It's that time of year again…the fourth Thursday in
November. This week we'll be celebrating
Thanksgiving in the U.S. Americans cook approximately
45 million turkeys each year for Thanksgiving.
So, in honor of the holiday, here are a dozen known and not so well
known bits of trivia about turkeys.
1) All turkeys do not
taste the same. The taste has to do with
their age. An older male is preferable
to a younger male (the younger tom is stringy).
And the younger female hens are preferable to the older ones. Hmmm…that older man and younger woman thing
again. :)
2) A turkey less than
16 weeks old is called a fryer and a turkey 5 to 7 months of age is known as a
roaster.
3) Turkeys are a type
of pheasant and are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.
4) Wild turkeys are
able to fly for short durations attaining speeds up to 55mph. Domesticated turkeys raised on farms for food
are too fat and meaty to achieve flight.
5) We've all heard
that Benjamin Franklin argued in favor of the turkey as the national symbol of
America rather than the Bald Eagle.
6) The first turkeys
to be domesticated were in Mexico and Central America.
7) The male turkey
makes the gobble sound and the female clucks.
8) A mature turkey
has about 3,500 feathers, which is a lot of plucking before it can be cooked.
9) The most turkeys
produced annually come from Minnesota and North Carolina.
10) The skin that
hangs from a turkey's neck is called a wattle.
The fleshy growth on the base of the beak is the snood.
11) Each year 90
percent of Americans have turkey for thanksgiving compared to 50 percent on
Christmas.
12) The most turkey
consumed per capita is not eaten by Americans.
Israel holds that honor.
One thing that's marvelous about the Thanksgiving turkey
dinner is all the terrific leftovers!
Anyone out there having something other than the traditional turkey for
Thanksgiving dinner?
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