Recipes can provide modern folk with taste of first feast in Plymouth Colony

Are you feeling stressed out by the prospect of planning, shopping for and cooking next week’s traditional Thanksgiving dinner? Well, just imagine what it would be like to prepare a three-day feast for more than 100 people with no refrigeration, no running water, and only an open hearth for cooking. That was the daunting task faced in 1621 by the women of the Plymouth Colony, the first permanent English settlement in New England.

“There were 50 Colonists and at least 90 native people in attendance. Preparing food for that many people over three days was an enormous undertaking,” said Kathleen Curtin, food historian at Plimoth Plantation, a museum in Plymouth, Mass., that focuses on the lives of the Colonists and the native Wampanoag Indians in 17th century New England.

“One long-held and very popular story of the 1621 celebration was that the four surviving English housewives did all the cooking, but this seems very unlikely,” she said. “What is true is that after the sickness of the first winter, only four married women remained of the 20 wives who came on the Mayflower. There were, however, numerous children, servants, and unmarried men — and probably more than a few married ones — who were no doubt marshaled under the watchful eyes of the women to provide the labor needed for such a celebration.”

Using what’s available

But the food they prepared was a far cry from our traditional turkey, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and apple or pumpkin pie. For one thing, Curtin said, the Colonists had no wheat flour, no potatoes, no apples and very little sugar or milk. There were pumpkins and cranberries, but they were eaten stewed or boiled, not mixed with sugar or baked into a pie. Their diet mainly consisted of meat, either from domestic animals or those they hunted, and dried corn, which they had learned about from the Indians.

Deborah Duchon of Atlanta, a nutritional anthropologist and a frequent guest on the Food Network’s “Good Eats,” says the Indians were eating better on a daily basis than the Colonists, mostly because they were better farmers.

“[The Wampanoag] were agriculturalists,” she said. “They were not running around wild. They had a civilization — they had a very high civilization, actually, by the time the settlers came. They were growing corn; they were growing other staples. They had different crops —a lot of vegetables. And they were eating a really good diet.”

Part of the Colonists’ problem was that they didn’t like to take advice from the Indians. So, although they adopted the idea of growing corn, Duchon said, “they weren’t growing it very well. They thought the idea of putting fish in with seeds was the dumbest thing they ever saw.”

Like the Indians, they treated the crop as a grain, rather than a vegetable, growing it until it was completely dry, and then grinding it into a meal. But without ovens, there was no way to bake it into bread. The Indians, Duchon said, may have used hot rocks to turn a mixture of cornmeal and water into something resembling oat cakes, while the Colonists probably cooked it in a pot over the fire into a thick gruel.

Meat was main focus

So what did the guests eat at that first Thanksgiving feast? No one knows for sure, but Curtain says she believes that the menu focused mainly on meat.

“It’s a hard thing for modern folks to wrap their heads around, but you really were dependent on what was available at that time of year,” she said. And in the fall, after the growing season was over, hunting was at its height, with an abundance of wildfowl and deer.

Also, Curtin said, people of the 17th century, particularly the English, didn’t particularly esteem vegetables. At that time, the hallmark of any feast was an abundance of meat, prepared in a variety of ways.

“So I could certainly imagine a harvest table back then having roast goose and boiled duck and roast duck and duck pie and roast turkey, lots of different varieties of meats cooked in really interesting ways,” she said. “As you can see from the recipes, it’s not just boring roasts. There are some really interesting piquant sauces and lovely things that people had.”

In addition to the wildfowl, venison and corn, the Indians grew squash and beans, and collected a variety of native fruits and berries such as blueberries. And, living along the coast, both the Wampanoag and the Colonists gathered the abundant seafood, such as lobster and mussels, and also river fish. These foods were almost certainly on the table of that first feast, Curtin said.

And even though we have a much larger variety of food available for our modern celebration, she says it’s important to think about and even taste some of the recipes that would have been served in 1621. “Food is such an amazing link to the past. Folks are not going to construct a 17th century house, but they will re-create recipes,” she said.

The following recipes are from “Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipes and History from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie,” by Kathleen Curtin, Sandra L. Oliver and Plimoth Plantation.

ONION SAUCE FOR ROASTED TURKEY

Onions were a staple of the English garden and cooking pot in 17th-century Plymouth. They were one of the few vegetables that could be stored against winter. This sauce is redolent of onions, and the flavors of vinegar, spice and sugar (typical in 17th-century sauces) make it a pleasant change from modern gravy. This sauce is best after it sits for 30 minutes, which gives it time to thicken to a gravylike consistency. Warm just before serving.

