[Sca-cooks] RE: Turkey (Was Food Myths)

[Terry Decker]

The period French for the bustard is "bistarde" or  "outarde."  For the
turkey, it is "coq d'Inde," sometimes abbreviated to "dinde."  So, without
the original text or an accurate transcription, it is difficult to determine
what is being referred to as a turkey except that it can't be the New World
turkey and probably isn't the European Great Bustard.

BTW, bustard refers to a number of species which fill the ecological niche
in Europe, Asia and Africa, that the turkey fills in North and Central
America.  The European Great Bustard (Otis tarda) isn't extinct, but is no
longer found normally in Northern Europe.

Bear

>Bear cites:
>>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.
>
>This obviously cannot be the New World bird, but could it have been the
>similar native European fowl (now extinct), the bustard?  From my reading,
>the main reason for the rapid acceptance of turkey was its resemblance to
the
>bustard in size and (apparently) taste.  Do we have any data as to when the
>bustards were eaten out of existance?  Did the dates overlap the
introduction
>of the turkey?
>
>Akim
>--- Diamond Randall