I've never been, but after preparing for the Studio 5 segment I want to!
Growing up in Canada, we would celebrate Thanksgiving, but in October. I didn't know much about the roots of this beloved holiday, so I was excited to learn. Wow, what an amazing story of courage, perseverance and friendship.
To leave everything you hold dear, to start a new life in a land you are completely unfamiliar with, to lose half of your original party, to suffer sickness, homesickness, to live on the Mayflower that first winter...all of it must have been incredibly difficult and I'm sure made their first harvest all the more sweet.
Both the English and the Native Americans (Wampanoag tribe) celebrated the harvest. I love that, for a time, two different cultures could come together, put aside fear and share their resources and knowledge.
I've included a list of what was likely served at this 3 day feast, in case you want to host your own "eat like a pilgrim" dinner next year. Or you could include just one part of the meal, add it to your traditional Thanksgiving menu and use it as a launching pad to talk about the original feast.
We only know 2 things for sure about that first Thanksgiving dinner. Venison & wild fowl. Everything else is a guess, but an educated guess. We know what was indigenous to that area and what the Wampanoags were cultivating.
Based on that, I created a Corn bread stuffed Acorn squash! I took a few liberties, but we do know that Acorn squash and Pumpkin were aplenty, in fact, the Pilgrims called Acorn squash "Ground apples". Apples were something they sorely missed and both Pumpkin and Acorn squash, once pureed reminded them of Apple Butter.
We also know that there were berries & nuts growing in that area. The Wampanoag would dry berries and cranberries, although they called them Ibimi (which means sour or bitter). They also cultivated important crops of Corn, beans and Squash.
The Pilgrims brought seed with them, and were able to grow vegetables and herbs. And they most certainly hunted and used every part of the animal, including making sausage...so there you go. Everything we need to make a real show stopping Thanksgiving side dish!
Corn bread Stuffed Acorn Squash
Recipe will fill approx. 2-3 Acorn squash depending
on how large they are. One half would
make a great meal on its own, but as a side dish, I would cut squash into
halves or quarters. You can also double
the recipe for larger crowds.
Ingredients:
2-3 Acorn squash
one 8x8 pan (Approx 6 cups) of homemade cornbread
(or you can use a mix, just don't buy the corn bread stuffing in a
box. I tried it, not good.)
1/2 cup dried cranberries (Craisens)
1/4 apple cider vinegar
3/4 lb. Hot Italian sausage (or mild if you prefer)
1 1/4 cup chopped onions
3/4 cup sliced celery
2/3 cup chopped roasted Pecans
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
1 Tbsp Fresh Thyme leaves
1 Tbsp Fresh Sage Leaves, chopped coarsely
1 Tbsp Fresh Rosemary, chopped finely
2 Tsp Kosher Salt
1 Tsp Freshly ground pepper
1 Egg
1 cup chicken broth (you may not use all of this)
Directions:
At least one day before, cut cornbread into
3/4" squares (these will get smaller by the time they dry and are
assembled). Spread out and let dry
thoroughly. You can speed up this
process by toasting them in the oven.
Cut Acorns in half.
You may need a cleaver for this, as they are hard. Trim
off outside (bottom) part with a knife until they sit evenly. Rub cut part and inside with olive oil. Generously salt & Pepper. and cook in a 400 oven for 30 minutes. They will be partly cooked at this point. A fork should insert fairly easily at this point.
While squash is cooking, cook stuffing.
Place Craisens in a small bowl and pour the vinegar
over them to macerate. This will plump
them up and add a little zing.
Cook Sausage until brown, remove and set aside.
Add onions & celery to the pan and cook for 5
minutes until soft.
Depending on how much fan rendered from the sausage
add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the butter.
Add Pecans & Herbs and seasoning. Cook another 5 minutes.
Drain off vinegar from Craisens and add to mixture.
Meanwhile, beat one egg and add to a corn bread
cubes in a large bowl. Mix.
Add cooked ingredients and mix.
Add chicken broth a little at a time, until the
corn bread has soaked in the moisture, but don't let it get mushy. Do not over mix, just toss lightly. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary (ei:
more salt).
