TURKEY
24th December 2023
Photo Credit: Chris F (Pexels), CANVA
GOWER: Why here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.
FLUELLEN: ‘Tis no matter for his swellings, nor his turkey-cocks.
God pless you Aunchient Pistol, you scurvy, lousy knave.
God pless you.
GOWER & FLUELLEN: Henry V, Act 5, Scene 1
TURKEY (Meleagris gallopavo ssp. domesticus)
The domesticated Turkey came to Europe through the Spain colonies in South America. There is some debate about when the Turkey made it to Britain, but the main claimant is William Strickland of East Yorkshire in the early to mid 1500s. Shakespeare has a few mentions of the bird and it is included in some recipe books of the period. In the 1591 Booke of Cookrye the advice is to “cleave your Turkye foule on the back, and bruse al the bones. Season it with Pepper grose beaten and salt, and put into it good store of Butter, he must have five hours baking.” There are also several theories as to the origin of the name ‘Turkey’ including that the bird was first encountered from the merchants in the Turkish empire, that there was a confusion with another bird from the African/Mediterranean region or that the name came from a corruption of an indigenous name. There is no definitive answer on this so far.
Turkeys are in the same family as Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, the Phasianidae. There are two surviving species of Wild Turkey which are native to Central America: Meleagris gallopavo from which we get the domesticated Turkey and the Ocellated Turkey, Meleagris ocellata, of the Yucatan Peninsular. Turkeys were domesticated in several area of Central, South and North America before becoming an important domesticated bird of Europe and other parts of the world.
More Information
Birdlife Datazone: Wild Turkey Ocellated Turkey
Foods of England: A Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin
A Booke of Cookrye, 1591 (Accessed via jducour.com)
Stuart Harratt, BBC, December 2012: William Strickland: the man who gave us the turkey dinner.
