50 Fun Facts About Thanksgiving Food

Per Edward Winslow's 1621 letter, what did the four men sent hunting bring back for the Plymouth harvest feast?

Winslow was trying to lure more colonists across the Atlantic, so the letter reads a little like a brochure.

Based on Winslow's letter, some historians think the 1621 harvest feast was mostly which food?

Lobster, fish, eels, mussels and oysters were all on hand in coastal Massachusetts, and mussels could simply be pulled off the shoreline rocks.

There were no pies at the 1621 harvest feast because the colonists had no butter, no sugar and no what?

Potatoes were missing too: they are native to South America and had not yet entered the global food system.

Roughly what share of the turkeys Americans eat are Broad Breasted Whites?

The breed can top 40 pounds but has to be artificially bred and suffers health problems because of its size.

What was the compact 8-to-15-pound bird with extra breast meat that the USDA bred and sold from 1947 called?

It was developed at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland and later lost out to the much bigger Broad Breasted White.

Given their huge breasts, how do most Broad Breasted White turkeys reproduce?

The oversized breast also means the birds cannot fly, unlike their wild cousins.

What is the most frequently asked question on Butterball's Turkey Talk-Line?

The toll-free line has run every holiday season since late 1981.

Roughly how many people call Butterball's Turkey Talk-Line each holiday season now?

The line only started employing men in 2013, when Butterball noted a quarter of callers were male.

Butterball's rule of thumb: allow one day of fridge thawing for every how much frozen bird?

In a hurry, the cold-water method works out to about 30 minutes per pound with the water changed every half hour.

Which safety-certification body has refused to list (certify) turkey fryers at all?

The whole operation counts as hazardous from the moment the burner is lit until the oil has cooled.

An early printed mention of deep-fried turkey appeared in a 1984 article in which newspaper?

The first recipes called for cooking 12-to-15-pound birds in lard at 375 degrees.

Hebert's Specialty Meats, which claims to have created the turducken in 1985, is in which state?

Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme is more generally credited with introducing the dish, and John Madden once sawed one open bare-handed on air.

A turducken is an example of which cooking method, in which one animal is stuffed inside another?

The British version is called a three-bird roast, and a goose-duck-chicken stack is a gooducken.

Marcus Urann, inventor of commercial cranberry sauce, went on to found which growers' cooperative?

All four are farmer-owned cooperatives; Urann was a lawyer turned cranberry grower.

Canned cranberry sauce first reached the market in which year, making it available year-round?

The jellied version can be slid out of the can whole and sliced at the table, ridges and all.

What was part of the 1959 cranberry crop announced to be tainted with, collapsing the market before Thanksgiving?

Growers lost millions, and the shock pushed Ocean Spray to reorganise and pour money into new products like juice.

American Cookery (1796), the first cookbook by an American, was published in which city?

Its author, Amelia Simmons, signed herself simply 'An American Orphan'.

American Cookery introduced American cooks to pearlash, an early form of what?

It was a precursor of baking soda, and the same book was the first to use the Dutch-derived word 'cookey'.

Morton, Illinois, the 'Pumpkin Capital of the World', is home to which brand's pumpkin cannery?

The town claims 99 percent of the world's canned pumpkin and throws a four-day Pumpkin Festival every September.

Libby's, the best-selling canned pumpkin, is made solely from which pumpkin variety?

It is a tan, oblong Cucurbita moschata, closer to a butternut squash than to a jack-o'-lantern.

Which pie, a Southern speciality, is often served at Thanksgiving in place of pumpkin?

It applies European custard-pie technique to a crop that reached Southern kitchens by way of Native American cooking.

Angelus Marshmallows, whose 1917 booklet had the first marshmallow-topped sweet potato recipe, originally made what?

Angelus had introduced mass-produced marshmallows in 1907 and hired Boston cooking-school founder Janet McKenzie Hill to dream up uses for them.

Dorcas Reilly's 1955 Campbell's recipe was first printed on soup cans under what name?

It was written for an Associated Press feature that asked for a quick dish using ingredients most households already had.

What share of US Cream of Mushroom soup sales does Campbell's say ends up in green bean casserole?

That single dish shows up at an estimated 20 million American Thanksgiving dinners a year.

In 2002 Dorcas Reilly donated her green bean casserole recipe card to which Akron institution?

