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No, this is not a thread about personal preferences, let's be real clear...

Well.. it is sort of actually..

So, as we labour over Christmas dinner, I had a sudden question.. Why turkey? Why has the poor, beleaguered turkey earned such a place of esteem on the holiday table?
We opted for a tasty, free range bone-in ham, because we aren't all that wild on turkey, but still as Wilbur is making his noble sacrifice in our oven... I just had to wonder.. what is it about turkey?

Insights?

I was prepared to rave on the wonders of turkey, then it hit me this wasn;t a booze thread....

Well, if you really want to, you could go off and wax eloquent about booze, it's probably almost as seasonal... especially since the holidays usually mean spending time with family

We had the turkey and turkey for dinner today.

In Olde Europe they used to serve the goose and the boar's head before America and its delicious turkey were discovered. Birds were promptly shipped to Europe where they became popular due to their size.

All good stuff usually comes from America.

Meh, my folks and I had filet mignon for Christmas Eve dinner and leftovers on Christmas Day. We tend to mostly prefer having turkey on Thanksgiving only. :laugh:

dragon wench wrote:Well, if you really want to, you could go off and wax eloquent about booze, it's probably almost as seasonal... especially since the holidays usually mean spending time with family

How about waxing the turkey first? :laugh:

Bird and waxing... reminds me of a good old parrot friend.

Well, we always have free-ranged chicken for Christmas Eve... straight from our farm in the province. Turkey-eating isn't that popular this side of the globe.

im sure it used to be goose that was popular?

this year we had a turkey that must've been raised in the center of the earth, it was fricken huge. but last year we had a pretty small turkey and a pretty small duck. i have to say i much prefer duck, its just so... yummy

Turkey has only started showing up here during the last few years. It's always been a lot of pork and lamb here, with fish being dominant in the coastal communities. We had filet of Fallow Deer, and it's usually game of some sort since I hunt. Last year it was wild boar. The year before that it was grouse, which is quite normal. We're more influenced by the continental cuisine than the rest of the country.

This reminds me of a cartoon I saw recently:

RED MEAT - brackish brine from the brink

VonDondu wrote:This reminds me of a cartoon I saw recently:

RED MEAT - brackish brine from the brink

Lol, was it the Lamb of God by chance?

I had turkey...in america everyone loves the turkey day dinner. Neither my mom or I procured leftovers in our travels and my mom wanted some turkey soup and leftovers.

I'm kind of low key. I find it special to do something but as long as I am making something from scratch I really wouldn't care if I were making chili or lasagna or whatever for christmas dinner. I think we had an a fabulous stir fry last year actually.

I do not drink spirits but I would drink a beer named after a turkey just fine!

Bloodstalker's fave poison...

Claudius wrote:>snip<

I do not drink spirits but I would drink a beer named after a turkey just fine!

Beer? I thought it was bourbon?

Maharlika wrote:Beer? I thought it was bourbon?

It is...
BS is a gentleman of sophisticated preferences, after all

Maharlika wrote:Turkey-eating isn't that popular this side of the globe.

Too warm for Turkey, we had a nice bbq in the evening. Seafood very popular down here.

*waves* Hi Mah, hows things?

I often wonder the same thing about turkeys on X-mas. Often, we're still working on the leftovers from the month before. So we had some nice steak for X-mas, though I was considering pork or ham kebabs with a nice pineapple glaze....

Like Gwally, we still have leftover turkey for some of December, so we often have Cornish game hens for Christmas.

To address DW's original questions, according to Wikipedia:
"The use of the turkey in the USA for Thanksgiving precedes Lincoln's nationalization of the holiday in 1863. Alexander Hamilton proclaimed that no "Citizen of the United States should refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day", but turkey was uncommon as Thanksgiving fare until after 1800. By 1857 turkey had become part of the traditional dinner in New England."

The article goes on to suggest that anything fowl can be used, which makes me wonder how BS has survived this long.

thantor3 wrote:Like Gwally, we still have leftover turkey for some of December, so we often have Cornish game hens for Christmas.

To address DW's original questions, according to Wikipedia:
"The use of the turkey in the USA for Thanksgiving precedes Lincoln's nationalization of the holiday in 1863. Alexander Hamilton proclaimed that no "Citizen of the United States should refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day", but turkey was uncommon as Thanksgiving fare until after 1800. By 1857 turkey had become part of the traditional dinner in New England."

The article goes on to suggest that anything fowl can be used, which makes me wonder how BS has survived this long.

Now there's another thing that has often perplexed me. It's not quite as bad for Canadians because our Thanksgiving is actually mid-October, so there's a bit of time to recover from 'the gift that keeps on giving'... which is to say.. turkey. But, Americans have Thanksgiving so close to Christmas, that's altogether way too much turkey in a short space of time. Or, at least, that's the way I see it because I'm not that crazy about turkey. Even when you apply all kinds of "gourmet" techniques to it.. it's still kind of ho hum.
As with any meat, the free range variety is much better, but even so, I confess to preferring "unhappy free range pig" for Christmas

As for BS, he's just oddly talented at surviving against impossible odds, he rather reminds me of the [url="http://images.quizfarm.com/1128292820Rincewind.jpg"]Wizzard Rincewind[/url], a character in Terry Pratchett's [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rincewind"]Discworld series[/url]

Rincewind...hmmm..maybe the luggage....:laugh:
off topic....kids got me the illustrated Pratchett last year for X-mas....
love the pics of the librarian..

on topic....ham, and shrimp and yes...some turkey breasts...so no leftovers to deal with.

Turkey at Yuletide is a fairly recent 'tradition' over here, didn't appear on any Christmas menu I knew of until the early sixties. Before that I gather chicken or other fowl (goose or duck) would be used, but in our family one ancient tradition that is still respected is the inclusion in one form or another of pig meat. Usually ham or sausage meat, but always roast pork at least once over the twelve days of Yule.

Well - in Denmark, it is much more pork loin, duck and Goose all roasted in the oven which are popular - or a combination of them.
My family tradition have always been both pork loin and duck.
Personally - I prefer the pork.

Been thinking of trying out a Turkey roasted like that, cause I've never done one ...... but I think I'll end up as Mr. Bean