As you sit down to eat Thanksgiving dinner this year, you may wonder where the holiday feast comes from.
Though dishes like turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie are known as classic Thanksgiving foods today, the first Thanksgiving was an entirely different meal. The holiday’s menu has continuously evolved since the first feast 400+ years ago, picking up new traditions with each passing century.
Wondering what the Pilgrims ate if not turkey and pie? Here’s everything to know about the nation’s first holiday feast.
What did they eat at the first Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving table with roasted turkey, sliced ham and side dishes
When the Pilgrims first celebrated Thanksgiving in 1621, their feast did not have turkey. Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow recorded that they ate some type of wild foul and deer brought by the Mashpee Wampanoag, who joined the feast after they heard musket shots and approached the Pilgrim settlement to defend themselves.
Turkey were native to the area, but many historians believe it was probably ducks or geese, according to Britannica.
“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others,” Winslow wrote. “And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”
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When did people start eating turkey on Thanksgiving?
Turkey became popular to eat on Thanksgiving during the 1800s. The bird was popularized as a Thanksgiving menu item due to its ability to feed a whole family and its inclusion in Sarah Josepha Hale’s campaign for Thanksgiving to be a national holiday.
Pumpkin pie, the traditional Thanksgiving dessert, dates back to the early 1700s, and cranberry sauce was first invented in 1912.
Joyce Orlando of the USA Today Network contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Thanksgiving History: What did they eat at the first Thanksgiving?
