the first thanksgiving food
the first thanksgiving food!
Of all the time-honored holidays, Thanksgiving seems to demand the most "set" of food on the table. I and my wife have been cooking for all of our holidays and one thing we've determined, Thanksgiving is pretty much what it always has been.
We eat turkey to commemorate a special customary holiday that was passed down from the early American settlers who arrived from England, where turkey was the best choice to be eaten for the festivities. Since then, turkeys have been bought during spring and grown up big for the Thanksgiving celebration. While we continue serving big roasted turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, many families have already been incorporating other recipes in the menu provided turkey is the main ingredient.
the first thanksgiving food!
Stuffed cornbread, apples or cranberries are also seen on our tables. Why is Thanksgiving unthinkable without cranberries? One story says that the settlers referred the ruby berries as "craneberries" because the bud and stem resembled the neck and head of a crane. It's a wild fruit that grows on long-running vines in sandy bogs and marshes that early Americans mix with deer meat to make a survival food. We Americans have continued this berry tradition that we include them when we serve turkey for a holiday meal.
We also go for a pumpkin pie, despite the notion that it didn't make an appearance at the First Thanksgiving. Since folks agree that it might have shown up in the early Thanksgiving celebrations and were probably served after being baked in a Dutch oven over the coals, it became a popular dish in the 17th-century American tables.
the first thanksgiving food!
According to some food historians, the menu of the first Thanksgiving was very different that it includes seafood, wild fowl, deer meat, grain, vegetables, fruit, nuts, herbs and seasonings. There were even surprising foods like lobster, eel, venison and seal. The Native Americans may have used olive oil, leeks, liverwort and dried currants.
If we come to think of it, there actually are many new foods already prepared in today's Thanksgiving that were not available on the first traditional menu. Examples of these foods are sweet concoction made with mashed potatoes, pineapple and melted marshmallows, cranberry jelly and drinks, creamed onions, green bean and fried onion casseroles and many more.
While the idea of giving thanks and celebrating the harvest is already a combination of both olden and modern ways, preparation of food using turkey during special occasions like Thanksgiving is important for Americans as part of their culture, and by no means celebrated as an annual national holiday.
