Turkey Facts

[rtebalt]

Americans feast on 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.

According the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the United States at Thanksgiving. That number represents one sixth of all the turkeys sold in the U.S. each year!

Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird.

Domesticated turkeys cannot fly, however wild turkeys can fly up to 55 miles per hour over short distances.

Only male (tom) turkeys gobble. Females make a clicking noise. The famous gobble is actually a seasonal mating call.

The heaviest turkey ever raised weighed in at 86 pounds – about the size of a German Shepherd! (But turkeys are normally not used as police animals.)

A turkey under 16 weeks of age is called a fryer. A five to seven month old turkey is called a roaster.

The Turkey Trot, a ballroom dance in the 1900s, was named for the short, jerky steps of the turkey. It became popular mainly because it was denounced by the Vatican as “suggestive.”

Turkeys are known to spend the night in trees! (Maybe to escape the Thanksgiving table?)

Turkeys can drown if they look up when it’s raining!

A turkey’s field of vision is 270 degrees–one of the main reasons they’re able to elude some hunters.

The average age of the Mayflower passenger was 32. The oldest Mayflower passenger was 64.

There was no milk, cheese, bread, butter or pumpkin pie at the original Thanksgiving Day feast.

Contrary to popular belief, the Pilgrims did not have big buckles on their clothing, shoes, or hats.

Buckles did not come into fashion until the late 1600s – more appropriate for the Salem Witchcraft trial time period.

The cranberry got its name because the pale pink blossoms on the plant resembled a crane’s head and neck. The name craneberry stuck, eventually becoming cranberry.

Fresh cranberries are ideal for cranberry sauce. Cranberries of the highest quality will always bounce! (If you try this at home, please wash the cranberries before eating.)

President Abraham Lincoln established the original date for our National Thanksgiving Day celebration in 1863.

President Thomas Jefferson scoffed at the idea of establishing a national “Thanksgiving Day.”

Congress did not declare Thanksgiving a national holiday until 1941.

The average person consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day. (Now that’s a lot of turkey!)

[brchbell]

Oh it’s not the Turkey but the candied yams, dressing, pumpkin pie, ect that gets us every time! We’ve decided to spread our feast out over 4 days this year. We’ll have a different pie and salad each day. Wednesday they’ll have shaved Roast & ham for sandwiches with Mandrian orange salad and pumpkin pies. Thursday we’ll have the Turkey with mash Potatoes & gravy, Cranberry salad, Green bean casserole & dressing with an Apple pie and a cherry pie. Friday is left overs with potato casserole and fresh rolls and Pumpkin cheese cake & a Relish tray added. Saturday is left overs with Pumpkin turtle pie added,Sweet Potato whip, Turkey noodles and another salad. That way everyone gets their favorites and it’s spread out over 4 days so we can all enjoy them! I take the Turkey after the first meal and slice and bag it into meals and freeze all except the next 2 days worth. It also spreads things out so it’s easier for us to cook and gives room in the fridge for everything. We all come home for the holidays if we can and stay put. Only have one missing this year and he’ll be here Wednesday night through Thursday 2PM. Early Thanksgiving dinner for us this year!

[wilbe95]

Sounds like you have planned a less stressed holiday by stretching it over a few days.
Way to go!!!

[faxonfive]

I am so glad my hubby cooks…..I will clean…. 🙂

[brchbell]

I’m blessed with two 15 year old daughters who do most of the cooking now. The whole family helps out during the holiday meals. Some things only mom does but it’s simple things like making home made noodles that I can do a week ahead of time and let them dry so they absorb more flavor from the broth! I also make up all their pie crust ahead of time so they just have to roll them out and I make the onion rolls for sandwiches. My boys make up the jello salads and help with pies if needed. DH makes the fresh whipped cream up. And makes punch and ice water.

[rtebalt]

brchbell, I’d love the recipe for onion rolls! 🙂

[brchbell]

Ok, kinda hemming and hawing here. I make all our bread from scratch. Don’t use very many bread recipes any more so scratching my head wondering how to write down how I make the rolls. I had a recipe 20 years ago and went looking but can’t find the book–it was part of a series and we are just now uncrating our books, ect. I have most of the series but not the one I need–of course! My daughter mentioned this morning that she used the rabbit roll recipe while I was gone last August and it worked great so I’ll give you that one with the changes we made for onion rolls!

Onion rolls:

Ingredients:
7 cups bread flour (I use half whole wheat)
2 packages yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoon salt
2 cups water
2/3 cup butter
1/4 to 1/2 cup onion soup mix
1 onion thinly sliced and sautéed in 2 T.butter until golden brown

Instructions:
In a large bowl, combine 2 1/2 cup flour, yeast,sugar and salt; mix well. Sauté onions in butter until golden brown. Chop if desired and set aside.

Heat Water and butter until very warm (120-130 degrees) Butter does not need to melt. Add to flour mixture. Add 2 eggs. blend on low until moistened; then beat 3 minutes at medium speed. At this point you can add the dry onion soup mix & the onions. Either by hand or with a mixer that can handle bread dough add enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead by hand for 5 minutes OR knead in the mixer with dough hook. Place in a greased bowl, turning to grease top.

Cover and refrigerate 6 to 12 hours. Punching dough down as it’s chilling as needed. You can let it double and go ahead and work with it but helps if it’s cold to give you time to shape your rolls.

work with a 1/4 of the dough at a time and shape as desired. I usually roll mine out in to ropes and tie them up in to knots. Makes a pretty roll. Place 2″ to 3″ apart on greased cookie sheets. You can glaze them with egg 7 water glaze and then add more caramelized onion on the tops. Let rise until almost doubled ( about 10 minutes) Bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 30 to 36 rolls.

We love these to make ham sandwiches on!

[rtebalt]

Thanks so much! This sounds really yummy!!! 🙂

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