Just Cook It!: The first Thanksgiving
One of the perks of writing a weekly Thursday column is knowing that one of those columns every year will be running on Thanksgiving Day. Today is that day; so allow me to start by wishing you and yours a very happy, safe and filling Thanksgiving.
I am a fan of yearly traditions. More specifically, I feel that it is appropriate to read about the first Thanksgiving every year on Thanksgiving Day.
I believe that for us to know where we are going it is important to know where we came from. We shouldn’t live in the past, but we should be aware of it so that we can create a better future.
That being said, I am going to take my own advice. I am going to take the Thanksgiving Day column that I wrote last year and attempt to improve it for this year. I figure that if I keep this tradition going then my Thanksgiving Day column five years from now should be pretty darn good.
I’m going to take the old column and improve upon it much like we have taken the first Thanksgiving dinner and continuously improved upon it as well. Please enjoy my updated Thanksgiving Day Story and eat more than you think you should today!
I present to you the 2014 version of my Thanksgiving Day column –
Thanksgiving has been an annual celebration in the United States since 1863. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” This was during the Civil War and in 1863 Thanksgiving was celebrated on Nov. 26. It is still celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November every year.
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World. The first Thanksgiving lasted three days and in attendance was 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims.
Surprisingly, no definitive proof exists that turkey was actually served during the first Thanksgiving dinner. According to the Pilgrim chronicler, Edward Winslow, the colony’s governor, William Bradford, sent four men on a “fowling” mission. Wild turkeys were a common food source for both the Pilgrims and Native Americans, but so were ducks, geese, and swans. What the “fowling” party returned with is not specifically known.
Whether they indulged on turkey during the first Thanksgiving is anyone’s guess, but we do know that they most certainly ate their fill of meat over those three days. According to Winslow’s journal they had at least five deer on the menu. Culinary historians believe that some of the deer was spit roasted over a smoldering fire while some was made into a stew.
It is not believed that they made the same bread based stuffing, or dressing, that we enjoy today. Instead the Pilgrims would have most likely used onions, herbs, or various nuts to dress their birds.
Vegetables were most likely plentiful at that feast since they were giving thanks for the first autumn harvest. Vegetables such as beans, onions, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, and peas were most likely large parts of their meal.
Corn was probably also served since records show that it, too, was indeed abundant that first harvest. Corn was most likely not prepared the way we are used to enjoying it today – slathered in butter on or off the cob. Instead it was most likely ground into cornmeal and then cooked into a porridge or mush that was then sweetened with molasses.
In 1621, the Pilgrims had already depleted most of their sugar reserves. Cranberries were most likely part of the meal since the Native Americans consumed them and even used them for natural dye, but they wouldn’t have been made into a cranberry sauce like we are used to.
Other fruits that were likely present would have been grapes, blueberries, plums, raspberries, and gooseberries.
It is also believed that seafood was a major part of the first Thanksgiving celebration. Mussels were abundant in New England and could have been easily harvested. Mussels with curds were a popular in those days. Lobster, bass, clams, and oysters were also very likely to be found on the table back then.
This next part of the meal is kind of hard to believe – potatoes were not a part of the first Thanksgiving. Around 1570 is when the Spanish began introducing potatoes to the Europeans. When the Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower to come to the New World the potato had not yet become popular enough for them to take up valuable space to bring them. Since they weren’t popular enough to bring, they also weren’t yet popular enough to grow.
Just because there were no potatoes present on the first Thanksgiving table, doesn’t mean that other plant roots weren’t necessarily represented. Indian turnips and groundnuts were common in those days, but no one knows for sure if they were actually present during the first Thanksgiving dinner.
The Pilgrims and Native Americans did in fact eat pumpkin and other squashes, but they did not have wheat flour or butter, which are necessary for making pies.
They also didn’t yet have ovens for baking. According to some experts the Pilgrims would hollow out pumpkins and fill their shells with a custard consisting of milk. honey, and other spices. They would then roast the filled pumpkins in hot ashes.
The point here is that while all of the “traditional” foods for Thanksgiving are fun and delicious they aren’t the end all be all to the holiday.
A lot of people enjoy ham over turkey for Thanksgiving and there’s nothing wrong with that.
If you wanted to be more of a traditionalist you could make a valid argument for roasting venison instead of turkey.
Thanksgiving is what its name suggests – a day to give thanks. Thankfully we don’t have to worry about a harvest anymore and most of us will have the privilege of eating as much as we want today with plenty of food leftover.
This Thanksgiving take a few moments to realize the true meaning of the holiday before diving into that giant plate of wonderful food in front you. Be thankful, give freely, and have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving!
Mario Porreca of Belle Vernon is an entrepreneur, author, lifestyle strategist, and the host of Just Cook It Radio. He can be reached via his website at: www.MarioPorreca.com. Twitter: @MarioPorreca