Biggest Turkey

 

Turkey is more than just a bird. It is the symbol for Thanksgiving Day. No Thanksgiving Day celebration is complete without turkey. Although there are different claims on how turkey became the symbol for Thanksgiving over time, it has become a tradition to serve turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

Turkey has been served at dinner tables by American Indians as far back as 1000 A.D. This bird is raised in Canada throughout the year and this country is considered as the 6th largest producer of turkey all over the world.

The biggest turkey, based on information from the Guinness Book of World Records was approximately 86 pounds. Imagine how big a really large dog is, that is the biggest turkey recorded back in the latter part of 1989.

There is also what is tagged as the world’s largest turkey but this one is made from papier-mâché and is found in the town of Frazee, Minnesota which is considered as the Turkey Capital of the World.

Big Tom is approximately twenty-two feet high.

Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner

Roast turkey filled with special stuffing is of course the main attraction on a Thanksgiving dinner table. Stuffing can be made with different ingredients, depending on your preference.

There is the usual cornbread stuffing and there are also several other recipes for stuffing such as apple couscous stuffing, brown rice and apple stuffing, and cranberry and chestnut stuffing.

Other traditional foods laid out on a Thanksgiving dinner table are corn, pumpkin pie, beans and cranberry.

Turkey Trivia

Benjamin Franklin once considered making turkey as the national bird for the United States of America.

White Hollands are the usual breed of turkeys raised. These are flightless turkeys.

A mature turkey can have as much as three thousand and five hundred feathers!

Without turkey feathers, Big Bird will be bald. Sesame Street’s lovable bird is covered with about four thousand white turkey feathers dyed in the color yellow.

Wild turkeys sleep in trees.

Gobbler is a male turkey while its female counterpart is called a hen.

A baby turkey is known as poult.

Turkeys make a kind of “turk-turking” sound which is probably why they were finally called turkey.

Turkeys have night-blindness.

The 1st repast Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin had when they landed on the moon was turkey packed in foil.

A female turkey can lay up to one hundred and fifteen eggs within a thirty-day period.

Some boots and belts cowboy use are made from turkey skin.