Foods Served at the first Thanksgiving
When you think of the first Thanksgiving, do you see a Pilgrim woman dressed in gray, with a starched white cap, bending over a picnic table, holding a pumpkin pie? Can you picture Massasoit, in body paint and headdress, lifting a big spoonful of mashed potatoes, dripping with gravy? Probably not, and for good reason. Though the meaning behind our iconic holiday has remained essentially the same, some of our classic cuisine may have changed a bit over the last 400 years.
As much as we enjoy cranberry sauce and stuffing in the twenty-first century, historians know these traditional dishes were not part of the original Thanksgiving meal. The celebration we think of as the first Thanksgiving was actually a harvest feast. For the settlers of 1621, Thanksgiving was a holy day, filled with prayer and fasting. It was common to celebrate Thanksgiving anytime it was appropriate; f or example, in gratitude for a stretch of temperate weather or a highly successful hunting trip. The harvest feast was an event that took place just once, and was never repeated, though it has become the model for our contemporary holiday banquet.
This centuries old celebration was a three-day affair, attended by 50 pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians. As colony leader Edward Winslow wrote to a friend in England on December 11, 1621, the members of the colony rejoiced with the Natives “after we had gathered the fruit of our labors . . . . And although it be not always so plentiful as it was this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”
In order to provide a feast of plenty, the Pilgrims had to rely on the resources of their new land. Four men were sent hunting for fowl, which likely would have included geese, ducks and swans, in addition to wild turkey. Massasoit’s men hunted as well, contributing five deer to the dinner. Since the Pilgrim diet was particularly laden with meats, they also set out to procure wild rabbit and a variety of seafood from the Atlantic coast. Bass and cod would have been consumed, either fresh or dried. Clams, eel, lobster and mussels were readily available, and oysters could be obtained from the Native Indians. Even seal meat may have been brought to the table.
To complement the assortment of game and seafood, the Pilgrims and Indians probably ate a simple bread or corn pudding, made from cornmeal. The dried, ground corn was also used to thicken stew. Dried beans, corn, squash and turnips would have been cooked together to create a savory hotpot. Though vegetables did not make up a large part of the settlers’ diet, for the Thanksgiving meal, they likely dined on lettuce, carrots, spinach, parsnips, radishes, onions, and roasted pumpkin, in addition to their vegetable stew. The Natives grew Jerusalem artichokes, which could have been part of the food provided. Native Indians prepared the tubers of the artichoke by peeling and boiling them or simply drying them. Potatoes and sweet potatoes, likely found on Thanksgiving tables today, had not been popularized as a staple of the English or Wampanoag diet and were not eaten at the harvest celebration.
With the addition of spices such as cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt and pepper, the Pilgrims would have been able to create dishes that were flavorful and aromatic. However, they would have used their spices a bit more haphazardly than Americans do now. They did not have measuring utensils, so cooks merely tossed in a reasonable amount. Pilgrim women also had the benefit of dried fruit and nuts to add flavor and texture to foods. Although fresh cranberries were abundant, cranberry sauce would not have been part of the first harvest feast. However, it’s likely that the berry was incorporated into another dish.
The Pilgrims brought sugar with them, but had severely depleted their supply by autumn. Neither did they have ovens to bake any form of dessert in, so fruit was utilized as a sweet, after dinner treat. Edward Winslow’s letter recounts, “ . . . here are grapes, white and red, and very sweet and strong also. Strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, etc . Plums of three sorts, with black and red, being almost as good as a damson.” It seems likely fruit was appreciated and amply provided to those dining at the harvest celebration.
The Pilgrims were known to enjoy drinking beer and brought barley with them on the Mayflower, in order to supply themselves with the staple. Six acres had been devoted to the barley crop. Because it was the standard beverage of the times, consumed at all three meals, it was surely partaken of at the Thanksgiving repast.
When the Pilgrims finally finished preparations for the extended banquet, they would have laid everything out on tables outside, since they had not built a building large enough to hold 90 people at one time. All different types of food would have been put on the tables at once, with the best food being placed near those of higher social status. In the seventeenth century, people ate what was closest to them, rather than sampling a bit of everything, as Americans do at Thanksgiving today. Consuming the food was done with spoons, knives and hands. Everyone was provided with a large napkin made of cloth, which was used to pick up hot foods and also to wipe fingers and mouths.
So our cooking and table etiquette have evolved, but the hearty appetites American citizens bring to the Thanksgiving table haven’t changed. We gather with gusto to eat, give thanks and revel in being together. Whether the congenial bonding is done over deep fried turkey or roasted swan, the one constant is an abiding trust that the bounty of our beautiful land will sustain us for generations to come.
