Food Reference Newsletter
Volume 6 #17 Culinary Quiz with Answers
SPECIAL ANNUAL THANKSGIVING EDITION
In the U.S., according to tradition, the first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated with prayer and feasting in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621 (exact dates of this 3 day celebration are unknown, but it was after the harvest and before December 11, when Edward Winslow wrote a letter describing it).
HOWEVER:
* There was both prayer and feasting at the Plymouth celebration in 1621, but there is no record of the term 'thanksgiving' being used until 1623, when the Pilgrims "set apart a day of thanksgiving."
* On December 4, 1619 at the Berkeley plantation in Virginia a 'thanksgiving' was offered in prayer alone (no feasting).
* Adding to the controversy over the first thanksgiving, there were even earlier thanksgiving and harvest celebrations in the Spanish settlements.
Now lets see what else you know about Thanksgiving Day and Turkeys
1) What president proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day, and when was it celebrated?
2) What president made Thanksgiving an annual holiday (to be commemorated on the LAST Thursday in November)?
3) In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed Thanksgiving from the LAST Thursday in November. Three years later, in December 1941, a joint session of Congress changed it again (in part because not all states complied with Roosevelt's choice).
a) To what day did Roosevelt change Thanksgiving?
b) Why did he change it?
c) To what day did Congress change Thanksgiving?
4) When is Canada's national Thanksgiving Day celebrated?
5) True or False - All of the following celebrate annual Thanksgiving holidays.
Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Laos, Liberia, Puerto Rico, Guam, Grenada and the Virgin Islands, Mexico.
6) Name these parts of a Turkey:
a) The red/pink fleshy growth on the head and upper neck.
b) The long, red flesh growth from the base of the beak that hangs down over the neck.
c) The bright red appendage at the neck.
d) The black lock of hair on the chest of the male turkey.
7) Domesticated turkeys cannot fly, but wild turkeys can fly for short distances.
a) How fast can wild turkeys fly?
b) How fast can wild turkeys run?
8) What is a 'Turken'?
9) Who wrote the following:
"I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the Representation of our Country; he is a Bird of bad moral Character, like those among men who live by sharpening and robbing, he is generally poor and often very lousy.....The turkey is...a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original Native of America."
10) Turkey eggs are:
a) White.
b) Brown.
c) Creamy white with red/brown speckles.
d) Light brown with bluish speckles.
ANSWERS:
1) The first national Thanksgiving Day, proclaimed by President George Washington, was celebrated on Nov. 26, 1789, the LAST Thursday of the month.
2) In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving an annual holiday to be commemorated on the LAST Thursday in November.
3) a) Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the official Thanksgiving Day from the LAST Thursday to the THIRD Thursday in November.
b) Roosevelt felt the last Thursday was too close to Christmas (especially when the last Thursday fell on November 30, as it did in 1939)
c) Congress specified the FOURTH Thursday in November (which is not always the LAST).
4) In Canada, Thanksgiving Day, first observed in November 1879, is a legal holiday celebrated on the second Monday in October.
5) False. All except Mexico celebrate an annual Thanksgiving holiday.
6) a) Caruncle.
b) Snood.
c) Wattle.
d) Beard.
7) a) Wild turkeys can fly up to 55 miles per hour for short distances (about 1/4 mile).
b) Wild turkeys can run up to 20 miles per hour.
8) The Transylvania Naked Neck Chicken is often called Turken. Some people think it is a cross between a chicken and a turkey because of the unfeathered area on the neck. This skin turns red when exposed to the sun, further paralleling the turkey. However, this is actually the result of a single gene that affects the arrangement of feather-growing tracts over the chicken's body. It can be easily introduced into any breed. Turkens have no feathers on a broad band between the shoulders and the base of the skull.
Here is a PHOTO of this chicken
9) Benjamin Franklin in a letter to his daughter, Sarah Bache.
10) c) Creamy white with red/brown speckles.
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