Gullah chef Charlotte Jenkins is bringing the turkey to her family Thanksgiving dinner, but this bird won’t be the ordinary frozen gobbler.
She’ll prepare a kosher turkey with a side of her mother’s dressing; cornbread, onions, celery, gizzard, turkey neck lathered with gravy. It won’t be complete unless it gets some Gullah Tings, seasonings created by her daughter, Kesha Coaxum.
Jenkins isn’t a kosher turkey novice. She’s been a fan of kosher prepared food going back to the time when her mother, Julia Gathers Ascue, cooked for a Jewish family in Charleston.
As the owner and chef of the popular Gullah Cuisine, a family-run restaurant in Mount Pleasant, Jenkins preferred freshly butchered chickens prepared the kosher way, thoroughly washed to ensure there is no blood.
Jenkins plans to bring a small turkey, just large enough for about 10 people, and hopefully enough for the children’s table, too.
Her sister Marietta “Rita” Ascue Worthy said she’ll bake a couple apple pies like the ones she baked for Gullah Cuisine. The pie recipe comes from their mother and is found in Jenkins’ popular 2010 cookbook, Gullah Cuisine: By Land and by Sea.
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