A Thanksgiving staple, turkey is one of the most quintessential American foods. In fact, a whopping 45 million turkeys will be enjoyed on Thursday, according to a recent Time magazine estimate. If you ask most cooks how they will prepare their turkey, they will almost certainly say roasted, or maybe grilled or even the recent fad of using a deep fat-fryer. But did you know that boiling a turkey used to be the preferred way to serve it?

In the nineteenth century, turkey was often featured as an elegant and fashionable selection on the “boiled dishes” course at fancy multi-course dinners—sometimes alongside ham, beef tongue, or other types of poultry. It was typically served after the fish and before the roasts and entrees because these moister cuts were considered less filling, and quicker and easier to digest. This theory was shared by French, English, and Italian cooks, and eventually made its way to multicourse American dinners as well.