Why We Eat What We Do at Thanksgiving

Food PR expert Mary Barber joins Tim to tell the origin stories behind our Thanksgiving foods, from regional favorites, to some items that trace their “roots” back to that first Thanksgiving in 1621. Listen to the story behind your Thanksgiving table.

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Next Thursday America will celebrate Thanksgiving marking the official start of the Holiday season. A day of parades, football, food, family…and more food.

History tells us that the first Thanksgiving happened in October or November of 1621. That was when a group of new arrivals to the continent called the Pilgrims hosted an autumn harvest celebration where they hosted the Wampanoag Indians on Plymouth Plantation.

Since then, in various ways, Americans have remembered the event with celebrations of their own.

At the center of those celebrations has been the food.

Today, when we think of Thanksgiving in America, we think of family and friends gathering together around a table where the centerpiece is a turkey with stuffing. Maybe mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries or cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, just to name a few of the dishes.

So, how did those items and others find their way onto millions of American tables every Thanksgiving?

We pondered this question and could think of no better person to ask than Mary Deming Barber. You may remember her from Episode 2 where we talked about the origin story behind the American breakfast of bacon and eggs.

This time, we wanted to get Mary’s thoughts on America’s Thanksgiving menu.
The First Thanksgiving
Edward Winslow, one of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower, has said that four men went hunting and returned with a good amount of “fowl.” Given the customs of the time, that fowl could have included wild turkeys, duck, and geese.

Winslow mentions venison as well. Turkey was likely not the centerpiece of the meal. According to historians, both the English and the Wampanoag would stuff birds and fish with herbs, onions or in the case of the English, oats. Not bread.

It may have been the Wampanoag who introduced cranberries, which were native to the area. According to records, the first mention of consumption of a “berry with sugar for a sauce to eat with meat” was 50 years later, sometime around 1671.

Potatoes were generally not included in the English diet or the American Indian diet to this point.

Let’s go back to Winslow’s account:
He said that they had access to lobsters and eels and mussels. He said the American Indians often provided oysters, along with herbs, grapes, strawberries, gooseberries, and plums.
Agricultural experts say that around that time, they hay have had cultivated beans, dried berries, cranberries, pumpkins, grapes and nuts. Turnips, carrots, corn, thanks to the American Indians, which was new to the English.

Pumpkin may have been included, but probably not pie. Historians speculate that some of the items we now associate with Thanksgiving really didn’t arrive until 200 years alter during the Victorian era.

At that same time, a woman emerged who probably had more to do with the Thanksgiving traditions we know today than anyone else. We could probably do an entire podcast episode just about her and her many accomplishments beyond Thanksgiving.

Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of a women’s magazine called Godey’s Lady’s Book, was a trendsetter for her time. She was a leading voice in establishing Thanksgiving as an annual event.

She is the one who petitioned 13 presidents her idea for an annual Thanksgiving Holiday. President Lincoln took her up on it as a way to unite the country during the Civil War.

As part of her campaign, Hale printed Thanksgiving recipes and menus in her magazine. She also published about 12 cookbooks. Much of what we think of when we think of Thanksgiving we owe to Sarah Josepha Hale.
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