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MEMORIES:
princessdiana remembers...The only time we eat turkey is Thanksgiving[my favorite holiday],Christmas,and easter. More »
Posted on 04/30/08
PHOTOS:
Not many people today know that Benjamin Franklin once proposed that the wild turkey be the national bird. Of course, they eventually decided upon the Bald Eagle, however it could easily said that turkey has become our national bird, at the dinner table. It should be noted, to the casual turkey reader, that the turkey found next to the stuffing and mashed potatoes isn’t the same as the wild turkey Ben Franklin once loved (and it’s fairly certain that Mr. Franklin wasn’t referring to the Wild Turkey those of us 21 and older can find at the liquor store).
The popularity of the bird can be traced back centuries, to the time the first Europeans set foot on the soil of the New World. During return trips, a few turkeys were sent back to Europe to become domesticated. In fact, the turkey we think of today when sitting down at the holiday table, is a very similar turkey as those the Pilgrims sailed over with in 1620. The turkey we buy in stores today is specifically bred for large amounts of meat – so much meat that the bird can’t fly, unlike wild turkeys.
A large portion of turkey’s popularity surrounds many of the large feasts of the holidays. In the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge brought a turkey to the Cratchit family, and the turkey is featured prominently in the Norman Rockwell painting, Freedom from Want, providing lasting images of the turkey as a part of family togetherness. For many, Thanksgiving would not be Thanksgiving without the roasted bird, and much of the same has been applied to the Christmas holiday, stemming back to English kings, such as Edward VII, who reportedly helped make eating turkey at Christmas very popular during the early 20th century in England.
High expectations come from not only the meal and the preparation of the bird, but also from the very people preparing the big feast! Since the 1980s a number of places, including popular turkey brands like Jennie-O and Butterball, have provided roasting advice from tip-top turkey tipsters for cooking fresh and frozen turkeys during the busiest of times, Thanksgiving. Many also give handy advice on the preparation for other holiday favorites such as cranberries (quite the complement for the turkey in many a turkey fan’s eyes), stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. More recently, many families have taken to frying a turkey for the holidays, showing us that there’s more than one way to do it for the forty-five million turkeys eaten each year at Thanksgiving, alone!
For the rest of the year, turkeys take on a life of their own. From sliced turkey sandwiches to ground turkey as a replacement for beef, turkey is eaten year round and can be found in a wide variety of recipes. In 2005, turkey growers produced over 256 million turkeys! Of course, every year since 1947, there’s been one lucky turkey pardoned by the President of the United States and sent to live his or her days out on a historic farm – that’s one lucky bird!
