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Once Upon A Time....and I use this opening in the classic sense well understood by my grandchildren to be that undefined blob of years encompassing my youth...children were taught that the first Thanksgiving was in most respects identical to the holiday as it’s observed now. While to the best of my knowlege this wasn’t directly stated, it was certainly implied, and many of us had a vague notion that the largely unspoken “hardships” the residents of Plymouth Colony endured consisted mainly of having to go to church in the middle of the week and not being able to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade on television. While there seems to be a bit more factual content these days, it seems to me the current educational slant remains basically the same, and Thanksgiving is still delivered as myth.
The reality is quite different, however, and to my mind infinitely more interesting. While we have very few hard facts about the particulars of this 1621 festival...for it would by no means have qualified as a Thanksgiving by the participants...we know it couldn’t have been very much like the modern celebration. Nor is there any actual continuity, because the event was singular in Plymouth Colony and there are no records of any commemorative repetitions, annual or otherwise. Thanksgiving traditions can’t rightly be said to have begun before the nineteenth century, and it was only in the first part of the twentieth that it was directly associated with the Pilgrims.
Thanksgiving, to the settlers at Plymouth, would have been a strictly religious observation involving fasts and prayer. Indeed, there were often several Thanksgivings held throughout the year, none of which were fixed to a particular day or single event. They were simply held whenever it appeared to be necessary, for whatever reason was at hand and certainly would not have included “outsiders” or worldly diversions. The first documented Thanksgiving in Plymouth Colony occured in late July of 1623, and was declared after a much needed rain...
“...Which did so apparently revive and quicken the decayed corn and other fruits, as was wonderful to see, and made the Indians astonished to behold. And afterwards the Lord sent to them such seasonable showers, with interchange of fair warm weather as, through His blessing, caused a fruitful and liberal harvest, to their no small comfort and rejoicing. For which mercy, in time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving." ( Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford.)
The 1621 event is much more likely to have been along the lines of a harvest celebration to which Massasoit, saychem of the colonists’ more powerful neighbors the Wampanoags, and his family were invited (very possibly as a placatory measure/political maneuver by the decimated and uneasy ranks of the colonists.)
He brought the extended family, and they stayed for three days.
It is here that we first begin to have an indication of what the original meal...or more accurately, meals...probably consisted. Ninety unexpected houseguests showed up, and this is pretty much beyond the extenuating capacity of a little water in the soup. According to the account written by Edward Winslow, (the only other besides Bradford’s, incidentally) after the colonists had harvested their crops and sent four men on a large scale fowling expedition, the Wampanoags were obliged to kill five deer to supplement the fare. It’s entirely possible they also added other foodstuffs from their own supplies, as that would have been courteous and consistent with the culture.
Winslow also specifically mentions corn, (in this context, probably wheat), and Indian corn, although he expresses a disapointment in the crop of peas. Bradford lists bass, cod, “other fish of which they took good store” and wild turkeys. From other accounts and records of daily life in Plymouth, we also know that lobster, rabbit, chicken, squashes, beans, chestnuts, hickory nuts, onions, leeks, dried fruits, maple syrup and honey, radishes, cabbage, carrots, eggs, and possibly goat cheese were available, although not necessarily all used in the same meal. There were no potatoes, as these hadn’t yet been cultivated in New England, and butter and oils were quite scarce. The corn was most likely in the form of meal rather than on the cob, and although a pumpkin pudding or stew may have been prepared, it would not have been put into a crust.
Only four adult married women survived the first year at Plymouth, and it would have been they who did most of the food preparation, albeit with the help of the unmarried girls and the children. It’s not likely there were cookbooks to turn to, and indeed the notion of cookbooks would have been unusual during that era even had they been available to the ladies of Plymouth. Cooking was an experiential craft, and since the women had been born and raised in England, they would probably have employed contemporary English cookery adapted to the native foods. Roasting was the preferred method of preparing meats and poultry, but roasting takes on a somewhat complicated aspect when one has no ovens and has to rely on a spit over a fire. Somebody has to stand around turning the spit for hours on end. A likely scenerio would be roasted venison and boiled fish and fowl. This would, of course, include the turkey. Recalling that a party of hunters had gone after the birds and brought back an unusual number of them, it’s reasonable to assume more than one diner either swallowed or broke a molar on overlooked birdshot. I don’t know about you, but the thought of boiled turkey stuffed with lead gives me more than a few gustatory goosebumps.
The story of popcorn at the feast is a fable. Indian corn doesn’t pop very well, and this is what the colonists grew. It may have been prepared as hominy or (as mentioned above) ground into meal for bread and thickener. There would have been no cranberry sauce, for while the colonists had cranberries, they had no sugar beyond honey and maple syrup. While it’s possible to sweeten cranberries with honey or syrup, it must be recalled that production and storage of these items is labor intensive, and it doesn’t seem reasonable to suppose they would have used them in the quantities necessary to make cranberries palatable for a crowd of about 140 people.
So, the prototype Thanksgiving meal would have probably been something along the lines of roast venison, stewed or boiled fowl, lobster and/or fish, breads (both corn and wheat), stewed dried fruits, maybe one or two boiled vegetables, and water. No mashed potatoes. No pumpkin pie. No whipped cream. No cranberry sauce. No beer. No football.
Bummer.
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