Did you know that Abraham Lincoln pardoned a *Christmas* turkey? Hi, I’m Erin McCarthy,
editor-in-chief of MentalFloss.Com. Some credit Lincoln with the first ever presidential Thanksgiving
turkey pardon, but that’s the wrong holiday. In 1863, the Lincoln family received the bird
as a gift meant to be cooked for Christmas dinner. But Tad Lincoln, 10 years old at the
time, grew fond of the turkey, which he named Jack. Shortly before Jack was to be killed,
Tad learned of the turkey’s impending fate. He successfully pleaded for a stay from the
turkey executioner and then ran into one of his father’s cabinet meetings, crying, “He’s
a good turkey and I don’t want him killed.” So Lincoln “pardoned” the bird.
And that’s the first of many Thanksgiving myths I’m going to debunk for you today.
It’s also a misconception that Harry S. Truman started the tradition of pardoning
a Thanksgiving turkey. In 1947, he did receive one from the National Turkey Federation, but
he most likely ate it. From then on, presidents received turkeys for the holiday. As for who
pardoned the first...well, it’s complicated. John F. Kennedy didn’t eat his, but he didn’t
call this “pardoning,” though the press did. Nixon sent at least some of his turkeys
to petting farms. Reagan jokingly used the word “pardon.” And it was president George
H W Bush who officially said, “Let me assure you, and this fine tom turkey, that he will
not end up on anyone’s dinner table, not this guy -- he’s granted a presidential
pardon as of right now.”
We’ve all heard relatives blame their post-Thanksgiving-dinner sleepiness on tryptophan. But that’s not
quite fair. It’s true that turkey contains the amino acid tryptophan. And it’s true
that the human body can use tryptophan to make serotonin, which helps us sleep. But
turkey contains lots of amino acids that the body works hard to get to the brain for various
purposes. There’s less tryptophan than those other amino acids; the amount of tryptophan
that actually makes it to the brain to create serotonin could best be described as *poultry*.
Not sorry! Plus, turkey has less tryptophan than other foods like cheese and nuts. Thanksgiving
grogginess is probably just due to overeating, and drinking if that’s your thing.
Some believe you need to rinse a turkey before cooking it to kill bacteria, but the USDA
actually recommends against it. When you wash raw poultry, you risk kitchen contamination.
Just cook your bird to 165 degrees Fahrenheit (about 74 degrees Celsius) to eliminate scary
bacteria. That's what the experts have to say, but I have to admit I'm still curious:
who's team 'rinse the turkey' and who's team 'no rinse'? Let us know in the comments.
According to the USDA website, while checking the temperature of a cooking turkey, it’s
important to monitor “the innermost part of the thigh and wing, and the thickest part
of the breast.” Which brings me to my next myth: pop-up thermometers pop when the turkey
is cooked. In fact, many of these thermometers are designed to pop up when the turkey has
reached around 180-185 degrees Fahrenheit—in other words: overcooked! And—Consumer
Reports tested pop-up timers and found that some popped when the meat was still severely
undercooked. Experts recommend you use a regular probe thermometer instead.
Turducken is not a new dish, though it was really only popularized around the turn of
the 21st century, when announcer John Madden was known to rhapsodize about it during Thanksgiving
NFL games. There are recipes going back to at least 1774 containing multiple birds within
each other. In 1807, a recipe called “roast without equal” emerged that called for 17
birds: sky-lark, thrush, quail, ortolan, lapwing, golden plover, partridge, woodcock, teal,
guinea-hen, guinea *fowl*, wild duck, fowl, red pheasant, wild goose, bustard, and fig
pecker—which is a real bird and, obviously, why I insisted on reading this list.
The creator of the turducken, specifically, is up for debate, but many trace its roots
to Louisiana or to Louisiana-based chef Paul Prudhomme, who claimed to invent the dish while
in a Wyoming lodge. Fun fact: According to Men’s Health, a typical Turducken contains
more than 12,000 calories. A regular turkey clocks in at around 2400.
It's a misconception that “stuffing” is cooked inside a turkey and “dressing”
is cooked in a dish. While there are some who subscribe to that distinction, geography
generally plays a bigger role in deciding which term is used. "Dressing" is more common
in the southern United States, whether cooked inside the bird or not, while stuffing is
more common up North.
There was a rumor going around in 2016 that canned pumpkin puree was actually a puree
of --gasp-- squash! But this one is actually kind of complicated. The company Libby’s makes about
85% of the pumpkin puree sold worldwide and they use Dickinson pumpkins in their recipes.
And if you want to sell a food and call it "pumpkin" in the U.S., the FDA allows food
prepared from any of the following to apply: "golden-fleshed, sweet squash or mixtures
of such squash and field pumpkin." Field pumpkin is what most of us picture when we think of
a pumpkin--it's round and orange and ready to be carved. Dickinson pumpkins aren't so
pretty; they're tan with less defined ridges. As for whether they can be considered pumpkins,
experts disagree. Some say they're pumpkins, some say they're squash, some say it doesn't
matter because it's all squash anyway!
