When you sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner in two days, you'll probably be sitting down to a meal that includes what we've come to view as holiday classics: turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, a few pies (pumpkin, pecan, apple). But how close is this to the menu at the so-called first Thanksgiving?
According to the Smithsonian, there are some similarities, but definite omissions. The only surviving primary sources that reference the meal shared by the Pilgrims and Wampanoag at Plymouth Colony in 1621 confirm that "wildfowl" was there, in addition to corn (in grain form for bread or for porridge), and venison.
Beyond that, though, the menu is a little murky. Kathleen Wall, a foodways culinarian at Plimoth Plantation, suspects that goose or duck was a more likely choice over wild turkey, with swan and passenger pigeons also making an appearance! And don't expect bread stuffing: the birds would have been stuffed with onions and herbs, as was the custom of the Pilgrims then.
Additionally, there likely would have been eels and shellfish, including lobster, clams and mussels. And pies? Well, if there were any, they would have been meat pies (no sweet pastry pies!) and definitely no cranberry sauce. (It'd be another 50 years before cranberry sauce becomes a staple accompaniment to meat.)
→ Read More: What Was on the Menu at the First Thanksgiving? at Smithsonian
Related: Thanksgiving at the White House: The First Family's Food Requests Throughout History
(Image: Bettmann / Corbis via Smithsonian)
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Wampanoag peoples were also instrumental in teaching many Pilgrims how to survive the harsh weather conditions. How funny about the seafood, a recent post by a foraging guy mentioned seafood for Thanksgiving and everyone acted like he was crazy.
So very thankful to the Pilgrims and the Indians for getting together to create such a wonderful affair that we carry on as a tradition today. But how fortunate we are to have the wonderful food that has progressed through the years. I am so thankful for life and all those that are in it with me.
This is so interesting! When I finally have thanksgiving and my house I am going to it this way, but plus some sweets!
Had the pleasure at work last night of explaining the origins of Thanksgiving to a co-worker from Bangladesh. Told her that since no-one knows exactly what they ate, turkey & green bean casserole (with canned mushroom soup) was not mandatory!
My aging mother, who is now living with us, has reminded us (a few times *smile*) that when she was a child, they didn't have turkey. The families all gathered together early in the day, and the men folk all went hunting for rabbits. My great-grandmother would then dress and fry them for the noon meal. This was in the mountains of Central Kentucky, so perhaps it was a tradition passed down for many years. But, more than likely, they could not afford a turkey back then.