First thanksgiving likely a British meal

Thanksgiving is considered the quintessential American holiday, but the food prepared by the pilgrims in 1621 likely was more British than New World, according to a visiting professor of English literature at Duke University, Durham, N.C.

Despite the inclusion of uniquely American ingredients such as corn and cranberries, the food prepared for the three-day harvest celebration at Plymouth Colony, in what we now consider the first Thanksgiving, likely was derived more from British middle-class cookery than American influences, maintains Kelly A. Amienne. "That first meal is so interesting, so shrouded in mythology. A big part of it was the new ingredients," she says. "In some ways, it's very American but, in some ways, it's very British"

She notes that it is likely the pilgrims used familiar techniques when cooking food in their new home, especially if they had managed to bring ingredients such as spices and sugar from England. "While we don't have evidence of recipes, we can't think that these people landed and said, 'Okay, I'm going to completely change the way I eat.' Even if they didn't physically have these recipes, they had them in their head:'

Some of the ingredients included in the event would have been very familiar to the pilgrims. Recipes for venison, oysters, turkey, and fish all were included in the 1615 cookbook, The English Housewife. At that time, fish and meats in England would have been cooked with sugar and spices such as cloves and nutmeg. The book includes a recipe for turkey which, except for the inclusion of sugar and vinegar, has a gravy similar to the kind we make today.

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