It’s a misconception that there was popcorn at the first Thanksgiving. We can trace this
myth back to the 1889 novel Standish of Standish by Jane G. Austin—not to be confused with
the other Jane Austen. During the 1620s, the type of corn that grew in Plymouth was Northern
Flint corn, which doesn’t have the strong kernels that are ideal for popping.
And we call it “Thanksgiving” but...this probably wasn’t that. Pilgrims did celebrate
“thanksgiving days” after fortunate events, but those were usually religious days. They’d
go to church and give thanks to God, which is not what the Wampanoag tribe and Pilgrims
did during their 1621 celebration, as far as we know. To be clear, what we do know is
limited. It mostly comes from one letter written by Edward Winslow. In 1841, his letter was
published in Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers by Boston writer and publisher Alexander Young.
Young called the occasion the “First Thanksgiving,” even though there’s no mention of “thanksgiving”
in the original text.
Even if it had been a thanksgiving, it wouldn’t have been the first one in North America.
First of all, many Native American tribes also held ceremonies in which the purpose
was to give thanks. And many other European settlers did, too. In 1565, a group of Spaniards
invited the Timucua tribe to their thanksgiving in Saint Augustine, Florida. In 1598, another
group of Spaniards held a thanksgiving celebration on the Rio Grande. And in 1619, another thanksgiving
took place near Jamestown.
So the 1621 festival was not the reverential day (or three days) some picture. It was more
like a harvest festival. About 50 Pilgrims and 90 people from the Wampanoag tribe got
together and...partied. In addition to a lot of eating, they likely had games, races, and
mark shooting. The Pilgrims were known to brew beer, so there may have been some imbibing
as well.
We say that the Pilgrims invited Native Americans to the festival out of gratitude for helping
them with the harvest because it makes for a nice story, but there’s no way to confirm
that it’s true. Edward Winslow’s letter simply says there were “many of the Indians
coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety
men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted.”
The Pilgrims are famous for their religious lifestyle. But they didn’t come to America
to escape religious persecution like some claim. In fact, they already did that when
they left England and moved to Leiden, Holland during the early 17th century. They then decided
to leave Holland where they had religious freedom, but were having trouble making ends
meet. Some also feared losing their English identity amongst the Dutch.
And by the way, Pilgrims didn’t wear black and white or buckled hats and shoes at the
meal. Black and gray were reserved for Sundays, but considering this Thanksgiving wasn’t
a religious day, they likely wore their regular clothes, which could be red, green, brown,
blue, or a number of other colors. Plain leather was used for shoe laces and belts because
it was cheaper and more fashionable than buckles.
Speaking of fashion, we have to talk about Black Friday shopping. It’s a myth that
the day after Thanksgiving is named for being the day that businesses get “back in the
black” after being financially in the red. In fact, the most popular explanation for
the name says that police in Philadelphia began calling it “Black Friday” in the
1950s because many local stores held sales for the crowds in town for the Army-Navy football
game. The police hated this chaotic day that involved working overtime.
"Black Friday" was a way of expressing distaste for a day
that made things difficult for them. Within about a decade, the whole city was aware of
the nickname. It became a well known term all over the US around the mid to late 1980s.
It’s a misconception that the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was always a celebration in honor
of Thanksgiving. Originally, it was the Macy’s *Christmas* Parade. And actually, you could
say that the first parade in 1924 was really honoring Macy’s, itself, as much as anything
else. The parade commemorated the flagship store’s expansion into what was then considered
the world’s largest department store under one roof. It took place on Thanksgiving day,
but it focused on reaching the store’s Christmas window display titled “The Fairyfolk Frolics
of Wondertown.” Over the next few years it would be identified by different names—the
Thanksgiving Parade, the Christmas Parade or even the Annual Show—but by the 1930s
it was solidly the Thanksgiving Day Parade
Finally, it’s not true that Thanksgiving is an exclusively American holiday. There
are comparable celebrations around the world. Canadian Thanksgiving is very similar to the
American one, but it ostensibly traces its history back to explorer Martin Frobisher,
who landed in Canada and held a thanksgiving in 1578. Though we could probably make a list
of myths about Canadian Thanksgiving, too. As historian Peter Stevens notes, “there
is no evidence that connects the modern Canadian Thanksgiving to Frobisher’s sixteenth-century
celebration.”
And some places celebrate versions of Thanksgiving because of historical connections with America.
Grenada, Australia’s Norfolk Island, and Leiden, Holland all fit that bill. And there
are other holidays which share certain aspects of American Thanksgiving. Germany has Erntedankfest,
a similar harvest festival of thanks. And Japan has a holiday which evolved from a harvest
festival and now celebrates worker’s rights. Its name, “Kinro Kansha no Hi,” can be
translated to “Labor Thanksgiving.”
We pushed back our fossil episode for a very special surprise. You can still drop your favorite fossil facts in the comments for a
chance to be featured in that episode. That will go up on December 4th. Make sure to subscribe
here so you don’t miss it. We’ll see you then!