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

Turkey and cranberries were linked in print for the first time in a 1796 cookbook. Not long after, (give or take 180+ years), Susan Stamberg began sharing her family's cranberry relish recipe on NPR.
In her 1796 cookbook, <em>American Cookery,</em> Amelia Simmons recommends serving turkey or other fowl "with boiled onions and cranberry-sauce, mangoes, pickles or celery." Not long after, (give or take 180+ years), Susan Stamberg began sharing her mother in law's cranberry relish recipe on NPR.

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.

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