Are turkeys bred and eaten in Europe?
A. Yes. The Wild Turkey is native only to the Americas, but Spanish traders brought some domesticated by Incas and other indigenous Americans to Europe and Asia in the 1500s. The bird got its common name because it typically reached European tables through shipping routes that passed through Turkey. On a continent where fine dining still included eating storks, herons, and bustards, the meaty, succulent turkey was a sensation. When English settlers came to America, they were amazed to find the same birds running wild and free, and tasting really good thanks to their natural diet of chestnuts, beechnuts, walnuts, and other native mast. That is probably one of the reasons Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to serve as our national emblem—it’s a beautiful, genuinely American bird that tastes wonderful and had enormous economic value for the colonists. Read more at our Wild Turkey page, or at this Smithsonian page, The Eat-ymology of the Turkey.
