[Sca-cooks] period turkeys

[Stefan li Rous]

niccolo difrancesco mused:
<<< It seems that we are in concurrance that turkeys from the New  
World were
eaten in late 15th century in several parts of Europe.  We can be pretty
certain, though, that the white turkey that we know and love from last
month's dinner is not the turkey that was eaten with Rumpolt's  
recipe. >>>

Tes.

<<< Herein lies a potential quandry for me, mostly intellectual in  
nature.  Do I
propagate that modern turkeys are truly period foodstuffs?  They are  
not so
much the same creaturs as were taken to Europe lo those many years ago.

I personally see it as the most reasonable facsimile available to most
consumers today, even though they have been geneitcally and hormonally
altered to the point they cannot even copulate themselves >>>

How is this different than the same question(s) posed about chickens,  
cattle, sheep, pigs or horses? We've had discussions about this  
before. "Wilder" turkeys are available, as are red and white carrots  
to replace the orange carrot. But are the extra costs worth it?

I can buy generic clover honey or I can buy more specialized  
varieties. Is it worth it for brewing meads? Some folks think it is.

Free-range versions of each of those meats is probably available,  
except maybe the horse since I think they recently passed a law  
shutting down the horse slaughter plants in the U.S., which were all  
here in Texas, I believe.

Unfortunately, while you can buy just a turkey breast to add to your  
whole turkey meat, this increases the amount of white meat rather  
than decreasing it. I'm not sure you can buy extra dark meat to make  
up for the out proportioned modern turkeys, unless you switch to a  
specially bred turkey or a game bird.  One of our headcooks did raise  
the quail for one of our feasts.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****