For being one of the most famous meals in American history we actually don't know all that much
about what we now call the first Thanksgiving in 1621 especially when it comes to the food that they ate
though that's not going to stop me from trying to make something that might have been served.
Sobaheg a venison stew from the Wampanoag Nation.
So thank you to Babel for sponsoring this video as we cobble together the first Thanksgiving meal
this time on Tasting History.
So like I said we don't actually know all that much about that three-day feast in 1621 because
there are very few contemporary resources that wrote about it
and those that we do have are decidedly from one side of the table which they probably didn't have a table.
And much of what we think we know actually comes from stories written in the 1800s and even early 1900s
to give an origin story to a relatively new holiday because at the 1621 feast
they wouldn't have called it Thanksgiving.
To the pilgrims a day of Thanksgiving was a day spent often fasting and silently in prayer,
quite the opposite of what we do now.
That said there was likely a three-day feast held at the Plymouth Plantation in 1621
and present were 53 Pilgrims from England and nearly a hundred men from the local Wampanoag Nation.
Edward Winslow wrote "many of the Indians coming amongst us,
and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoyt, with some ninety men,
whom for three days we entertained in feast tested and they went out and killed five deer
which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor and upon the captain and others."
Other than a previous mention of hunting birds he doesn't mention any other foods that were served nor how they were prepared,
but as the Wampanoag brought five deer we can assume that maybe they had some hand in how it was cooked.
One traditional way would have been in a stew years later other Algonquin languages called this sapahic or sobaheg
and the theme of language really runs through this entire story
so it's very fitting that the sponsor for today's video is Babbel
because Babbel is one of the top language learning apps in the world and it's easy to see why because the lessons
are written by actual language teachers and are meant to prepare you for real life situations,
and the courses are 10 to 15 minutes long so you can fit in a lesson while you're waiting for your Crème Anglaise to thicken.
El patio is rojo.
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that can take hours even days to prepare giving me a lot more time to work on my Spanish.
Finalmente! La casa de Frida Kahlo
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so we can all learn a new language while we wait for our venison stew to cook.
So for this recipe what you'll need is: one to two pounds or a half kg gram of venison, a half pound or 225 grams of dried beans,
a half pound or 225 grams of polenta. So while polenta is Italian it is made with Flint corn which would have been
the corn that was grown in the area in the 17th century so it's going to be more historically accurate
than grits because that is made from Dent corn but you can still use grits you're not going to notice a huge difference
1 pound or 450 grams of winter squash a handful of fresh herbs.
I'm using sage and mint but you can use pretty much any herbs that you want also I'm leaving them whole
or just torn in half because they are going to be in there for quite some time
but if you want to add chopped herbs you can add those later on in the recipe what you do want to chop is some green onion,
and if you have access to wild onion or wild garlic those are actually going to be even better but they can be rather hard to find.
Now with any of these ingredients you can add more or less of whatever you want like
if two pounds of squash end up falling into my pot
I'm not gonna be mad because I really, really like squash.
The one thing you do want to start with a small amount of is clam juice go with about a quarter cup or 60 milliliters to start.
This is basically going to be the salt of the dish and was a popular and still is a popular ingredient
in that part of the U.S mostly now for clam chowder but it was used in a lot of things earlier on
and it does add kind of a brininess but it can very quickly become overpowering
so start off with a quarter cup you can add more later on.
So three of these ingredients are paramount to this dish: the beans, the squash, and the corn or maize.
These were the three staples of the diet throughout much of North America and were called the three sisters because of how they grew together.
Rather than planting them in separate fields they were grown together to create a symbiotic plant complex,
really good band name.
As the corn stalk grows it acts as a trellis for the climbing beans and the climbing beans act as a stabilizer for the corn stalk in high winds.
The beans also regulate the nitrogen in the soil, the squash then grows along the ground,
and its leaves shade the soil so it stays moist and prevents weeds from establishing though before you
add the three sisters to the stew you're going to want to chop your venison into small pieces
and then sear them in a lightly greased pan over high heat.
Now this is not absolutely necessary but I do find that it really kind of develops the flavor and really the best way to do it would be
over an open fire but I don't have an open fire so I'm using a pan with some duck fat,
but you can also use any oil that you want,
and just give the meat a light sear and then rinse your beans. Now if you are in the camp of you must soak your beans overnight
go ahead and do that.
I have found that it doesn't really affect the flavor and it only cuts down in the cook time by about 20 or 25 minutes
so I don't really find it worth it. Instead I just toss them into the pot with about three quarts of water,
then add the ground corn and the seared meat, the onion, herbs, and clam juice.
