Most Americans who celebrate Thanksgiving—about 9 in 10, according to a 2021 poll—eat turkey with their holiday meal, perhaps alongside other favorite dishes such as mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. But if you’ve ever wondered why so many of us eat turkey on Thanksgiving, the answer is a bit more complicated than you may think.
For many Americans, Thanksgiving dinner is defined by one central food – turkey. The big, roasted bird is a culinary icon, as identified with the holiday as pumpkins and pilgrims. But despite its status today, the turkey’s road to becoming a true symbol of Thanksgiving was gradual and somewhat unusual.
As a writer focusing on America’s food traditions, I’m always intrigued by how certain ingredients get intertwined with the myths and legends of holidays. The story of the turkey’s rise as the Thanksgiving meal’s main attraction offers some fascinating insight into how national food traditions evolve over time.
In this article, I’ll explore when turkeys first started appearing on Thanksgiving, what led them to their eventual recognition as the holiday’s flagship fare, and a bit about how turkeys themselves have changed over America’s history. It’s a story that involves culinary preferences, women’s influence, political maneuvers, and plenty of chickens too.
Before the Turkey Reigned Supreme
Most Americans probably assume the first Thanksgiving feast in 1621 featured a spread of turkeys. But historical accounts prove that’s not quite accurate. Written records describe abundant wild “fowl” and deer – but don’t specify turkeys. Since wild turkeys were present in New England, it’s possible some were eaten. But waterfowl like ducks or geese were just as common.
Throughout colonial America, turkey was plentiful so did appear at informal regional fall harvest celebrations. But so did chicken, goose, duck, and beef. No one main dish dominated.
More dig into why:
-
Turnips, pumpkins, and venison were traditionally more prominent autumn foods among the Wampanoag tribe who attended the first Thanksgiving.
-
England’s most iconic meat at the time was goose, not turkey. Michaelmas goose was eaten in September.
-
The wild turkeys of America were smaller with less white meat than the domesticated farm turkeys we know today. They weren’t considered superior fare.
So while turkeys did occasionally feature, they were just one option among many. There was no standard Thanksgiving menu in the colonies.
How Turkeys Rose to Prominence
Several factors led to the turkey’s eventual symbols status:
Sarah Josepha Hale’s Thanksgiving Campaign
This 19th century writer and editor waged a decades-long campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a fixed national holiday which included promoting turkey as the centerpiece meal. Her 1827 novel described an idealized Thanksgiving feast with a “lordly” roasted turkey presented at the head of the table. Hale’s holiday visions shaped today’s menu.
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
Dickens’ 1843 book established the tradition of a Christmas turkey. His story was hugely popular in America, and some say it also reinforced the turkey’s festive associations for any large holiday gatherings.
Abraham Lincoln Establishing Thanksgiving
When Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving as a federal holiday in 1863 at Hale’s persistence, it started forming a national tradition. Regional menus were eventually standardized across the country.
Affordability and Availability
As Thanksgiving spread, turkey became the economical, practical protein of choice. Turkeys were abundant, easy to raise on farms, and large enough to feed gatherings. Goose remained costly.
The Turkey’s Changing Form
Wild turkeys of colonial America looked quite different from the plump, big-breasted birds we roast today. Here’s how turkeys have evolved:
-
Smaller Size: Wild turkeys weighed between 10-15 lbs, less than half that of domesticated turkeys today. They had smaller breasts.
-
Leaner Meat: Farm-raised turkeys were bred to have more white breast meat and fat, making them juicier when cooked. Wild turkey meat was leaner and tougher.
-
Less White Meat: Selective breeding enlarged the breast size that makes up the white meat. Wild turkeys had a higher dark meat to white meat ratio.
-
Changed Anatomy: Shorter legs and much larger breast size alters the proportions of today’s turkey completely. Their frame is tailored for meat harvest.
-
Faster Growth: Modern turkeys reach optimal eating size in under 5 months, more than twice as fast as heritage turkeys. They put on weight quicker.
So the turkeys eaten in the 1600s would look almost unrecognizable compared to our Thanksgiving centerpieces today. Selective breeding drastically accelerated their growth and meat yields.
New Traditions Overshadow the Turkey’s Past
Despite its arguably inauthentic beginnings, the turkey is now indelibly tied to Thanksgiving in America’s cultural imagination. By the late 1800s, Thanksgiving turkey had become a standard part of elementary school curriculum, thanks to Hale’s promotion efforts.
Some other thoughts on how the tradition became so ingrained:
-
Political leaders continued to reinforce the turkey-Thanksgiving connection in speeches, policies, and pardons.
-
Cookbooks and magazines cemented public expectation of turkey on Thanksgiving tables.
-
Advertising campaigns for packaged foods like stuffing, cranberry sauce, and frozen turkeys further reinforced the turkey as the holiday’s focal point.
