The First Menu Of Thanksgiving ---- Not What You Would Expect!

We have all seen the painitings the Pilgrims and the Native Americas sitting down to a spread much like the ones we sit down to on Thanksgiving day! A table laden with all the goodies we have come to associate with the traditional Thanksgiving meal: turkey, pumpkin pie, and a variety of other scrumptious offerings. But the first Thanksgiving came after a rocky start for the Pilgrims in their new land.... Supplies and survivors were hard to come by but thanks to God and their Native American neighbors the Pilgrims had survived and pulled together a celebration feast to celebrate the end of a year long drought and the return of plentiful crops and wildlife.

The Thanksgiving meal for the Pilgrims may have consisted of roasted venison(deer); stewed or boiled fowl, lobster, and fish. The sides would have been corn and/or wheat breads, stew of dried fruits and perhaps pumpkin, one or two boiled vegetables(such as peas or beans, squash) and only water to drink. So, you can cut out roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, popcorn, pumpkin or any other kind of pies, beer, and wine from the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving feast... Their celebration of Thanksgiving was simple fare .... fare that they would have found native to the land and seas around them.

Why no potatoes you ask? Why no pies? Why no alcoholic beverages?

There were no potatoes, oils, or butter for the mashed potatoes or baking. No ovens to roast a turkey in or bake a pies or cakes... all alcohol would have been prohibited due to the strong religious beliefs of the pilgrims....

But to me the worst hardship of all .........NO FOOTBALL!

From The History Channel

The Pilgrims' Menu

Foods That May Have Been on the Menu:

Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster

Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles

Meat: Venison, Seal

Grain: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn

Vegetables: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots

Fruit: Plums, Grapes

Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns

Herbs and Seasonings: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips

What Was Not on the Menu:

Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving meal, didn't appear on the pilgrims's first feast table:

Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought pigs with them from England.

Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common.

Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.

Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar at this time.

Pumpkin Pie: It's not a recipe that exists at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.

Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it's unknown how many they had left at this point or whether the hens were still laying.

Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it's possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.

Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation.