[Sca-cooks] Re: food myths (Turkey)

[Terry Decker]

And all of the references are English, so here are a few non-English ones.

The earliest citation for "turkey" I have seen is for the accounts of one
Arnot Arnaud for roast turkey at a banquet for Phillpe of Burgundy, 12
November 1385.  Since I haven't seen anything purporting to be actual
accounts, I can not say whther this reference really exists or what the
period wording was.  If this is an actual reference, it may be to a guinea
fowl or to some other bird imported from the East.

According to Toussaint-Samat, New World turkey was first "officially" served
in France at the wedding of Charles IX in 1570.  However his mother,
Catherine de' Medici served 70 Indian hens and 7 Indian roosters at a feast
at the bishopric of Paris in 1549.

Rabelais mentions guinea fowl (guynette) in Pantagruel (1532) and turkeys
(coq d'Indie) in Garganyua (1534).

Marguerite d'Angouleme (Maguerite of Navarre) contracted with a farmer in
Navarre to raise turkeys for her table.  This had to be after 1527, when she
married Henry of Navarre, and before her death in 1549.  Her brother was
Francis I of France (1494-1547).  Francis was Rabelais' patron, so one might
suspect a connection, hmmm.

In L'agriculture et la maison rustique (1564), Charles Estienne comments on
the (New World) turkey's voracious appetite and the fact that it arrived at
the same time as its food (maize).

Bear

>> Here's part of the OED run down since you were inquiring.
>
>But every reference on them is half a century or more after the discovery
of
>the New World!  Therefore , it is entirely conceivable that many of them
are
>in fact referring to the New World turkey and not to any European or other
>Old World bird!  Some, undoubtedly, specifically say that this is the
>"thus-and-such bird, which we call turkycock" or some such, but not all.
>
>Brangwayna Morgan