The British Food History Podcast · Neil Buttery

Turkey with Tom Copas

·42 min·3 clips

Dr Neil Buttery opens in December. With Advent underway, he treats turkey as a bird with two useful lives: a historical one and a working one. The first half is history. It traces turkey in Britain from Tudor times to the twentieth century, when it shifted from a more regal presence on the table to a Christmas Day staple. The second half is farming. Buttery speaks with a turkey farmer who takes careful note of his flock and raises slow-grown, high-welfare birds, having bought many a turkey from him over the years. The early days matter most. The farmer explains that the first week needs almost constant attention, because a young turkey can end up stuck on its back and has to be turned upright and given a drink. The first seven days are, in effect, 24-hour care. The hatchery can be messy at the start. He describes the first birds of the cycle as needing extra TLC while the incubators and systems settle into place. Breed and timing both matter. If the birds do not arrive at the right point in the season, there is not enough time to bring them to the finish required for Christmas. The birds are kept inside first. For up to five or six weeks, the aim is to teach them how to drink and eat, introduce natural light and ventilation, and get them used to the shed. Then they are encouraged outward. Feeders, pans, and a bit of noise help them get curious; once they are confident, their rings come off and they can charge around the shed. The move outside is gradual. They are taken to rearing sheds, often polytunnels, spend a week re-acclimatising there, and then stay put until finishing. The episode closes in the usual way. It ends with news, a competition reminder, and an invitation for listeners to send in Christmas food memories, turkey-roasting tips, Christmas dinner prep ideas, and leftovers.

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A Christmas bird with a long British history and a grounded farming angle.

Turkey is treated here as both a food story and a farming one, and that split gives the piece room to breathe. It starts with the long British history of turkey, from Tudor times to the 20th century, then moves into a farmer’s account of slow-grown, high-welfare birds for…

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You want turkey's British history, a farmer's view, and Christmas prep without the fluff or the hard sell.

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