"French Canada style turkey"

brreynolds · #1 03-14-2002, 09:57 PM

I am reading a social history of food (D.R. Gabbaccia, We Are What We Eat) and found in there this reference:

"A St. John's Day celebration in Frenchtown offered a 'French-Canadian style' menu which included 'turkey stuffed with potatoes, sausage and giblets in French Canada style ...."

Sounds like my kind of bird. Unfortunately, the reference is not to a cookbook or anything useful in figuring out how this was made, but to some unpublished notes of the Work Projects Administration from the 1930's.

Any of you folks up in Canada have a recipe for such a turkey?

Isa · #2 03-14-2002, 10:38 PM

The things you learn in history books. Have you check the bibliography, are there any Canadian books in it? With more information it might be easier to find this turkey recipe.

P.S. St John The Baptist day is on June 24, it's always a bit warm for turkey...

brreynolds · #3 03-15-2002, 04:43 PM

Isa: There were only a couple of books listed in the bibliography with Canadian cities given as the place of publication. Those were clearly food history or social history books, not recipe collections, and not listed in connection with the chapter where i found the quote in my last post. The specific reference for that quote was, as I said, to an unpublished box of notes from a WPA project. I may have missed something, because the bibliography is one of those chapter-by-chapter ones, not a compiled bibliography, but I gave it a fairly close look.

From your comments, I gather this is not something that is so common it is eaten like peanut butter.

Isa · #4 03-15-2002, 08:58 PM

Turkey is fairly common on the Christmas table or for Thanksgiving but not in summer. At least not in my family. I checked with a few people and no one has heard of St Jean Baptiste tukey.

#5 03-23-2002, 03:51 PM

Searching for 'St. Jean Baptiste turkey stuffing' on my favorite metasearch engine, www.ixquick.com, I wasn't able to find what you're looking for, but...

http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/browse/...&keywordID=213

The Canadian Food Network has a bunch of traditional recipes for St. Jean Baptiste Day. Perhaps someone at that web site can help you find your recipe. Bon chance! Please share if you find it.