Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbomb here with a festive classic for you. In
Speaker 1: this one, we're talking turkey. That is the history and
Speaker 1: modern traditions around consuming this large bird, around American Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: and other holidays and beyond, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel
Speaker 1: Bomb Here. It might come in forth on the list
Speaker 1: of America's top protein choices, but one day out of
Speaker 1: the year, nothing else will do. Every Thanksgiving Day, chicken, beef,
Speaker 1: and pork all step aside and make room for their
Speaker 1: poultry campadre the turkey. For turkeys, however, Thanksgiving isn't such
Speaker 1: a blessing. It's estimated that in twenty seventeen, a whopping
Speaker 1: forty five million turkeys were consumed for the occasion, some
Speaker 1: suffering the fate of being stuffed not only with stuffing
Speaker 1: but also with a duck and chicken to create that
Speaker 1: poultry profusion called the turducan. There are a couple competing
Speaker 1: origin stories for the Things Giving feast, including a couple
Speaker 1: meals shared between Native Americans and European colonists stretching back
Speaker 1: to the sixteen hundreds. But it wasn't an official American
Speaker 1: holiday until President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed November twenty sixth, eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty three a national day of Giving thanks Before that, Thanksgivings,
Speaker 1: days spent in prayer thanking God for some fortuitous event
Speaker 1: or another, were periodically celebrated by New England colonists, but
Speaker 1: not anything like the level of the national Thanksgiving festivities
Speaker 1: we see today. Presidents following Lincoln annually proclaimed the holiday
Speaker 1: the last Thursday in November until nineteen forty two, when
Speaker 1: Franklin D. Roosevelt switched it to the fourth Thursday in November,
Speaker 1: not necessarily the last, in an attempt to kick off
Speaker 1: the holiday shopping season a touch earlier. But turkey didn't
Speaker 1: immediately join the Thanksgiving scene as the staple centerpiece, and
Speaker 1: interestingly enough, the turkeys that you see in the grocery
Speaker 1: store today don't really resemble the birds that pilgrims in
Speaker 1: Native Americans may or may not have actually feasted on.
Speaker 1: Turkeys were eaten by both peoples, but had always been
Speaker 1: bred primarily for their striking, dark colored feathers. That plumage
Speaker 1: creates tiny pin pricks of pigment in the flesh that
Speaker 1: turned off many consumers because of this and debates about
Speaker 1: which size was most appropriate for both private and commercial usage.
Speaker 1: A breeding campaign was conducted in the United States during
Speaker 1: the first half of the twentieth century in search of
Speaker 1: a better selling bird. The modern result is the broad
Speaker 1: breasted white turkey. These turkeys are specters of their ancestors.
Speaker 1: They've been bred to be colorless, larger, and have bigger breasts.
Speaker 1: Whether you roast it, smoke it, grille, or deep fry it,
Speaker 1: turkey has really wedged itself a spot on Thanksgiving Day
Speaker 1: dinner table. Some eighty eight percent of American families eat
Speaker 1: turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Back in nineteen twenty nine, Americans
Speaker 1: only ate about eighteen million turkeys annually. By nineteen seventy,
Speaker 1: that number was approximately one hundred and sixteen million. In
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, the number of turkeys raised in the United
Speaker 1: States was about two hundred and forty five million, and
Speaker 1: that wasn't even a peak year. In nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: US growers produced a record three hundred and three million turkeys,
Speaker 1: But that doesn't seem to be because more people have
Speaker 1: been eating turkeys at Thanksgiving. That forty five million number
Speaker 1: I mentioned at the top of the episode has been
Speaker 1: holding pretty steady. Back in nineteen seventy, about fifty percent
Speaker 1: of the turkey consumed the United States was eaten around
Speaker 1: the holidays. Over the years, that number has dropped to
Speaker 1: about twenty nine percent, meaning people are eating it throughout
Speaker 1: the year. We know this because overall turkey consumption has
Speaker 1: about doubled in that same time period. In nineteen seventy,
Speaker 1: Americans chowed down on an average of eight pounds a
Speaker 1: little more than three and a half kilos of turkey
Speaker 1: per person per year. That number has now climbed to
Speaker 1: about eighteen pounds. Perhaps all those turkey burgers are the
Speaker 1: reason turkey is a year round fixture on many menus today,
Speaker 1: and although Thanksgiving is still big business in the industry,
Speaker 1: turkey would probably retain its popularity even if something else
Speaker 1: like lamb tried to muscle its way into that special
Speaker 1: all holiday celebration. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: would turkey be so popular if it didn't have its
Speaker 1: own holiday? On HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Jessica Toothman.
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