The History of Traditional Thanksgiving Foods

1621: Turkey

After surviving their first brutal winter and successfully establishing a food supply, the remaining members of the Plymouth colony held a three-day harvest feast alongside the native Wampanoag Indians. (The notion that their relationship was entirely friendly has since been debunked, though it’s true that the Wampanoag tribe was looking for ways to manage and benefit from the forces of colonization.) Wild turkey was very likely a component—though not the centerpiece—of a menu that also included oysters, venison, duck, and eel.

1792: Stuffing

Early settlers might have used herbs or crushed nuts to dress their birds. Still, our traditional bread-based stuffing—spiked with butter, salt, pork, and herbs like sage and marjoram—didn't appear in American cookbooks (like Amelia Simmons's American Cookery) until the late 18th century.

1800s: Pumpkin Pie

Despite its all-American reputation, pumpkin pie was popularized by the British upper classes during the 16th and 17th centuries. But those pies, made from sliced squash and apple sealed in a thick double-pastry shell, bore little resemblance to the creamy, custardy, cinnamon-and-nutmeg-spiced versions that Yankee homemakers passionately embraced during the 1800s—and that we still adore today.

1917: Mashed Sweet Potatoes with a Marshmallow Topping

To modern tastes, the marriage of sticky-sweet sweet potatoes and marshmallow crust might seem like a kitschy remnant of the Leave It to Beaver era. In fact, this dish's origins reach back even further. Marshmallows were a novelty around the turn of the 20th century and were aggressively promoted by their makers, including the Angelus Company (now the Campfire brand). The company’s 1917 corporate recipe pamphlet featured the first known recipe for mashed sweet potatoes with a marshmallow topping.

1941: "Jellied" Cranberry Sauce

Cranberries have been a staple of the New England larder for centuries. But it wasn’t until more than 100 years ago that they could be bought fresh, and even then, only for two months out of the year. But in 1912, a savvy Yankee lawyer named Marcus L. Urann changed the cranberry industry—and the landscape of the Thanksgiving table—forever.

Starting with a single bog, Urann went on to found the company that's today known around the world as Ocean Spray. Their most beloved (or belittled) product—the log of "jellied" cranberry sauce that keeps its shape even when shaken from the can—first hit the market several decades later in 1941 and is gobbled up by the gallon (about 5,062,500 gallons, to be precise) each holiday season.

1955: Green Bean Casserole

Holiday hot dishes became wildly popular in post-war America, but few have had the staying power of green bean casserole. Created in 1955 by Dorcas Reilly, a home economics staff member at the Campbell's Soup Company, the recipe brings together a trio of classic mid-century convenience foods: canned onions, canned green beans, and, of course, Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom soup. In 2002, Reilly donated her original hand-written recipe card to the National Inventor's Hall of Fame, where it keeps company with such illustrious neighbors as the light bulb and the phonograph.