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Tuesday, November 23, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
The first Thanksgiving menu ... maybe
By DANIEL NEMAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Four hundred years ago
this fall, 50 Pilgrims sat
down to eat with 90 mem-
bers of the native Wampa-
noag tribe to give thanks
for their first harvest in the
New World.
No one knows the exact
dates of the feast, other
than it was sometime
between Sept. 21 and Nov.
9 of that year. The menu
of what was served is like-
wise lost to history, but we
have a few clues.
In a letter sent in
December 1621, Edward
Winslow wrote that four
of the men successfully
hunted for fowl, which
very possibly could have
been wild turkeys — but
it also could have been
ducks, geese or swans. The
Indians brought five deer,
which presumably were
also served, but we don’t
know that for certain.
The most successful
crop of that first har-
vest was corn, so we can
extrapolate that it was on
the menu. Pumpkins were
plentiful, though the Pil-
grims lacked the flour to
make crusts for pie.
Because they were on
the Atlantic Ocean, seafood
was abundant. We know
they often caught bass and
cod, and lobster was also
plentiful, at least in the
summer. Eels, too, were
readily available, and mus-
sels were harvested simply
by overturning rocks.
I should point out here
that I am speaking of the
First Thanksgiving of pop-
ular lore, the one held by
the Pilgrims in 1621. There
was an earlier Thanks-
giving in December 1619,
at the Berkeley Hundred in
Virginia, at which the set-
tlers gave prayerful thanks
for their safe arrival.
It was a religious ser-
vice, though, and food was
not involved. The case
for it being the true First
Thanksgiving is pressed
only by cantankerous Vir-
ginians and sticklers for
accuracy.
With an eye toward his-
tory, I decided to make
my own version of the
Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving
meal, or at least part of it.
Because we don’t know
what the actual meal was,
my version is more of an
exercise in what could
have been served, based on
our knowledge of what was
available and their recipes
from the time.
But first, a couple of
Colter Peterson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
“Seethed” mussels with parsley and vinegar.
caveats. I did not make
venison because I do not
have access to it. And a
couple of the recipes use
sugar, which the Pilgrims
did bring with them from
Holland but which they
had run out of, or nearly
had, by the time of their
harvest feast.
On the other hand, if
they didn’t save a little for
Thanksgiving, what did
they use it for?
Assuming that pump-
kins were probably served,
I made stewed pumpkins.
The recipe is an adap-
tation of a recipe pub-
lished by John Josselyn, an
Englishman who first vis-
ited New England in 1638
and again in 1663.
The original recipe
calls for the pumpkin to
be cut into pieces and sim-
mered for several hours,
but I hadn’t seen the orig-
inal recipe when I made it
and, knowing that Pilgrims
sometimes cooked their
pumpkins on hot coals, I
began by roasting mine in
the oven.
It didn’t make a differ-
ence. Even roasted, the
side dish came out smooth
and robustly flavored. It’s
surprising how pumpkin
can be improved with a
splash of vinegar, a por-
tion of ground ginger and a
knob of butter.
If we are to stick strictly
to what could have been
served at the First Thanks-
giving, then butter would
not have been included.
The Pilgrims did not have
butter; their first cow did
not come across the ocean
until 1623.
But use the butter. It
makes all the difference.
Colter Peterson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Stewed turkey with herbs and onions.
The recipe for stewed
pumpkins is probably why
they sent for those first
cows, anyway.
My first entrée was
steamed mussels — or as
the original 1597 recipe
put it, “To Seeth Muscles.”
The dish could be
served today to consider-
able acclaim, and no one
would suspect it is nearly
425 years old. Some rec-
ipes are just classic. The
mussels are steamed in
a broth of water, butter,
parsley, garlic (a modern
addition) and vinegar
instead of the wine that
would usually be used
today.
My assumption that wine
was not used in steaming
— or seething — mus-
sels because the Pilgrims
did not drink turned out to
be incorrect. In fact, they
did drink wine, beer and
especially hard cider, but
they took care not to drink
to excess. But wine was
expensive, and the cooks of
the day preferred vinegar.
