The New York Times links to this 1895 article listing the menus of what apparently were typical Thanksgiving dinners back then. Check'em out! Begged question: how big were the portions? One menu lists codfish, lamb chops, curried chicken, and don't even ask me what "punce en surprise" might be, and ONLY THEN comes the turkey! (CAUTION: this is a *.pdf in case anybody has problems downloading or opening them)

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive...679D94649ED7CF

Oh gosh ... you should look at the dinner menus of the upper class 18th century family. They're amazing. A "meal" properly consisted of 2 courses + dessert.

Each "course" = anywhere from 5 - 20 separate dishes all brought out at the same time.

Even if you were poor, on holidays you did your best to provide a formal meal for your family with as many "removes" (i.e. separate plates) as you could.

(Social historian by education, here - see, I knew my degree in history would come in useful at some point! ).

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