The Real Reason We Eat Cranberry Sauce On Thanksgiving

There is no exact, confirmed record of everything on the menu for the original 1621 Thanksgiving Feast between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims who'd arrived from across the Atlantic (via History). Turkey was possibly served, as there are written records of men going "fowling" in the lead-up to the dinner, but was probably more of a side dish alongside other birds like goose, duck, and swan, with venison being the main meat of choice. 

Cranberries could have been present, as they were both eaten and used as a dye by the local Indigenous population before the original Thanksgiving dinner. The Pilgrims would likely have passed on the berries, however. It would be half a century before sweetened cranberries would be possible, as the sacks of sugar were nearly depleted on the Mayflower's voyage. Still, though the first Thanksgiving table would have looked different from the ones found in millions of American homes every year, turkey and cranberries were almost certainly there in some capacity, a tradition that shows no sign of slowing down.

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