Facts You Probably don’t Need
- Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird, not the eagle.
- Three towns in the U.S. take their name from the traditional Thanksgiving bird, including Turkey, Texas (pop. 317); Turkey Creek, Louisiana (pop. 402); and Turkey, North Carolina (pop. 214).
- We have Thanksgiving to thank for TV dinners! In 1953, Swanson had so much extra frozen turkey (about 260 tons) that had not sold for the holiday that a salesman told them they should package it onto aluminum trays with other traditional sides — and the first TV dinner was born!
- Americans eat around 46 million turkeys each Thanksgiving.
- The heaviest turkey on record, according to the Guinness Book of Records, weighed 86 Pounds. His name was Tyson.
- Female turkeys (called hens) do not gobble. Only male turkeys gobble.
- The average turkey for Thanksgiving weighs 15 pounds.
- Dorcas Reilly of the Campbell Soup Company created the now famous green bean casserole recipe for an Associated Press article in 1955 using the newly released cream of mushroom soup. According to Campbell’s, that recipe is now served in over 20 million households each year on Thanksgiving and holiday accounts for over 40% over all cream of mushroom sales.
Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.