The card sits alongside the paperwork of light bulbs and telephones; a food historian called the fried-onion topping 'a touch of genius'.

Stove Top stuffing was introduced in 1972 by which food company?

Inventor Ruth Siems's name is on U.S. Patent 3,870,803 for the product.

Kraft Heinz reportedly sells about how many boxes of Stove Top stuffing at Thanksgiving?

Kraft has owned the brand since 1990.

The American word 'dressing' for stuffing is first recorded in about which year?

It arrived long after 'farce' (around 1390), 'stuffing' (1538) and 'forcemeat' (1688).

Which herb is the standard seasoning in classic American Thanksgiving stuffing?

Chopped onion and celery round out the base; chestnuts, sausage, apples and cranberries are regional add-ins.

Traditional Southern cornbread differs from Northern versions by containing little or none of what?

It was also made with white cornmeal and buttermilk and poured into a hot greased cast-iron skillet.

Which author's 1747 English cookbook, The Art of Cookery, has an early mashed potato recipe?

Some French pomme puree recipes go as far as one part butter to two parts potato.

Thomas Jefferson served 'a pie called macaroni' at a state dinner in which year?

One theory credits his enslaved chef James Hemings with bringing the recipe back from France.

Parker House rolls were invented in the 1870s at a hotel in which city?

Legend says an angry pastry cook flung unfinished rolls into the oven, giving them their dented look.

The makers of which corn syrup claimed pecan pie as a 1930s 'discovery' by an executive's wife?

Texas made pecan pie its official State Pie in 2013.

No pecan pie recipe has been found older than a pecan custard pie printed in 1886 in which magazine?

Claims that the pie existed in early-1800s Alabama have never been backed by a recipe.

Tofurky is a trademark of Turtle Island Foods, a company based in Hood River in which state?

Founder Seth Tibbott started the company in 1980; the Tofurky brand itself arrived in 1995.

Roughly how much unsold turkey was Swanson stuck with in 1953, prompting the first TV dinner?

The birds were sitting in ten refrigerated railroad cars, which reportedly had to keep moving to stay cold.

Which Swanson salesman is usually credited with dreaming up the TV dinner, despite disputes over his account?

The first Swanson tray held turkey, cornbread stuffing, peas and sweet potatoes and sold for 98 cents.

Besides Gobbler and Puritan, what is New England's Thanksgiving-leftovers sandwich called?

Ross Geller's version on Friends came with an extra gravy-soaked slice of bread in the middle.

Butterball's food-safety guidance says to eat or freeze all Thanksgiving leftovers within how many days?

Leftovers should be boxed up in airtight containers within two hours of cooking.

Beaujolais nouveau is made from which grape?

France fixed the release as the third Thursday of November in 1985, which is why it lands exactly a week before the fourth Thursday.

Which drink's seasonal sales hit a first peak at Thanksgiving before a bigger one at Christmas?

During Prohibition the legal Thanksgiving options shrank to milk, water and lemonade.

A Newfoundland Jiggs dinner, a regional Canadian Thanksgiving meal, comes with a pudding made from what?

Butter tarts and Nanaimo bars are the other distinctly Canadian items on the holiday table.

Which Governor General's 1957 proclamation fixed Canadian Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October?

The proclamation gave thanks 'for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed'.

Sauerkraut with the turkey is a Thanksgiving tradition in which US city with German heritage?

The habit spreads across Maryland's Eastern Shore too.

The Mexican state of Oaxaca is nicknamed 'the land of the seven' what?

Mole poblano alone averages about 20 ingredients, with any chocolate added only at the very end.

Arroz con gandules, a Puerto Rican Thanksgiving dish, is rice with pork and which legume?

The pot is seasoned with sofrito and often covered with a plantain leaf; the turkey itself may be stuffed with mofongo.

Midwesterners of Norwegian descent often set the Thanksgiving table with which soft potato flatbread?

Italian Americans, meanwhile, might open with antipasti and lasagna before the bird.

What animal, sent to the White House for Thanksgiving dinner in 1926, did the Coolidges keep as a pet?

Rebecca went on to become one of the more famous presidential pets, with her own White House pen.

'Friendsgiving' was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in which year?

Merriam-Webster traces the word's first use to 2007, and a liqueur ad ran with the theme in 2011.