This is a blog about Thanksgiving, the quintessential American holiday. It is not about the First Thanksgiving, or the late 19th century Thanksgiving, or the 20th Century Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving story is about Thanksgiving in late 18^th and early 19^th century New England, specifically Salem, Massachusetts, the setting of my upcoming novel.

At the time, Thanksgiving was the most important holiday of the year, though there was no exact day for observance. In 1789, George Washington declared November 26 as the national day of Thanksgiving, but not every state followed suit.

The day began with a church service to thank God for the year’s bounteous blessings. But feast preparations began much earlier with both cleaning and cooking activities. Pies, for example, could be made far in advance and stored in unheated bedrooms or the attic where they froze. Uneaten Thanksgiving pies might not be consumed until April.

Since butchering generally occurred after the holiday, the menu emphasized fowl for the meat course. Accounts of the time talk about farmers coming into Salem from the country with wagons full of poultry or loads of wood. Vendors set up on each side of Essex Street from Central to Washington Streets.

The large family party began about 3:00 with well-spread tables and by 11:00 guests were on their way home.

Though turkey was often on the menu, many thought the small birds were a lot of work for not much meat. Chicken pies were far more popular as well as more economical.
Roasted root vegetables filled out the menu. As a special treat, vegetables served on Thanksgiving were peeled.
And for dessert — Plum Pudding
As far as liquid refreshment, hard apple cider was a popular choice.

To get an idea of traditional foods, consider these recipes from Elizabeth Cleland A New and Easy Method of Cookery, published in 1757.

Recipes

TO ROAST YOUNG TURKEYS.

Put in their bellies Forc’d-meat*, made of their livers, scalded Oisters, green Onions, Parsley, mince them all, Crumbs of Bread, Salt, Nutmeg and grated Lemon-peel; mix them all with a Piece of Butter, and a raw Egg: you may either lard them, or roll them Saves of Bacon, then paper and roast them; put Gravy in the Dish with them, and Bradsauce in a Sauce-boat made thus: Boil some Bread and Water, with a little white Gravy, an Onion stuffed with Cloves, a Blade of Mace, and a little Salt; boil it smooth; put in a good Lump of butter, then give it a Boil; take out the Onion before you send it to Table. You may roast Chicken the same Way.

*Forc’d-meat is a mixture of meat or vegetables chopped and seasoned to use as stuffing or garnish

TO MAKE A CHICKEN PIE

Scald your Chickens, and cut them in Quarters, wash them very clean; season them with Pepper, Salt, Cloves andMace; put them in your Dish with Forc’d-meat Balls, Yoks of hard Eggs, and Artichoke Bottoms. You may make it without this if you please; put a little Butter and Gravy. You may put Fruit in it, if you like it sweet, and make a Caudle for it as above. You may leave the Chickens whole if you please.

TO MAKE A PLUM PUDDING

Beat eight Eggs and half a pound of Flour, two Gills* of Milk, and half a Pound of Raisins shred, half a Pound of Currants washed and picked clean, half a Pound of Beef Sweet shred small, and mix all together; season it with Nutmeg, Ginger, Salt, and a Glass of Brandy. Two Hours boils it.

*One gill is four ounces of liquid.

Games

After the feast, guests retired for wine and games. One popular game was Hunt the Slipper. After naming one person as “It,” the players sat in circle with their feet drawn up and knees raised high enough so that a slipper could be passed hand-to-hand under each player’s knees. Meanwhile, the person who was “It” ran outside the circle trying to touch the person who had the slipper. If she or he succeeded, the two exchanged places and the game resumed.

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Illustrations

Thanksgiving Postcard.

Ours to Fight For: Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell.

Old Christmas 1916.

Wild Turkey.

Chicken Pie by Oddbodtz.

Plum Pudding  Attribution: Kolforn (Wikimedia).

Hunt the Slipper by Thomas Rowlandson.

Kinga Borondy. “How has the New England Thanksgiving Menu Changed?” Wicked Local. Nov. 18, 2021.

The post Thanksgiving in 18th Century Salem, Mass. first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Recent research for my current project has turned up a few interesting insights into how eighteenth century New Englanders celebrated Thanksgiving, which makes an interesting change for the annual stories about the first Thanksgiving in 1621.

Over a hundred years since the Pilgrims stepped ashore, colonial Americans did not worry about starvation or share the holiday with Native Americans who, by this time, had been largely banished to the western frontier. Salem and other towns on the Eastern Seaboard had different holiday traditions.

Thanksgiving was the most important holiday on the New England calendar, particularly since most people dismissed Christmas as a day of almost pagan excess. Thanksgiving occurred between late November and mid-December, after the harvest was in, but before annual butchering of animals. That labor-intensive event took place about a week after Thanksgiving. Consequently, various species of poultry took pride of place on the menu. 

Thanksgiving celebrations began with a church service, so people could express their gratitude for a successful year. In 1750 Calvinist churches in Salem still took a grim and fearful approach to God, but as the century moved on, a more intellectual Unitarian attitude affected the worship services.

Once church was over, people returned home to prepare for the holiday. Dinner was a family party with about thirty guests, and began at 3:00 in the afternoon. Usually there would be two full tables of food, plus a smaller table for the children. The menu sounds similar to our modern traditions, but the ingredients differed.

Wild turkeys, in particular, were much smaller than the turkeys available in our supermarkets. Male turkeys were about 16 pounds, and female about 9 pounds.

Dinner was served in two courses.

First Course Menu

The first course featured turkey which might be roasted or baked in a pie, as well as chicken pies. Side dishes included various seasonal vegetables, pickles, preserves, breads, honey, and cheese.

