I think it worthwhile to research what foods are authentic Thanksgiving Dinner foods. Food and celebrations are an important part of our cultural heritage. I think we should hold on to old traditional Thanksgiving foods and preparations instead of replacing them with ones that more easily prepared or more palatable to modern American tongue. I would like to try making things as close as possible to the original Thanksgiving, in order to remind us of the past.
The first Thanksgiving dinner was actually a three day feast. Indians brought wild turkeys and venison (deer meat). The men of the colony brought geese, ducks, and fish. The meat was roasted over an open fire. The women served the meat and fish with journey cake, corn meal bread with nuts, and succotash (lima beans and corn cooked together). They also served other vegetables and fruit pies.
This pilgrim Thanksgiving was actually celebrated in the summer, but the reason why we celebrate Thanksgiving in November is because Thanksgiving days were proclaimed in November to thank the Lord for our victories over the British in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. So it is fitting to include both the pilgrim summer traditions and the fall traditions. Thanksgiving is a patriotic holiday.
Here are some suggestions. Try not putting marshmallows on your yams (which are not even real yams). Use freshly baked sweet potatoes instead. Use real cranberries cooked with pears or apples instead of that jellied kind (oranges are not authentic to 17th century New England or Virginia or anywhere in the colonies in November).
Try smoking your (preferably wild) turkey instead of baking it. (Deep-frying turkeys is not only inauthentic, but wastes cooking oil and can be a fire hazard. Do not stuff a turkey if you are going smoke it.) If you do bake your turkey, don’t listen to these idiots who would ruin your tradition by scaring you into not stuffing your turkey. Its perfectly safe as long as your turkey is reaches an internal temperature of 190ºF. I’ve always said, “I don’t care if my stocking is stuffed, as long as my stuffing is stocked.” Or, try one of the other meats listed above for a change.
This being a Franksgiving year gave me a chance to make the meal how I wanted it. We had the usual turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, but I also served succotash, acorn squash, and blueberry pie (I’ll have a piece of it as soon as I finish this post). Another unusual, but good idea, which I didn’t get to indulge in this year is grape pie (my sister make an awesome grape pie).
I couldn’t find a journey cake recipe, and I didn’t want to make a cornbread recipe if it called for baking powder because it contains aluminum sulfate. (This would both ruin the authenticity of the meal and cause me to get Alzheimer’s disease.) So I decided to make hoe cakes instead and they turned out great.
The first Thanksgiving dinner was actually a three day feast. Indians brought wild turkeys and venison (deer meat). The men of the colony brought geese, ducks, and fish. The meat was roasted over an open fire. The women served the meat and fish with journey cake, corn meal bread with nuts, and succotash (lima beans and corn cooked together). They also served other vegetables and fruit pies.
This pilgrim Thanksgiving was actually celebrated in the summer, but the reason why we celebrate Thanksgiving in November is because Thanksgiving days were proclaimed in November to thank the Lord for our victories over the British in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. So it is fitting to include both the pilgrim summer traditions and the fall traditions. Thanksgiving is a patriotic holiday.
Here are some suggestions. Try not putting marshmallows on your yams (which are not even real yams). Use freshly baked sweet potatoes instead. Use real cranberries cooked with pears or apples instead of that jellied kind (oranges are not authentic to 17th century New England or Virginia or anywhere in the colonies in November).
Try smoking your (preferably wild) turkey instead of baking it. (Deep-frying turkeys is not only inauthentic, but wastes cooking oil and can be a fire hazard. Do not stuff a turkey if you are going smoke it.) If you do bake your turkey, don’t listen to these idiots who would ruin your tradition by scaring you into not stuffing your turkey. Its perfectly safe as long as your turkey is reaches an internal temperature of 190ºF. I’ve always said, “I don’t care if my stocking is stuffed, as long as my stuffing is stocked.” Or, try one of the other meats listed above for a change.
This being a Franksgiving year gave me a chance to make the meal how I wanted it. We had the usual turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, but I also served succotash, acorn squash, and blueberry pie (I’ll have a piece of it as soon as I finish this post). Another unusual, but good idea, which I didn’t get to indulge in this year is grape pie (my sister make an awesome grape pie).
I couldn’t find a journey cake recipe, and I didn’t want to make a cornbread recipe if it called for baking powder because it contains aluminum sulfate. (This would both ruin the authenticity of the meal and cause me to get Alzheimer’s disease.) So I decided to make hoe cakes instead and they turned out great.
Thanksgiving Hoe Cakes
These were originally called hoe cakes because they were cooked on garden hoes or shovels held over an open fire by the early settlers.
2 cups cornmeal½ teaspoon salt
½ cup of chopped nuts (mix of pecans, walnuts, and almonds)
¼ cup nut powder (mix of almond and peanut)
2 tablespoons of melted butter
1 cup hot water
1 cup cold water
Mix salt, nuts, and nut powder into cornmeal. Add hot water and mix it. Then add cold water with stirring. Then add the melted butter and mix it in. Generously coat a very hot iron skillet with cooking oil or bacon grease. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto the skillet. Turn until both sides are brown. Add more oil everytime you make a new batch.
Boy, am I stuffed!
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