Thanksgiving dinner: Then and now

Rick Patrick reporter3.riverbendnews@gmail.com When one thinks of Thanksgiving dinner, the vision of a plump, roasted (sometimes deep fried) turkey, along with dressing, a few vegetables, perhaps some potatoes and plenty of pies easily comes to mind. But the original Thanksgiving feast, back in 1621, was a bit different than what we serve today. According to Smithsonian Magazine, that “first Thanksgiving” dinner featured much slimmer pickings. “Wildfowl was there. Corn, in grain form for bread or for porridge, was there. Venison was there,” says Kathleen Wall, a footways culinarian at Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Plymouth, Mass. “These are absolutes.” Wall ha