Gobble Gobble

So that time of year has come and gone once again. Smelling the turkey cooking all day, making the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, the yams, cranberry sauce, rolls and gravy. Christmas dinner, almost as exciting as waking up in the morning and opening presents. But why turkey? What did these awful looking birds ever do to deserve to be the focus of our gluttony on this holiday? Well in the Americas the answer is fairly simple. Back in the day wild turkeys roamed just as seagulls and pigeons do today. THey were everywhere so why not kill the things, stuff them and eat them? In Europe however there is a slightly different story. A few hundred years ago turkey was seen as an exotic bird and was therefore only placed on the tables of the well to do. As times changed and the birds became more accesible people continued to place turkeys on their tables as a sign that they were doing well themselves.

Now how about the size of the birds we place on our tables these days. Have you ever seen one of these mosters walking around? They look completely ridiculous. Since many people only like the white breast meat these birds have been bred to have gigantic breasts, so large in fact that they can no longer mate naturally. Commercial turkeys are now bred by artificial insemination. That signals a problem to me. Whatever happened to eating things as they naturally were? All these growth hormones injected into these birds and we are to expect no ill side effects? I'm starting to wonder if there is some corrolation between all these extra hormones we are ingesting and the growing average size of us. Something to think about for sure, but I'll save that for another entry.

To be quite honest I'm sick of turkey and turkey talk so I'll leave it alone until Easter, the next time I plan on thinking of one of these birds.

Don't forget to tell everyone you know, I'm starting to push my personal catering business "Dinner By Dan" and could use the help spreading the word. Big or small, I'll cook it all!