"Old World" food

Post #19,293 by Andrew Grygus 11/24/01 12:10:12 PM Reply	"Old World" food It is thought by some historians that the turkeys served by the Pilgrims were actually Mexican turkeys brought over on the boat. Mexican "bred for eating" turkeys had already completely taken over from the peacock (ostentacious, but not very good eating) as the festival bird throughout Europe. The wild turkeys of the day would have been very hard to hunt, tough and not very meaty. It is descendents of Mexican turkeys that we eat today. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #19,303 by a6l6e6x 11/24/01 4:13:12 PM 11/24/01 4:28:21 PM Reply	Yep. Wild turkeys are quite "wiley". Benjamin Franklin (one of US founding fathers, for non-USns) wanted to make them the [link\|http://www.geobop.com/Symbols/Animals/Birds/1/Turkey/\|national bird.] Wild turkey are extremely difficult to hunt according to a nature film I once saw. Alex Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) Edited by a6l6e6x Nov. 24, 2001, 04:28:21 PM EST Expand All History
Post #19,304 by hnick 11/24/01 4:56:40 PM Reply	I think they are going downhill too... For a change, my wife, puppies, and myself had Thanksgiving by ourselves at our cabin on the Ohio/Pennsylvania border(as opposed to 10 guests at home, with another dozen dropping in at irregular intervals.) There was a flock of ~8 wild turkeys wandering in the woods by the side of the road. I could have knocked one over with a rock. I guess they just felt safe near a state park :) On the other hand, everything was low key there; the whole town closed down and everybody took the day off. They even shut down the McDonalds. Kinda neat... I was seriously impressed. Hugh
Post #19,305 by wharris2 11/24/01 5:49:54 PM Reply	You sure about turkeys? One story I heard had it that until the settlers started shooting them down, they were fairly tame - used to bows and arrows, maybe, but not muskets. There's a turkey book whose title escapes me which has a picture of a nesting turkey on the cover. Nesting up in the branches of a tree (which is logical, when you remember wild turkeys aren't the beefed up tubs of meat that domestic turkeys are, and can fly short distances.) "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." -- Donald Knuth

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