The modern Thanksgiving plate is fairly predictable: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans and pumpkin pie. A century or more ago, the menu looked very different, and several dishes that once held a regular place at the table have all but vanished.
Two old menus show the gap clearly. One is the Thanksgiving dinner printed in The White House Cook Book in 1887, and the other is a 1935 Civilian Conservation Corps holiday dinner. Here are 7 dishes from those menus that rarely make today’s spread.
1. Oyster Stew
Oysters were once close to standard at the holiday table. The 1887 menu opened with oysters on the half shell, and the 1935 CCC dinner served oyster stew, according to the Wikipedia entry on Thanksgiving dinner, which notes that oysters would remain part of Thanksgiving dinners until the 1950s.
In New England cooking, oyster stew is often associated with Thanksgiving, according to the Wikipedia entry on oyster stew. The entry quotes Southern chef Bill Neal, who explained that before refrigerated shipping, oysters could only travel inland once the weather turned reliably cold: “Far from the coast, oysters became a symbol of the arrival of the winter holiday season.”
The 1887 cookbook’s version of stewed oysters is simple. The oysters are heated in their own liquor until they “ruffle,” then finished with butter and a pint of boiling milk and served with oyster crackers. Craftingyourhome.com has a broader look at once-common Thanksgiving traditions from the 1950s that have quietly faded.
2. Mince Pie
Mince pie appears on both old menus. Settlers brought the recipe to New England, where it was “a staple part of Thanksgiving dinner” by the 1600s, according to the Wikipedia entry on mince pie.
The filling was not just fruit. The full text of The White House Cook Book, by F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann, gives a recipe credited to New York’s Astor House hotel that calls for four pounds of lean boiled beef, a pound of chopped suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, molasses and two kinds of cider. Mince pie still turns up on some tables, but the meat version is now a rarity. Frenzhub’s list of foods from the ’60s most boomers loved with a passion covers a later wave of family favorites.
3. Parsnip Fritters
The 1887 menu served parsnip fritters next to the mashed potatoes and baked squash. The cookbook’s recipe boils and mashes the parsnips, rolls spoonfuls in flour and fries them in lard or drippings until browned.
The book warns against keeping them in a covered dish, since the steam would rob them of their crispness, “which is one of their great charms.” Another version in the same book says they taste very nearly like salsify, which cooks of the time also called oyster plant.
Parsnips have not disappeared from cooking, but as a fried side on the main holiday table they have largely given way to the green bean casserole. Frenzhub’s roundup of forgotten household items from the past shows how much of that era’s kitchen has slipped away along with them.
4. Boiled Onions
Boiled onions sat on the 1887 Thanksgiving menu and on other holiday menus in the same book. The method is spelled out plainly: white silver-skin onions are peeled, scalded for two minutes, then boiled slowly in lightly salted water for 30 to 40 minutes and served with melted butter, pepper and salt.
Small creamed onions still appear on some tables, but plain boiled onions as a stand-alone side are uncommon today. Craftingyourhome.com’s list of 9 Thanksgiving table classics that have been on American tables for generations shows which dishes did survive.
5. Venison Pastry
Before the roast turkey became the single star, the 1887 menu also listed a venison pastry. The cookbook explains that the neck, breast and shoulder were used. The meat was seasoned with pepper, salt, nutmeg and mace, covered with gravy drawn from the bones and trimmings, splashed with port wine and baked for two or more hours under a thick lid of pastry decorated with leaves and flowers.
The same book notes that doe venison was in season from October to December, which put it right on time for November. Few modern holiday tables carry a game pie alongside the turkey. Frenzhub’s list of boomer habits that are making a comeback suggests some older kitchen ways do return.
6. Charlotte Russe
The 1887 dessert course went far beyond pie. One of its stars was charlotte russe, a cold dessert of Bavarian cream set in a mold lined with ladyfingers. The Wikipedia entry on charlotte credits the version to French chef Antonin Carême.
The cookbook’s recipe whips a quart of rich cream, folds it into a vanilla custard set with gelatin and lines the mold with sponge cake or ladyfingers. In New York City from the 1930s to the 1950s, a simplified charlotte russe was sold in a paper cup with yellow cake, whipped cream and half a cherry, according to the same entry. It no longer appears on most holiday dessert tables.
7. Hickory Nut Cake
The final sweet on the 1887 menu was hickory nut cake. The cookbook’s recipe creams two cups of sugar with half a cup of butter, adds three eggs, milk, flour and a level tablespoon of mace, then layers the batter with raisins and chopped hickory nuts. The book’s verdict: “This is most excellent.”
The recipe allows walnuts as a substitute. Hickory nuts were a significant food source for Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands long before the cookbook was printed, according to the Wikipedia entry on hickory nuts, which also groups the pecan with the hickories. Today the pecan, in pie form, is the hickory relative most holiday tables know.
The 1935 menu shows the shift already underway. Alongside the oyster stew and mince pie, it listed giblet gravy, creamed asparagus tips, snowflake potatoes and fruitcake. The turkey stayed, while the oysters, the game pie and the molded desserts slowly faded out of the holiday menu.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: GarlandFamily – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons
