Turkey : The turkey, the turkey and poult are birds family of Gallinaceous (species Meleagris gallopavo Linnaeus), bred for their chair delicate.
In Mesoamerica (or pre-Columbian America), the turkey was one of the only with animals raised by indigenous people for thousands of years. Domesticated for more than 1 years by the Mexicans, it is known in this country under the name “Guajolote”, a word coming from the Aztec Nahuatl language. Huexōlōtl ". It represents an important part of Mexican gastronomy.
Brought back to Europe by the Spanish conquistadors in 1521, during the Conquest of Mexico, which was believed to be the Indies, this bird took the name "guinea hen", which usage reduced to "turkey". . Curiously, the Anglo-Saxons refer to it as “ hen of Türkiye” (Turkey hen).
The turkey appeared in our European countries as early as the 1539th century: Olivier de Serres (1619-1570, French self-taught and scientist) called it the “Indian chicken” because it had just been brought back from the New World by Christophe Columbus. The turkey, called "guinea hen" by the Spanish conquerors, who thought they were in India when they discovered it in Mexico, did not appear on a French table until 1630, during the marriage of Charles IX, but its use in the kitchen became common around XNUMX.
In England, it even ended up dethroning thegoose de Holidays. Brillat Savarin, who called himself a “turkey enthusiast,” devoted long lines to the guinea rooster. We learn “that the turkey appeared in Europe towards the end of the 17th century; that it was imported by the Jesuits, who raised a large quantity of it, especially on a farm they owned near Bourges; […] this is why in many places, and in colloquial language, we used to say, and we still say, a “jesuit” to designate a turkey.” The turkey still lives in the wild in the United States of America and Mexico, but in the latter country it was already domesticated during the time of the Aztecs: prepared with a cocoa sauce, it constitutes the national dish. (mole poblano de guajolote).
Characteristics of the main poultry and rabbits
Name | Origin | Era | Look | Features |
---|---|---|---|---|
Quail | the whole of France | all year | 150-200 g, round | fine flesh |
Duck | ||||
Barbary | the whole of France | all year | stout (3-5 kg), plentiful muscles | rather firm, fine flesh |
Allier white | Bourbonnais | all year | fairly stout (3,5-4 kg) | fine flesh |
from Challans (or Nantes) | Vendée | all year | fairly stout (2,5-3 kg) | white, tasty flesh |
colvert | northern hemisphere | Fall-Winter | small | firm meat, game |
mulard (crossbreed) | the whole of France | all year | medium to large depending on force-feeding | flesh a little fatty, tasty; for foie gras |
from beijing | the whole of France | all year | fairly stout (3-3,5 kg) | fine flesh |
from Rouen (light) | Normandy | all year | fairly stout (3,5 kg) | very fine flesh |
Capon-Poularde | Landes, Bresse | déc. | up to 6 kg | very fine, delicate flesh |
Cock | the whole of France | all year | bulky (4-5 kg) | firm, tasty flesh |
Turkey-Turkey | ||||
American tanned | the whole of France | end of the year | 9-15 kg (male), 6-8 kg (female), black with bronzed highlights | succulent flesh |
Bourbonnais black | Bourbonnais | end of the year | 10-12 kg (male), 7-9 kg (female), black with metallic highlights | succulent flesh |
black from the Gers | South West | end of the year | 8 kg min. (male), 5 kg (female) | very fine flesh |
Sologne black | Sologne | end of the year | 10-12,5 kg (male), 6-7,5 kg (female), deep black | excellent flesh |
red of the Ardennes | Franco-Belgian Ardennes | end of the year | 10 kg max. (male), 7 kg (female) | very fine flesh |
Goose | ||||
from Alsace | Alsace | end of the year | 4-4,5 kg, gray (main variety) | for foie gras |
white Bourbonnais | Mix | end of the year | 7-10 kg, pure white | roast goose |
white Poitou | Poitou | end of the year | 5-9 kg, pure white | for down |
gray Landes | South West | end of the year | 6 7-kg | for foie gras |
from Guinea | Asia | end of the year | 4 5-kg | fine flesh, less fat |
