for this turkey," he said, as the carving got underway.
The camera zoomed in as Whittall used a knife to separate one of the drumsticks from the bird.
"Now you're going down here — down, down, down, till you run out of bird," he said
...but don't give 'em away
Still talking drumsticks, Whittall told viewers not to be passing them out to guests without forethought.
"Don't start giving away drumsticks ... you'll run out of drumsticks so quickly, there won't be much left for company and the kids will all want one each," said Whittall.
"So, this time, be tough," he said, referring to the kids at a holiday feast. "If they want a drumstick, give 'em a wing, they don't know the difference."
Stretch out those slices
Further into the carving process, Whittall told viewers to make sure they made their slices count.
"The technique here is to cut the biggest, thinnest, most miserable slice of turkey you can get, so it will go a long way," said Whittall.
"Otherwise, you'll be eating stuffing for the rest of the week — cold stuffing."
Fill out the plate
Whittall also had tips for what foodies now call plating.
"Thin, big slices," he said. "Spread it around the [serving] plate so it looks a little bigger."
Mr. Fix-It told viewers the process would continue like this "until you run out of bird or company."
Don't overpay
At the end of the show, the CBC's Rex Loring joined Whittall for a moment. And he asked Mr. Fix-It if he had any advice on what grade of bird to buy.
"You get a better buy if you buy a B-grade turkey, because it's an A-grade with an imperfection — you pulled the feather out the wrong way, or something happened like this," said Whittall.
"And it's only a keen-eyed inspector that can tell the difference between an A and B. You cannot tell when you're cooking. Because it just has something to do with appearance. It has nothing to do with quality at all."