dear cooks,

Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday, but beyond the bird, the menu is as varied as the cultures of the nation's melting pot—and every recipe tells a story. Giving Thanks explores the delicious, fascinating history of Thanksgiving, complete with trivia, recipes, and an amazing collection of archival imagery of the holiday’s history.

Thanksgiving specialists Kathleen Curtin and Sandra L. Oliver and the world-famous Plimoth Plantation trace the colorful history of the holiday, from the story of "The First Thanksgiving" to twenty-first-century customs. Why is lasagna a favorite Thanksgiving dish for immigrants from Eritrea, Bosnia, and Trinidad? What kinds of foods were most likely served at the first Thanksgiving?  (Hint: It wasn't turkey, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin pie). The answers are all here among an assortment of more than eighty recipes, from appetizers to desserts, old-fashioned mincemeat pies to modern pumpkin cheesecake. Recipes include five different ways to prepare turkey, from Classic New England to Indian and Cuban; Oyster Stew and Pomegranate and Persimmon Salad; Creamed Onions and Corn Pudding; and pies galore, from Cranberry Pear to Texas Buttermilk.

Try this recipe for Four-Milk Flan from the Mexican-American tradition and bring the rich history of the holiday to your own Thanksgiving table.

Four-Milk Flan

Flans (including pumpkin flans) are part of the Thanksgiving dessert menu for many people of Hispanic descent. The flan featured below is part of the holiday menu for Soledad Lopez, the owner of Guelaguetza Restaurant in West Los Angeles, California. Special thanks to food writer Amelia Saltsman, our correspondent in California, for Soledad's story and recipe.

Soledad comes from Matatlan, Oaxaca, in Mexico. She arrived in the United States in 1982 and about three years later, she and her family started celebrating Thanksgiving. "My sister and I saw everyone having Thanksgiving. Everyone had the day off. It was like Christmas to us. So we started having tamales. We added turkey a few years later. . . . Oaxacans don’t know how to make turkey in the oven. We make it on the stove, as a caldo [boiled to yield soup and meat] with mole, and serve it with white rice." Mole is an incredibly flavorful Mexican sauce used on many meat dishes.

"We think of Thanksgiving like celebrating another Navidad [Christmas] or Día de los Muertos [Day of the Dead]. We start with a small drink of mezcal in the living room, then go to the table where we drink hot chocolate with pan de yema [an egg bread, like brioche, that is dipped in the hot chocolate]. We spend maybe forty minutes talking and enjoying the chocolate. Then we clear away all these things and set out the turkey mole with tortillas and rice. . . . For dessert, we have little pastries called dulces regionales, a special flan Napolitano made with four kinds of milk, and Jell-O from Oaxaca.” Soledad’s recipe makes a delicate flan with lots of caramel syrup. Depending on how sweet you want your flan, use between three-quarters and one entire can of the sweetened condensed milk. Soledad uses the lesser amount.

Serves 12