Some holidays are associated with different foods, and for Thank youThat's turkey – but why do we eat that? We asked a history expert to learn more.
Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving?
Turkey's place on the holiday table can be traced back to famed American author Sarah Josepha Hale and her popular book, in which she described a traditional Thanksgiving meal that included a roasted turkey.
“For decades, he advocated for an annual Thanksgiving until President Abraham Lincoln made it an official holiday in 1863,” CBS News' Anne-Marie Green reported Before last year's holidays.
Troy Bickham, a history professor at Texas A&M University, told CBS News there are also some practical reasons why the turkey has stuck around, including it being the “ideal celebration bird.”
“Much larger in size than chickens or swans, they both feed more people and provide an impressive centerpiece for any large festive meal. For these reasons, the British brought turkeys back for breeding and farming, Where they became quite common in the 16th century,” she said. “When the Pilgrims arrived in America, Turkey would not have been unfamiliar.”
Green reported that there were about 10 million turkeys in free colonized America at that time.
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 on the first Thanksgiving?
Apart from venison, we don't know exactly what was eaten. first thanksgiving“The rest is speculation,” Bickham said.
“Corn, beans and squash as well as shellfish and wild fowl were staples of the colonists' diet, which their indigenous neighbors had taught them to grow. In fact, the success of those crops was a major cause for thanksgiving.”
However, we do know that there are some things that shouldn't be on the menu, Bickham said, including dairy, wheat or anything requiring significant amounts of sugar.
Potatoes would also be missing from the table.
“Although native to the Andes, potatoes were not popular in England or its colonies until the eighteenth century. So, there was not even any mashed potatoes at the first Thanksgiving,” he said.
What is the history behind traditional Thanksgiving foods?
According to Bruce Smith, senior scientist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, much of what is eaten at Thanksgiving today came from Mexico and South America.
“We can find many of these foods through the southwestern United States into other parts of the country,” He shared in a post On the Smithsonian's website. “This spread probably resulted from trade or other contact between American Indian tribes in this country.”
For example, the Smithsonian's post states that maize was domesticated in Mexico more than 8,000 years ago.
“This important crop plant arrived in the southwestern United States about 4,000 years ago, and reached eastern North America around 200 BC,” the post reads.
Some Thanksgiving foods have a history older than turkey. For example, cranberry sauce is a relatively recent addition to the menu.
Bickham said, “Although 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.” “Canned cranberry sauce first appeared in 1912 but was not sold nationally until 1941.”
Pumpkin pie, as we know it today, has only recently become popular.
“Although pumpkin pie had been on menus for over a hundred years, it was not until 1929 when the Libby Company began producing a line of canned pumpkins, simplifying the pie-making process, that it became a Thanksgiving staple,” Tennessee Tech history professor Troy Smith wrote in a post Shared on the university website.