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Health & Fitness

Turkey Leftovers make a "Great Pie"!

One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving dinner is the leftovers!  Turkey and all the fixings warmed up the next day is so wonderful all by itself, although some people end up with so much extra turkey that they have to get creative with new variations on old dishes.

Turkey is a New World bird, meaning it is native to the Americas and wasn't known in European cuisine until after the Age of Exploration. Unlike some foods like corn that were viewed as being suitable for animal fodder and not much else, turkey was an early addition to English feasting tables.

The now-popular vision of Henry VIII wielding a turkey leg (and scores of turkey legs sold at Ren Fairs) turns out to be somewhat accurate. Henry was a fan of turkey, and it quickly replaced goose and other game birds on tables as a meatier and less greasy alternative.

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Why are they called Turkeys?
When they were first discovered in the wilds of North America, they were confusingly categorized with Guinea Fowl. Those birds were also known as Turkey Fowl as they were imported into Europe through Turkey. The name Turkey Birds became the standard for the new imports from the Americas as well.

I started out as an historical recreator at the age of 18, so early on I became accustomed to the combination of fruit and meat, especially in meat pies. I love the sweet/tart addition to a savory meat dish. An early exposure to this sort of meat pie was in the highly flawed "Fabulous Feasts" by Madeline Pelner Cosman that was one of the only readily available resources for a budding medieval cook in the late 70's. (1970's, just to be clear) Cosman's "Galantine Pie" combined beef, chicken, cranberries, currants, and dates in a pie crust, flavored with a spiced sauce that included galingale, cinnamon, ginger, beef broth and wine vinegar. I LOVED this dish, the combination of flavors keeping it very interesting and still savory, even with the fruits.
Going back to medieval and renaissance sources, the recipes for "Grate Pyes" include a variety of meats, from beef, venison and partridge to turkey and quail. They also include egg yolks, suet, dates, currants, green onions, artichokes, grapes, gooseberries, etc. Obviously this is a meat pie MEANT to be made with Thanksgiving leftovers!

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To see my recipe for Great Pie, check out my blog post at: askchefchristy.com/blog !

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