The American Thanksgiving menu is irredeemably boring. Roast turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and vegetable casseroles all strike the same note of soft, fatty, carby blandness, with cranberry sauce offering the meal’s only hope of zing. Abundance is the whole point of the holiday, so this tedious dinner results in mountains of monotone leftovers. I am embarrassed to admit this, but I look forward to it every year.
Plenty of people aren’t beholden to Thanksgiving cliches — families pick and choose the classics, zhuzh them up considerably, and serve other celebration foods that honestly taste much better — but my family hews pretty close. My maternal grandmother’s menu has been our standard since I was born, and has persisted long since her passing. She was born somewhere in the middle of 16 children, and cooked for her siblings during the Depression. When I was a little kid, I found my grandmother’s cooking unremarkable, but now I understand she was a master of workhorse cooking, that canon of 20th-century American dishes, some learned from the backs of cans, that keep lots of people fed. The only slightly unusual dish on her Thanksgiving table was cole slaw; her recipe involves shaving cabbage on a mandoline and adding in mayonnaise and one green pepper. My mother’s big menu innovation (or was it rebellion?) was to add a sweet potato casserole alongside regular mashed. It’s now many people’s favorite dish because even after 15 years, it counts as something new.
Back when I traveled home for Thanksgiving, I used to fantasize about the improvements I would make if I were in charge. Food magazine Thanksgiving spreads tempted me to a land of milk and honey and wet-brined turkey. I can’t remember the exact dishes I coveted, but I’m pretty sure they were similar to this radicchio-squash salad or hasselback potato gratin — I dreamed of complex flavors, sophisticated technique, and, honestly, some crunch.
But when I started hosting Thanksgiving with friends, I didn’t amp up the meals’ challenge rating, for me or my guests. I tinkered at the classic menu’s edges, making a green bean casserole from scratch, or serving some sourdough bread I’d made, but that was it. I didn’t want to disappoint everyone else, or seem pretentious; if I’d been cooking for myself, I was sure, I would have done something much more exciting. Then, in the nihilistic freedom of Thanksgiving 2020, my partner and I consciously chose to make my family’s traditional menu, including an entire turkey, for the two of us. Over Zoom, my mother taught me to make my grandmother’s cole slaw, which I happily ate on top of turkey and stuffing sandwiches for days. Much to my chagrin, even when I was cooking for myself, what I wanted was the formula. Our Thanksgiving plans since have been even simpler.
In my earlier longings for a “different Thanksgiving,” I see a genuine desire for newness, but also anxiety over what the meal said about me and my family. A more interesting family, a more sophisticated family, maybe even a more high-class family would enjoy radicchio. Instead, I was stuck with cabbage. If my grandmother was a master of the workhorse school, I was — and still am — a student of the food magazine school of cooking. Hell, I’m a contributor. For 364 days a year, I aspire to our industry’s layering of texture, acid, and a bit of fussy technique, even if too often the actual execution exhausts me and I get takeout instead.
My grandmother cooked three meals a day, every day, and made all the family’s birthday cakes from scratch. Instead of longing for her cooking to have been different, I realize now she could teach me a thing or two. I love that she was “stuck” with cabbage — and her mandoline technique finally showed me how to give the slaw a perfect texture. No wonder that once a year, the only thing that feels right is her simple, satisfying, staggeringly competent approach, and its (very) simple pleasures.
Heedayah Lockman is a Glasgow-based illustrator and designer.
FAQs
So while our Thanksgiving dinner table has a big ol' turkey plated in the center, the first Thanksgiving table was likely filled with ducks, geese, eels, lobster, and venison.
What was on the menu at the first Thanksgiving answer key? ›
So, to the question “What did the Pilgrims eat for Thanksgiving,” the answer is both surprising and expected. Turkey (probably), venison, seafood, and all of the vegetables that they had planted and harvested that year—onions, carrots, beans, spinach, lettuce, and other greens.
What foods does the chief say might have been on the Thanksgiving table in 1621? ›
The Wampanoag brought deer and there would have been lots of local seafood (mussels, lobster, bass) plus the fruits of the first pilgrim harvest, including pumpkin. No mashed potatoes, though. Potatoes had only been recently shipped back to Europe from South America.
