A TEMPTING TIDBITS THANKSGIVING TREAT:
TENDER TURKEY TRIVIA
by Robyn Dawson
The bird is the word in this week’s edition of
Tidbits. Take a break from your raking and
shopping and baking and cleaning (oh no, the
in-laws are coming!) while we “talk turkey.”
• You may have heard that Benjamin Franklin
wanted the turkey to be our national bird, but
that’s not entirely true. Rather, he thought
that any bird – and then mentioned the turkey
as an example – was a better choice than the
eagle. In a letter to his daughter, he made reference
to the eagle’s “bad moral character. It
perches in a tree,” he continued, “then steals
the prey caught by a fishing hawk, because
the eagle is too lazy to hunt for itself.”
• The slang use of the word “turkey” to indicate
something as being inferior or a failure
dates back to late 1920s show business. In
vaudeville, an act that failed to sell tickets (or
one that was lame enough to be booed off
stage) was labeled a “turkey,” presumably
due to the bird’s reputation for stupidity.
• The “Turkey Trot” was all the rage at dance
halls during the very early 1900s. Performed
to ragtime music, the dance was done with
four sideways hopping steps on one foot,
then four hops back on the other foot.
• The Navajo were likely the first Native
Americans to domesticate the turkey. They
worked to keep wild turkeys away from their
crops, but were losing that battle. So they
turned the tables and fenced the birds in. By
feeding and fattening them, they were easier
to handle (and yielded more meat). Besides
dinner, turkeys also provided decorative ornamental
feathers for the Navajo.
• Butterball turkeys have been a holiday tradition
in the United States for the past 50 years.
Many home cooks are under the impression
that the name means that the bird had been
injected with butter, but this is not the case.
Butterball is actually a specific breed of turkey.
They have all-white feathers and have
extra-broad breasts. A few weeks after sales
peak in America, Butterball becomes the
best-selling brand in Great Britain at Christmas.
(Remember, our U.K. friends don’t celebrate
America’s Thanksgiving!)
• Roasted turkey drumsticks are staple snacks
at Renaissance Festivals across America. The
turkey is native to North America, however,
and it didn’t make its way across the Atlantic
until the mid-16th century. The bottom line is
that turkey is not authentic medieval food.
Back in those days, kings and knaves and
knights feasted on peacock and swan, neither
of which is readily available in most American
restaurant supply stores.
• Caruncle, Wattle & Snood… no, this isn’t
the name of a law firm. Those are the proper
terms for the bits of fleshy skin that grow on
a turkey’s head. The snood is the flap that
flops over its beak. The caruncles are the colorful
growths on the throat, and the wattle is
the skin that hangs under its throat. When all
three turn bright red, the turkey is either sexually
excited or very angry. In either case,
you’ll want to stay out of its way!
• Only male turkeys – known as toms – make
the “gobble, gobble” noise we associate with
the birds. Females (hens) make a clicking
noise. Like chickens, domestic turkeys are
bred for meat, so their weight and shape prevent
them from having the ability to fly more
than a few feet. Even though they can’t fly,
however, turkey by-products are very welltraveled.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin tore into their first meal on the surface
of the Moon in July 1969, those foil packets
offered roast turkey with all the trimmings.
• Unlike chicken and duck feathers, turkey
feathers are too stiff for use as stuffing for
pillows and duvets. Some larger, more colorful
turkey feathers may be saved and sold for
decorative purposes or craft projects, but
most are ground up into compost.
• The classic “Turkeys Away” episode of the
1970s sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati was reportedly
based on a real event. WKRP creator
Hugh Wilson had a “friend” that worked for
an Atlanta radio station. The station decided
to toss live turkeys out of a helicopter for a
Thanksgiving promotion. Just like the TV
episode revealed, none of those involved
with the stunt were aware that domestic turkeys
couldn’t fly. A local shopping center
was bombarded with turkeys hitting the
ground “like bags of wet cement.” (“As God
is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!”)
• Big Bird of Sesame Street fame is clad in a
costume made of real turkey feathers – those
plucked from the hind end of the birds, to be
more specific. A company called American
Plume and Fancy Feather selects the feathers
for this use. The Children’s Television
Workshop then inspects the feathers (nine
out of 10 of them are rejected), and the chosen
white feathers are dyed yellow and attached
to Big Bird’s outfit.
• Even the most casual bowler knows that it’s
called a “turkey” when a player bowls three
strikes in a row. Back in the early 1900s,
bowling alley proprietors offered live turkeys
as an award to any player that scored three
consecutive strikes. These contests were typically
held around Thanksgiving and Christmas,
but even during the times when a bird
wasn’t presented as a trophy, the term was
still used to congratulate a bowler for a job
well done.
• It’s now a Thanksgiving tradition for a live
turkey to be presented by the National Turkey
Federation to the U.S. president (who
grants it an official pardon). Instead of being
earmarked for Thanksgiving dinner, the turkey
is then relegated to a farm or petting zoo
to live out its life. Many reports state that
Harry Truman was the first president to grant
the bird a pardon, but that is not true. John F.
Kennedy was the first president to declare
that the gift gobbler would not appear on the
White House dinner table.
• The classic folk melody called “Turkey in the
Straw” first gained popularity via minstrel
shows in the mid-1800s. There is no copyright
information available regarding the
song, so the author of the tune remains a
mystery. However, the song has earned at
least one unusual place in pop history: in the
United States, it is the tune most used by ice
cream trucks to attract customers.
• Sources reveal that none of the hot oil turkey
fryers available on the market have been approved
by Underwriters Laboratories, for the
simple reason that the gadgets are just too
dangerous. Even when the consumer follows
the manufacturer’s instructions to the letter,
the units are unsteady and unpredictable. If
you plan to deep fry your turkey, do not do it
indoors and never leave the fryer unattended.
Information in the Tidbits®Paper is gathered from sources considered to be reliable but the accuracy of all information cannot be guaranteed.
