Where does the expression ''quit cold turkey'' come from?

I don’t get this at all. Other than a turkey being swiftly killed, or it being cold from being dead, it doesn’t make much sense to me. Is it one of those bite the bullet things that has to do with killing something quick to get it over with, like in a slaughterhouse? And having that being applied as symbolism to an addiction? But why a turkey? Why not a cow or a chicken? We eat a lot more of those, at least in the Western hemisphere.
I really don’t get how this saying was first used as a way to describe calling it quits once and for all, right now and then. Does anyone know how this saying came to be?