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What is the actual history of Thanksgiving? Does turkey really make you tired? And what's the story with the Macy's Thanksgiving parade? In this episode of The List Show, Erin (@erincmccarthy) debunks 18 Thanksgiving myths.
You'll learn how to cook a turkey so you don't make your guests sick, the number of calories in a turducken, and why the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday.
In case you forgot, The List Show is a trivia-tastic, fact-filled show for curious people. Subscribe here for new List Show episodes the first and third Wednesday of each month: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpZ5qUqpW4hW4zdfuBxMSJA?sub_confirmation=1
For more turkey-tastic Thanksgiving facts, read our article, 20 Thanksgiving Facts, covering the history of Thanksgiving and present-day thanksgiving trivia: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/517438/20-thanksgiving-facts-liven-your-meal
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Did you know that Abraham Lincoln pardoned a Christmas turkey
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Hi, I'm Erin McCarthy, editor-in-chief of MentalFloss.com. Some credit Lincoln with the first-ever presidential Thanksgiving turkey pardon, but that's the
0:10
wrong holiday. In 1863, the Lincoln family received the bird as a gift meant to be cooked for Christmas dinner
0:16
But Tad Lincoln, 10 years old at the time, grew fond of the turkey, which he named Jack
0:20
Shortly before Jack was to be killed, Tad learned of the turkey's impending fate
0:24
He successfully pleaded for a stay from the turkey executioner and then ran into one of
0:28
his father's cabinet meetings, crying, he's a good turkey and I don't want him killed
0:33
So Lincoln pardoned the bird. And that's the first of many Thanksgiving myths that I'm going to debunk for you today
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It's also a misconception that Harry S. Truman started the tradition of pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey
0:52
In 1947, he did receive one from the National Turkey Federation, but he most likely ate it
0:57
From then on, presidents received turkeys for the holiday. As for who pardoned the first, well, it's complicated
1:03
John F. Kennedy didn't eat his, but he didn't call this pardoning, though the press did
1:07
Nixon sent at least some of his turkeys to petting farms. Reagan jokingly used the word pardon, and it was President George H.W. Bush who officially
1:14
said, quote, let me assure you and this fine tom turkey that he will not end up on anyone's
1:19
dinner table, not this guy. He's granted a presidential pardon as of right now
1:23
We've all heard relatives blame their post-Thanksgiving dinner sleepiness on tryptophan. But that's not quite fair. It's true that turkey contains the amino acid tryptophan
1:33
And it's true that the human body can use tryptophan to make serotonin, which helps us sleep
1:37
But turkey contains lots of amino acids that the body works hard to get to the brain for various
1:42
purposes. There's less tryptophan than those other amino acids. The amount of tryptophan that actually
1:47
makes it to the brain to create serotonin could best be described as poultry. Not sorry. Plus
1:53
turkey has less tryptophan than other foods like cheese and nuts. Thanksgiving grogginess is
1:57
probably just due to overeating and drinking, if that's your thing. Some believe you need to rinse
2:02
a turkey before cooking it to kill bacteria, but the USDA actually recommends against it
2:07
When you wash raw poultry, you risk kitchen contamination. Just cook your bird to 165 degrees
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Fahrenheit, or about 74 degrees Celsius, to eliminate scary bacteria. That's what the experts
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have to say, but I have to admit I'm still curious. Whose team rinsed the turkey and
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whose team no Let us know in the comments According to the USDA website while checking the temperature of a cooking turkey it important to monitor quote the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast Which brings me to my next myth Pop thermometers
2:38
pop when the turkey is cooked. In fact, many of these thermometers are designed to pop
2:42
up when the turkey has reached around 180 to 185 degrees Fahrenheit. In other words
2:48
overcooked. And Consumer Reports tested pop-up timers and found that some popped when the
2:52
meat was still severely undercooked. Experts recommend you use a regular probe thermometer instead
2:58
Turducken is not a new dish, though it was really only popularized around the turn of
3:02
the 21st century when announcer John Madden was known to rhapsodize about it during Thanksgiving
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NFL games. There are recipes going back to at least 1774 containing multiple birds within
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each other. In 1807, a recipe called roast without equal emerged that called for 17 birds
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gylark, thrush, quail, ortolan, lapwing, golden plover, partridge, woodcock, teal, guinea hen, guinea fowl, wild duck, fowl, red pheasant, wild goose, bustard, and fig pecker, which
3:31
is a real bird and obviously why I insisted on reading this list
3:35
The creator of the turducken specifically is up for debate, but many trace its roots
3:39
to Louisiana or to Louisiana-based chef Paul Perdome, who claimed to invent the dish while
3:43
in a Wyoming lodge. Fun fact — according to Men's Health, a typical turducken contains more than 12,000 calories
3:50
A regular turkey clocks in at around 2400. It's a misconception that stuffing is cooked inside a turkey and dressing is cooked in
3:57
a dish. While there are some who subscribe to that distinction, geography generally plays a bigger
4:01
role in deciding which term is used. Dressing is more common in the southern United States, whether cooked inside the bird or
4:07
not, while stuffing is more common up north. There was a rumor going around in 2016 that canned pumpkin puree was actually a puree
4:15
of, gasp, squash. But this one is actually kind of complicated. The company Libby's makes about 85% of the pumpkin puree sold worldwide, and they use
4:24
Dickinson pumpkins in their recipes. And if you want to sell a food and call it pumpkin in the U.S., the FDA allows food prepared
4:31
from any of the following to apply. Golden-fleshed sweet squash or mixtures of such squash and field pumpkin
4:37
Field pumpkin is what most of us picture when we think of a pumpkin. round and orange and ready to be carved. Dickinson pumpkins aren't so pretty. They're tan with
4:46
less-defined ridges. As for whether they can be considered pumpkins, experts disagree
4:51
