Little did the Plimouth Pilgrims know that their harvest celebration with the Wampanoag Indians in 1621 would become a national holiday—a time for family reunions, a day set aside for eating too much, and a day of watching football. For the Pilgrims it was a three-day feast to celebrate their survival and to show appreciation of the Wampanoag tribe for helping them through the long winter of 1620.
Celebrating a successful harvest was common among American Indian tribes as well as Europeans. Since this monumental first Thanksgiving, communities have given thanks on many other occasions. Governors of the Colonies often declared a day of thanksgiving to celebrate harvest, battles, and good weather. Thanksgiving as we know it today results from the efforts of one woman, Sarah Josepha Hale, more widely known as the author of the classic nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” In an effort to reunite the country during the Civil War, Ms. Hale encouraged President Abraham Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. He designated the final Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving for the country in 1863; however, it did not become an official national holiday until 1941.
Without an official record of the first Thanksgiving menu, we can assume that it included roasted fowl—perhaps goose—fish, venison, root vegetables, squash, pumpkin, peas, beans, onions, as well as native nuts and fruits. Foods were prepared over an open fire, either roasted or boiled. Settlers would have used spices and locally grown herbs for seasonings. Although there is no mention of dessert in the Pilgrim’s thanksgiving menu, honey would have been available as a sweetener.
Seventeenth-century Europeans were familiar with fruits and meat pies. An English cookbook from the 1670s referenced the making of a “pumpion-pie.” The Wampanoag Indians introduced squash and pumpkin to the settlers. Without an oven, the Pilgrims would have had difficulty baking pies. Rather than putting mashed pumpkin in a pie with sugar and spices, early settlers learned to roast the whole pumpkin, filling the cavity with milk, spices, and honey, and baking it in the hot ashes.
For generations, the traditional Thanksgiving meal most of us are familiar with has included roasted turkey, autumn vegetables, fruits and nuts, and, of course, pies. Each area of the country has its own unique tradition of celebrating our national holiday. The turkey may be the symbol of Thanksgiving, but no feast is complete without pie. No matter how much you eat, at some point during the evening, there is room for pie.
Here are recipes for apple and pumpkin pies, most commonly enjoyed on Thanksgiving.