Use an ice cream scooper and scoop stuffing into
center of cooked acorn squash until quite full.
Place back in oven and cook for another 30 minutes
until top of stuffing is golden brown and squash is fork tender.
Oh my goodness, such a perfect balance of sweet & savory! real comfort food!
First Thanksgiving Menu
Roast Turkey
Roast Beef
Steamed
Mussels or Lobster
Corn bread
Sallet (Salad) of
Herbs & Cucumbers
Roasted Root
Vegetables
Stuffed
Acorn Squash
Berry Cobbler
Indian Corn
Pudding
Pumpkin
custard
Historical
Readings
For fun, take turns reading historical readings
during dinner (see notes in red).
During this 1600s, good food consisted of meat,
bread & beer. Hard labor needed
carbs & protein and during this time, even children drank beer, as often
water was not suitable to drink. (Even
though the Pilgrims had no apples, a spiced apple cider is a good substitution
for our meal.)
As a result, meat, fowl & seafood was center
stage on the first Thanksgiving table.
In preparation for the 3 day feast, the men had gone hunting for
wildfowl. The Wampanoags (the native
people) brought venison. It's likely
that they had seafood as well, as mussels, clams, lobster and fish were abundant
in this area.
"If
you will boil chickens, young turkeys, peahens, or any house fowl daintily, you
shall, after you have trimmed them, drawn them, trussed them, and washed them,
fill their bellies as full of parsley as they can hold; then boil them with
salt and water only till they be enough: then take a dish and put into it
verjuice [the juice of sour crab-apples] and butter, and salt, and when the
butter is melted, take the parsley out of the chicken's bellies, and mince it
very small, and put it to the verjuice and butter, and stir it well together;
then lay in the chickens, and trim the dish with sippets [fried or toasted
slices of bread], and so serve it forth."
The English Housewife 1615
Gravy?
Absolutely! Every part of the
animal would have been used, including the drippings! Here's an original transcript from 1615.
"Take
fair water, and set it over the fire, then slice good store of onions and put
into it, and also pepper and salt, and good store of the gravy that comes from
the turkey, and boil them very well together: then put to it a few fine crumbs
of grated bread to thicken it; a very little sugar and some vinegar, and so
serve it up with the turkey: or otherwise, take grated white bread and boil it
in white wine till it be thick as a galantine [a sauce made from blood], and in
the boiling put in good store of sugar and cinnamon, and then with a little
turnsole [a plant used to as red food coloring] make it of a high murrey color,
and so serve it in saucers with the turkey in the manner of a galantine."
Cute poems about Pumpkin & Corn Pudding
Instead of pottage and puddings and custards and pies
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies;
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it was not for pumpkins we should be undone!
And
all my bones were made of Indian corn.
Delicious grain! Whatever form it take.
To toast or boil, to smother or to bake,
In every dish ’tis welcome still to me,
but most, my Hasty Pudding, most in thee.
Delicious grain! Whatever form it take.
To toast or boil, to smother or to bake,
In every dish ’tis welcome still to me,
but most, my Hasty Pudding, most in thee.
John
Josselyn, in hisNew England Rarities Discovered (London, 1672) also discusses
the use of hominey or corn in puddings:
It
is light of digestion, and the English make a kind of Loblolly of it to eat
with Milk, which they call Sampe; they beat it in a Morter, and sift the flower
[flour] out of it; the remainder they call Hominey, which they put into a Pot
of two or three Gallons, with Water, and boyl it upon a gently Fire till it be
like a Hasty Puden; thye put of this into Milk and so eat it.
In
1662, John Winthrop, Jr., son of John Wilthrop (1588-1649), first governor of
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote the following about the pudding in his
letter to the royal Society in London.
. . . this is to be boyled or Stued with a
gentle fire, till it be tender, of a fitt consistence, as of Rice so boyled,
into which Milke, or butter be put either with Sugar or without it, it is a
food very pleasant. . . but it must be observed that it be very well boyled,
the longer the better, some will let it be stuing the whole day: after it is
Cold it groweth thicker, and is commonly Eaten by mixing a good Quantity of
Milke amongst it. . .
