When turkey met cranberries — a dinner date from the 1700s

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
"Were turkey and cranberry sauce on the table at the first Thanksgiving? There's plenty of supposition, but food historian Pamela Cooley says there's no official record that the pilgrims and Native Americans ate turkey and cranberries at that 1621 feast. No official record in the day's diaries, or newspapers, or Martha Stewart Livings.

It wasn't until 1796, when the first American cookbook was published that turkey and cranberries were linked in print. The book was called — (ready for it?!) — American cookery, or, The art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables: and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves: and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plumb to plain cake, adapted to this country, and all grades of life."...