SC - Turkey - NW or OW?

[Decker, Terry D.]

This one is rife with confusion.  The guinea fowl was eaten in ancient Rome,
being imported from North Africa and was called Phrygian chicken and
Bohemian chicken among others.  The guinea fowl disappears from European
cuisine  with the fall of Rome until the late 15th Century when first the
Italians and then Portuguese start importing them from Africa  The
Portuguese sold them to the French.  The French referred to them as poules
de Guinee, poules de Turquie or poules d'Inde, as there appear to have been
conflicting stories about where the birds came from.

To make matters worse, the Spanish were introduced to the New World
domesticated turkey about 1517 and were importing them to Spain by about
1524.  When the Spanish started selling them about Europe, the French
started referring to them as poules de Turquie (remember that all strange
new things came from Turkey, as with gran turco (maize)).

So, if the recipe calls for turkey, it might be either guinea fowl or
turkey.  And you can thank the French for the confusion.

Because of their relations with Spain and their forays into the New World,
an Elizabethan recipe for turkey is very probably for our turkey.

Bear 



> I love it. "period" is one of those catch all words. anything is "period"
> for someone, somewhen! That's why we've started saying that something is
> or
> isnt "appropriate" for a given time/place.
> 
> our turkey that we can draw by tracing around our hands, gobble gobble,
> almost our national bird if Ben Franklin had had his way, pilgrams ate it,
> etc is definately new world. We have recipes for "turkey" in some of the
> Elizabethan sources. Its a bit confused in that they started calling it a
> "guinea fowl" for a while (thinking it came from Guinea, I guess), and we
> have a bird called the "guinea fowl" today which is most decidedly not a
> turkey.
> 
> so yes, the Turkey is new world.
> and yes, the turkey was brought to Europe and eaten within "period", if
> you
> subscribe to the anything pre-1650 is ok school of thought.
> 
> Robert May has a great recipe for a turkey pie, with fruit and nuts and
> spices and stuff. Yum!
> hope this helps clarify (yeah, like mud! :))
> --AM
> 
> > Can anyone tell me what is the definitive answer on turkey?  I have
> heard
> two very distinct schools of thought on this:  the
> "No-no-turkey-is-new-world" and the
> "yes-yes-turkey-was-brought-to-Europe-in-period."  Anyone have a better
> answer than this?
> > 
> > Thanks in advance,
> > 
> > 	- kat
> > 
> > 
> > --kat griffith, editor--
> > 
> 
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