Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving? The history of the holiday’s traditional foods

Certain holidays are associated with different foods, and for Thanksgiving, that’s turkey — but why is that what we eat? We asked a history expert to learn more. 

Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving?

Turkey’s spot on the holiday table can be traced back to a famous American author Sarah Josepha Hale, and her popular book, in which she described a traditional Thanksgiving meal that included a roast turkey. 

“For decades, she advocated for an annual Thanksgiving until President Abraham Lincoln made it an official holiday in 1863,” CBS News’ Anne-Marie Green reported ahead of last year’s holiday. 

There were also some practical reasons that explain why the turkey has stuck around, Troy Bickham, a professor of history at Texas A&M University, told CBS News, including it being an “ideal celebration bird.”

“At sizes much larger than chickens or geese, they both feed more people and provide an impressive centerpiece to any large celebratory meal. For these reasons, the English brought back turkeys to breed and farm, where they became fairly common in the 16th century,” he said. “When the Pilgrims arrived in America, the turkey would not have been unfamiliar.”

There were about 10 million turkeys in free colonized America at the time, Green reported.

In the 19th century, wild turkeys still roamed much of the eastern half of the United States, from Texas to Maine, Bickham said.

“They are relatively easy to raise in captivity, so they were abundant,” he said. 

What did they eat at the first Thanksgiving?

Beyond venison, we don’t know exactly what was eaten at the first Thanksgiving, Bickham said — “The rest is speculation.”

“Shellfish and wildfowl were staples in the colonists’ diet, along with the corn, beans and squash that their Indigenous neighbors had taught them to grow. In fact, the success of those crops was a key reason for the giving of thanks.”

We do know, however, a few things that wouldn’t have been on the menu, Bickham said, including anything requiring dairy, wheat or significant amounts of sugar.

Potatoes would’ve also been absent from the table.

“Although native to Andes, potatoes were not popular in England or its colonies until the eighteenth century. So, no mashed potatoes at the first Thanksgiving either,” he said. 

What’s the history behind traditional Thanksgiving foods?

Much of what is eaten at Thanksgiving today originated from Mexico and South America, according to Bruce Smith, senior scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

“We can trace many of these foods up through the southwestern United States into other parts of the country,” he shared in a post on the Smithsonian’s website. “Most likely this diffusion happened as a result of trading or other contact among American Indian tribes in this country.”

For example, corn was domesticated in Mexico more than 8,000 years ago, the Smithsonian’s post adds. 

“This important crop plant arrived in the southwestern United States by 4,000 years ago, and reached eastern North America at about 200 B.C.” the post reads. 

Some Thanksgiving foods have a more recent history than turkey. Cranberry sauce, for example, is a relatively recent addition to the menu.

“While cranberries may have been available at the first Thanksgiving, they were bitter and unpopular in the colonies until later — when sugar from the Caribbean was cheaper and more abundant,” Bickham said. “Canned cranberry sauce first appeared in 1912 but was not sold nationally until 1941.”

Pumpkin pie as we know it today also became popular more recently. 

“While pumpkin pie had been on the menu for well over a hundred years, it was not until 1929 when the Libby company began producing a line of canned pumpkin, simplifying the process for making the pie, did it become a Thanksgiving staple,” Tennessee Tech history professor Troy Smith wrote in a post shared on the university’s website. 

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