Norman | Normandy | end of the year | 4-5,5 kg, white jars, gray and white goose | excellent flesh |
from Toulouse without bib | South West | end of the year | 6-10 kg, gray | fine flesh, for foie gras |
Pigeon | ||||
Flue | the whole of France | all year | 600-675 g, red (main variety) | fine flesh |
cauchois | the whole of France | all year | 650-800 g, mesh-coated (main variety) | fine flesh |
King | the whole of France | all year | 850-1050 g, white (main variety) | productive pigeon |
Texan | the whole of France | all year | 750-930 g, male and female in different colors | very productive meat pigeon |
Guinea fowl | the whole of France | all year | 1,2-1,5 kg, ovoid | typical flesh, tinted |
Hen-Chicken | ||||
bourbonnaise | all of France, mainly in the Allier | all year | 2,5 kg (hen) to 3,5 kg (rooster), white herminated with black | fine flesh |
Bresse | Bresse | all year | 2-2,5 kg (hen) to 2,5-3 kg (rooster), blue legs | excellent meat, capon |
Faverolles | the whole of France | especially at the end of the year | 2,8-3,4 kg (hen) to 3,5-4 (rooster), beard and 5 fingers | excellent flesh |
the arrow | the whole of France | especially at the end of the year | 3 kg min. (hen) to 3,5 kg (rooster), crest in the shape of horns | excellent flesh, capon |
gatinaise | the whole of France | especially at the end of the year | 2,5 kg (hen) to 3,5-4 kg (rooster), pure white | fine flesh |
Touraine geline | all of France, mainly in Touraine | all year | 2,5-3 kg (hen) to 3-3,5 kg (rooster), black | excellent flesh, the hen is marketed under the name of "Dame Noire" |
Gournay | all of France, mainly in Normandy | all year | 2 kg min. (hen), 2,5 kg (rooster) | fine flesh |
Houdan | the whole of France | especially at the end of the year | 2,5 kg (hen) to 3 kg (rooster), crest, beard and 5 fingers | excellent flesh |
Marans | the whole of France | all year | 2,6-3,2 kg (hen), 3,5-4 kg (rooster) | big extra soft eggs |
Meuse | the whole of France | especially at the end of the year | 2,4-3,4 kg (hen). 3,4-4,8 kg (rooster), 5 fingers | excellent flesh |
Sussex | the whole of France | all year | 3,2 kg min. (hen) to 4,1 kg (rooster) | very good flesh, white skin |
Poussin | the whole of France | all year | 250-300 g | delicate flesh |
Rabbit | ||||
Champagne silver | the whole of France | all year | 4,5-5,25 kg, silver fur | fine flesh |
Californian | the whole of France | all year | 4-4,5 kg, white with black ends | fine flesh |
burgundy fawn | the whole of France | all year | 4-4,5 kg, fawn | fine flesh |
white giant of Bouscat | the whole of France | all year | 6 kg and over, white | good flesh |
giant of Flanders | the whole of France | all year | 7 kg and over, gray (main variety) | large meat yield |
giant french butterfly | the whole of France | all year | 6 kg and over, white with black markings | good flesh |
New Zealand | the whole of France | all year | 4,5 5,25-kg | fine flesh |
Poitou rex | Poitou | all year | 3,5-4,75 kg, short fur | fine flesh |
Russian | the whole of France | all year | 2,4-2,7 kg, white with black ends | excellent flesh |
In Quebec, it is served new Year's Day, with a farce lean or based on meat (porc ou sausage). Turkey with Brown was, until a few years ago, a traditional dish of Holidays, a tradition increasingly abandoned except in Anglo-Saxon countries which have the festival of thanksgiving day. where chestnuts are not required.
The turkey is now commonly used in cooking and, when roasted whole, constitutes a traditional festive dish, particularly at Holidays. Georges Barbarin (French poet, writer and journalist) discusses this choice piece: “The living turkey is stupid; the dead turkey is full of spirit. A guest performs the autopsy with religion: drumsticks sumptuous, melting fins, fervor of the gizzard, smoothness of the liver. He removes the brains from the head, guillotines the neck, removes the flesh from the flank and the flower from the needle. All that remains there is Monseigneur's cap, a crispy bowsprit lying in the sauce. The skinned turkey resembles a frigate in distress or the frame of a cathedral.”
