The Real Reason We Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving
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If you think Halloween has a confusing history, just wait till you hear about Thanksgiving. A blend of fact, fiction, myth, and political plays, Thanksgiving is the kind of holiday where you just have to shrug and go with it. While every family has its own version of the perfect Thanksgiving table—macaroni and cheese or stuffing, green beans or cauliflower—so much of what we eat on the holiday traces back to the first Thanksgiving—except for turkey. We know, we know, it's hard to believe. The quintessential Thanksgiving dish the family cook spends hours (or even days) perfecting probably wasn't even on the table in the 1600s.
So...why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving? My family has switched to ham or chicken, but there are plenty of Thanksgiving purists who'd consider the swap blasphemous. Whichever side you're on, keep reading to find out the real reason why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving, including the original menu and the mastermind of the modern-day feast.
The History of Thanksgiving
The pilgrims may have celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621, but it didn't become a national holiday until Abraham Lincoln declared it such in 1863. Spurred on by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, the holiday was intended to promote peace during the Civil War. Hale had petitioned the four previous presidents to create the holiday—all in all, her campaign to create Thanksgiving persisted for nearly 40 years.
More than two centuries before that, the pilgrims, English Protestants who were members of a persecuted religious sect, arrived on the North American continent in what is now Massachusetts in 1620. In 1621, those who survived the first winter commemorated the occasion by giving thanks. What they considered "Thanksgiving" was a religious day of fasting and prayer, and they most likely would have held this gathering in the spring.
What Was on the Menu at the First Thanksgiving
Compared with our sprawling Thanksgiving tables, the first Thanksgiving menu was decidedly slimmer. Corn was a staple both on the cob and as a grain baked into bread loaves or ground for porridge. Venison and wildfowl would've been the primary proteins. Other than those dishes, the rest of the menu is a mystery. Wild turkeys were available, but they would've been secondary to venison. And rather than bread stuffing, the fowl would've been filled with onions and herbs, according to the Smithsonian Museum.
Because the first Thanksgiving participants were situated on the coast of Massachusetts, there also would have been plenty of seafood—lobsters, shellfish, clams, and eels—on the menu. Back then, chestnuts weren't reserved for Christmas fires but would've been served alongside walnuts and beechnuts. And while there may not have been pumpkin pie, the gourds would've been on full display along with squashes.
Why Do We Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving?
If we're not even sure that the pilgrims ate turkey, then where did the tradition come from? We owe that to one Sarah Josepha Hale. During her campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, Hale used her magazine, Godey's Lady's Book, to print recipes and sample menus to get housewives on board. Hale was planting the idea and expectations of what Thanksgiving should look like in the minds of American women, influencing an entire generation that would pass those menus on to their children.
In fact, many of the foods we associate with Thanksgiving—roast turkey with sage dressing, creamed onions, mashed turnips, and even some mashed potato dishes (a foreign concept back then)—were included in the magazine's Thanksgiving pages. Hale also published dozens of cookbooks filled with recipes that'd be welcome on Thanksgiving tables today.
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