Page 11 - NOV2019 Digital Barbecue News Magazine
P. 11

giving thanks
Giving Thanks
      Did you hear what Ben Que’n is having for Thanksgiving dinner this year?
,
Ardie Davis
aka Remus Powers BBQ Hall of Famer ardiedavis@kc.rr.com
The first Thanksgiving in what later became the USA was a sur- vival celebration. The year was 1621. The place was Plymouth, Massachusetts. English Pilgrims, 102 in all, had boarded a wooden wind-powered sailing ship named Mayflower the previous year, intent on settling at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York. Bad weather and scarce supplies onboard after 60 days at sea forced them to give up on that destination. They landed at Ply- mouth instead on November 11, 1620.
A year later they had established a settlement, raised crops, and although more than half of their original party had died, they de- cided to celebrate. Instead of a one day celebration they stretched it to three days. With grati-
tude for survival help from local Native Americans, they invited the leader of the Mas- sasoit and Wampanoag con- federacy to join the celebration.
Surprise! He brought 90 hun- gry male warriors and no fe- males to help with meal prep. It was back in the not so dis- tant past when prepping, cooking and serving food was “women’s work.” The result: 5 Pilgrim women fed 145 Thanksgiving celebrants for three days. It didn’t take hold as an annual event.
In 1789 President George Washington declared that a National Day of Thanks be observed on Thursday November 25. That too didn’t take hold as an annual observance, although almost four decades later, Sara Josepha Hale launched a campaign to set aside an annual national day of Thanksgiving.
It finally happened 242 years after the first Thanksgiving. On Oc- tober 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November a national day of Thanksgiving. On De- cember 26, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress established Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November, allegedly to give a boost to businesses by adding a week for consumers to focus on Christmas gift shopping.
The first Thanksgiving survival feast slightly resembles today’s typical menu in that it included wild turkey, beans, pumpkin, car- rots, corn, squash and bread. The Pilgrims called it a “Harvest Fes- tival” instead of “Thanksgiving.” Since gas and electric cooking appliance were almost 300 years beyond the Pilgrims’ reach, a combo of cauldrons and live fire was the cooking mode. Surely the meat that was cooked directly over live fire or hardwood coals would resonate with our barbecue-hungry palates.
Skipping ahead to November 28, 2019, the big question is what’s on your Thanksgiving Day menu? Are doing today’s traditional oven-roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet po- tatoes, squash, corn, green bean casserole, cranberry salad, rolls, butter, pumpkin pie and other fixins? Or will you reenact your
own version of a 3-day Pilgrim Harvest Festi- val, complete with venison, partridge, ducks, geese, wild turkey (some historians say turkey was not on the menu), eels, lobster, clams, mussels, bass, cod, beans, pumpkin, carrots, turnips, corn, squash, Cheate Bread and Pilgrim beer?
If you’re pressed for time and want an easy, stick-to-your-ribs deli- cious Thanksgiving feast with a minimum of fuss, consider adapt- ing a classic Minnesota favorite known as the
Beef Commercial, or Hot Beef Commercial. It is simply a combo of slices of tender roast beef on mashed potatoes between two slices of white sandwich bread, smothered in brown gravy. Add a side of green beans, corn or another favorite vegetable and your feast will be complete. Of course, instead of beef, top your mashed potatoes with tender slices of barbecue turkey breast. You won’t leave the table hungry, I guarantee. If you have two vegetables with your Hot Barbecue Turkey Commercial you’ll have what southerners know as a “Meat & Three.”
Above all, whether your Thanksgiving feast is elaborate or simple, take time to think about all that you are thankful for right now, and in your past, and what you hope to be thankful for in your fu- ture. That’s a healthy daily practice as well. Happy Thanksgiving!
 NOVEMBER 2019
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