In the United States of America, turkey is the dish traditional du Thanksgiving, (See box below), since the arrival of the first settlers who were saved from famine by the wild turkey: the turkey is stuffed with bread corn, roasted and served with its bound juices and cranberry jelly (See Cranberry), usually accompanied by potatoes and squash puree.
Domestic turkeys come almost exclusively from wild turkeys, the ocellated turkey being very rare in breeding.
France would be the second largest producer in the world, with 625 t/year (declaration by France at the FAO in 2015, for 2 million tonnes of poultry of all species produced in 2004 in France). The tonnage produced in 2004 was 552 tonnes carcass equivalent (tec) according to the official body France Agrimer. More than a third of French production is dedicated to export (220 tec in 000 according to the Livestock Office).
Most of these exports are destined for European countries, first and foremost Germany. For several years, French turkey production, faced with a drop in domestic consumption and exports to the European market, has been declining.
Depending on the varieties, from the original breed imported from North America, the size of the animal varies. Thus, the Gers region was renowned for producing the traditional, large black turkey; new, smaller strains have been developed to produce poultry weighing 3,5 to 5 kilos; However, some farms specialize in the production of large turkeys, intended for cutting or charcuterie (cutlets, thighs ou roasted, filet et gallantines). We speak of a turkey poult when the animal has been raised up to 25 weeks; then we talk about turkey.
Due to battery farming, the price of this meat is low. In the fall, it is specially fattened so that its flesh becomes tender and soft; it remains in a henhouse for a minimum of 4 weeks and is slaughtered at a minimum of 7 months; it must reach a weight of 3 kilos (tapered). By comparison, the domesticated turkey can weigh up to 18 kilos. A turkey lays approximately 50 to 60 eggs per year.
The turkey gurgles, as does the turkey, which apparently immediately begins gurgling when someone shouts, “Redder than you.”
Quote from the French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) in Sentimental education : “Those hungry people who, as soon as they sit at the table, have filled themselves with soup and porridge, without thinking that truffled turkey and sorbets will soon come.”
Quotation from the French writer Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, known as Céline (1894-1961): “Cascade he believed in nobody question gargamelle! He did his own shopping three times a week…He brought back what he found the nicest, plumpest in poultry, turkeys like this! chickens like that! lambs like you don't see anymore…! to fart all the dishes in the oven! super fine salty meadows … when he found a dozen of our woodcock” in the novel Guignol's band. (1952)
Culinary uses of turkey : In cooking, we call the male and the female “turkey” indifferently, but the chair of the male – the turkey - is more cutting. The turkey is a meat skinny.
A good turkey must be young, fat and short of, with a flexible trachea. To empty the volaille, it is necessary to make an incision on the right side of the stomach, and also remove the tendons of the legs; to make it easier to cut once cooked, remove the wishbone. In general, we bard the rib cage so that the flesh remains fluffy.
In addition to preparations for ailerons, cutlets, thighs and giblets, the turkey is eaten braised, roasted, riding a sauté, stuffed, sometimes braised or stew (as'goose, garnished à la bourgeoise or à la chipolata or stew), In skewer, riding a cutlet, riding a minced, riding a supreme, breaded, riding a cordon bleu or in pot au feu. The poult can be wire rack ou fricassee such as chicken, or cooked casserole (garnished witheggplant,artichokes, champignons,onions or potatoes hash browns).
In the menu served in 1911 to celebrate the anniversary of Sissi's marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph, guests were able to feast on a Masséna-style turkey, garnished with a subtle preparation notably composed of olive oil.artichokes as well as bone marrow de beef.
See Turkey under the Dictionary of charcuterie.
The turkey and prepared turkey pieces:
Some culinary preparations based on turkey :
Buy your turkey meat here at the best price with express and refrigerated delivery: