A Bountiful Heart

With Thanksgiving rolling around, I take a bit of time to reflect on what's considered the "traditional" Thanksgiving meal. We have in this current century elevated this holiday fare to gargantuan proportions. A reasonable meal just will not be considered. Something about abundance and the bountiful buffet, as it were.

Probably the Thanksgiving meal of the 18th Century was quite different. I'm sure the historic meal between the Colonists and the Indians was cause for celebration, but not to the extent of today's enormous spread.

The most common foods in the Colonies were corn, maple sugar and berries. Meals were planned around the workday, with the mid-day meal being the largest. Meats were generally roasted or dried, and there were pickled goods as well. A tasty treat was molasses, and cider or beer was offered. One-pot stews were also big, with various root vegetables added in. Of course, ground meal breads were made probably daily.

And so, I provide a recipe below for the good of the day, a simple "Indian pudding", a recipe from the American Cookery book, published in 1796. It includes "3 pints scaled milk, 7 spoons of fine Indian meal, stir together while hot, let stand till cooled; add 7 eggs, half pound of raisins, 4 ounces butter, spice and sugar; bake one and a half hour."

Granted, it got a lot of cholesterol going on in there, but what with working the fields on a daily basis, you probably could get away with it. I would go for cinnamon and some clove as the "spice" component, and the sugar should be raw, or brown, at least, or better yet, molasses.

This year, try to keep things simple, and put the greatest amount of effort into a bountiful heart.