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I was talking to my butcher today who told me that lamb is a fairly recent favourite at Easter and that turkey used to be traditional (in England)

I spoke to my mum and she confirmed that her parents always used to have turkey then too, though she didn't realise it was a tradition.

I can't find much info on this online. I'd like to know. What are traditional accompaniments to an English Easter turkey.

I'd assume that they are sufficiently different to Thanksgiving and Christmas as there is more spring produce available.

My grandparents were from Hampshire and London and my Butcher is from Kent, so this was at least a south of England tradition, but I have not been able to find much about easter turkey from any region online.

Any links and references would be greatly appreciated as my Google-fu has failed me with this. I can find repurposed Christmas recipes but nothing specifically for Easter. For what it is worth, ham and goose used to be more popular with my grandparents than turkey at Christmas.

Jeremy French
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  • I think this question is too broad, also opinion based. You're assuming that your own country/area's traditions are everyone's. Accompaniments vary widely, I don't see this being answered authoritatively. – GdD Apr 03 '18 at 08:09
  • @GdD if I made the question more specific to England would that remove the breadth problem – Jeremy French Apr 03 '18 at 08:56
  • To me it would, it might help to narrow it down to region as well. There's different food traditions in the north as opposed to the south-west, south east, etc. – GdD Apr 03 '18 at 08:59
  • the History StackExchange might be able to take this if it's closed here. – Erica Apr 03 '18 at 11:30
  • @GdH I've changed it to make it more England specific, but really I can't find much about it at all. Googling easter and turkey brings up this question on the second page of the results so it is not a common thing – Jeremy French Apr 03 '18 at 11:32
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    I've been living in London for 15 years and I've never heard of turkey being traditional at easter, the mere mention of serving something other than lamb is met with hostility. Realistically, there's not much more produce available at easter than at Christmas, the growing season hasn't started yet. Spring greens come to mind, as do cabbages. – GdD Apr 03 '18 at 11:59
  • @JeremyFrench You have one person's word that it is "a tradition", and no further evidence, and say yourself that it is "not a common thing". I would define a tradition as something which is commonly done and has come to be the expectation of how things should be (as GdD describes it, the mention of breaking a tradition is met with hostility). Are you sure that there is a question to be asked at all? – rumtscho Apr 03 '18 at 13:00
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    "Traditional" in what sense and for how long? Lamb has been associated with Easter since the dawn of Christianity (consider phrases such as "the Lamb of God"), whereas turkeys have only existed in Europe for a few hundred years. – David Richerby Apr 03 '18 at 13:17
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    @rumtscho I have two sources who are unrelated, but I can find little online about it. Which is why I asked here, I thought there may be others who knew of it with more detail. – Jeremy French Apr 03 '18 at 14:07

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