The second entrée is a
stewed turkey that is based
on an English recipe from
1615, and it, too, could
easily find a place on a table
in the 21st century.
The cooks of the time
would have used a whole
turkey, but wild turkeys are
smaller than domesticated
turkeys, and pots were
bigger. So I used turkey
thighs and legs, which were
about one pound apiece,
and cooked them in my
largest Dutch oven.
I boiled the turkey, along
with a heaping amount of
onions, herbs, butter, sugar
and more, because that is
what the recipe I was fol-
lowing — published by the
Plimoth Plantation, I should
point out — told me to do.
It was, unquestionably,
delicious.
But it wasn’t histor-
ically accurate. When I
later looked up the orig-
inal 1615 recipe, it is clear
that the turkey was meant
to be roasted by itself and
the other ingredients boiled
together for a sauce.
If you want to make it
that way, well, don’t let me
stop you. But boiling the
turkey makes it wonderfully
tender and imparts even
more flavor to the brothlike
sauce.
For dessert, I turned to a
dish that easily could have
been served at the First
Thanksgiving, a sweetened
corn pudding.
The corn of the region
was different from the corn
we typically enjoy now;
flint corn has a very hard
outer layer that would have
to be pounded to get to
the more easily edible part
inside. What results is a
coarse cornmeal, so that
is what I used for my corn
pudding.
Basically, I made grits,
which I softened with a bit
of milk and sweetened with
less sugar than you might
think.
In this case, as in so
many, less is more. It’s a
light and refreshing way to
finish a Thanksgiving meal
that, for once, is not too
heavy.
STEWED
PUMPKINS
Yield: 8 servings
4 cups cooked pumpkin, see note
4 tablespoons butter
1 to 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar
1 to 2 teaspoons of ground
ginger (or any combination
of nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon
and pepper, to taste)
1 teaspoon salt
Note: Use pie pumpkins (or
canned). Remove seeds and slimy
strings from fresh pumpkins, and
either cut into small pieces and
boil until very tender or cut in half
and roast at 375 degrees until very
tender, 30 to 45 minutes. Scoop
flesh from skin if skin is hard.
Place all ingredients in a sauce-
pan over low heat. Mash together
if pumpkin is fresh. Stir and heat
until all of the ingredients are
well-combined and hot. Adjust
the seasonings to your liking and
serve.
Per serving: 94 calories; 6 g fat;
4 g saturated fat; 15 mg cholester-
ol; 1 g protein; 10 g carbohydrate;
4 g sugar; 4 g fiber; 298 mg
sodium; 34 mg calcium
— Adapted from a recipe in “New
England’s Rarities: Discovered
in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents,
and Plants of that Country,”
(John Josselyn, 1671), adapted by
Kathleen Curtin, Sandra L. Oliver
and Plimoth Plantation in “Giving
Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipes and
History, from Pilgrims to Pumpkin
Pie”
‘SEETHED’
MUSSELS WITH
PARSLEY AND
VINEGAR
Yield: 8 servings
4 pounds of mussels
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly
ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1. Place mussels in cold water
and scrub them clean. “Beard”
them by taking off the tuft of
fibers projecting from the shell (if
there are any — many farm-raised
mussels are “beardless”). Discard
any mussels that are broken or do
not close when touched.
2. Place 1 cup of water, butter,
parsley, vinegar, salt, pepper and
garlic into a large pot, cover, and
bring to a boil over high heat.
Add the mussels and reduce the
heat so that the mussels cook at a
simmer. Cover and cook, shaking
the pot occasionally, for 10
minutes or until all of the mussels
have opened fully. Keep an eye on
the mussels — if cooked too long,
they can be chewy.
3. To serve, pour the mussels
and broth into bowls, setting
another empty bowl on the table
for discarded shells.
