Historical Turkey Time

 Turkey is integral to family dinners this time of year. In October and November Canada and the US celebrate thanksgiving dinner with a roast turkey as the centerpieces. And even more countries regularly choose turkey for Christmas dinner. One of the main downsides for choosing turkey is the dilemma of what to do with leftover turkey. Here is a brief history of how quickly turkey spread from Mexico to Europe, plus a few historical recipes to use the leftovers. 

From James Trager’s well-documented The Food Chronology:
1513 Ponce de Leon encounters turkeys in Florida
1519 Spaniards encounter turkey for the first time in the Yucatan
1523 Turkeys from New Spain are introduced in Old Spain
1529 Hernando Cortés recalled to Spain and returns with many foods new to Europe, including turkeys
1555 Sale of turkeys in English markets recorded
1607 Settlers in Jamestown find turkeys among the wild birds in the area

It didn’t take long for turkey recipes to appear in cookbooks throughout Europe. There are the earliest English language recipes I could find. About the same time Max Rumpolt published around 20 recipes for the bird in German. 

A.W., A Book of Cookrye (English, 1587)  Originally published in 1584
To bake Turkey Fowles.
Cleve your Turkye foule on the back, and bruse al the bones.  Season it with Pepper groce beaten and Salte, and put into it good store of butter. He must have five houres baking.
The Good Huswifes Jewell part 1 by Thomas Dawson, 1587
To bake a Turkie and take out
his bones.
To bake a Turkie and take out his bones.
TAke a fat Turkie, and after you haue scalded him and washed him cleane, lay him vpon a faire cloth and slit him through out the backe and when you haue taken out his garbage, then you must take out his bones so bare as you can, when you haue so done wash him cleane, then trusse him and pricke his backe together, and so haue a faire kettle of séething water and perboyle him a little, then take him vp that the water may runne cleane out from him, and when he is colde, season him with pep∣per and salt, and then pricke him with a fewe cloues in the brest, and also drawe him with larde if you like of it and when you haue made your coffin and laide your Turkie in it then you must put some butter in it and so close him vp in this sort you may bake a Goose, a Pheasant, or Capon.

Now, a couple of ideas for using those leftovers. The first one is actually a recipe for using chicken, but most turkey can easily be substituted.

This from my translation of Sabina Welserin’s 1553 cookbook  Although written for chicken, it could easily be adapted for turkey.
http://daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html

If you would make chicken buns

Then take the meat from hens and let it cook beforehand, after that chop it small and put grated a Semmel thereon and eggs thereon, until you think that it is a good thick dough. Afterwards make fine round little balls and let them fry very slowly and roast them.

When I tried this a few years ago I added parsley, an herb that Welserin often includes in chicken dishes, and parmesan cheese, which she includes in chicken dumplings.

Chicken Buns
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 1/2 cups finely chopped cooked chicken
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 beaten eggs
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
Mix all the ingredients together.  Press firmly into small balls.  Drop balls into hot oil and fry until golden brown. 

In Gesine Lemcke’s 1895 European and American Cuisine there are 6 pages of recipes for cold turkey. This is the one I want to try this year.