What are 3 items that were most likely on the first thanksgiving menu but probably aren t on most menus today? ›
The first Thanksgiving banquet consisted of foods like venison, bean stew and hard biscuits. And while corn and pumpkin had their place on the table, they hardly resembled the cornbread stuffing and pumpkin pie we feast on today.
What was most likely eaten instead of turkey during the first Thanksgiving? ›
There are only two surviving documents that reference the original Thanksgiving harvest meal. They describe a feast of freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, a bounty of cod and bass, and flint, a native variety of corn harvested by the Native Americans, which was eaten as corn bread and porridge.
Did the Pilgrims actually eat turkey on the first Thanksgiving? ›
Did they eat turkey? We don't think so. The Wampanoag guests brought five deer with them, so venison was on the menu. The English brought fowl, "probably migrating waterfowl like ducks and geese, which were plentiful in autumn," says Beahrs.
What food was missing from the first Thanksgiving? ›
Green Bean Casserole
Much of the produce associated with Thanksgiving wasn't present at the Pilgrims' dinner table. That likely includes green beans, and green bean casserole certainly didn't make an appearance at the first Thanksgiving dinner.
What president refused to declare Thanksgiving a holiday? ›
Thomas Jefferson was famously the only Founding Father and early president who refused to declare days of thanksgiving and fasting in the United States.
Which president started Thanksgiving? ›
A few days later, President George Washington issued a proclamation naming Thursday, November 26, 1789 as a "Day of Publick Thanksgivin" - the first time Thanksgiving was celebrated under the new Constitution.
What was not eaten at the first Thanksgiving in 1621 that is commonly eaten today? ›
Nowadays, the Thanksgiving menu features wide array of items, with a handful of staples that you'll find on most tables: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, some sort of casserole, corn and pumpkin pie. But, back in 1621, it was a bit more limited. They definitely didn't have any whipped cream for the pie.
As was the custom in England, the Pilgrims celebrated their harvest with a festival. The 50 remaining colonists and roughly 90 Wampanoag tribesmen attended the "First Thanksgiving."
What are two interesting things about the first Thanksgiving feast in 1621? ›
It is believed by historians that only five women were present. Turkey wasn't on the menu at the first Thanksgiving. Venison, duck, goose, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish were likely served, alongside pumpkins and cranberries (but not pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce!).
Did pilgrims have potatoes? ›
Potatoes—white or sweet—would not have been featured on the 1621 table, and neither would sweet corn.
What did they serve at the first Thanksgiving instead of turkey? ›
So while our Thanksgiving dinner table has a big ol' turkey plated in the center, the first Thanksgiving table was likely filled with ducks, geese, eels, lobster, and venison. Maybe there was a turkey, but it was either missing or too dry for anyone to literally write home about it.
Did they eat lobster at the first Thanksgiving? ›
While turkey is the staple for Thanksgiving today, it may not have been on the menu during what is considered the First Thanksgiving. The First Thanksgiving meal eaten by pilgrims in November 1621 included lobster. They also ate fruits and vegetables brought by Native Americans, mussels, bass, clams, and oysters.
What did they have the first Thanksgiving? ›
Massasoit sent some of his own men to hunt deer for the feast and for three days, the English and native men, women, and children ate together. The meal consisted of deer, corn, shellfish, and roasted meat, different from today's traditional Thanksgiving feast. They played ball games, sang, and danced.
Why was turkey not served at the first Thanksgiving? ›
But there is no indication that turkey was served. For meat, the Wampanoag brought deer, and the Pilgrims provided wild “fowl.” Strictly speaking, that “fowl” could have been turkeys, which were native to the area, but historians think it was probably ducks or geese.
What is the most wanted alternative to turkey on Thanksgiving? ›
Cornish game hen, goose, duck, ham, beef, salmon, and mushroom recipes make worthy centerpieces for holiday meals.
When did they first have turkey at Thanksgiving? ›
As Thanksgiving Day rose in popularity during the 1800s, so too did the turkey. By 1857, turkey had become part of the traditional dinner in New England. The domestic turkey eaten now is very different from the wild turkey known to the Pilgrims, Hamilton, and Franklin.
