Authenticity: It's unlikely Pilgrims served our traditional Thanksgiving fare -- except cornbread

With Thanksgiving just about here, are you planning on an authentic holiday meal just like the one the Pilgrims enjoyed nearly 400 years ago?

If so, you can forget about the turkey, the cranberries and the pumpkin pie. Now traditional Thanksgiving foods, they were not on the menu when the Indians and the colonists first sat down together.

Take the turkey, for example. The only extant eyewitness account of the first Thanksgiving does not even mention it. Likewise, cranberries were probably not on that first Thanksgiving table. As New World foods, the Pilgrims would have had access to them, but they did not have sugar, so cranberries would have been too bitter to eat. Even pumpkin pie, that quintessential holiday dessert, was not on the menu at that first Thanksgiving. Not that there weren't pumpkins aplenty, but there was no wheat for pie crusts and there were no ovens for baking.

However, there is one food you can serve this Thanksgiving that you can be sure was at that first holiday spread: cornbread. It was being made by Native Americans for thousands of years before Europeans arrived here. Called "pone," from the Algonquin word "apan," which means baked, the earliest cornbreads consisted of nothing more than cornmeal, salt and water.

Since then, cornbread has become more complex and closely bound up with American identity, especially in the South. Southerners believe only they can do justice to cornbread. As Mark Twain observed, "Perhaps no bread in the world is quite as good as Southern cornbread, and perhaps no bread in the world is quite so bad as the Northern imitation of it."

Two kinds of cornmeal, yellow and blue, can be combined to create an innovative take on one of the most authentic Thanksgiving foods, cornbread or muffins. (TOM HARTE)

In truth, Yankee cornbreads can be every bit as good as Southern ones, but there are major differences. "The Cornbread Gospels," the best book I know on the subject, and the one with the best title, too identifies the following principal distinctions:

Three kinds of corn, yellow, blue, and creamed, are the ingredients for a triple corn muffin that will add an authentic touch to any Thanksgiving table. (TOM HARTE)

• Southern cornbreads, as a rule, have no sugar, whereas Northern cornbreads are typically quite sweet. Proving the adage that the simplest foods often provoke the greatest fervor, this distinction is often regarded as the most sacrosanct and can trigger heated discussion. Southerners don't even consider cornbread made with sugar to be the genuine item. They derisively call it cake.
• Southern cornbreads are usually made with white cornmeal, whereas Northern cornbreads are typically made with yellow cornmeal.
• Southern cornbreads rely mostly on cornmeal and contain very little if any flour, whereas Northern cornbreads usually contain as much flour as cornmeal, sometimes even more.
• Southern cornbreads are almost always made with a batter moistened with buttermilk, whereas Northern cornbread batters use just regular milk.
• Traditionally Southern cornbreads call for bacon drippings, whereas Northern cornbreads call for butter or oil.
• Southern cornbreads ordinarily have but one egg. and some use no eggs at all, whereas Northern cornbreads often use two or even three eggs.
• Southern cornbreads are usually leavened with a combination of baking powder and baking soda (to counteract the acidity of the buttermilk), whereas Northern cornbreads typically use just baking powder.
• Southern cornbreads are almost always baked in a skillet, preferably cast-iron, whereas Northern cornbreads are typically baked in a square baking pan or in muffin tins.

These distinctions are not inviolate, though many consider them so, but one thing is certain. A batch of cornbread is the most authentic and among the most delicious items to be found on any Thanksgiving table. There's more than a kernel of truth in that statement.

Not all cornmeal is yellow.† Here a plate of the blue variety stands ready to highlight a batch of muffins or cornbread, one of the few common dishes at a traditional holiday meal that we can be certain were at that first Thanksgiving table. (TOM HARTE)

Triple Corn Muffins

With its three varieties, including earthy blue corn, this recipe, adapted from Elizabeth Rozin's book, "Blue Corn and Chocolate," is a true celebration of the New World's indispensable food.

A batter containing three kinds of corn is spooned into muffin tins to create the perfect homage to one of the most authentic of Thanksgiving foods, cornbread. (TOM HARTE)

Hot from the oven, these triple corn muffins pay homage to cornbread, a truly bona fide Thanksgiving food. (TOM HARTE)

• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup blue cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 can (15 or 16 ounces) cream-style corn
• 1/2 cup raisins

Combine dry ingredients. Lightly beat egg, then add oil and creamed corn and blend thoroughly. Add wet ingredients to dry ones and mix just until blended. Stir in raisins. Fill greased muffin tins two-thirds full and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned and firm.