What is served at a traditional Thanksgiving dinner?
A traditional Thanksgiving dinner consists of roast turkey, turkey stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.
Why is turkey served on Thanksgiving?
“Turkey became the national dish that we eat on Thanksgiving through a decades and century-long process of the regional foods of New England consumed during traditional harvest festivals, making their way through the United States as Americans living on the east coast and in the U.S. south moved westward over time.”
How do you plan a Thanksgiving menu?
Thanksgiving is heavy on dishes that are white (mashed potatoes, creamed onions) and brown (turkey, stuffing, gravy) dishes. It needs the ruby red of cranberry sauce, the warm orange of pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes, to make it interesting. Add something green and snappy.
Why do we eat cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving?
It was time consuming and hard work but this is the process that is still used to pick the fresh cranberries you see at the supermarket. By the Civil War cranberry sauce was so ingrained as an American dish that General Ulysses S. Grant ordered cranberries served to soldiers as part of their Thanksgiving meal.
Why do we eat pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving?
The Native Americans brought pumpkins as gifts to the first settlers, and taught them the many uses for pumpkin. This led to serving pumpkin pie at the first Thanksgiving in America about 50 years later.
What was eaten at the first Thanksgiving?
Turkey. There’s a good chance the Pilgrims and Wampanoag did in fact eat turkey as part of that very first Thanksgiving. Wild turkey was a common food source for people who settled Plymouth. In the days prior to the celebration, the colony’s governor sent four men to go “fowling”—that is, to hunt for birds.
What is the red stuff on Thanksgiving?
Cranberry sauce is one of the most important components of the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Cranberries are one of the few commercially grown fruits native to the United States. The traditional cranberry sauce, made with sugar, did not become popularized until the 19th century.
Why is the Ocean Spray label upside down?
According to Ocean Spray, that’s intentional: It creates a seamless serving experience. The cans are “filled and labeled upside down with the rounded edge on top and the sharp can-like edge on the bottom to keep the jelly whole,” an Ocean Spray spokesperson told CNN Business.
What was eaten at the first Thanksgiving meal?
There are only two surviving documents that reference the original Thanksgiving harvest meal. They describe a feast of freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, a bounty of cod and bass, and flint, a native variety of corn harvested by the Native Americans, which was eaten as corn bread and porridge.