Turkey, Whitefish, Venison, Cigars: Wisconsin Thanksgiving Menus Past

Thanksgiving is a delicious time of year filled with traditional foods and family favorites new and old. But what actually makes it to the Thanksgiving table has varied considerably over the years. Below is a roundup of some menus and recipes from Wisconsin’s past.

Thanksgiving dinner at the Schlitz Hotel in Milwaukee in 1906 included boiled whitefish, a saddle of mutton and English plum pudding for dessert.

Soldiers serving in France during World War I enjoyed a menu of boiled whitefish with Chateau Thierry sauce, turkey, crab salad, plum pudding and “armistice punch” in honor of the cessation of fighting on the Western Front declared only two weeks earlier.

At the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp in Elcho, Wisconsin, the Thanksgiving menu in 1939 included a turkey, of course, but also a California fruit cup, olives, Parker House rolls, chilled table celery, royal Hawaiian salad, pumpkin pie, cigarettes and cigars.

Olives, fruit, celery, and cigarettes were also on the menu of the CCC Camp in Eagle River in 1935, along with baked ham, creamed peas, mincemeat pie and shrimp salad.

Carson Gulley was Wisconsin’s first celebrity chef. He became head chef at the University of Wisconsin in 1927, a position he held for 27 years. He wrote two cookbooks, developed the beloved fudge-bottom pie and hosted a television and radio cooking program with his wife, Bea. His recipe for Thanksgiving venison comes from the WIBA “Cooking School of the Air” for November 1952.

We assume the Plymouth in the name is from Massachusetts and not Wisconsin, but both states are big producers of the cranberries used in this pie.

What to do with all those leftovers? Try this After Thanksgiving Strata from the Milwaukee Public Library’s historic recipe file.