Pan drippings from roasted turkey

Turkey or chicken stock, as needed

2 cups of thinly sliced onions

1 tablespoon sugar

1⁄4 cup red wine vinegar or cider vinegar

1⁄4 cup plain bread crumbs

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Remove the roasted turkey to a platter, reserving the pan juices. Pour juices into a glass measuring cup and let sit for 5 minutes to allow the fat to rise. Using a spoon, skim away as much of the fat as you would like. (Some cooks like to leave a bit for flavor; a 17th-century cook might not have considered skimming the fat at all.) Add enough of the turkey or chicken stock to make three cups of liquid.

Pour the liquid into a medium saucepan. Add the onions and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook until the onions are tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. (Alternately, you can sauté the onions in 1 tablespoon of butter until tender and golden, and then add to the broth). Add the sugar, vinegar, bread crumbs and salt and pepper to taste. To serve, pour over sliced turkey, or serve alongside in a gravy boat.

Makes 4 cups.

STEWED PUMPKIN

This recipe for stewed pumpkin is based on one 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.”)

4 cups cooked squash or pumpkin, mashed

4 tablespoons butter

1 to 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar

1 to 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.

POTTAGE OF NATIVE CORN

Dishes like this one were very common fare for Englishmen in both Old and New England. An English pottage was typically made with meaty broth, oats and chopped “pot-herbs” boiled into a very thick “spoonmeat.” In England, everyone from the richest to the poorest ate pottage. In New England, this tradition continued, but the native corn was used in place of the traditional English oats.

6 cups broth or stock, with or without leftover meat pieces

2 cups coarse grits

1 cup chopped onions or leeks

1⁄2 cup chopped parsley

4 cups coarsely chopped spinach, chard or other leafy green

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Fresh herbs such as thyme, marjoram, and/or sage, minced in whatever amount you prefer

Bring broth to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, stirring until the pottage returns to a boil. Turn the heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Be sure to stir across the bottom of the pot to keep the grits from sticking.

Remove the pot from the heat and allow to stand covered for about an hour or until the grits are tender. You may need to add more water or stock if the pottage is too thick (it should have the constancy of risotto or thick cooked oatmeal). Adjust seasoning before serving.

ROAST GOOSE WITH MUSTARD SAUCE

Goose was celebratory meat in 17th century England and was eaten at Christmas time and other special occasions. In New England in 1621, there were plenty of wild geese for hunting in the autumn. Today, frozen and fresh geese are readily available in most supermarkets. Mustard was without a doubt the most common condiment in the 17th century. It was served with every sort of meat and was thought to be especially good with goose, brawn (pickled pork) and fish. This mustard sauce can be made the day it’s served, or several weeks in advance.

For the goose:

1 goose (10 to 12 pounds), fat removed from cavity

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1⁄2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

For the mustard sauce:

1 cup yellow mustard seeds

3 tablespoons sugar

11⁄2 teaspoons salt

1⁄2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 cups red wine vinegar or cider vinegar

For the goose: Position a rack on the bottom level of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Remove the giblets and reserve for another use. Rinse goose inside and out; pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle the inside and skin with salt and pepper. Place the goose on a rack set in a large roasting pan. With the tip of a small knife or a sharp skewer, prick the skin (not the meat) all over. Roast for 90 minutes, then remove the goose from the oven and carefully spoon most of the fat out of the pan. Return the pan to the oven and continue cooking for 75 minutes more for a 10-pound goose or 90 minutes more for a 12-pound goose.

Transfer the goose to platter and let rest for 20 minutes before carving. Serve with your favorite chutney or — for a 17th-century touch — the mustard sauce.

For the mustard sauce: Grind the mustard seed in a spice grinder, blender or mortar and pestle. It should be about the texture of coarse cornmeal. Place the mustard in a medium bowl and add the spices. Pour in the vinegar and stir well to combine. Let the mustard stand two hours (or more) and stir again. If it is too thick, you can add water or additional vinegar, white wine or even dry sherry. The mustard can be eaten at this point — however, it will be very sharp. The mustard mellows very nicely over time and is truly at its best at least a week or two after it is made.

Put the mustard in a sterile quart jar. Cover the jar with a lid and allow the mustard to mellow unrefrigerated. Add more liquid as needed. When you are ready to serve the mustard, taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.

Any unused mustard can be stored indefinitely. It will continue to mellow as it ages.

Makes 2 cups.