Thanksgiving menus are supposedly traditional, meaning in this day and age, what we remember from our childhood. To be truly traditional, we would have to duplicate the meal served at what everybody refers to as “the first Thanksgiving,” The problem there is that there is considerable disagreement as to which of many recorded observations of thanksgiving was the official, historical celebration and even less agreement in the matter of what foods were included.

We must remember that days of giving thanks for a good harvest were celebrated in many cultures for hundreds, even thousands, of years before our early settlers gave thanks for surviving their first year here; having successfully grown some of their usual crops from the old world and learned from friendly natives how to make use of some of the strange new plants and animals to be found here. Some historians believe it was not a feast of thanksgiving at all, but a celebration of the signing of a treaty with the natives. And that might explain why the local natives were invited,

Not only is there disagreement regarding the foods served, but also how they might have been prepared. For instance, there was no pumpkin pie (pumpkin was served as a vegetable) and since potatoes had not yet been introduced to this part of the world, you can forget the mashed potatoes. Meats were cooked outdoors over open fires, so there wouldn’t have been gravy as we know it – there might have been a sort of Yorkshire pudding – probably a cornbread-like concoction intended to catch the juices dripping from the roasting meat. Today, we stuff the turkey with flavorful bread dressing.

At that time of year, what the natives called “maize” would have been mature and dried, so there would have been no roasting ears or bowls of tender cut sweetcorn; maybe a concoction of cracked corn soaked in milk, seasoned with onions and herbs and baked into a kind of corn pudding. There were turkeys, but hardly the pre-basted, succulent Butterballs of today. Since that time, American wild turkeys have been crossbred with different imported European varieties and are much different from the wild ones of that time. Iowans are accustomed to the Iowa version of venison (meaning deer who feed mostly on grass and grain, much the same diet as do our domestic cattle.) Back then, wild deer, elk and moose (all called venison) ate more forest plants, including acorns, tree bark and evergreen twigs, and their meat tasted quite different from what we have today.

“The History of American Food” suggests that being on the seacoast, the early settlers ate a lot of seafood, including, among the available fish, oysters and crabs. There were plentiful lobsters which were known to grow as large as five feet in length and were as common then as canned tuna is today – the sort of fallback available when there was nothing else available to cook for supper.

One thing that has never been on my Thanksgiving menu is the ubiquitous green bean casserole which hasn’t been around for long enough to qualify as a tradition. I ate far too many green beans as a child and, aside from the small, tender early ones that have been barely scalded and combined with crisp bacon and drippings with sauteed onions, the only other way I like them is pickled, and that requires a certain variety that has thick meaty pods containing small tender beans.

As it is impossible to reproduce the menu for that “First Thanksgiving” even if we knew for sure what it included. I suggest that you create your own “tradition” and start with the foods your family likes and considers most festive. If only two of the whole family like cranberries, why bother? If chocolate cream pie wins more votes than pumpkin, why not? If you want to try out something entirely new, give it a trial run this week and if it’s a winner, you can add it to your list. And remember, that “first” feast consisted of foods that were available and familiar. If your family prefers pizza, don’t give them roasted peacock and caviar. And don’t be shy about asking for help. If Aunt Ruth is the only one who makes Grandma’s apple salad the “proper” way, ask her to bring it. She’ll be pleased you asked.