{"id":3990,"date":"2016-11-23T14:14:51","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T14:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?p=3990"},"modified":"2017-08-23T15:29:08","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T15:29:08","slug":"thanksgiving-your-food-guide-to-the-us-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/thanksgiving-your-food-guide-to-the-us-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving: Your Food Guide to the US Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanksgiving is coming up quickly, but what\u2019s going to be on your plate?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Photo via Wikipedia<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Etymology<\/strong><\/p>\n

The word thanksgiving<\/i> was first used in the 1630s, approximately a decade after the first Thanksgiving. The compound word thanks<\/i> (a noun) and the present participle of give<\/i> is used to refer to the \u2018public celebration acknowledging divine favours.\u2019 Certain prayers can be referred to as \u2018thanksgivings\u2019, a concept which hopefully underlies the meaning of the holiday tradition, being thankful for the good things in our lives.<\/p>\n

The first \u2018Thanksgiving\u2019 meal and celebration was held by Plymouth Colony Pilgrims, who invited local Native tribes to share a meal and celebrate the hard year of toil culminating in that year\u2019s harvest. They wanted to join together to \u2018give thanks\u2019 for the bountiful harvest that their \u2018New Land\u2019 had provided for them. What better way to celebrate than by throwing a huge party with a tonne of food?<\/p>\n

Foodology<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first Thanksgiving was actually celebrated for 3 days and involved a variety of entertainment, hunting parties and all the food you could eat! Wampanoag tribes members are said to have brought 5 deer as gifts for the colonists and it\u2019s clear that a huge feast was definitely in store. The first Thanksgiving had a different menu to the kind you would find today. We can assume venison (deer meat, probably used in a stew of some form) was eaten by all who attended, and records also mention the colonists hunting fowl for the feast. We can\u2019t be sure that Turkey was served, but other birds like goose, swan, and pheasant would have been easily sourced and happily devoured by all at the celebration. \u00a0These birds may have been seasoned with herbs, onions and nuts.<\/p>\n

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GIF via Giphy<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Considering the feast was in celebration of the harvest, fruits and vegetables would have played an important role. In New England, where the Pilgrims landed, locally grown vegetables would have included things like carrots, spinach, cabbage, beans, onions, and corn. The corn might have been served as a sweetened mush for dessert, as that\u2019s how it was typically served at that time. Sugar, though, was pretty much nonexistent- most of the sugar stores that the colonists brought with them from England, were completely used up by 1621- so molasses would have been used. Berries, too, were plentiful- even cranberries would have been eaten, \u00a0though they wouldn\u2019t have been made into a sauce like we might have today.<\/p>\n

It may not have crossed your mind, but fish and seafood would have been a large part of the feast as well, as it is plentiful in New England, and it would have definitely been a part of their diet as it would be easy to harvest and catch- mussels would have been especially easy to find, cook and eat. Venison and mussels- talk about surf and turf!<\/p>\n

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Photo via Flickr<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Turkey-ology<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, Thanksgiving, or Turkey-day as some call it, is a time to get family and friends around the dinner table and take a moment to think about what you\u2019re \u2018thankful\u2019 for this year. It could also be debated that Thanksgiving is a time to gorge yourself on fattening food, get into political arguments with your family and ultimately end up in a tryptophan-induced coma for the rest of the afternoon. The two options depend on you and your family, though often times which ever option you end up getting is entirely out of your control.<\/p>\n

A typical Thanksgiving feast today consists of a giant roast turkey (or chicken if you\u2019re really <\/i>\u00a0not into turkey), mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, other vegetables like carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, gravy and the all important stuffing or dressing. For dessert, you\u2019d often indulge in a big ol\u2019 slice of pumpkin pie. You\u2019ll notice similar elements to the original Thanksgiving (fowl, vegetables) but some of the bigger differences exist because that particular plant wasn\u2019t indigenous to New England (the pumpkin and the potato hadn\u2019t been introduced to New England by 1621).<\/p>\n

Quite a few Thanksgiving staples are regional. For example in the South, you will probably find a sweet potato pie on the menu along with collard greens and cornbread. You may also find something called the \u2018Turducken\u2019- a fowl Russian nesting doll, it has a duck inside a chicken inside a turkey. On the East coast you might find oyster stuffing, maple glazed carrots or even clam dip. All over the USA, you\u2019ll find goodies like macaroni and cheese, and pecan pie.<\/p>\n

In the end<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re scratching your head, thinking aren\u2019t there other places that celebrate Thanksgiving?<\/i> Well, Canada does, but it has it on the second Monday of October where American Thanksgiving is on the 4th Thursday in November. The two countries have similar menus for their feasts, with regional favourites like seafood on either coast, and maple glazing playing a particularly important role in the Canadian Thanksgiving. With both though, the idea of thinking on the good things and being thankful for them are the same. Maybe there are slightly less political arguments\u2026 though I make no promises of that.<\/p>\n

Now that Thanksgiving is around the corner: what will you be thankful to feast on?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanksgiving is coming up quickly, but what\u2019s going to be on your plate? Etymology The word thanksgiving was first used in the 1630s, approximately a decade after the first Thanksgiving. The compound word thanks (a noun) and the present participle of give is used to refer to the \u2018public celebration acknowledging divine favours.\u2019 Certain prayers(\u2026)<\/p>\n

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\n\t \t\t\t\tCONTINUE READING »<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236,27,1],"tags":[587,42,59,586,66,588,584,44,589,590,585],"class_list":["post-3990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-must-know","category-humour-offbeat","category-uncategorized","tag-celebrate","tag-culture","tag-english","tag-holidays","tag-language","tag-thankful","tag-thanksgiving","tag-travel","tag-turkey","tag-turkey-day","tag-us"],"yoast_head":"\nThanksgiving: Your Food Guide to the US Holiday<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thanksgiving is coming up quickly, but what\u2019s going to be on your plate? 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