Tuka, tukki, firkee

Some say it was Christopher Columbus who named turkeys "tuka," which is a Tamil word for peacock. Since the man was confused and believed he was in India at the time, this explanation seems plausible. Another theory is the Jewish physician serving on the voyage named the bird "tukki" which means "big bird" in Hebrew. Other people say Native Americans called the bird "firkee." So the word has been mispronounced for the past 500 years.

The turkey is native to Central America, and was one of the first animals to be domesticated in Mexico. Over a 1,000 turkeys a day were sold in busy Aztec markets. Just like Kroger's the week before Thanksgiving. The Spaniards carried "el pavo" back to Europe where it became a status dish for state dinners. The turkey was larger than a roast goose, had more meat and a fresh new tasty taste people loved. Turkey dinners caught on fast. In 1540, 1,570 turkeys were roasted for the wedding feast of Charles XI of France. The logistics of that turkey dinner boggle the mind.

When the pilgrims landed in the "new world" they were surprised to see wild turkeys running around similar to the ones they had brought along from Europe. So the turkey went full circle. Who knows what they ate at the first Thanksgiving? We like to think it was turkey, but no one blogged about it at the time.

Wild tom turkeys are magnificent birds when they decide to strut their stuff. They can blow themselves up like a ship in full sail and show off by turning their faces red, white and blue. Toms do this by shutting off oxygen to their heads, which might explain why turkeys are not blessed with high IQ's or sharp vision.


Turkeys can run at 35 mph and fly 55 mph. They can fly fast but not far, and soon became the American settlers primary source of food. Turkeys were so plentiful that New Englanders looked down on the meat as low class, like yucky seafood and lobsters. Hens once sold for 6 cents and big toms for a quarter at game markets. As happened with other seemingly unlimited American birds, by the early 1900's only 30,000 wild turkeys remained. Since then conservation efforts (funded largely by hunter's dollars) have restored turkey habitat and populations are healthy-- some 4.5 million birds roam the country and strict hunting laws prevent them from becoming endangered anytime soon. In fact, wild turkeys have become a nuisance in densely populated places like Staten Island. Click here to read an amusing NYT article.

In 2011, more than 248 million turkeys will be raised. Whatever your feelings about CAFO's (Google "CAFO" at your own risk) the turkeys don't have it bad. They're never caged and spend their lives walking around in a flock eating and eating until the day comes. That day comes quickly, since the tom will reach a market weight of 32 pounds in just 18 weeks.


A fine turkey dinner with all the trimmings? Like Cole Porter said, it's the top!