The only thing you should be holding back is the squash. Then stir everything together and set it over medium high heat and bring it to a simmer,
and while it's on the high heat really make sure
to keep stirring the pot the corn will fall to the bottom
and will burn to the bottom of the pot so you don't want that.
Once it starts to simmer lower the heat to medium so it stays at a gentle simmer,
stirring it often and skimming off any foam that collects on the top.
Keep an eye on it as it cooks for the next two and a half hours or until the beans are soft.
Now it will thicken naturally because of the corn but it will also thicken because of the steam, the water will boil away.
You do want it thick but if too much water boils away bad things will happen it will start to burn
so add some more hot water if necessary.
Either way keep stirring it every once in a while because the goal is to not let anything burn to the bottom of the pot,
a goal which I did not achieve so AVENGE me
while I tell you about some of the food at that first Thanksgiving.
So to talk about that food that they might have eaten at that harvest festival in 1621 it is important
to talk about why they were having that harvest festival
and that story actually starts years before any Pilgrim got on any Mayflower.
Around the year 1600 in the area that is now Southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island the Wampanoag Nation flourished.
Wampanoag meaning people of the first light as they extended all the way to
the eastern coast allowing them to see the sun's first rays.
One of the many tribes that made up the nation was the Patuxtut tribe to which Tisquantum later known as Squanto belonged.
Now they had been in contact with Europeans for the better part of a century during which time things had been
relatively peaceful namely because there were a lot of people living in the area,
and so the Europeans could just trade and then pretty much had to get back on their boats and leave
but around the turn of the century a practice started of kidnapping the young men during these trades
and selling them into slavery and that is in 1605 what happened to Tisquantum.
"He was carried away with diverse others by one Hunt, a master of a ship, who thought to sell them for slaves in Spain;
buthe got away for England, and was entertained by a merchant in London."
While in London Tisquantum learned English and then he got a job on a ship that first took him to Newfoundland and finally home in late 1619
but when he walked into his village of Patuxtut it was empty.
In fact most of the land around Cape Cod was completely devoid of any people
because while he had been away European Traders had brought a new disease for which the native population had no immunity.
It might have been yellow fever, it might have been smallpox, there's still debate nobody really knows
what they do know is that 75% to 90% of the people living in the area were dead in three years.
This depopulation left the Wampanoag Nation vulnerable to to attack from their neighbor to the west the
who had been very little affected by the disease due to natural barriers.
The Chief or Sachem of the Wampanoag was understandably on edge and rather wary of Europeans or those sailing with them.
His name was Ousamequin though was better known by his title Massasoit or Great Sachem.
So fast forward a year and another English ship arrives, the Mayflower.
They first landed on the tip of Cape Cod in November of 1620 then crossed the bay to settle in Patuxet,
the abandoned Village that Tisquantum had once called home.
Of course those on the Mayflower didn't know that that was what it was called so they named it New Plymouth after the English Port from which they'd sailed.
These are the Pilgrims though they wouldn't have called themselves that.
Half of them were the English Puritan sect called the Separatists who actually spent most of the last 12 years living in Holland,
that didn't work out so they asked the King of England for a charter to go to the new world
which is why they were on the Mayflower and while they were aboard the Mayflower
they called themselves "saints", so much for humility.
The other half of the passengers they referred to as "strangers" though I'm going to guess that after several months on a small ship
there were no strangers amongst the 102 pilgrims.
Now if you have ever been to Massachusetts in November and December you'll know that it's not the best time of year to be setting up a new settlement
especially when for all of their gumption the Pilgrims were woefully unprepared for this trip.
See they planned on doing a lot of fishing but it turns out none of them really knew how to fish especially in large quantities
and they brought some food with them but not enough of the staples to last them for an entire season.
So the Pilgrims actually lived on the Mayflower for those first few months while they slowly built a new settlement on land
and they lived partly off of food that they brought with them
but mostly off of the food that they found when they got onto the land.
William Bradford said that they've found corn next to the graves of the natives that were there,
and from abandoned houses and storage pits
they took "fair Indian baskets filled with corn, and some in ears, fair and good, of diverse colors, which seem a very goodly sight."
They also found beans and it was these foods that really sustained them for that first winter, even so
it wasn't really enough and with a terrible bout of scurvy half of the Pilgrims died in those first few months
but on March 1621 a man named Samoset walked into the settlement and greeted them in English
and in a contemporary description of the event we actually hear about some of the food that they still had left.
Samoset asked for a beer and instead they gave him hardtack
[Clack Clack]
"...we gave him strong water and biscuit, and butter, and cheese, and pudding, and a piece of mallard."
