18th November 2011
Thanksgiving – a very particular American holiday
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The Good Food Guide's Consultant Editor, Elizabeth Carter, prepares for Thanksgiving...
The turkey’s ordered, the menu and guest list (almost) finalised and it’s only mid November. No, I’m not one of those infuriating people who have Christmas sorted already, I’m doing Thanksgiving again this year.
Of all the holidays on the American calendar, Thanksgiving is the one with the most connection to family. It’s a truly national holiday, celebrated on the last Thursday in November, a day when food and family take centre stage. If there is a day when home cooks rule – this is it. And such is its emotional appeal, ex-pat Americans feel the need to celebrate too, as a way of connecting with loved ones at home. With an American husband and transatlantic kids, it’s an annual event in my household. It’s huge fun, a massive production number with family and friends getting together for an enormous meal. We would never dream of going to a restaurant.
Historically, it is a celebration of survival by the original settlers, giving thanks for the good things in life. The American Indians had observed autumnal harvest celebrations for centuries, and harvest festivals in England were an ancient custom too, so the first recorded Thanksgiving in Plymouth in 1621 was a likely combination of these two traditions. By the middle of the 17th century Thanksgiving had become a regular event, and the first national Thanksgiving was declared in 1777. However, by 1815 the custom had fallen out of use and celebration of the holiday was limited to individual state observances. But by the 1850s almost every state and territory was celebrating Thanksgiving and in 1863 (in the middle of the civil war) President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday once again.
The main staples of a Thanksgiving meal are based on the autumnal produce harvested in New England in the 17th century: turkey, cranberries, corn, pumpkin and root vegetables. As the holiday spread across the country, local cooks modified the menu, using what was readily available locally. Baked hams, sweet potato and corn bread were main ingredients in southern Thanksgiving meals, but become so popular across the country that they are now as expected as turkey and cranberry sauce. Elsewhere, stuffing made with wild rice or flavoured with chillies or nuts, first courses of fish and shellfish, and desserts like pecan or key lime pie have all became acceptable additions.
It means there is a lot of scope for creating an exciting menu built around the main classic ingredients. This year I’m going to make chestnut and apple stuffing for the turkey, prepare spoon bread (not unlike a bread sauce), offer really creamy mashed potatoes as well as potatoes roasted in goose fat and sweet potatoes (possibly as a soup first course). For vegetables I’m considering root vegetable rösti, braised red cabbage with apple, roasted pears and red onions, and purple sprouting broccoli with garlic and almonds. Naturally, there will be lashings of gravy made with juices from the roasting pan, and cranberry sauce. For dessert I’m torn between spiced pumpkin cheesecake or a stunning version of individual Portuguese custard tarts made with pumpkin, cream, star anise and oranges and, as it is traditional to serve more than one dessert, I’m planning on making an apple galette with vanilla ice cream.
Someone else is cooking the Christmas meal this year.