"thanksgiving food history" news and stories

The classic Thanksgiving menu -- which has become so standardized that nearly 90 percent of Americans report eating turkey to celebrate the holiday -- is a virtual parade through the food pyramid, with nearly every known food group admirably represented. Looking for grains? Try the cornbread stuffing. Craving fruit? Have some cranberry sauce. In a vegetable mood? You've got your pick of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and green beans (mixed with mushroom soup, for an extra veggie bonus).

But, for the last half-century, one food group has been conspicuously missing from the typical Thanksgiving table. Confronted by the usual festive spread, a Pilgrim would no doubt ask: "Whither the shellfish, Prudence?"

Lobsters, clams and mussels were almost certainly served at the 1621 feast that's come to be commemorated as the First Thanksgiving. While the Pilgrims weren't especially fond of seafood -- Plimoth Plantation's culinarian Kathleen Wall says the community considered shellfish "the last of God's blessings" -- the settlement's proximity to the sea meant waterborne creatures were a staple of harvest meals, alongside earthy corn porridges, turnips and grapes. Pilgrims and Wampanoags supped on seal, swan and extravagantly large crustaceans.

"They talk about these lobsters that fed three sailors," Wall marvels.