SC - Re: Turkey

[Phil & Susan Troy]

LYN M PARKINSON wrote:
> 
> >>Some turkeys appear to have been eaten in late-period Europe. Period. ;
>  ) <<
> 
> When I first started working with period foods, I read a quote that said
> swans taste just like turkey.  Has anyone else read this?  I don't
> remember where it came from, and would like to know that, and whether
> there's any truth to it.  I have, on various occasions, cooked 'swan'
> [enclosed in quotes] at a feast.  It doesn't get passed off as a real
> swan, or as a truly period dish, just "this is the way they cooked swan,
> and we would if we had any".

Considering that wild turkeys live on, what, insects, worms, and the
occasional plant seed body, and domesticated turkeys mostly live on grain, and
swans of the period would have subsisted, I think, mostly on a diet of small
fish, it seems likely the flavor would be pretty different. There might be a
closer similarity between wild turkeys and swans than between farm-raised
turkeys and swans, especially now that they're sometimes full of hormones and
such. I'm also inclined to think that a number of swan recipes from period
might have been partially designed to emphasize and / or capitalize on the
gaminess you'd be likely to find in a fish-eating game bird (i.e. the bird's
blood and intestines used in sauces, etc.).
> 
> Looking up 'turkey' in a few references, Scully says no; Hess says yes
> but it was also confused with the African guinea fowl; Toussaint-Samat,
> Maguelonne. HISTORY OF FOOD. Blackwell. 1992, is thoroughly confused
> about why it's called turkey, and gives references for its appearances.
> She apparently was not familiar with the guinea fowl being called turkey
> [and having the name first].

I'm a little confused here. Are Scully and Hess addressing the question of
whether turkeys were eaten in the Middle Ages, "the Renaissance", or the
period covered by the SCA (which seems pretty unlikely, of course) ? One could
argue for the accuracy of either Scully or Hess, because I'm betting they
aren't in flat-out disagreement. Now as for Toussaint-Samat, virtually
everything I have consulted her "History of Food" on has turned out to be
either inaccurate or so heavily francocentric as to be nearly useless outside
of that rather specific viewpoint.

Adamantius, the heretic who doesn't consider France the culinary center of the universe
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================