Arts & Culture

Mike Dukakis has enough turkeys, thank you

Bob CollinsBob Collins Nov 28, 2015
12

This’ll teach former presidential candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Mike Dukakis to share a favorite recipe, let alone give out his home address.

The Boston Globe on Wednesday published a feature on Dukakis’ love of turkey soup and his habit of collecting turkey carcasses to make enough soup for a year for his family.

“We roll our eyes and laugh,” says Ali Dukakis, who is one of a dozen grandchildren. “Any wincing that we have is not reflected on him. He could not care less. That’s why he’s a special person.”

When Dukakis travels for Thanksgiving, the carcass that’s left travels back home with him. Often, it’s packed in the car, but one year when they took the train, the carcass did, too.

“My grandmother was so embarrassed that he’d taken the carcass on the train,” Ali Dukakis says. “But we just laugh about it.”

Two years ago, Dukakis went to Washington, where Ali works at ABC News, and insisted on buying a turkey to carve up in her studio apartment.

He also insisted on carrying the carcass with his luggage back home to Brookline.

After making each batch, he stores half of it in the refrigerator and half in the freezer, removing it for a lunch or a dinner meal. “A turkey carcass,” he notes, “will yield a lot of soup.”

“If you freeze these things they’re good for months,” he says. “Just take them out when you have a hankering, let it thaw out and have some soup. Lunches, dinners, everything.”

Dukakis invited people to drop off their turkey carcasses at his home — 85 Perry Street in Brookline, Mass. — and, wouldn’t you know, that’s just what people have been doing.

It started at 5:30 on Friday morning. Someone rang the door bell and left two carcasses.

By 11, they had a dozen. By this morning, he had 20 and was out of room to freeze them.

“We are well supplied,” Dukakis told the Boston Globe.

The situation sparked a new Twitter hashtag, “Ducarcass”.

Here’s the governor’s recipe if you’d like to try it out:

“Take the carcass, stick it in the pot. Cover it with water. Quarter an onion and toss that in. Add lots of salt and pepper. Bring it to a boil. And then simmer it for three hours. Very important. If you go three and a half, even better. Let it cool. Take the bones out. Clean whatever meat is on the bones, put it back in the soup. Toss in a handful of rice. Somewhere between half a cup and a cup of rice. Add whatever vegetables you’ve got. Peas are good. Carrots are good. Heat it up again. And then enjoy.”