NCM Nov/Dec 2023

Page 74

COWETA FEATURE

Turkey:

The Lore, The Legend,

The Lunch I

Written by FRANCES KIDD

f you have the image in your head of Native Americans and early American settlers smiling at each other across a long table with platters of turkey, you’ve probably been watching too many holiday movies. As the New York Times put it in a November 21, 2017 article, “Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong.” Not only was there no mention of turkey on the menu at the 1621 feast, but, heavens forbid, there was no pie. Turns out there are as many origin stories about the first Thanksgiving as there are tweaks in recipes for Southern cornbread dressing. (But of course, all good Southern cooks know theirs is the best – recipe, not Thanksgiving story.) According to most historians, November 1621 marked the Pilgrims’ first autumn harvest, and it’s likely that the colonists feasted on the crops they had reaped with the help of their Native American “neighbors.” 74 |

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