listen to alistair cooke's thanksgiving letter here.

"But one has to imagine them singing hymns, bent in prayer and thanking God for the two novelties they had never seen which would sustain them.

"One was a clucking animal that came leaping out of the cranberry bogs that spread over the Cape.

"The turkey was new, so was the cranberry. What better then than to slaughter and roast one, make a sauce of the other, and serve them together.

....

"Soon was added another novelty - the potato, and the more familiar plump orange sphere, about which an early colonist wrote: "Let no man make jest of pumpkins, since for with this fruit the Lord was pleased to feed his people till came corn and cattle."

...

"Cranberry sauce is, I fear, an acquired taste for non-native Americans, as say mint sauce is an acquired taste outside Britain. My French gastronomic encyclopaedia has a tart note in its thousand pages of recipes:

"The idea of combining finely shredded mint leaves with a cup of vinegar and water as an adjunct to hot or cold lamb is considered indispensable in English cookery only."