Thanksgiving: An American Meal - Archive - Fox Nation
Politics

November 18, 2009

Thanksgiving: An American Meal

When Thanksgiving spread around the country in the mid-19th century, it was in the hope that holiday good feelings would heal the rift between North and South. So, the Thanksgiving menu had a certain amount of can't-we-all-get-together culinary nationalism to it.

 

The main course? Turkey, of course, an indigenous American bird. It was well known that Native Americans and the early colonists used cranberries to flavor meat, so you clearly had to serve cranberry sauce with your bird. Americans were renowned pie-eaters in the 19th century, making pie the obvious dessert, and the supreme holiday pie was filled with pumpkin -- another native American ingredient.

 

As a result, roast turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie became emphatically tied to the holiday. Until the cranberry juice craze and the discovery that turkey breast is low in fat, quite a few Americans never ate turkey or anything cranberry between one Thanksgiving and the next, and that's probably still true of pumpkin pie.

Read The Full Article

What do you think?


Comments

All Opinions Welcome

The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expression, and worship. Read more...

We invite all Americans who share these values to join us here at Fox Nation.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

In this photo provided by the Las Vegas News Bureau, Miley Cyrus leaves Hanna Montana behind and walks the red carpet in a daring outfit for the 2012 Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand on the...

Sen. Rob Portman on President Obama

"He will have to explain to the American people why his vision for bigger government, more spending, and higher taxes will work over the next four years when it hasn't worked in the past three and a half years.” – Sen. Rob Portman on President Obama

 

Apple's Cook Top-Paid US CEO in 2011: ReportApple chief executive Tim Cook topped the list of the best-paid CEOs in the US in 2011 thanks to stock options that put him more than $300 million above...

Twitter Brigade

nytimes: Euro Watch: O.E.C.D. Sees Euro-Zone Crisis Hurting World Recovery http://t.co/DbVD7KOe

postpolitics: Congressional discourse getting dumber, study says http://t.co/CvCSoeW1

thecaucus: The Early Word: A Subtler Message http://t.co/GM9cQ74C

nytimes: U.S. School Districts Can Enter ‘Race to Top’ Competition http://t.co/Djsx8FeR

memeorandum: Joe Walsh, GOP Congressman, Quiet While Constituent Calls Obama A Socialist, Nazi, Communist... http://t.co/V9rkauPA http://t.co/b1jHajsw