If you dig around on the subject of Thanksgiving you will eventually find that the first one celebrated in what was to become the United States was celebrated in Virginia in 1608 when some Polish glass blowers, some British farmers and some Powhatan Indians (who were actually Algonquians) held a celebratory dinner after the harvest of 1608. That celebration was, apparently, the idea of the glass blowers who, being Lutheran, had fled persecution in Poland and ended up in Virginia.

But, in fact, there was a Thanksgiving celebration long before that. On September 8th, 1565, on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when Captain Pedro Menendez de Aviles – one of Phillip II’s great sea captains (I had to get a Navy angle in all this, even if it was Spain’s Navy not the US Navy) – landed, had a Mass said, and then celebrated a festival of thanks with all his men and with members of the local Timucua, under Chief Seloy.

(Timucua guides then led Menendez and his men up the coast – through the saw grass behind the dunes, remaining out of sight to passing French ships – and after 4 days had reached a spot near present-day Jacksonville and attacked and overran a Huguenot fort on the St. John River. If you have ever spent any time wandering around off the beaten path near the coast in northern Florida, you have to tip your hat to how tough those guys were to make that forced march.)

Menendez first sighted Florida on August 28th, 1565, the Feast of St. Augustine, hence the name of that beautiful city on Florida’s coast – he actually sighted the coast near present day Jacksonville, but the name stuck to the harbor to the south, and the city that grew up around it.

Details of that first Thanksgiving dinner were not recorded, but the standard large meals all seemed to consist of the same things:

Cocido (stew of salted pork and garbanzo beans, laced with garlic)
hard biscuits
red wine
Fish – whatever they might have caught – same as what Seloy and his men brought
The Timucua brought meats (turkey, venison) gopher, tortoise and Fish – mullet, drum, sea catfish

The following recipe (certainly tastier than what was served in 1565) for Cocido is from “Spain Recipes” (https://www.spain-recipes.com/cocido-recipe.html ) The key point for Cocido is that it is made in a large pot and cooks (stews all day). Traditionally, everything is done in one pot, but the recipe below uses several to make it a bit easier and neater.

• Preparation time: more than one day. Chickpeas must be soaked overnight, and cooking takes several hours.

INGREDIENTS

• 9 oz dried chickpeas soaked overnight
• 1 lb cured brisket of beef or silverside in one piece
• 9 oz salt pork belly, streaky bacon in one piece or fresh pork belly.
• 1 lb 4 oz knuckle gammon bone, with some meat attached
• 1 1/2 lb beef marrow bone, sawn across
• 1/2 boiling chicken
• 1 pig’s trotter, split
• 1 whole garlic bulb
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 black peppercorns, crushed
• 1 small onion, studded with 2 cloves
• 1 1/2 lb Savoy cabbage, quartered
• 2 carrots, in big pieces
• 2 leeks, short lengths
• 1 lb new potatoes
• 2 chorizos, or other smoked sausage
• 1 morcilla or 7 oz black pudding.

PREPARATION

Soak salted meat with cold water for several hours

In a large pot: place meat, skin side down, with the beef bone. Chicken and trotter on top. Add garlic bulb, bay leaves and peppercorns and cover with water. Bring to a simmer, skimming off scum that rises.

Drain chickpeas, add to pot, cover and simmer on the lowest possible heat for 1 1/2 hours. Halfway through, add onion stuck with the cloves. No other vegetables go in.

Second casserole: quartered cabbage, all vegetables and all sausages. If the black pudding has a plastic skin, remove it. Add water to cover all ingredients and a little salt and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook until potatoes are ready.

Drain vegetables and sausages and slice the sausages. Arrange the vegetables decoratively on a platter and put the sausage slices on top. This can be served before the meat or alongside it.

Remove the meats from the main pot, collecting the chickpeas together. Remove the marrow from the bone and slice it into the chickpeas. Slice all the meats. Arrange the meats and chickpeas on a platter, moistening them with a little broth.

That said, having grown up In New England, I’m still partial to the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags in 1621. As with other feasts held earlier, the dinner seems to have involved venison (Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags and his men (all 90 of them) brought 5 deer) and a number of birds. The Pilgrims also had managed to bring in some birds, and there was a good deal of fish, as well as lobsters and mussels and some local fruits – grapes and plums, and corn. Whether there were any turkey cooked at the dinner is unknown – it wasn’t recorded, but there were many turkey in the area and a number of birds were shot and cleaned and cooked.

Finally, there is this blessing, from John Adams, which was carved into the mantel in the state dining room in the White House in 1945:

“Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips and shows itself in deeds.”

In any case, to all, Have a Happy and Grateful Thanksgiving… Time to make an extra effort to say thanks to God above for everything. GK Chesterton noted that no matter what, we all have one reason to say thank you, as he said, each one of us is a great “might not have been.” But we are, we are here,

And say a prayer for all the deployed today, and all those at sea, and thank God we were born in this amazing country.

Copyright 2021 Arrias
www.vicsocotra.com