FabulousFusionFood's Turkey-based Recipes Home Page
Male and female wild turkeys (top), commercial turkeys (bottom left) andNorfolk black turkeys (bottom right).
Welcome to FabulousFusionFood's Shellfish-based Recipes Page —The turkey is a large bird in the genus Meleagris, native to North America. There are two extant turkey species: the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) of eastern and central North America and the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata) of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Males of both turkey species have a distinctive fleshy wattle, called a snood, that hangs from the top of the beak. They are among the largest birds in their ranges. As with many large ground-feeding birds (order Galliformes), the male is bigger and much more colourful than the female.
The earliest turkeys evolved in North America over 20 million years ago. They share a recent common ancestor with grouse, pheasants, and other fowl. The wild turkey species is the ancestor of the domestic turkey, which was domesticated approximately 2,000 years ago by indigenous peoples. It was this domesticated turkey that later reached Eurasia, during the Columbian exchange.
A dressed turkey, ready for roasting.
Turkeys were likely first domesticated in Pre-Columbian Mexico, where they held a cultural and symbolic importance.[20][21] The Classical Nahuatl word for the turkey, huehxōlō-tl (guajolote in Spanish), is still used in modern Mexico, in addition to the general term pavo. Mayan aristocrats and priests appear to have had a special connection to ocellated turkeys, with ideograms of those birds appearing in Mayan manuscripts.[22] Spanish chroniclers, including Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Father Bernardino de Sahagún, describe the multitude of food (both raw fruits and vegetables as well as prepared dishes) that were offered in the vast markets (tianguis) of Tenochtitlán, noting there were tamales made of turkeys, iguanas, chocolate, vegetables, fruits and more.[citation needed]
Turkeys were first exported to Europe via Spain around 1519, where they gained immediate popularity among the aristocratic classes.[23] Turkeys arrived in England in 1541. From there, English settlers brought turkeys to North America during the 17th century.
The species Meleagris gallopavo is eaten by humans. They were first domesticated by the indigenous people of Mexico from at least 800 BC onwards.[51] By 200 BC, the indigenous people of what is today the American Southwest had domesticated turkeys; though the theory that they were introduced from Mexico was once influential, modern studies suggest that the turkeys of the Southwest were domesticated independently from those in Mexico. Turkeys were used both as a food source and for their feathers and bones, which were used in both practical and cultural contexts.[52] Compared to wild turkeys, domestic turkeys are selectively bred to grow larger in size for their meat.
Turkey forms a central part of modern Thanksgiving celebrations in the United States of America, and is often eaten at similar holiday occasions, such as Christmas. Charles Dickens popularised turkey as the centrepiece of Christmas dinner in the UK (replacing goose) and turkey remains the typical Christmas centrepiece. Turkey is gaining popularity in Nigeria and turkey farming is rapidly gaining in prominence.
The alphabetical list of all the turkey-based recipes on this site follows, (limited to 100 recipes per page). There are 80 recipes in total:
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