Recipes From the First Thanksgiving

Nov. 22, 2006 — -- Everyone's favorite roving correspondent, Mike Barz, went on an American adventure perfect for the holiday season.

Barz visited Plymouth, Mass., site of the Mayflower's landing and the first Thanksgiving in 1623.

The folks at Plimouth Plantation shared some of the early settlers' first Thanksgiving recipes, which you'll find below.

The Ancient New England Standing Dish

New World pumpkins and squashes were introduced into Europe in the late 15th century.

By the time the colonists had made their way to Plymouth, "pompions," as pumpkins were called by settlers of the era, had gained widespread acceptance in England.

In New England, stewed pumpkin was everyday fare -- a "standing dish" -- particularly in the fall and winter.

This recipe for stewed pumpkin comes from John Josselyn, an early traveler to New England.

His description of the common dish is full of wonderful details that provide both a sense of how the finished dish should taste ("tart like an apple") and a vivid glimpse into a colonial kitchen ("stew them upon a gentle fire a whole day.")

"The ancient New England standing dish" is one of the earliest written recipes from New England.

The Ancient New England Standing Dish

But the Housewives manner is to slice them when ripe, and cut them into dice, and so fill a pot with them of two or three Gallons, and stew them upon a gentle fire a whole day, and as they sink, they fill again with fresh Pompions, not putting any liquor to them; and when it is stew'd enough, it will look like bak'd Apples; this they Dish, putting Butter to it, and a little Vinegar, (with some Spice, as Ginger, &c.) which makes it tart like an Apple, and so serve it up to be eaten with Fish or Flesh: It provokes Urin extreamly and is very windy. -- John Josselyn, New-Englands Rarities Discovered, 1672

Modern version:

4 cups cooked squash or pumpkin, mashed

4 tablespoons butter

1-2 tablespoons of cider vinegar

1-2 teaspoons of ground ginger (or any combination of nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and or pepper, to taste)

1 teaspoon salt

Place the squash, butter, vinegar and spices in a saucepan over low heat. Stir and heat until all of the ingredients are well combined and hot. Adjust the seasonings to your liking and serve.

Serves 8

You Say Pompion, I Say Squash

Pompion is the common 16th and 17th century English word for what we now call squash and pumpkins.

Squash, the shortened, English version of the Narragansett Indian word asquutasquash, first appeared in print in 1643.

Confused? It only gets worse. In reality, there is absolutely no botanical difference between squash and pumpkins.

William Woys Weaver, in Heirloom Vegetable Gardening, explains that "pumpkin is merely a term of convenience, for there are only squash. … Pumpkins are really a type of squash."

Ducks With Cranberries and Wine

This duck recipe -- even with a few New England adaptations -- is the most luxurious in this chapter, both in the cooking techniques employed and in the ingredients used.

This is the sort of dish that would have occupied a place of honor on a fine feast table in 1621.

The original recipe from 1615 uses tart barberries in the sauce. It is possible that in Plymouth in 1621, English cooks substituted cranberries for the unavailable barberries.

The increasing availability of ducks in local grocery stores makes it a lovely option for a Thanksgiving bird of a different sort.

1615 Recipe: To Boil a Wilde Duck

Trusse and parboyle it, and then halfe roast it, then carve it and save the gravey: take store of Onyons, Parsley, sliced Ginger, and Pepper: put the gravie into a Pipkin with washt currins, large Mace, Barberryes, a quart of Claret Wine: let all boyle well together, scumme it cleane, put in Butter and Sugar. -- John Murrell, The Newe Booke of Cookery, 1615

Modern version

For the duck:

1 duck (4 pounds to 5 pounds)

2½ teaspoons salt

10 black peppercorns

1 medium onion, quartered

Handful of parsley leaves and stalks

3 medium onions, halved vertically, then thinly sliced

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce:

2 cups red wine

1/3 cup parsley leaves, minced

1 teaspoon ground ginger

¼ cup dried currants or roughly chopped raisins

2 to 4 blades of whole mace or ½ teaspoon ground

¼ cup cranberries, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon sugar

4 tablespoons (½ stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into four pieces

Rinse the duck inside and out, and rinse any giblets included. Place the duck and giblets (except the liver, which can be reserved for another use) in a pot large enough to accommodate them, along with 2 teaspoons of the salt, 10 peppercorns, the onion quarters, and parsley leaves and stalks. Cover with cold water and bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat so that the broth comes to a very low simmer. Skim off the froth, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.

After the duck has cooked for 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Arrange the sliced onions in a 13-by-9-inch roasting pan. Carefully remove the duck from the broth and reserve the broth. Season the duck inside and out with the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt and the ground pepper, then place the duck on top of the onions. Roast the duck for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, place the duck on a carving board, and cover loosely with aluminum foil to keep it warm.

While the duck is resting, make the sauce. Strain 1 cup of the reserved broth and place in a saucepan along with the onions from the roasting pan, the wine, parsley, ginger, currants, and mace. Boil over medium-high heat until the mixture is reduced by two-thirds and is of a syrupy consistency.

When the duck has rested for at least 10 minutes, carve it into serving pieces. Place the meat on a heated serving platter and cover loosely with foil.

Add any juices given off during carving to the sauce and stir the cranberries and sugar. Simmer for another 30 seconds, then remove from the heat. Swirl in the butter, a tablespoon at a time, until the sauce is silky.

Serve the duck immediately, accompanied by the sauce.

Note: If you simmer the leftover defatted duck broth until it is reduced to one quarter of its original volume, it makes a very useful stock. Store in the freezer until it's needed.

Serves 4 to 6

So Did They Have Cranberry Sauce in 1621?

The first descriptions of cranberry sauce and cranberry tarts were written more than 50 years after the arrival of the Mayflower.

In both of these dishes, the sour cranberries are sweetened with a good deal of sugar -- something that was probably not available in any great quantity at Plymouth in 1621.

It is possible, however, that an English housewife may have used cranberries unsweetened in her cookery. It was customary in English cookery of that time to use tart berries or grapes to sharpen broths and sauces.

In 1643, Roger Williams provided the earliest written description of the fruit -- "a kind of sharp Fruit like a Barbary [the sour red fruit of the barberry bush] in taste."

He doesn't call them cranberries, but gives the name used by the native Narragansett People, sasemineash.

Recipes from "Giving Thanks Thanksgiving Recipes and History From Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie" by Kathleen Curtin, Sandra L. Oliver and Plimoth Plantation, Clarkson Potter, October 2005