Okay, What Did the Pilgrims Eat , the First Thanksgiving?

 I have been to both where the pilgrims landed and where they left in Plymouth, England. 

Plymouth, England, well, I know my people on my mom's side are from Devon-shire, and because Plymouth is the major port in that part of the world, I am assuming, they left from there. 

I was not impressed. Plymouth was not a wonderful place. Lots of impoverished parts of the city, and there is a part that is a navy base, and another part devoted to the university. 

Devon itself, well, I understand why they left and came to the "New World." Deb and I will not visit again, and Cornwall, where some of my wife's people are from, which is the county next to Devon, well, Cornwall has some rich sections and some really trashy parts, especially near the sea. 

So, did the Pilgrims eat turkey at the First Thanksgiving? 

Maybe, but probably not.....

They probably had duck or goose rather than turkey. 

Turkey is fairly recent addition to both Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, in England, turkey has been added to meals, larger, and more accepted by the younger folks in the family and easier to fix and in the long run cheaper for pubs and restaurants offer. 

Eating geese has fallen out of favor in both America and England. 

So, let's talk about the veggies they probably had.....

Onions, cabbage, carrots, dried beans....Generally Fall type veggies. Corn was served, but not as you might expect. 

Corn wasn't on the cob, or cut off the cob and served, it was generally turned into cornmeal, pounded and turned into a type of mush or porridge they often put honey or molasses into the mush to make it sweet. 

Then, there were pumpkins served, generally cooked and served in a mashed form, again, sweetened with honey or molasses. It is what they had. 

The thing that is obvious, and you might have at your feast, deer, venison was easy to obtain, and why not not kill a deer and serve it. 

Squirrel, rabbit.......Any type of wild game you could think of would be offered. 

There was fish especially cod offered. Mussels, clams, oysters......and lobster. There was so much lobster on the Northeast coast that it was fed to prisoners all 3 meals a day. Breakfast, lunch, supper. It was cheap and considered food for the lowest classes. The Indians are showing up, and the Pilgrims did not consider them upper class. We'll given them those lobsters. 

Dessert? Sort sort of custard. Pudding, there was no flour to make a pie crust as we would understand, but desserts were a pudding, sweetened mostly with honey.

But would we recognized the First Thanksgiving as we would know? 

Not really.