Second/Dessert Course Menu

The dessert course consisted primarily of fruit pies. Mincemeat and plum pudding were also served

After dinner, gentlemen enjoyed wine or other beverages while ladies retired to the drawing room.

Hunting the Slipper

After the guests reunited, there were various games, including Hunt the Slipper, a circle game in which one person is a customer and the others are the cobblers. The customer takes his slipper to a cobbler and asks him to repair it. The cobbler accepts the slipper. When the customer returns, the cobbler says the slipper is lost. Now the customer must try to find the slipper while players pass the slipper under their knees so the customer can’t see who has the slipper.

People went for after dinner strolls and called on their neighbors. Many hosts included hired musicians. the day might conclude with a cold super of leftovers from the earlier meal. Most people departed for home by 11:00.

Contemporary Recipes

As a sample of 18^th century cooking, I’ve included two recipes from the Compleat Housewife: or, Accomplish’d Gentlewoman’s Companion, published in 1758.

To Roast a Turkey

Take a quarter of a pound of lean veal, a little thyme, parsley, sweet marjoram, a spring of winter savory, a bit of lemon peel, one onion, a nutmeg-grated, a dram of mace, a little salt, and half a pound of butter.

Cut your herbs very small.

Pound your meat as small as possible and mix all together with three eggs and as much flour or bread as will make it of a proper consistence. Then fill the crop of your turkey with it, paper the breast and lay it down a good distance from the fire. An hour and quarter will roast, if not very large.

To Make a Chicken Pie

Take six small chickens; roll up a piece of butter in sweet spice & put into the chickens; season them; lay them in the pie with marrow of two bones and with fruit & preserves – prunella’s, damsons, gooseberries. Close the pie.

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Illustrations

A Wild Turkey During Mating Season.

New England Thanksgiving Dinner in Falmouth, Maine 2005.

Female Wild Turkey by Judy Gallagher.

Hunt The Slippers by Thomas Rowlandson.

Open Hearth Cooking, Kent Plantation House by Billy Hathorn.

The post Thanksgiving in 18th Century New England first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Over the past two weeks, we’ve dressed a lady and a gentleman in 18th century clothing, so it seems only fair that we give these fashionable people a destination. In this case, they are attending a formal dinner.

Table manners were different in the 18th century. As you may have observed from Jane Austin dramas, the lady of the house sat at the head of the table, and the family head at the foot. Guests generally sorted out their own seating based on social rank.

Once seated, guests were expected to remain so and could not leave the room. For convenience, one or more chamber pots were discreetly placed. This allowed conversation to continue as the guest discreetly went about his or her business.

The only other reason for a guest to rise from his or her seat was to raise the wine glass in a toast. Each time a guest wanted a sip of wine, he or she had to challenge another diner by looking him or her in the eye and waiting until the other person raised his or her glass. Each took a swallow and put the glass back on the table until he or she was challenged by someone else. I should imagine this led to many challenges throughout the meal until the dessert course when the rules were relaxed and guests could imbibe at will.

When guests entered the dining room, the table was covered in a white cloth with an undercloth that reached to the floor. There were no napkins, because the English considered individual napkins a French invention and would not use them. [The English and French were at war in the mid-eighteenth century.] Instead, diners wiped their mouths and hands on the table cloth itself. This custom continued into the 19th century.
There were place settings upon the table and perhaps a centerpiece such as a silver candelabra.

The table illustration on the right lacks a table cloth. Perhaps the hostess plans to proceed directly to dessert? Plates were not on the table when diners took their seats but were kept near a fire to keep them warm. When the meal was served, servants brought in the warmed plates and served the food. The kitchen was some distance from the dining room which meant food arrived lukewarm at best, so the plates served a warming function. Plates and serving dishes such as soup tureens were China porcelain, generally with a blue pattern.

Tableware consisted of a fork, knife, and spoon. The two-pronged fork came into use in the 17th century to hold meat in the place so it could be cut. During the 18th century, a third prong was added. With the introduction of forks, knives lost their pointed end in favor of a curved one, and the blade became broader. The diner placed whatever she wished on the knife’s broad blade which she used to bring the food to her mouth. About this time, toothpicks came into use to replace the knife’s point.

The meal often took three or more hours with several courses. Servants laid out each course by bringing out the plates and setting the food on the table so the diners could serve themselves from the dishes nearest to their place. So there might be twenty-five items on the table, but an individual might only be able to sample three or four. The first course was generally a soup or a simple stew.

When a dining course was over, servants cleared the entire table and reset it with new dishes and tableware. This may explain why a set of china often has so many place settings. Even a small party would require a large number of dishes.

Eventually, it was time for the dessert course. This time, the table cloth was also removed and dessert dishes came out. These included those dishes that look like baskets. After eating so much rich food, diners preferred light desserts such as seasonal fruit and light wafers or small cakes. After dessert, diners enjoyed wine and conversation for about an hour. Then the ladies withdrew for tea and conversation while men remained to smoke, drink port, and converse on topics not meant for ladies’ ears. At a certain point, the men rejoined the ladies for conversation, card games, and dancing.

Illustrations

18^th century festive meal. From the school of Ziata Koruna.

Chamber Pot. File from Wellcome Images.

Wine glass with rounded funnel, engraved with leaves, butterflies, & cut bunches of grapes. Photo by York Museum Trust Staff.

18th Century Dinning Table at Copped Hall by Acagashi.

Gallery: Chinese Dish from Huntington Museum of Art; 18th Century Delft Soup Tureen; Dutch Knife and Fork.

Fruit Compote Dish from White House Lincoln China.

18th Century Playing Card featuring Elizabeth of York as Queen of Hearts.

Illustration from Sereschen student album, c. 1750.

The post An 18th Century Formal Dinner first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.