First Thanksgiving Traditions Essay
For most people, enjoying turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin for Thanksgiving are as traditional and American as, well, apple pie. But how did the Pilgrims really celebrate on what we now regard as the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621? Is our celebration and traditional menu truly akin to that enjoyed by the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag Indian guests? The only written record of the famous meal tells us that the harvest celebration lasted three days and included deer and wildfowl. Beyond that, culinary historians such as Kathleen Curtin at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts rely on period cookbooks and journals, Wampanoag oral histories, paintings from the time, and archaeological evidence. Sweet
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If you look into it deep enough you will find that the Pilgrims had an array of fruits and vegetables to make a meal with that was indigenous to the land and what the Wampanoag Indians shared with them. It was right at the harvest so there would be more to come later in the year.
Instead, the table was loaded with native fruits like plums, melons, grapes, and cranberries, plus local vegetables such as leeks, wild onions, beans, Jerusalem artichokes, and squash. (English crops such as turnips, cabbage, parsnips, onions, carrots, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme might have also been on hand.) And for the starring dishes, there were undoubtedly native birds and game as well as the Wampanoag gift of five deer. Fish and shellfish were also likely on the groaning board.
As far as drinks are concerned they more than likely drank water. Since they did grow Barley which was not harvested yet, they probably made beer of some sort.
Wine, considered a finer beverage than beer, may have been brought across by some travelers on the Mayflower. It was frequently mentioned in later accounts of supplies to the colonies. By the mid-1600s, cider would become the main beverage of New Englanders, but in 1621 Plymouth, there were not any apples
If you look into it deep enough you will find that the Pilgrims had an array of fruits and vegetables to make a meal with that was indigenous to the land and what the Wampanoag Indians shared with them. It was right at the harvest so there would be more to come later in the year.
Instead, the table was loaded with native fruits like plums, melons, grapes, and cranberries, plus local vegetables such as leeks, wild onions, beans, Jerusalem artichokes, and squash. (English crops such as turnips, cabbage, parsnips, onions, carrots, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme might have also been on hand.) And for the starring dishes, there were undoubtedly native birds and game as well as the Wampanoag gift of five deer. Fish and shellfish were also likely on the groaning board.
As far as drinks are concerned they more than likely drank water. Since they did grow Barley which was not harvested yet, they probably made beer of some sort.
Wine, considered a finer beverage than beer, may have been brought across by some travelers on the Mayflower. It was frequently mentioned in later accounts of supplies to the colonies. By the mid-1600s, cider would become the main beverage of New Englanders, but in 1621 Plymouth, there were not any apples