[Sca-cooks] Re: How the turkey got its name ...

[Louise Smithson]

Long article snipped for brevity.
> How did the turkey get its name?
<snip>
>> In Italian, on the other hand, the word for turkey is "tacchino"
> which, my Italian relatives assured me, means nothing but the bird.
> "But," they added, "it reminds us of something else.
>
> In Italy we call corn, which as everybody knows comes from America,
> 'grano turco,' or 'Turkish grain.'" So here we were back to Turkey
> again! And as if things weren't already confusing enough, a further
> consultation with my Turkish informant revealed that the Turks call
> corn "misir" which is also their word for Egypt!
<snip>

Aha, but in Renaissance Italy, when Turkey was first eaten widely at the tables of the rich it was not called "tacchino" it was either called: Pollanche d'India (or Indian Bustard) or Gallo d'India (Indian chicken).  So we are back to the west indies again.  

Helewyse

 


		
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