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Would you like to celebrate Thanksgiving the way the Pilgrims did? Then be ready for a departure from your traditional turkey, dressing, gravy, potatoes, and pie menu! The Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians didn’t have a single meal for Thanksgiving in 1621. The harvest celebration was three days long, and included games, competitions, and storytelling as well as meals for around 150 people.
You may be surprised to learn that some of the foods that are traditional Thanksgiving fare were not available for the Pilgrim’s celebration. They may have had cranberries, but they didn’t have sugar to make sauce. Sweet potatoes or yams were not common to the area, much less white potatoes. Pumpkin pie recipes did not exist at the time, and there were no proper ovens to bake pastries, anyway. Any milk or cheese had to have come from goats, as the Pilgrims did not bring cows with them from England.
Authentic Thanksgiving foods, after the jump.
The Pilgrims had vegetables, but not in the abundance we think of when we see harvest displays of pumpkins and cornucopia. They used Indian corn, which would be dried by November, so no corn on the cob or popcorn. The dried corn could be made into meal for cornbread or added to stews. Sweet and savory dishes were served together, so sweet Indian corn pudding would accompany meals. They had pumpkins, squash, peas, onions, beans, and carrots which would be stewed. But the Pilgrims were better hunters than farmers.
The feasts were heavy on meat, compared to today’s diets. A contemporary account tells of a hunt that provided a week’s worth of fowl for the celebration, which would include turkeys, ducks, swans, partridges, and other wild birds. The Indians killed and presented the company with five deer. Sure, their meals had lots of fat and protein, but pioneers performed physical labor from sunup til sundown. Besides, they had an expected lifespan of… well, they were lucky to survive to adulthood. No need to worry about clogged arteries when you might freeze to death first.
Seafood was most certainly on the menu, including lobster, crabs, fish, eel, and even seal meat. There were also dried cranberries, loganberries, bluberries, cherries, grapes, and plums.
The colonists’ company only had four married women and five adolescent girls after the first devastating winter. When trying to reconstruct the Thanksgiving feast, you have to consider what those few cooks were able to accomplish for 150 hungry celebrants. The venison was probably roasted over fires, which would be a manly task as it is today. The fowl were more likely stewed in cauldrons, along with dried vegetables. Some fruits, nuts, and sweets in season could be served raw, saving time and labor.
What to drink with an authentic Thanksgiving meal? Beer, of course. The Puritans were not opposed to alcohol, although they preached against overindulgence. They set up a brewhouse shortly after arriving in the New World. They learned to make beer from Indian corn and other available ingredients. The advantage of beer is that it is less likely than water to become contaminated with disease.
Find some recipes for traditional Thanksgiving dishes through the years at Pilgrim Hall Museum.
Great post, Miss C. I want venison and lobster this year!
posted by Johnny Cat on 11-11-2007 at 2:40 pm
If sugar was not available, how did they make sweet indian corn pudding?
posted by otj on 11-11-2007 at 4:12 pm
If you’re ever in the area around Plymouth, Mass, be sure to check it out. The recreation of Plymouth Plantation (complete with period-actors, recreation of the Mayflower, and “Plymouth Rock”) is fantastic, especially for older grade school children. Still one of my favorite school field trip memories!
posted by Amy on 11-11-2007 at 4:12 pm
I remember reading the letter from a prisoner in a Boston jail during colonial times, complaining about being forced to eat lobster!
posted by Laurie D. T. Mann on 11-11-2007 at 5:38 pm
otj, I don’t know for sure, but the Pilgrims had maple syrup, so maybe they used maple sugar. Or honey, possibly.
posted by Miss Cellania on 11-11-2007 at 8:02 pm
What gorgeous pictures..the colors are rich and just what we expect from our Fall/Thanksgiving holiday…sounds like even tho there was no pumpkin pie and Cool Whip(tm), they ate pretty darn well…and i bet it tasted pretty darn good, seeing they survived a crazy-bad winter…
posted by donner on 11-11-2007 at 11:28 pm
Great post… there is so much we are still learning about the first Thanksgiving. The recently published book “A Cultural History of the Native Peoples of Southern New England” discusses the first Thanksgiving, as well as having some first person accounts of the time when the Native Americans were first met by the Pilgrims. Very interesting, not at all what people understand when they think of Thanksgiving today.
posted by Peter on 11-12-2007 at 7:24 am
Beautiful! I love history!
posted by Shama Hyder on 11-12-2007 at 11:37 am
Please don’t lend any credence to this crazy pilgrim myth. The first Thanksgiving was in Berkeley, VA 1619.
posted by DW on 11-12-2007 at 3:57 pm
can’t corn just be sweet on it’s own too?
i mean, corn syrup (although, i know they didn’t have that…) is from corn.
and most starches become sweet if you break them down enough.
oh and i feel really dopey. i just got the ‘miss cellania’ thing. i’ve been reading for months. duh.
posted by amywithlemon on 11-14-2007 at 9:44 am
amywithlemon, you are far from the first! People who have known me by that name for years still have their lightbulb moments.
posted by Miss Cellania on 11-14-2007 at 10:03 am
Actually, the first Thanksgiving was at Berkley Plantation in Virginia…… as with the “Miss Whatever” being born in Virginia we are all a Miss!
posted by Miss Shirley on 11-14-2007 at 5:22 pm
DW and Miss Shirley, please cite your sources for this information. Thank you.
posted by Sperry on 11-15-2007 at 12:11 pm
No honey…no honeybees in America at that time!
posted by Meredith on 11-20-2007 at 4:30 pm
Click on my name to see info about the real first Thanksgiving. It was in Berkley Planation, Virginia.
posted by Alice on 11-24-2008 at 12:23 pm
Oh God, I just got the name thing too.
posted by ovaryacting on 11-25-2008 at 11:43 am