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Traditional Foods of the First Thanksiving
If your genealogy traces back to the early colonists of New England, they were not eating pumpkin pie and potatoes! Here are the authentic dishes, to help you create your own Thanksgiving traditions.
First, to be clear, the autumn celebration held after the first harvest in 1621 was NOT a Thanksgiving. To the Puritans, a Thanksgiving was a specific event held to praise God. This dinner they had was simply a celebration that the harvest had gone reasonably well.
Edward Winslow wrote this letter on December 11, 1621, talking about their feast:
"Our Corne did proue well, & God be praysed, we had a good increase of Indian Corne, and our Barly indifferent good, but our Pease not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sowne, they came vp very well, and blossomed, but the Sunne parched them in the blossome; our harvest being gotten in, our Governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more speciall manner reioyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst vs, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some nintie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed fiue Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed upon our Governour, and upon the Captaine, and others. And although it be not alwayes so plentifull, as it was at this time with vs, yet by the goodneses of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."
This letter was rediscovered in 1850, and it stirred up popular imagination about the "Thanksgiving Day". Until then, there were no formal celebrations of Thanksgiving in the US, but a few decades after this letter was discovered, the holiday was nation-wide and was being taught to schoolkids as a part of US history.
Most feel now that the "fowle" they brought in were duck and geese, so that the main meats of the feast were venison, goose and duck. What they called "corne" is actually wheat to us, and "Indian Corn" is our yellow corn. Note that corn at the time was only good for cornmeal, and not for eating on the cob.
The pilgrims had fish as well, including lobster, clams and oysters. There was barley and some peas, beans and squash. They did have pumpkins but did NOT cook pies - they made a pumpkin stew. In addition there were tons of nuts and berries around that they enjoyed.
There weren't any potatoes, sweet potatoes or yams. There wasn't sugar for desserts, nor sugar for cranberry sauce. There weren't any pigs for ham, nor popcorn.
So create a traditional Thanksgiving menu for your family, and see what it was like for your ancestors to celebrate the end of a successful year!
Recording your Thanksgiving Day Family Traditions
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