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All About Food: Reflecting on the origins of Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is almost upon us, and with it comes days of cooking and other preparation for a holiday meal that lasts about 15 minutes.

We all have our holiday traditions, and for many a turkey dinner is one of the musts. Did you know that in 2013, about 46 million turkeys were eaten on Thanksgiving Day? Turkey is eaten by 88% of Americans on that Thursday.

Many years before the Europeans arrived in the United States, wild turkeys were known throughout the U.S., Mexico and Central America. The Aztecs domesticated them, and then the conquistadors also domesticated the birds when they took some back to Spain. The Turkeys became much fatter.

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Then the European settlers brought the domesticated version to the New World, where they were crossed with the wild turkeys, which resulted in even fatter turkeys. After all these years, turkeys have gotten fatter and fatter.

Nowadays, most turkeys are bred to get the maximum amount of white meat. The breasts have become so fat that the birds are put through artificial insemination because they can’t get close enough to mate.

History tells us that the Pilgrims sailed in 1620 and arrived after more than two months at sea but they remained on the boat because it was winter. Many of these passengers died of various illnesses before they landed. When they finally disembarked, in March, only half of the 102 passengers lived to see their first spring.

Amazingly, when they landed, they were greeted by an Abenaki Indian, who spoke to them in English. He and another Indian, Squanto, who also spoke English, taught them to cultivate corn, extract sugar from maple trees, catch fish and avoid poisonous plants.

In 1621, they had a feast that lasted three days to celebrate the first harvest, and the Indians provided deer and venison. Although no one can be sure, many historians think that there were no turkeys (or potatoes or pumpkin pies) at that feast. They did have cranberries — raw. The pilgrims also had roasted goose, codfish, lobster and corn, all shared with the Wampanoag Indians who had helped them.

The actual designation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday was in good part attributed to the unrelenting efforts of Sarah Josepha Hale, who launched a 40-year campaign. Hale was the influential editor of the popular women’s magazine Geody’s Ladies Book, although she may be best known as the writer of the nursery rhyme “ Mary Had A Little Lamb.” She was also an author of cookbooks and, as part of her Thanksgiving campaign, she shared recipes for turkey, cranberries, potatoes, oysters and more.

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After many years of lobbying, she finally convinced President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to set this day aside. He did because he felt it would help to unite the war-torn country. Thanksgiving was originally the third Thursday of November but was later changed to the fourth Thursday, as it stands today.

Thanksgiving trivia: According the Guinness Book of Records, the world’s largest pumpkin pie ever baked was 2,020 pounds and 12 feet long. It was made by the New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers in New Bremen, Ohio, in 2005. It required 900 pounds of pumpkin, 62 gallons of evaporated milk, 155 dozen eggs, 300 pounds of sugar, 3.5 pounds of salt, 2 pounds of pumpkin spice and 250 pounds of crust. It was baked for five hours, and 200 pounds was lost in the baking, but there was still enough left to cut it into 3,000 pieces.

Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving.

TERRY MARKOWITZ was in the gourmet food and catering business for 20 years. She can be reached for comments or questions at m_markowitz@cox.net.

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