-
Regional nostalgia around New England colonists and the Pilgrim story bolstered myths of the first Thanksgiving, whether accurate or not.
-
Recent animal welfare controversies have brought more attention to the turkey as the animal of the season.
-
Changing family roles shifted Thanksgiving cooking to be centered around oven-roasting a protein, ideal for turkey.
Somewhat remarkably, the cultural traditions surrounding the Thanksgiving turkey have remained pretty stable over the past century andoverride historical fact. The turkey’s prominent role speaks to the power of modern myth-making.
Looking Ahead to New Traditions
While the turkey still reigns as the Thanksgiving meal’s leading player, there are signs its future might not be quite so assured. Here are some shifting trends worth watching:
-
Smaller Bird Sizes: The average turkey purchased has shrunk by 2-3 pounds in the past 15 years as smaller families gather. People don’t need a giant bird.
-
Other Main Dish Options: More Americans are exploring main dish alternatives like ham, roast beef, or vegetarian roasts. Poultry choices beyond turkey are expanding.
-
Changing Tastes: With more diverse American palates, side dishes are shifting away from traditional Anglo fare. The entire meal is being rethought.
-
Concerns over Waste and Portion Size: There’s a growing awareness of excessive food waste and overeating on Thanksgiving. People aim for moderate portions.
-
Nostalgia for Heritage Breeds: Smaller scale farmers are raising pasture-raised and heritage breed turkeys that resemble wild turkeys more closely.
Will these factors dethrone the turkey anytime soon? Probably not. But they do indicate our Thanksgiving spreads will continue evolving, perhaps gradually including the turkey’s wild ancestors. This beloved bird still has a story to tell.
First Thanksgiving: No Turkey on the Table?
There’s no solid evidence that turkey was on the menu in late 1621, when the Pilgrim settlers of Plymouth Colony sat down with indigenous Wampanoag people for what we now recognize as the first Thanksgiving celebration. First Thanksgiving Meal
According to a contemporary account of that event by colonist Edward Winslow, the settlers and Native Americans dined on venison, fish and shellfish as well as corn and other vegetables. While “fowl” may have been served, that may well have referred to seasonal waterfowl like duck or geese, rather than turkey.
Turkeys were plentiful in the region when the Pilgrims arrived, however. Estimates put the total number of wild turkeys in North America at more than 10 million before European settlement began. In his history of Plymouth Plantation, written more than 20 years later, the colony’s longtime governor William Bradford referred to a “great store of Wild Turkies” around the time of that famous meal in 1621.
Elan Abrell, a cultural anthropologist and assistant professor in animal studies at Wesleyan University, points out that Spanish explorers brought wild turkeys from Mexico and Central America to Europe in the 1500s.
“They were probably more often being eaten by wealthier people [than the Pilgrims], but its quite possible the Pilgrims knew what turkeys were already,” Abrell says. “I cant imagine a reason why they wouldnt have hunted them, because turkeys are relatively easy to hunt and feed more people than smaller birds.”
By 1789, when George Washington declared a day of national thanksgiving—a one-off, not a recurring holiday—Americans were eating quite a bit of turkey. “I dont know that I would say it was a staple, but it was certainly being hunted and eaten by the 19th century,” Abrell says. “It was almost extinct in the wild by that time.”
‘Mother of Thanksgiving’ Popularizes Turkey
But like most of the Thanksgiving traditions we know today, turkey didn’t become widely synonymous with that November holiday until the mid-19th century. This was largely thanks to the efforts of the writer and editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who became known as the “mother of Thanksgiving.”
In her 1827 novel Northwood, Hale included an entire chapter on Thanksgiving celebrations in her native New England and other regions. She also used her platform as editor of the magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book to sway both politicians and the public toward the idea of a national Thanksgiving holiday.
By 1854, thanks in large part to Hale’s work, more than 30 states and U.S. territories had an annual commemoration of Thanksgiving. President Abraham Lincoln made it official in 1863, declaring the last Thursday in November as a national Thanksgiving holiday.
Turkey was a key part of Hale’s Thanksgiving vision. She drew on Bradford’s text—which was stolen by the British during the Revolutionary War but resurfaced in 1854—in order to build up the mythology surrounding the 1621 meal.
Though Bradford’s text didn’t specifically link turkey with the feast shared by the Pilgrims and Wampanoag, Hale made turkey into the center of her ideal Thanksgiving meal, along with a lot of other stuff. “Her descriptions of Thanksgiving sound like massive buffets, with every kind of animal you could imagine,” Abrell says.
Thanksgiving day symbols: Turkey
FAQ
Why is turkey a tradition for Thanksgiving?
Why is the Thanksgiving mascot a turkey?
What do turkey and Pilgrims refer to?