Posted by Stephanie Townrow on Tuesday, 11/24/2015
These days, Thanksgiving is all about the food—from the classic turkey to delicious pumpkin pie, Americans look forward to overindulging on favorite foods that we associate with the harvest bounty of 17th-century Massachusetts. But did they have these beloved Thanksgiving foods at the first Thanksgiving in 1621? A deeper look reveals that our "traditional" Thanksgiving feast may not be as traditional as we think.
The Pilgrims’ autumn harvest of 1621 was plentiful. Of course, they owed a lot of that success to their Wampanoag neighbors, who had helped them grow crops and taught them how to survive in the brutal climate of coastal Massachusetts.The harvest festival took three days, during which the Pilgrims and Indians feasted and celebrated. Approximately half of the original settlers died during the first year, and only four women remained alive by the fall of 1621, so the meal was likely prepared largely by men.
There would not have been cranberry sauce, though they might have had raw cranberries. There were no mashed potatoes, since the potato didn't make its way to North America until the 18th century. There was no pumpkin pie—they didn’t have a baking oven in Plimoth Plantation—but there might have been pumpkin served other ways, since both the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag ate pumpkin and other indigenous squashes.
On the table would have been local root vegetables like carrots and onions, dried fruits and nuts, venison (provided by the Wampanoag), fish such as bass, and shellfish like mussels and lobster. They might have had corn, though it would have been more of acornmeal mush, known as"samp."There is also an account that mentions a"great store of Wild turkies,"so it is likely that turkey was on the menu at the first Thanksgiving, in addition to other wild fowl such as duck and goose.Learn more about how and what the Pilgrims ate from Plimoth Plantation.
Saints & Strangers is an American drama television two-part miniseries. It tells the story of the Mayflower voyage and chronicles the Pilgrims' first year in America and the first Thanksgiving in 1621.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Saints_&_Strangers
and members of the Wampanoag tribe ate pumpkins and other squashes indigenous to New England—possibly even during the harvest festival—but the fledgling colony lacked the butter and wheat flour necessary for making pie crust.
There was no pumpkin pie—they didn't have a baking oven in Plimoth Plantation—but there might have been pumpkin served other ways, since both the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag ate pumpkin and other indigenous squashes.
There are only two surviving documents that reference the original Thanksgiving harvest meal. They describe a feast of freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, a bounty of cod and bass, and flint, a native variety of corn harvested by the Native Americans, which was eaten as corn bread and porridge.
Instead, it is believed the pilgrims feasted on things such as lobster, rabbit, chicken, fish, squash, beans, chestnuts, hickory nuts, onions, leeks, dried fruits, maple syrup and honey, radishes, cabbage, carrots, eggs, and goat cheese.
While turkey is the staple for Thanksgiving today, it may not have been on the menu during what is considered the First Thanksgiving. The First Thanksgiving meal eaten by pilgrims in November 1621 included lobster. They also ate fruits and vegetables brought by Native Americans, mussels, bass, clams, and oysters.
Massasoit sent some of his own men to hunt deer for the feast and for three days, the English and native men, women, and children ate together. The meal consisted of deer, corn, shellfish, and roasted meat, different from today's traditional Thanksgiving feast. They played ball games, sang, and danced.
Others pinpoint 1637 as the true origin of Thanksgiving, since the Massachusetts Bay Colony's governor, John Winthrop, declared a day to celebrate colonial soldiers who had just slaughtered hundreds of Pequot men, women, and children in what is now Mystic, Connecticut.
Thomas Jefferson was famously the only Founding Father and early president who refused to declare days of thanksgiving and fasting in the United States.
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists from England and the Native American Wampanoag people shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states.
The eels were probably a slimy side course at the 17th-century version of the Thanksgiving feast. We're not sure how the eels were prepared, but they were plentiful. Another possible side dish was seal. But the most likely centerpiece of the first Thanksgiving meals was deer.
Neither white potatoes nor sweet potatoes had yet been brought to North America from South and Central America, respectively. And although cranberries may have been available to Pilgrims, the first evidence of any English settler boiling cranberries and sugar into a sauce would not come for another 50 years.
Lobsters were considered the “poor man's chicken” and primarily used for fertilizer or fed to prisoners and slaves. Some indentures servants even revolted against being forced to eat the meat and the colony agreed that they would not be fed lobster meat more than three times a week.
So, to the question “What did the Pilgrims eat for Thanksgiving,” the answer is both surprising and expected. Turkey (probably), venison, seafood, and all of the vegetables that they had planted and harvested that year—onions, carrots, beans, spinach, lettuce, and other greens.
Get to the Meat of It: Meats Served at the First Thanksgiving. The main dish at the table of the first Thanksgiving was likely not one dish at all. While turkey may have been present (wild turkeys were common to the colonial area), no documentary evidence exists that turkey itself was served.
Pilgrims liked pumpkins. According to accounts, they used to hollow them out, fill them with milk and honey to make a custard, and then roast the orange orbs in hot ashes. But when it came to making pies, the Pilgrims were essentially out of luck.
1670s – By the 1670s, recipes for “pumpion pie” began to appear in English cookbooks. The pumpkin pie recipes started to sound more familiar, including spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Often the recipes added apples, raisins, or currants to the filling.
It turns out that the desserts on the big day were more likely sweetened by something else entirely: Dried grapes and raisins! According to If You Were at the First Thanksgiving, Anne Kamma's history book for kids: Perhaps you would have eaten cornmeal pudding sweetened with dried strawberries or grapes.
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These days, Thanksgiving is all about the food—from the classic turkey to delicious pumpkin pie, Americans look forward to overindulging on favorite foods that we associate with the harvest bounty of 17th-century Massachusetts. But did they have these beloved Thanksgiving foods at the first Thanksgiving in 1621? A deeper look reveals that our "traditional" Thanksgiving feast may not be as traditional as we think.
