Tudor & Stuart Thanksgiving – A 17th-Century English Feast

This imagined holiday table looks to Robert May, Hannah Woolley, and their contemporaries to ask a simple question: if a 17th-century English household celebrated something like our modern Thanksgiving, what might they serve? This menu gathers roasts, puddings, vegetables, sauces, and pies from early modern sources and adapts them for today’s kitchen.

Dutch-style still life of autumn fruits and vegetables representing a Tudor and Stuart-inspired Thanksgiving table. — *Still Life of Autumn Fruits and Vegetables* — shared image for the **Tudor & Stuart Thanksgiving Series**, evoking abundance and the early-modern feast.

Early-Modern England Meets the Thanksgiving Table

By the mid-1600s, English kitchens were already full of foods we now associate with autumn feasts: roast turkey, sweet and white potatoes, “French” green beans, rich puddings of herbs and bread, grand mixed salads, and spiced pumpkin and apple pies. Cooks like Robert May and Hannah Woolley worked at the intersection of tradition and fashion, blending medieval techniques with New World ingredients and a growing taste for sugar and spice.

This series imagines a Tudor & Stuart-inspired Thanksgiving menu grounded in period recipes but adapted for modern cooks. It is not a reconstruction of a single historic meal, but a curated feast drawn from multiple sources between roughly 1600 and 1670 — the sort of dishes that could have appeared on a well-appointed early-modern table at the turn of the season.

Menu at a Glance

Main Dish: Roast Turkey with Two Sauces
Sauces & Relishes: Apple–Barberry Sauce (with a modern Barberry–Cranberry mash-up)
Puddings & Sides: Green Pudding of Sweet Herbs; Soops & Mashed Potatoes; Sweet Potatoes Three Ways; Butter’d French Beans
Salads & Appetizers: A Grand Sallet of Roast Meats & Pickled Things; Tudor Appetizers (Entrées de Table)
Pies & Sweets: Pumpion Pie (the first English pumpkin pie)

Use the links below to explore each dish, its historical context, and a detailed modern redaction.

Main Dish

Robert May’s Roast Turkey (1660) – Basting, Sauces, and Serving

Drawn from The Accomplisht Cook, this post explores early-modern methods for roasting turkey, basting with butter and wine, and serving it with two period-appropriate sauces. It anchors the feast with a bird that feels familiar, yet firmly rooted in 17th-century English practice.

Sauces & Relishes

Barberry Sauce for Roast Meats (1660) – A Tudor & Stuart Alternative to Cranberries

Using Robert May’s sauces for goose as a starting point, this post presents a tart, ruby-red apple and barberry sauce for goose, duck, turkey, or pork, along with quick pickled barberries and a modern barberry–cranberry mash-up. It traces the parallel roles of barberries in England and cranberries in colonial New England.

Puddings & Vegetable Sides

Green Pudding of Sweet Herbs – A Tudor Pudding for the Roasting Pan

A vivid, herby bread-and-egg pudding baked in a cloth or dish, inspired by early-modern “green puddings.” This post walks through historic boiling and baking methods and offers a modern version that works beautifully as a savoury stuffing or side dish.

Soops and Mashed Potatoes – How a Tudor Luxury Became a Holiday Staple

This entry explores early-modern “soops” of bread and potatoes and the gradual shift toward something like mashed potatoes. It includes multiple period recipes and a redaction that bridges 17th-century method and modern comfort food.

Sweet Potatoes Three Ways (1660–1670) – May & Woolley at the Table

Sweet “Spanish Potatoes” appear here as three distinct dishes: roasted and buttered with sugar and cinnamon (after May), candied in syrup with rosewater (after Woolley), and turned into a rustic pottage. Together, they show how a New World root was transformed into festive fare.

Butter’d French Beans (1660) – Robert May’s Table Greens

French beans — the New World haricot — are gently boiled, then stewed with butter, vinegar, pepper, and nutmeg. This simple dish offers a bright, green counterpoint to the richer elements of the feast and highlights early-modern enthusiasm for fashionable vegetables.

Salads & Appetizers

A Grand 17th-Century Sallet of Roast Meats and Pickled Things

Inspired by Robert May’s elaborate composed salads, this “grand sallet” layers roast meats, pickled and preserved fruits, fresh herbs, and greens. It functions as both centerpiece and palate refresher, showing how salads could be complex, decorative dishes rather than simple bowls of leaves.

Tudor Appetizers: Entrées de Table from The Accomplisht Cook

This post gathers small savoury dishes — little tarts, bites, and “entrees” — that could open or accompany a feast. While not strictly part of a Thanksgiving menu, they offer historically grounded nibbles for those who want to build a full early-modern service.

Pies & Sweets

Pumpion Pie (1658 & 1670) – The First English Pumpkin Pie

Working from The Compleat Cook (1658) and The Queen-Like Closet (1670), this post presents two early English recipes for “pumpion pye” — rich with herbs, spices, apple, and sometimes eggs — along with a modern blended redaction. It’s both familiar and startlingly different from the smooth custard-based pies we eat today.

Building Your Own Tudor & Stuart Thanksgiving

This menu is intentionally flexible. You can:

Cook the full feast for a themed event or SCA revel.
Select just a few sides — such as Butter’d French Beans, Green Pudding, or Sweet Potatoes Three Ways — to accompany a modern roast turkey.
Borrow the sauces or salads to add a historical accent to an otherwise contemporary table.

Each linked post includes full citations to period sources, discussion of historical context, and detailed modern redactions suitable for home kitchens and feast halls alike.

Series Index – All Posts in the Tudor & Stuart Thanksgiving Series

Part of the Tudor & Stuart Thanksgiving Series — Exploring how early modern English recipes—roasts, puddings, and sauces from Robert May and his contemporaries—might inspire today’s holiday table.

AI Assistance Disclosure: Historical transcription, formatting, and redaction support were provided with the help of AI tools for research and editing. Some images were created or edited with AI tools. All historical interpretation and final text are curated and verified by the editor of Give It Forth.