BrainStuff Classics: Would Turkey Be So Popular Without Thanksgiving?

Americans eat a LOT of turkey around the winter holidays, but why? Learn about turkey's festive history and when we eat the most of it in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/menus/turkey-popularity.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Vogelbomb here with a festive classic for you. In
this one, we're talking turkey. That is the history and
modern traditions around consuming this large bird, around American Thanksgiving
and other holidays and beyond, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel

(00:25):
Bomb Here. It might come in forth on the list
of America's top protein choices, but one day out of
the year, nothing else will do. Every Thanksgiving Day, chicken, beef,
and pork all step aside and make room for their
poultry campadre the turkey. For turkeys, however, Thanksgiving isn't such
a blessing. It's estimated that in twenty seventeen, a whopping

(00:45):
forty five million turkeys were consumed for the occasion, some
suffering the fate of being stuffed not only with stuffing
but also with a duck and chicken to create that
poultry profusion called the turducan. There are a couple competing
origin stories for the Things Giving feast, including a couple
meals shared between Native Americans and European colonists stretching back
to the sixteen hundreds. But it wasn't an official American

(01:08):
holiday until President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed November twenty sixth, eighteen
sixty three a national day of Giving thanks Before that, Thanksgivings,
days spent in prayer thanking God for some fortuitous event
or another, were periodically celebrated by New England colonists, but
not anything like the level of the national Thanksgiving festivities
we see today. Presidents following Lincoln annually proclaimed the holiday

(01:33):
the last Thursday in November until nineteen forty two, when
Franklin D. Roosevelt switched it to the fourth Thursday in November,
not necessarily the last, in an attempt to kick off
the holiday shopping season a touch earlier. But turkey didn't
immediately join the Thanksgiving scene as the staple centerpiece, and
interestingly enough, the turkeys that you see in the grocery
store today don't really resemble the birds that pilgrims in

(01:55):
Native Americans may or may not have actually feasted on.
Turkeys were eaten by both peoples, but had always been
bred primarily for their striking, dark colored feathers. That plumage
creates tiny pin pricks of pigment in the flesh that
turned off many consumers because of this and debates about
which size was most appropriate for both private and commercial usage.

(02:17):
A breeding campaign was conducted in the United States during
the first half of the twentieth century in search of
a better selling bird. The modern result is the broad
breasted white turkey. These turkeys are specters of their ancestors.
They've been bred to be colorless, larger, and have bigger breasts.
Whether you roast it, smoke it, grille, or deep fry it,

(02:38):
turkey has really wedged itself a spot on Thanksgiving Day
dinner table. Some eighty eight percent of American families eat
turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Back in nineteen twenty nine, Americans
only ate about eighteen million turkeys annually. By nineteen seventy,
that number was approximately one hundred and sixteen million. In
twenty seventeen, the number of turkeys raised in the United

(02:59):
States was about two hundred and forty five million, and
that wasn't even a peak year. In nineteen ninety six,
US growers produced a record three hundred and three million turkeys,
But that doesn't seem to be because more people have
been eating turkeys at Thanksgiving. That forty five million number
I mentioned at the top of the episode has been
holding pretty steady. Back in nineteen seventy, about fifty percent

(03:22):
of the turkey consumed the United States was eaten around
the holidays. Over the years, that number has dropped to
about twenty nine percent, meaning people are eating it throughout
the year. We know this because overall turkey consumption has
about doubled in that same time period. In nineteen seventy,
Americans chowed down on an average of eight pounds a
little more than three and a half kilos of turkey

(03:43):
per person per year. That number has now climbed to
about eighteen pounds. Perhaps all those turkey burgers are the
reason turkey is a year round fixture on many menus today,
and although Thanksgiving is still big business in the industry,
turkey would probably retain its popularity even if something else
like lamb tried to muscle its way into that special

(04:03):
all holiday celebration. Today's episode is based on the article
would turkey be so popular if it didn't have its
own holiday? On HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Jessica Toothman.
Brain Stuff is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang four

(04:26):
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.