If someone calls you a “turkey,” your intelligence has been insulted.
But you can get a drumstick up on knowledge about turkeys – the edible, gobble-gobble type – from “The Turkey: An American Story,” by Andrew F. Smith.
In his book, Smith, a food historian and instructor at The New School in New York, talks turkey about the folklore and history of the bird.
He also provides more than 100 historic and modern-day turkey recipes, from giblets to jelly, croquettes to Christmas pie and livers to leftovers.
Here are some slices of turkey trivia from the book:
As far back as the mid-16th century, the turkey was common in Italy, where it is called “tacchino,” referring to the sounds it makes.
Because eating a drumstick was considered too messy in polite company, a cookbook writer in 19th-century England advised that drumsticks not be eaten at the table but instead be returned to the kitchen, where servants would separate the meat from the bone.
The custom of making a wish and pulling the furcula – a.k.a. “wishbone” – probably originated in England and became popular in the U.S. just before the Civil War.
On Broadway, where a “turkey” means a flop, the successful musical “Promises, Promises” featured two songs about turkeys – “It’s Turkey Lurkey Time” and “Thanksgiving Song.”
Domesticated turkeys can easily drown when it rains because they tend to look up to see what’s hitting them and their tiny, oval-shaped nostrils are “perfect funnels” for falling rain.
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The Turkey
An American Story
By Andrew F. Smith
University of Illinois, 264 pages, $29.95
