Dive Brief:
- The traditional Thanksgiving meal -- turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pie -- has less to do with what the Pilgrims ate than with America's anti-artistocratic leanings, according to historian Rachel Laudan.
- In an essay called "Thanksgiving, or how to eat American politics," Laudan lays out a fascinating description of how the Thanksgiving feast is a sort of in-your-face, egalitarian approach to food that was formed out American's distaste for the formality and class-consciousness of European feasts.
- Among the items of note in the Thanksgiving feast, Laudan says, are turkey (inexpensive enough to allow for anyone to have a generous helping) and the presence of children at the table (a practice that the ruling classes of Europe would never countenance.)
Dive Insight:
We adored Laudan's essay, and will be sending it to everyone we know today. And no doubt on Thanksgiving we will raise a toast to Sarah Josepha Hale -- our fellow journalist, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, and the woman who published recipes for roast turkey and pumpkin pie and popularized Thanksgiving as a holiday for family homecoming and an American-style meal.