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Why is Turkey called turkey?

Turkey was not on my travel agenda until I was asked at a food seminar why Americans celebrate Thanksgiving with a bird called turkey. The cookbooks that tackle the question usually say that the wild bird, stumbling around the fields, foolishly called attention to itself by clucking "trrk, trrk, trrk." For me it is not a plausible explanation but the Mexican name, uexolotl , does not trip lightly from the tongue and was not a welcome alternative. I had to do a bit of sleuthing to find another answer.

The trail of New World foods for my forthcoming book "The Taste of Nations" led me to explore Turkey's history and ultimately visit that country. In the 16th century, under Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire was at the peak of its power and a major conduit for bringing the food from the Americas to the people of eastern Europe and Africa.

While the countries of western Europe embarked on voyages of discovery and exploration across the Atlantic, the Turkish fleet, under the command of the fearsome Barbarosa, wrested control of the eastern Mediterranean, broke the shipping monopoly of Venice, captured north African ports and sailed up the Danube to conquer Hungary and Romania. At the gates of Vienna they were turned away.

Spanish and Portuguese ships that entered the Mediterranean were attacked by the Turks who fattened the Ottoman treasury with looted American gold and silver. Too proud to eat the food of Indian "savages" they fed pirated alien foodstuffs to their conquered people. Cornmeal, called Portuguese grain, became polenta in Italy. Mammaliga, a cornmeal pudding, became Romania's national dish. Peppers from America became paprika- a Hungarian national symbol. These and other American foods were the salvation of populations racked by centuries of war and famine.

By 1534 a consortium of powerful Turkish merchants were trading with prosperous Spain. That year they acquired from Seville a shipment of domesticated American fowl. The shipment went to England and because the birds were brought by the Turks the English labeled them "turkee cocks." New England settlers called them turkey.

Other nations in the Old World recognized the American origin of the turkey but persisted in giving it an Indian name. Long after the Columbus geographical error was recognized the Carribean Islands were known as New India. In France the turkey was called coq d'Inde, (now corrupted to dindon). In Italy, turkey was galle d'India. In Germany, the name was indianische henn. The Ottoman Empire called the fowl hindi.

The Thanksgiving feast of 1621 glorified the turkey, but another bit of Americana must be associated with this holiday. Popcorn, one of the earliest varieties of maize to be propagated by the native Americans was the finale for the occasion. The Pilgrims must have been thrilled by what looked like magic as corn kernels popped over the campfire. It isn't magic. Popcorn kernels retain a bit of moisture in their centers and when heated to the boiling point, moisture turns to steam, expands and pops. People who tamed the turkey and cultivated corn in countless varieties should be part of our Thanksgiving remembrance.

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