Turkey came orginally from Mexico and arrived in Spain at the beginning of the sixteenth century, when it quickly gained acceptance. Birds started to be raised and soon appeared in the markets. Libro del Arte de Cocina (1599) by Diego Granado features one of the oldest recipes known. From the seventeenth century onward, turkey came to be regarded as a somewhat fancy, inaccessible food, with the reputation previously confined to royal turkey of being symbolic of lavish banquets. The splendid common turkey made an immpressive centerpiece at many a formal dinner, nevertheless, and later became immensely popular on a more domestic level, too. Surrounded by all manner of sauces, stuffings, compotes and jellies, it could easily be made to look even more splendid.
