Six staples of the American holiday table have documented start dates that stretch across nearly two centuries, from eggnog’s first appearance in print in 1788 to Stove Top stuffing in 1972. Each date comes from a reference source or a museum account, and a few come with caveats.
Here they are in order, with what is known about each.
1. Eggnog, 1788
According to Wikipedia, the first printed use of the term “eggnog” appeared on March 26, 1788, in the New-Jersey Journal, in a line about a young man drinking a glass of it. An earlier use appears in a poem by Maryland clergyman Jonathan Boucher dated to 1775, but that poem was not published until 30 years after his death.
The drink’s roots lie in the medieval European posset, a spiced milk drink curdled with wine or ale. Rum from the Caribbean trade was a cheaper substitute for taxed brandy and wine, and after the American Revolutionary War reduced the rum supply, Americans turned to whiskey and eventually bourbon.
George Washington reportedly served an eggnog-like drink of rye whiskey, rum and sherry to visitors. Cooks who need oven space can read about freeing up the oven at Thanksgiving, and those hosting might skim 5 costly Thanksgiving hosting mistakes before setting the table.
2. Pumpkin Pie, 1796
Pumpkins are native to North America, and Wikipedia’s entry on pumpkin pie says the flesh was quickly accepted as a pie filling in Tudor England. Early American “pumpkin pies” were often savory soups served in a pumpkin rather than sweet custards in a crust.
Amelia Simmons’s cookbook “American Cookery,” published in 1796, included an early custard-style pie in a crust with spices similar to today’s. By the early 1800s, pumpkin pie had become a common Thanksgiving addition.
The entry adds that after the Civil War, many Southern cooks resisted the pie as a Yankee import and made sweet potato pie instead, or added bourbon and pecans. In 1947, during a voluntary egg-rationing campaign, pumpkin pies were discouraged at Thanksgiving, and none was served at the White House.
Anyone browsing the traditions around the holiday may also like these 20 odd American traditions.
3. Pecan Pie, 1886
Cooks with pets at home may want to check 4 Thanksgiving foods pets can usually share before the leftovers come out.
The earliest known pecan pie recipe is a pecan custard pie published in Harper’s Bazaar in 1886, Wikipedia’s pecan pie article reports. Recipes predating it have not been found.
The pie existed before corn syrup, and older recipes used darker sugar syrups or molasses. A 1929 congressional club cookbook recipe used only eggs, milk, sugar and pecans.
The makers of Karo helped popularize the dish and said it was a 1930s discovery of a new use for corn syrup by a corporate sales executive’s wife. Wikipedia presents that as a company claim rather than an established fact. In 2013, the Texas Legislature named pecan pie the State Pie of Texas.
4. Canned Cranberry Sauce, 1912
Canned cranberry sauce dates to 1912, according to Smithsonian Magazine. That year Marcus L. Urann, a former lawyer who had bought a cranberry bog around 1900, set up cooking facilities at a packinghouse in Hanson, Massachusetts, and began canning cranberries.
Canning let cranberries be sold year-round. Urann did not found Ocean Spray in 1912, the article notes. In 1930 he brought together John C. Makepeace and Elizabeth F. Lee to form Cranberry Canners, Inc., a cooperative that became the National Cranberry Association in 1946 and was renamed Ocean Spray in 1957.
The jellied sauce “log” became available nationwide in 1941, and the article says about 26% of Americans make homemade sauce. Those looking to refresh the kitchen before the holidays can find ideas in 5 easy kitchen remodel ideas on a shoestring budget.
5. Green Bean Casserole, 1955
Dorcas Reilly, a supervisor at Campbell’s test kitchen in Camden, New Jersey, created green bean casserole in 1955, Smithsonian Magazine says in its remembrance of Reilly. She and her team wanted an affordable dish that home cooks could make from pantry staples, and they settled on six ingredients baked for about 25 minutes.
The recipe was first called “Green Bean Bake” and became popular after Campbell’s printed it on its mushroom soup cans. About 20 million Americans eat it at Thanksgiving, and a company spokesperson said in 2015 that 40% of the company’s cream of mushroom soup sales went toward the dish.
Reilly’s original recipe card is in the National Inventors Hall of Fame archives. Wikipedia’s article on the casserole says it was made for an Associated Press feature and became a Thanksgiving staple in the 1960s.
6. Stove Top Stuffing, 1972
General Foods introduced Stove Top in 1972, Wikipedia reports. Ruth Siems developed the breadcrumb-based product, and her name appears on patent No. 3,870,803.
The idea reportedly began with Jack Klinge of General Foods’ marketing department, who proposed a rice-based stuffing. Kraft Heinz has owned the brand since 1990, and a 2005 report said the company sold about 60 million boxes of Stove Top at Thanksgiving.
It is a quick-cooking stuffing made on the stove or in a microwave, and flavors have included Chicken, Cornbread, Savory Herbs, Traditional Sage and Turkey. The brand’s tagline is “If it’s not Stove Top, it’s not Stuffing.”
What the Dates Show
Laid out together, the six dates are 1788, 1796, 1886, 1912, 1955 and 1972. The first three are drinks and pies with roots in older European or colonial cooking, while the last three are products of the packaged-food era, from a can in 1912 to a boxed stuffing in 1972.
Several carry caveats. The 1788 date is the first printed use of the word eggnog, not the first time anyone drank it. The 1796 pie is an early custard-style recipe, not the first pumpkin pie, and the 1886 pecan pie is the earliest recipe found rather than proof of when the pie was invented.
Even so, the list is a useful guide to how the holiday menu was built, one recipe, can and box at a time.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: Infrogmation of New Orleans – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons
