Traditional Thanksgiving Cooking

Thanksgiving Chicken Pie

Turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie has been considered Thanksgiving’s menu trinity since the 1840s. A menu rooted in culinary tradition, geography and through clever promotion by New Englander Sarah Hale, editor of the days popular women’s magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book. Hale championed and pushed for a national Thanksgiving holiday. Hale annually campaigned for the holiday through the magazine’s annual November issue featuring Thanksgiving articles, poems and an abundance of recipes from stuffing turkeys to making the perfect pie.

With its pages illustrated with images of pilgrims, turkeys and pumpkins proudly portraying Thanksgiving’s Yankee origins, it’s no surprise Southerners considered Thanksgiving a Yankee Abolitionist Holiday. Nonetheless, Thanksgiving grew in popularity, even if some southerners came late to the table. A table that often featured Chicken Pie. A uniquely antebellum Thanksgiving culinary tradition, made its way on the menu in the midwest and north until fading from the menu in the 20th century. The 1845 menu printed in The New England Economical Housekeeper, and Family Receipt Book, includes chicken pie as part of the recommend day’s feast.

[1845] Thanksgiving Dinner Roast Turkey, stuffed. A Pair of Chickens stuffed, and boiled, with cabbage-and a piece of lean pork. A Chicken Pie. Potatoes; turnip sauce, squash; onions; gravy and gravy sauce; apple and cranberry sauce; oyster sauce; brown and white bread. Plum and Plain Pudding, with Sweet sauce. Mince, Pumpkin and Apple Pies. Cheese."

Chickens were raised at White Haven and appeared on the menu. Documented in a post-civil war interview with Mary Robinson, the Dent’s cook and childhood playmate of Julia Dent Grant, who noted how Grant’s dog Leo would capture chickens on the farm that would in turn be cooked.

To date, there hasn’t been found a reference of Chicken Pie eaten at White Haven. However, since it was a common dish of the time that was easily made and could yield many servings, it’s likely it found its way on the table. The following recipe (receipt) is updated from the original published in 1830 edition of The Frugal Housewife by Lydia Marie Child.

Thanksgiving Chicken Pie Recipe

1 Whole Chicken ( about 2 ½ to 3 pounds)
Water
Assorted vegetables (carrots, potatoes, etc.)
Bacon or Pork
Salt and Pepper
Chives or Onions

A nice way of serving up cold chicken, or pieces of cold fresh meat, is to make them into a meat pie. The gizzards, livers, and necks of poultry parboiled, are good for the same purpose. If you wish to bake your meat pie, line a deep earthen or tin pan with paste made of flour, cold water, and lard; use but little lard, for the fat of the meat will shorten the crust. Lay in your bits of meat, or chicken, with two or three slices of salt pork; place a few thin slices of your paste here and there; drop in an egg, if you have plenty. Fill the pan with flour and water, seasoned with a little pepper and salt. If the meat be very lean, put in a piece of butter, or such sweet gravies as you may happen to have. Cover the top with crust, and put it in the oven, or bake-kettle, to cook twenty minutes or half an hour, or an hour, according to the size of the pie.

Duration:

6 minutes, 56 seconds

Turkey, cranberries, and pumpkin pie has been considered Thanksgiving’s menu trinity since the 1840s, but across the antebellum South and Midwest, chicken pie was a traditional way to celebrate the holiday as well. In this video renowned food historian, Suzanne Corbett provides a brief history of the Thanksgiving holiday, plus a tutorial on how to make a traditional Thanksgiving chicken pie.

Maryland Biscuits

Maryland Biscuits, a tasty memory recorded in Julia Grant’s memoir of which she recounts on the culinary ability of the Dent's enslaved cook, Mary Robinson.

“Such loaves of beautiful snowy cake, such plates full of delicious Maryland biscuit, such exquisite custards and puddings, such omelets, gumbo soup, and fritters." -Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant

Maryland Biscuits Recipe

4 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup lard or butter
1 ½ cup water, milk or cream

1: Place flour, salt and lard/butter in a mixing bowl. Cut (mix) lard into flour using finger tips until lard in mixed into flour.

2: Mix in a little of the water or milk at a time, mixing to create a stiff dough. Note, if dough is too dry, add a little more liquid. Too wet, add a little more flour.

3: Place dough on a work table that has been lightly floured.

4: Using a mallet or a rolling pin beat the dough until it begins to blister. This takes about a half hour.

5: pat out dough and cut into rounds or pinch dough off to make small balls about the size of a small egg and flatten a little before placing on baking sheet.

6: Place biscuits on a greased baking pan. Using a fork poke a few holes in the top of each biscuit.

7: Bake at 425 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes – until brown. Serve hot

Makes about 2 dozen biscuits.

Duration:

5 minutes, 55 seconds

Maryland Biscuits, a tasty memory recorded in Julia Grant’s memoir of which she recounts on the culinary ability of the Dent's enslaved cook, Mary Robinson. “Such loaves of beautiful snowy cake, such plates full of delicious Maryland biscuit, such exquisite custards and puddings, such omelets, gumbo soup, and fritters." -Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant In this video, renowned foodways historian, Suzanne Corbett provides a tutorial on how to make traditional Maryland Biscuits.