Per serving: 226 calories; 8 g fat;
3 g saturated fat; 71 mg choles-
terol; 27 g protein; 9g carbohy-
drate; no sugar; 1 g fiber; 871 mg
sodium; 68 mg calcium
— Adapted from “The Second Part
of the Good Huswives” (Thomas
Dawson, 1597), by Kathleen Curtin,
Sandra L. Oliver and Plimoth
Plantation in “Giving Thanks:
Thanksgiving Recipes and History,
From Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie”
STEWED
TURKEY WITH
HERBS AND
ONIONS
Yield: 6 servings
See, Thanksgiving/Page B2
The banking corner of downtown La Grande
GINNY
MAMMEN
OUT AND ABOUT
Moving on east on
Adams Avenue in down-
town La Grande, next
to the Steward Building
there came a big surprise.
What was expected to be
the final corner structure,
there was instead a small
one-story wooden gro-
cery store belonging to
Henry Wildey. Henry was
one of the first grocers in
old town and had moved
to Adams Avenue in the
mid 1880s when the rail-
road came. Henry, his wife
Jennie and family left La
Grande around 1903 with
numerous buildings and
pieces of land to sell.
The Sanborn Map of
1893 indicates there was
a building labeled “bank”
at the northwest corner of
Adams and Fir and there
was a vacant lot next to it.
This is where Wildey’s Gro-
cery had stood. It is hard to
know exactly when Wild-
ey’s building was demol-
ished, but it was sometime
between 1887 and 1893.
By 1903 there was a new
two-story building between
the bank and the Steward
Building which housed a
clothing and a dry good
store on the street level and
Anthony Hall on the second
floor. In 1910 there was an
insurance office and other
offices located here. Here
again lies a mystery as to
the origin and demise of this
building and also the origin
and purpose of Anthony
Hall.
We know that the La
Grande National Bank
was established on March
23, 1887, and it could be
assumed that the building
itself was constructed in
the time period of 1886-
1887. This was the bank
on the northwest corner of
Adams and Fir in the San-
born Map. The handsome
one-story brick building,
with a large lobby service
Fred Hill Collection
Exterior of the 1887 La Grande National Bank building at the corner
of Adams and Fir in downtown La Grande.
area, opened for business
on April 5, 1887. Cashier
J. M. Church and assis-
tant cashier F. L. Meyers
assisted the customers.
The directors were J. M.
Berry, Jay Brooks, J. M.
Church, Chas. Goodnough,
and Robert Smith. Offi-
cers were President Robert
Smith and Vice President
Jay Brooks. We met several
of these men in previous
articles.
For nearly 20 years the
bank served La Grande, but
in 1906 the building was
demolished and replaced
by a new two-story brick
and stone building which
possibly incorporated
the space of the mystery
building. The first floor
served as the bank with
George Palmer, of Palmer
Lumber, acting as president
and J. M. Berry as vice
president. F. L. Meyers was
cashier following the death
of J. M. Church.
The upper floor was a
popular home for offices
for many doctors, lawyers,
architects and civil engi-
neers. There were other
spaces which were perhaps
short-term rentals such
as the one which adver-
tised the following in The
Observer — “Wanted at
once tie cutters to make
15,000 ties. Call at room 28
La Grande National Bank.”
Over the years the
building was altered by
removing the second
story and totally remod-
eling the ground floor.
For 134 years this corner
served as the location for
numerous banks — La
Grande National Bank,
La Grande First National
Bank of Oregon, Pioneer
Federal Savings and Loan,
Sterling Bank and Umpqua
Bank which just vacated
the building in October of
2021.
Doing research for this
article has intensified the
sad realization that as each
block loses one or more
of its original buildings,
La Grande loses pieces of
important history.
Keep looking up! Enjoy!
———
Ginny Mammen has
lived in La Grande for
more than 50 years and
enjoys sharing her interest
in the history of people,
places and buildings.
CORRECTION
In my column about the
Steward Building I stated that
the second floor housed the
first La Grande Armory. This
is not correct. La Grande had
National Guard Company D
as early as 1897 and in 1898
they had an armory hall in the
Goodnough Building. Good-
nough, a carpenter, was also
a director of the La Grande
National Bank. This now leads
to a search for the location of
the Goodnough Building.