Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, or What the Pilgrims Really Ate at Thanksgiving

Millions of American families will sit down to dine together in this month's annual Thanksgiving Day celebration. Menus will vary a bit but most will feature turkey along with stuffing, gravy, squash, cranberries, and other vegetables. Pumpkin pie has always been popular with my family as well. Did you ever wonder what the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag Indian guests ate during their first Thanksgiving in 1621?

Unfortunately, we cannot be certain. The Pilgrims did not print menus for their guests. After all, none of their Indian guests could read, nor could very many of the Pilgrims themselves. Most were illiterate. Luckily, several colonists who were literate wrote personal accounts of the 1621 feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and those accounts have survived. These accounts give a few hints as to the menu.

While 103 people landed at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620, about half of them died during the first winter. Those who survived managed to plant crops the following spring and reaped a good harvest during the summer and fall. The first Thanksgiving at Plimoth Colony was held to celebrate that harvest.

William Bradford wrote,

“They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to the proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports."

Edward Winslow wrote,

“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 labor. 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 among 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 we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. 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."

The Thanksgiving feast lasted three whole days, providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Indians. While we do not know the exact menu, historians have studied the food supply of the time and have been able to guess the items that likely appeared on the menu those three days.

The Pilgrims and the Indians obviously dined on venison. Winslow wrote, "They went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation." Turkey also was on the menu. As Winslow stated, "They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week." The word "fowl" probably included turkeys although there may have been ducks, geese, swans, and other birds as well.

The turkeys probably were a bit skinnier than today's Butterball turkeys, and probably had a stronger flavor as well. I live about 70 miles from Plymouth and can tell you that today's descendants of the wild turkeys that escaped the Pilgrims certainly look big and fat. They are also plentiful in this area. We can guess that the same was true in 1621.

The turkeys and most other meat dishes undoubtedly were roasted on a spit over an open fire. Someone must have been assigned to turn the spit frequently to make sure the food was not burnt on one side. Gravy was unknown.

The other foods at the table probably included fish, clams, berries, apples, dried fruit, pumpkin, squash, turnips, peas, onions, beans and other vegetables.

Some accounts state that lobster was on the menu, although I have my doubts. It seems unlikely when so many other items were already on the menu. In 1621, lobster was considered to be a "trash fish" and typically was eaten only by the poor, the starving, or by indentured servants. This makes it unlikely that lobster would be served at a feast celebrating a plentiful harvest.

Indeed, lobsters were used as fertilizer to help grow corn; the Pilgrims and the Indians would plant a few corn seeds and then throw a lobster into the ground beside the seeds before covering all of that with soil. What a change we have nearly 400 years later! Lobster is now a major export of the Plymouth area with prices that are far too high for the poorer citizens of today.

Pumpkin pie wasn't on the menu in 1621 because there were no ovens for baking, but the pilgrims probably did eat boiled pumpkin. Due to the diminishing supply of flour, there was no bread of any kind.

Cranberries existed as wild plants in the Plymouth area at the time, and it is possible that the Pilgrims were aware of the food value of these plants. However, cranberries were largely ignored until American Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall became the first to farm cranberries in the nearby Cape Cod town of Dennis around 1816. Aside from their food value, the Pilgrims would have been eating unsweetened cranberries, a less than tasty sensation without benefit of sugar.

Salt was readily available in Plimoth Colony with the ocean being only a few yards away. Pepper was commonly used in England but probably not available in Plimoth Colony at the time.

Some sugar was transported on the Mayflower but probably had been consumed before the feast of 1621. Sugar could have been made from maple syrup but it is doubtful that the Pilgrims learned these skills the first year. Maple sap has to be collected early in the spring when there is still snow on the ground. In the spring of 1621, the Pilgrims were too weak from disease and starvation to organize efforts to tap maple trees and collect the sap.

The list of beverages served at the three-day feast was not recorded. The Pilgrims had no tea or coffee, as those imported items were missing due to a lack of trade routes at the time.

Beer undoubtedly was served. As the Pilgrims set out for America the previous year, they brought a considerable amount of this beverage with them for the voyage (reportedly more than 28,617 liters = 7,560 gallons). An entry in the diary of a Mayflower passenger explains the unplanned landing at Plymouth Rock: "We could not now take time for further search...our victuals being much spent, especially our beer..."

Once settled, the Pilgrims undoubtedly followed the English customs of the time with most families brewing beer in large quantities. They served it at virtually all functions, including ordinations, funerals, and regular Sabbath meals.

Plenty of clear water was available in the New World but the Pilgrims were largely ignorant of the need for sanitation. As a result, it is believed that many of the wells in Plimoth Colony were polluted. Admittedly, this is all conjecture, since no one today knows for sure.

Serving meals in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were placed on the table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. In fact, this "family style" of dining was similar to what most families do today.

Pilgrims didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at the same time, and people ate in any order they chose. Meat dishes, puddings, and sweets were all served at the same time. Desserts were eaten at the same time as the meats and other dishes.

Canning and freezing had not yet been invented. With no method of preserving food, other than salting food for preservation, the Pilgrims ate whatever was fresh. It is unlikely that they ate corn, other than perhaps dried corn. The corn crop had come and gone before the autumn feast. Late season vegetables, such as turnips, onions, pumpkin and squash, certainly would have been available. However, the meal was probably mostly meat, fish, and fowl, with few vegetables.

We can also imagine the table manners of those who dined. The Pilgrims did not use silverware nicely arranged on linen napkins. Napkins were in use although they were usually simple pieces of cloth, often rags. The Pilgrims wiped their hands on the cloth napkins, which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food. Linen was unknown. We can imagine that the Indian guests probably wiped their hands and mouths on whatever was available, such as on the back of the hand or on clothing.

