In advance of the Society’s Heritage Cooking Event with Clara Silverstein on December 1st and the Heritage Cookie Swap on December 6th, we’d like to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.
Pictured above is The First Thanksgiving 1621, oil on canvas by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1899). The painting shows common misconceptions about the event that persist to modern times: Pilgrims did not wear such outfits, the Wampanoag are dressed in the style of Native Americans from the Great Plains, and what can we say about the seating arrangements?
For the more authentically inclined, Slow Foods USA has documented some traditional Thanksgiving recipes, including Wampanoag and pilgrim recipes for all the nasaump, turkey sobaheg, boiled bread, curd fritters, samp, and stewed pompion you’ll need to recreate your own First Thanksgiving of 1621. Also available are many other delicious-sounding harvest and holiday traditions from across the country.
The recipes are complimented by information and links about the complicated and often-controversial origins of the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s definitely worth a look!