Turkey: Turkey Cookery

The Aztecs ate turkey with chili sauce. Native Americans roasted turkey on spits. English colonists brought their own ways of preparing turkey with them. The first American to publish a cookbook, Amelia Simmons, had five turkey recipes in her American Cookery (1796). Most subsequent cookbooks published additional recipes. In general, cookbook instructions fell into five categories: how to select turkeys; how to roast, boil, fry, steam, or bake them; how to stuff them; foods to accompany them; and what to do with turkey leftovers.