Book Review: Eating the Plates by Lucille Recht Penner

Eating the Plates:
A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners
By Lucille Recht Penner

We know all there is to know about the first Thanksgiving, right? Pilgrims, Indians, the Mayflower, Squanto, turkey, stuffing, cranberries. We’ve heard about the difficult trip across the Atlantic in the Mayflower and the horrible first winter at Plymouth.

But, what was the day-to-day life of the Pilgrims really like? Lucille Recht Penner paints a fascinating portrait of Pilgrim life in Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners. Did you know the Pilgrims didn’t like fruits and vegetables? They didn’t even like to drink water! And, they thought bathing was bad for the health.

These facts and many more are woven into an interesting and well-researched account of those early days in Plymouth. Penner does an excellent job of describing the first houses of the Pilgrims as well as their customs. How would you like to sleep on the kitchen table because there weren’t enough beds? Or, perhaps you’d like to share a plate with your little sister because there weren’t enough plates to go around. How different their lives were than ours!

The book consists of 117 pages with ten short chapters as well as a glossary and index. The last chapter is a short Pilgrim cookbook containing ten authentic Pilgrim recipes you can make in your own kitchen.

For an adult, this is a quick, fun read. Children who enjoy history and read well may enjoy it on their own. It would be a great Thanksgiving-week read-aloud book for the whole family.