The Pilgrims also did not use forks at the table. As Englishmen and Englishwomen, they had no knowledge of forks. The fork was first described in English by Thomas Coryat in a volume of writings about his Italian travels only ten years earlier (1611). Very few English people had even heard of a fork by 1621. For many years the fork was viewed as an unmanly Italian affectation and was never seen in English homes. Some writers of the Roman Catholic Church expressly disapproved of its use: "God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks — his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to Him to substitute artificial metallic forks for them when eating."

While the Pilgrims were not Catholics, we can assume they used the same eating customs as most everyone else in England at the time: they scooped up meat, fish, and boiled peas alike with their fingers. It was not until the 18th century that the fork became commonly used in Great Britain, with the United States following soon after.

Knives were used at the table but were not the same knives that we think of as silverware. The knives of 1621 were multi-purpose tools: any one knife might be used to cut a tree limb, to dissect a deer, or to cut meat at the table.

In short, the Pilgrims had a great meal by their standards. They and their Indian guests ate well for three days. That must have been a great joy for the 53 hardy souls who had watched half of their group die of malnourishment and disease only a few months earlier.

Their table manners didn't match today's standards, but they undoubtedly didn't mind. Their diet was high in protein, especially red meats. They undoubtedly had high cholesterol meals, especially in the months when fresh fruits and vegetables were not available. However, their diet probably met the needs of these people who led rugged, outdoor lifestyles. They had little fear of heart attacks; the more common cause of death was malnutrition and disease.

The Pilgrims of 1621 undoubtedly were delighted with their feast but I don't think I would want to join them.

Comments

[Terri England]

For the historical record, the "Thanksgiving" held by the people of the Mayflower (who were only much later called Pilgrims) was only a harvest feast and not one repeated year after year until 1817 when New York adopted it as an annual custom and later President Lincoln proposed it as an annual custom for the whole of the US. The term "thanksgiving" in those days was more of a religious custom giving thanks to God for any reason deemed necessary and could be any time of the year. Furthermore, the Natives of the area (the Wampanoag and Massasoit) weren't technically invited to the Thanksgiving but hearing guns fire and in fear for their lives they investigated, found a party going on, went out and killed deer and turkey and brought their own food to the party.

While Thanksgiving is certainly an important part of American culture its origins are clouded in a great deal of myth pumped up by writers from the North to lend greater credence to the landing of the Mayflower peoples over their Southern brethren and above those of Jamestown who arrived almost 2 decades earlier. Given that, as far as historical accuracy is concerned we should also have a "Jamestown Day."

Terri England

[Craig Kilby]

Dick, interesting story but surely you know that (1) the first Thanksgiving was held at Jamestown, the first permanent English Colony in Amercia, not Plimouth and (2) we cannot know what was on the "Pilgrim" menu as these people did not call themselves "pilgrims" These people were half "Separatists" and half "Strangers" i.e, Anglicans. But no "pilgrims." Let's not fudge up our history here for the sake of a good story.

[Dick Eastman]

---> but surely you know that (1) the first Thanksgiving was held at Jamestown,

That is open to debate. The first Thanksgiving in North America was held on April 30, 1598 by Spanish nobleman Don Juan de Oñate and a group of settlers near what is now El Paso, Texas. However, the exact location is unknown and may have been in what is now Mexico. Don Juan de Oñate wrote about that Thanksgiving later but neglected to give the exact location.

I wrote about that several years ago and the article is still online at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/11/the_first_thank.html

In the new article about the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving in 1621, I didn't say it was the first Thanksgiving although I did say it was "their first Thanksgiving," which is true. I also didn't say that the Pilgrims held any annual feasts. That didn't happen until much, much later. As far as we know, the 1621 Thanksgiving was a one-time event.

- Dick Eastman

[Leslie Canavan]

Craig Kilby's post is pushing a bit too far. We all call them Pilgrims as a term to describe the Mayflower passengers, but Dick's article was well written in that he tells us, and he's not the first, what the people of the Mayflower said in their own words, then we must extrapolate based upon other sources. Dick's assessment of what they might have eaten is very accurate. There was no tea because tea was unknown in Europe/England in 1621. Dick's article was not meant to be an historically accurate document, but a good article for the general reader on a timely subject. We Mayflower descendants appreciate it!

[Nancy Ross]

The pilgrims would have had honey to sweeten dishes. It would have been available for the taking. And it is very probable that they would have learned to grind corn to make flatbread. So, although there was no flour-they may have had some form of corn bread.

[Dae Powell]

No ovens, thus no pies. Yet we have those who wish to "mince" words over the whole matter. Let's just be Thankful, shall we?

Happy Dae·
http://ShoeStringGenealogy.com

[Tomie Jo Price]

The menu is not of primary importance. 0f primary importance is their belief in God, their faithfullness to Him, and their THANKSFULLNESS to Him for their blessings,which, by our standards, were limited.
Jo Price; Nov. 15,09

[Sharryn Clark]

Tis good ovens were not available for pumpkin pie, as the kind of squash or pumpkin available, would have not been very good pie filling!

[polly shaw]

Since the exact date of the 1st Thanksgiving is unknown, perhaps it was after the arrival of the Fortune which brought other passengers and maybe some sugar??? -- pshaw

[ArnoldChamove]

Ovens: these are basic and easy to construct for bread and other baking. In New Zealand pumpkin is baked and also added to soups to thicken and sweeten it. I never recall eating pumpkin in Britain until about 30 years ago.

Wonder if spawning salmon were available on the East coast. In Scotland it was a poor-man's diet and there were regulations prohibiting the feeding of salmon every night to workers (like mutton today here in New Zealand)

In Britain in those days a person would bring their own knife and spoon when visiting for a meal. I suspect that people would carry a small 10" knife around in their belts like farmers do today and use that for meals too.