Some say they pumpkins some say they squash and some say it doesn matter because it all squash anyway It a misconception that there was popcorn at the first Thanksgiving We can trace this myth back to the 1889 novel Standish of Standish by Jane G Austin
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not to be confused with the other Jane Austen. During the 1620s, the type of corn that grew in Plymouth was northern flint corn
5:12
which doesn't have the strong kernels that are ideal for popping. And we call it Thanksgiving, but this probably wasn't that
5:19
Pilgrims did celebrate Thanksgiving days after fortunate events, but those were usually religious days. They'd go to church and give thanks to God, which
5:25
is not what the Wampanoag tribe and pilgrims did during their 1621 celebration, as far
5:30
as we know. To be clear, what we do know is limited. It mostly comes from one letter written
5:34
by Edward Winslow. In 1841, his letter was published in Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers
5:39
by Boston writer and publisher Alexander Young. Young called the occasion the first Thanksgiving
5:45
even though there's no mention of Thanksgiving in the original text. if it had been a Thanksgiving, it wouldn't have been the first one in North America
5:53
First of all, many Native American tribes also held ceremonies in which the purpose was to give
5:57
thanks. And many other European settlers did, too. In 1565, a group of Spaniards invited the
6:03
Timuqua tribe to their Thanksgiving in St. Augustine, Florida. In 1598, another group of
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Spaniards held a Thanksgiving celebration on the Rio Grande. And in 1619, another Thanksgiving took
6:14
place near Jamestown. So the 1621 festival was not the reverential day, or three days, some picture
6:20
It was more like a harvest festival. About 50 pilgrims and 90 people from the Wampanoag tribe got together and partied
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In addition to a lot of eating, they likely had games, races, and marks shooting
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The pilgrims were known to brew beer, so there may have been some imbibing as well
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We say that the pilgrims invited Native Americans to the festival out of gratitude for helping
6:38
them with the harvest because it makes for a nice story, but there's no way to confirm
6:42
that it's true. Edward Winslow's letter simply says that there were, quote, many of the Indians coming amongst
6:47
us, and among the rest, their greatest king, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for
6:52
three days we entertained and feasted. The Pilgrims are famous for their religious lifestyle, but they didn't come to America
6:59
to escape religious persecution like some claim. In fact, they already did that when they left England and moved to Leiden, Holland, during
7:05
the early 17th century. They then decided to leave Holland, where they had religious freedom but were having
7:10
trouble making ends meet. also feared losing their English identity amongst the Dutch. And by the way, pilgrims didn't wear
7:17
black and white or buckled hats and shoes at the meal. Black and gray were reserved for Sundays
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but considering this Thanksgiving wasn a religious day they likely wore their regular clothes which could be red green brown blue or a number of other colors Plain leather was used for shoelaces and belts because it was cheaper and more fashionable
7:35
than buckles. Speaking of fashion, we have to talk about Black Friday shopping
7:39
It's a myth that the day after Thanksgiving is named for being the day that businesses
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get back in the black after being financially in the red. In fact, the most popular explanation for the name says that police in Philadelphia began
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calling it Black Friday in the 1950s because many local stores held sales for the crowds
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in town for the Army-Navy football game. The police hated this chaotic day that involved working overtime
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Black Friday was a way of expressing distaste for a day that made things difficult for them
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Within about a decade, the whole city was aware of the nickname. It became a well-known term all over the U.S. around the mid to late 1980s
8:11
It's a misconception that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was always a celebration in honor
8:16
of Thanksgiving. Originally, it was the Macy's Christmas Parade. And actually, you could say that the first parade in 1924 was really honoring Macy's
8:24
itself as much as anything else. The parade commemorated the flagship store's expansion into what was then considered the
8:29
world's largest department store under one roof. It took place on Thanksgiving Day, but it focused on reaching the store's Christmas
8:35
window display titled The Fairy Folk Frolics of Wondertown. Over the next few years, it would be identified by different names—the Thanksgiving Parade
8:44
the Christmas Parade, or even the annual show. But by the 1930s, it was solidly the Thanksgiving Day Parade
8:50
Finally, it's not true that Thanksgiving is exclusively an American holiday. There are comparable celebrations around the world
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Canadian Thanksgiving is very similar to the American one, but it supposedly traces its history back to explorer Martin Frobisher
9:04
who landed in Canada and held a Thanksgiving in 1578. Though we could probably make a list of myths about Canadian Thanksgiving, too
9:11
As historian Peter Stevens notes, quote, there is no evidence that connects the modern Canadian Thanksgiving to Frobisher's
9:17
16th century celebration. And some places celebrate versions of Thanksgiving because of historical connections with America. Grenada, Australia's Norfolk Island, and Leiden
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Holland all fit that bill. And there are other holidays which share certain aspects of American
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Thanksgiving. Germany has Arntedankfest, a similar harvest festival of thanks. And Japan
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has a holiday which evolved from a harvest festival and now celebrates workers' rights
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Its name, Kinro Kancha Nohi, can be translated to Labor Thanksgiving. We pushed back our fossil episode for a very special surprise
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You can still drop your favorite fossil facts in the comments for a chance to be featured
9:52
in that episode. That will go up on December 4th. Make sure to subscribe here so you don't miss it
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We'll see you then
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