Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?

WP, are you asking us this as today is Thanksgiving, or simply a coincidence? I’m a Brit, so that’s not something we celebrate, but to my blogging buddies from across The Pond, have yourselves a happy day!

Word is that turkeys were introduced into England in the 1520s – purchased from American Indian traders, by William Strickland, an English landowner, navigator, and explorer. Much to the delight of King Henry VIII ( a glutton, by all accounts), who is reckoned to be the first monarch to eat it at Christmas. Goose would probably have been an option along with peacock prior to this.

Turkeys were considered a status symbol for a very long time. Only being available to those of considerable wealth or location.

In the 1720s it is recorded 250,000 turkeys were walked from Norfolk to London to meet the festive demand ( One would think that the birds would have lost a considerable amount of weight on their journey?)

As farming increased, it spread to the middle classes partly thanks to Charles Dickens writing about a dinner in A Christmas Carol. ( published in 1843)

Due to mass production and refrigeration, the general population could finally afford to push the boat out and buy turkeys like the elite had done for donkeys years. How disappointed they must have been to find out after all that time the meat would be quite dry…and they realised they preferred goose, beef or a humble chicken any day?