A week later he returned with another man who spoke perfect English the last Patuxet, Tisquantum,
who William Bradford nicknamed Squanto. He was the translator between the English and Massasoit
when Massasoit first came and they signed a treaty of mutual protection.
If the Narragansett or anyone else attacked either party the other party would come to their aid.
He also taught the pilgrims a lot about farming in the new land. He taught them about the Three Sisters and how to gather
the mussels and clams and lobsters that were right outside their door.
"Tisquantum went to fish for eels, at night he came home with as many as he could well lift in one hand,
which our people were glad of, they were fat and sweet, he tried them out with his feet,
and so caught them with his hands, without any other instrument."
With Squanto's help William Bradford said "All the summer there was no want,
and now began to come in store of fowl... of which the this place did abound...
And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.
Besides, they had a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion,"
Other foods they wrote of included "Great stores of fruit... there is likewise walnuts, chestnuts, small nuts and plums... roots and herbs...
No place hath more gooseberries than strawberries, nor better... and great flocks of turkey, quails, pigeons and partridges;
many great lakes abounding with fish, fish, fowl, beavers and otters.
The barley and wheat which the pilgrims had brought with them and
expected to be their main food source as it had in England failed to thrive,
but with Squanto's help they found new crops that did thrive
and sometime between September and November of 1621
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that's so we might after a special manner rejoice together,
after we had gathered the fruits of our labors they four in in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside,
served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms."
That is they fired off their guns and that line has been the source of speculation for years because
the next line is when Massasoit and his ninety warriors arrive
but there's no explanation of of why they arrive. Was it because they heard the gunfire?
And if so was it because they thought that the Pilgrims were coming to attack them,
or were they going to honor their Treaty of Protection thinking that someone else might be attacking the Pilgrims?
Who knows.
Because the next thing that they mention is that they go get five deer and for the next three days
eat and play games together, that was the first Thanksgiving, even if they wouldn't have called it that.
Now within just a few weeks of this feast more English arrive.
There was also conflict between Squanto and Massasoit but amazingly while there was
plenty of conflict between the other Puritans coming over and many of the other tribes in the area the
treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag actually lasted for 50 years.
Basically the entire life of those who were there,
it was the next generation where things fell apart and in the 1670s in a conflict called King Philip's War
the Wampanoag Nation was all but wiped out and basically anyone that was left was sold into slavery.
Now it's easy to think about that short period of time
around the first Thanksgiving when everything on the surface seems to be going so well
but I think when you're enjoying your Thanksgiving this year it's just as important to remember the years before
the circumstances that led Squanto to being able to speak English and
the land was devoid of people for the Pilgrims to set up on as well as the years afterward
from which many have still yet to recover which is why as part of my giving thanks for everything that I have this year
I am supporting what I think is a wonderful cause.
The Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project,
after 150 years of dormancy they are bringing back and reclaiming the Wampanoag language
mostly by using historic documents which I think is so cool,
and I think it is so important to have this language thriving
because it is so important to American history
after all it is one of the two languages that would have been spoken at that first Thanksgiving,
and was likely spoken by the people who would have made something like this venison stew.
So at two and a half hours give this to a taste and add some more clam juice chopped herbs, or some salt if you like.
Then cut the squash into small pieces and add them to the pot and simmer for another 30 minutes,
or until a knife can easily go through the squash,
and here we are Wampanoag venison stew.
Trying to get a little bit of everything here it's kind of impossible, there's so much inhere.
but I've got most of the things here in the spoonful so let's have a go.
Hm!
I love the different textures.
So the main things that I got in that spoonful were the squash which is soft but still firm there's still some some tooth to it,
and then the venison- which venison is so interesting it gave and then it dissolved,
and you were just left with the flavor which which is really nice. I like venison, I like game meats in general,
if you don't then then probably use something- you know something else. You can actually use turkey for this, even.
The really fun texture in there is actually from the polenta because it is still
they're still very separate grains and so you're getting- it's not a grittiness it's just-
it's just something that makes it so it's not mush.
When it comes to the flavor it's it's very subtle it's kind of an earthiness. It's really- I feel like the beans are what contributes most to the flavor.
So imagine just eating beans with a little a few more layers on top of that
but then when you bite into the squash obviously that flavor like pops out and whatnot.
I think that you just have to kind of play with all of the different amounts and make it to your taste.
So again I'm going to put a link in the description description to the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project as well as
to Babbel where you can sign up to start learning a new language,
and have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I'll see you next time on Tasting History.