PLYMOUTH, Mass. - There wasn t a turkey with bread stuffing on the table at the first Thanksgiving held in 1621. Cranberry sauce didn t come jellied or sauced. Pies were absent: There were no ovens, and cooking was over an open fire. But pumpkins were plentiful and sweet corn pudding might have been served.

It would be 50 years until an Englishman s letters mentioned boiling the New England cranberry with sugar for a sauce. Potatoes, which had originated in South America, had not yet made their way into the diet of the Wampanoag (17th-century Native People) in 1621. And sweet potatoes, which had originated in the Caribbean, were cultivated in Spain, and were imported to England, had not been adopted into the English diet.

Such are the foods and cultural histories of two peoples recounted at Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum of 17th-century Plymouth Colony. Besides cooking over a hearth, the inhabitants pluck birds, make cheese, dress hides, and preserve meat and fish.

When the colonists arrived, the settlement was called Patuxet by the Wampanoag; the colonists, who had sailed from Plymouth, England, called it New Plymouth.

Most likely, the menu at the first Thanksgiving included Wampanoag foods of roasted wild duck and roasted goose, venison sobaheg (Wampanoag stew), nasaump (dried corn porridge), mussels seethed (boiled), and stewed pompion (squash and pumpkins).

Recently, a lunch made with these authentic recipes of the era was served to food journalists with Plimoth Plantation re-enactors or interpreters representing the English colonists and Wampanoag People. The menu seems rustic by contemporary standards, but I found the foods nourishing and quite tasty, considering how little seasoning was available and used.

The Plimoth Plantation museum is dedicated to presenting the separate and shared histories of the Wampanoag and the English colonists. It s a place where visitors meander through the 1627 Pilgrim Village listening to costumed role players or interpreters who have taken the names, viewpoints, and life histories of the people living in the colony. Walking outside the fenced village, you find your way to Hobbamock s Homesite, where Native People talk about the history and culture of the Wampanoag People. The staff here answers questions from a 21st-century viewpoint.

In Plymouth village, you might meet Barbara Standish (played by Tara Brook Watkins) roasting a goose in the corner of a small house with a thatched roof. There is no fireplace; the stone floor holds the fire and cast-iron pots in one corner of the single-room hut. While the goose is roasting, the natural fat and juices drip into an iron frying pan. Mary Warren, a neighbor girl, helps by cutting onions. She is played by Abby Arenst, 12.

“The seasons determine my day,” says Mrs. Standish, a commoner who marvels that someday her children will be landowners in the colony. She tells how Indian corn is grown. “They put herring in the ground and then put corn seeds in the ground. For English corn, you have to plow the entire earth. The corn tastes like rice - it tastes like nothing until you season it. You eat it every day and fresh cod.”

In fact, cod was eaten in the summer, according to food historian Kathleen Curtain. “In the fall, there were geese, ducks, turkey, and venison.”

As for wild turkeys, “these are a bit gamey,” says Mrs. Standish. “Onions are plentiful. Pompion (pattypan squash) are cut and stewed and mixed with butter, salt, and sugar.”

“Butter would have been imported from England,” explains Ms. Curtain. “In 1627, there were three cows in the village for milk, and Mrs. Standish would have been one of the people who had access to it.” The village had 160 people.

In another authentic house, an interpreter playing Jane Cook is stewing mussels and making “Indian corn with the broth of a hen.”

Across the meadow, the Wampanoag men are burning out the inside of a canoe, while the women are tending the cooking on a bed of hardwood coals. People ate when they were hungry. They didn t sit together and have set mealtimes. There was always a pot of food cooking, says Ms. Curtain. Senior people ate first.

I notice that both the Wampanoag and the English are roasting duck and goose, one outdoors, and the other inside the dark home, where long skirts could easily brush against the hot coals. Care must be taken in both settings.

In the dining room where this circa 1627 lunch is to be served to the food journalists, the tables are set: Each place has a pewter bowl and a knife and a spoon. In keeping with the era, there is no fork. We manage.

Linda Coombs, director of the Wampanoag Indian Program, sits with us and talks about the land and its foods. “The two largest communities today are Mashpee [Cape Cod] and Aquinnah [Martha s Vineyard]. “Families were allotted parcels of land [in the 17th century]. Some of these families still have portions of them,” she says.

As for our lunch, Ms. Coombs explains, “The sobaheg is made from ground corn, beans, squash, venison, and onion. Sobaheg means soup or stew.”

Variations of Venison Sobaheg are still made in Wampanoag households in New England. Ingredients include Jerusalem artichokes, a member of the sunflower family, which are peeled and cubed. Walnuts, chestnuts, or sunflower seeds are ground into a flour. Salt is not mentioned in the original recipe, but is used in the dish today.

Nasaump consists of dried corn pounded in a mortar and boiled in water to a thick porridge. Often, fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries were added. Another version included clam broth with native herbs such as green onions and wild garlic. The English added sugar, spices, and milk to this dish.

To the English, mussels were a lesser meat than venison or wildfowl, according to information from Plimoth Plantation. However, English cookbooks of the period had numerous recipes for seething (boiling) and frying mussels. Mussels were abundant and easily gathered.

Stewed pompion was an English recipe referring to squash and pumpkin. The American distinction between the two came later.

From John Josselyn s 1672 description of daily life, the first English housewives in New England relied on stewed pumpkin to fill up their families through the fall and winter. It was an accompaniment to “fish or flesh” at the table.

The simplicity of these recipes contrasts with the higher fat and higher sugar dishes of our contemporary Thanksgiving menus. They give new meaning to the holiday.

Plimoth Plantation is open on Thanksgiving Day. It closes for the season on Nov. 30 and reopens March 27, 2004. Admission ranges from $14 to $22. Children under age 5 are free. Information: www.plimoth.org.

For more stories on food, see www.toledoblade.com/food

First Published November 25, 2003, 4:44 p.m.