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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbomb here with a festive classic for you. In

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Speaker 1: this one, we're talking turkey. That is the history and

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Speaker 1: modern traditions around consuming this large bird, around American Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: and other holidays and beyond, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel

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Speaker 1: Bomb Here. It might come in forth on the list

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Speaker 1: of America's top protein choices, but one day out of

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Speaker 1: the year, nothing else will do. Every Thanksgiving Day, chicken, beef,

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Speaker 1: and pork all step aside and make room for their

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Speaker 1: poultry campadre the turkey. For turkeys, however, Thanksgiving isn't such

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Speaker 1: a blessing. It's estimated that in twenty seventeen, a whopping

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Speaker 1: forty five million turkeys were consumed for the occasion, some

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Speaker 1: suffering the fate of being stuffed not only with stuffing

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Speaker 1: but also with a duck and chicken to create that

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Speaker 1: poultry profusion called the turducan. There are a couple competing

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Speaker 1: origin stories for the Things Giving feast, including a couple

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Speaker 1: meals shared between Native Americans and European colonists stretching back

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Speaker 1: to the sixteen hundreds. But it wasn't an official American

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Speaker 1: holiday until President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed November twenty sixth, eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty three a national day of Giving thanks Before that, Thanksgivings,

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Speaker 1: days spent in prayer thanking God for some fortuitous event

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Speaker 1: or another, were periodically celebrated by New England colonists, but

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Speaker 1: not anything like the level of the national Thanksgiving festivities

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Speaker 1: we see today. Presidents following Lincoln annually proclaimed the holiday

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Speaker 1: the last Thursday in November until nineteen forty two, when

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Speaker 1: Franklin D. Roosevelt switched it to the fourth Thursday in November,

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Speaker 1: not necessarily the last, in an attempt to kick off

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Speaker 1: the holiday shopping season a touch earlier. But turkey didn't

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Speaker 1: immediately join the Thanksgiving scene as the staple centerpiece, and

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Speaker 1: interestingly enough, the turkeys that you see in the grocery

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Speaker 1: store today don't really resemble the birds that pilgrims in

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Speaker 1: Native Americans may or may not have actually feasted on.

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Speaker 1: Turkeys were eaten by both peoples, but had always been

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Speaker 1: bred primarily for their striking, dark colored feathers. That plumage

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Speaker 1: creates tiny pin pricks of pigment in the flesh that

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Speaker 1: turned off many consumers because of this and debates about

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Speaker 1: which size was most appropriate for both private and commercial usage.

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Speaker 1: A breeding campaign was conducted in the United States during

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Speaker 1: the first half of the twentieth century in search of

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Speaker 1: a better selling bird. The modern result is the broad

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Speaker 1: breasted white turkey. These turkeys are specters of their ancestors.

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Speaker 1: They've been bred to be colorless, larger, and have bigger breasts.

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Speaker 1: Whether you roast it, smoke it, grille, or deep fry it,

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Speaker 1: turkey has really wedged itself a spot on Thanksgiving Day

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Speaker 1: dinner table. Some eighty eight percent of American families eat

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Speaker 1: turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Back in nineteen twenty nine, Americans

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Speaker 1: only ate about eighteen million turkeys annually. By nineteen seventy,

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Speaker 1: that number was approximately one hundred and sixteen million. In

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Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, the number of turkeys raised in the United

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Speaker 1: States was about two hundred and forty five million, and

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Speaker 1: that wasn't even a peak year. In nineteen ninety six,

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Speaker 1: US growers produced a record three hundred and three million turkeys,

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Speaker 1: But that doesn't seem to be because more people have

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Speaker 1: been eating turkeys at Thanksgiving. That forty five million number

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Speaker 1: I mentioned at the top of the episode has been

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Speaker 1: holding pretty steady. Back in nineteen seventy, about fifty percent

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Speaker 1: of the turkey consumed the United States was eaten around

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Speaker 1: the holidays. Over the years, that number has dropped to

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Speaker 1: about twenty nine percent, meaning people are eating it throughout

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Speaker 1: the year. We know this because overall turkey consumption has

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Speaker 1: about doubled in that same time period. In nineteen seventy,

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Speaker 1: Americans chowed down on an average of eight pounds a

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Speaker 1: little more than three and a half kilos of turkey

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Speaker 1: per person per year. That number has now climbed to

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Speaker 1: about eighteen pounds. Perhaps all those turkey burgers are the

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Speaker 1: reason turkey is a year round fixture on many menus today,

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Speaker 1: and although Thanksgiving is still big business in the industry,

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Speaker 1: turkey would probably retain its popularity even if something else

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Speaker 1: like lamb tried to muscle its way into that special

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Speaker 1: all holiday celebration. Today's episode is based on the article

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Speaker 1: would turkey be so popular if it didn't have its

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Speaker 1: own holiday? On HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Jessica Toothman.

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Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with

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Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang four

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