By Kimberly Grist .jpg)
As we enter this season of thanksgiving, I’d like to pause and express my heartfelt gratitude to the men and women who have served our country and to the families who have stood beside them. Thank you for your service and sacrifice.
In that same spirit of gratitude, let’s take a moment to reflect on what makes Thanksgiving special—the people we love, the traditions we treasure, and the familiar dishes we look forward to sharing. Of course, agreeing that a dish belongs on the menu doesn’t mean we agree on what to call it.
A Little Thanksgiving History
The first Thanksgiving included venison and fowl, such as geese, ducks, and possibly turkeys. Cranberries and currants likely grew wild in the area. Walnuts, chestnuts, beechnuts, shellfish, beans, pumpkins, and corn were abundant. Although there is no way to be certain, it is unlikely that the fowl would have been stuffed with anything other than onions or herbs. However, both Native Americans and early colonists used cranberries to flavor their meat.
At the 1621 harvest feast, often called the first Thanksgiving, the Wampanoag brought venison, and wild fowl was also served. The birds may have included geese, ducks, or wild turkeys. Wild berries, nuts, shellfish, beans, pumpkins, and corn were among the foods available in the region. If the birds were stuffed, onions or herbs are possibilities.
Making the Holiday Official
Although George Washington proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving in 1789, celebrations in the decades that followed were largely left to individual states.
In the early 1800s, writer and editor Sarah Josepha Hale began championing the idea of a national Thanksgiving celebration. As editor of Ladies' Magazine and later the popular Godey's Lady's Book, she used her influence to encourage Americans to celebrate their blessings and strengthen the bonds of home and family. 
But Sarah's influence didn't stop with establishing the holiday. Over the years, she published articles and recipes featuring roast turkey with sage dressing, mashed potatoes, and pies—many of the same dishes we associate with Thanksgiving today. By the time Lincoln issued his proclamation, her magazine had already helped make the traditional Thanksgiving feast something families looked forward to celebrating.
Roasted turkey, stuffed and basted, took center stage at the head of the
table. In the 1850s, Victorian sensibilities took offense at the word
"stuffing," and the term "dressing" came into vogue.
In the American West, cooks developed their own stuffing recipes, blending traditions from the North and South while taking advantage of local ingredients. For example, cooks in the Pacific Northwest used seafood in stuffing, adding clams and mussels to the traditional oyster.
Which brings us to a question that can divide an otherwise perfectly agreeable family.
Her recipe included oysters and breadcrumbs, which got me wondering how it might have gone over in a pioneer kitchen. If you lived near the coast, oysters might be easy enough to come by. But if you were cooking Thanksgiving dinner on a homestead miles from the nearest town, you might take one look at the recipe and, in true pioneer fashion, say, “Well, I’ve got the breadcrumbs.”
Out on the frontier, the recipe might depend on what was in the pantry. Whether you stuffed it into the turkey or baked it in a cast-iron skillet was another question altogether.
Are you serving dressing or stuffing this Thanksgiving? Is yours made with cornbread, bread cubes, biscuits, or something entirely different? I’d love to hear about your family’s traditions!
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