SC - Indian Grain-found in the Medici Archives

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

Bear wrote
>One of the common names for Numida
>meleagris in the US is Hungarian guinea fowl, an odd name for a bird which
>originates in Africa.

And "Bohemian pheasant" is another one (but maybe that is because the guinea
fowl has been called "the bohemian of the barnyard").

>The guinea fowl (Numida meleagris)  was also known as "turkey".  It may be
>that relating an unknown commodity to the splendor and decadence of the
>Ottoman Empire was a marketing ploy.  Again, it might just be confusion
>about the origin of the product.

"In Europe, this bird became known as turkey because it was imported to
Europe by the Portuguese through Turkey, the contry where many people
wrongly assumed it originated ...
For about fifty years, until the beginning of the seventeenth century, the
word turkey therefore referred to two different birds, the African Guinea
fowl and the American turkey. Eventually, however, someone noticed that the
two birds do not really look alike, and thus turkey ceased to be used for
the African bird, the one that originally held claim to the name." (Mark
Morton, Cupboard Love)

Certainly there was quite a lot of confusion in Europe about the origin of
the turkey - the French name is dinde, from coq d´Inde (cock of India;
"Indian fowl" is also an early English name for the bird), and the German
name is and the German name kalkun is thought to mean "hen from Calcutta".

>For a little more confusion, there are two turkeys in the New World.

>Meleagris gallopavo is the North American turkey beloved by Ben Franklin.
>Agriocharis ocellata is the turkey of Mexico and Central America which was
>the bird imported into Europe in the 16th Century.  According to one of my
>sources, most of our domesticated turkeys are  varieties of A. ocellata.


I recall having read that these American domesticated turkeys probably
descend from turkeys European settlers brought with them to New England in
the 16th and 17th centuries.

Nanna

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

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".

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