As you plan shopping lists for Thanksgiving, an easy place to find old recipes that will make your Thanksgiving meal new is the Texas Digital Newspaper Program.

Pickled eggs are an easy Thanksgiving table appetizer, can be transported to a friend’s house, and are safe to leave out on the table for hours.  This Telegraph and Texas Register recipe dates from November 9, 1842–before Thanksgiving was an official holiday in America!  This recipe was intended to accompany meats stored through the winter as a nourishing yet tasty side dish, in an era before refrigeration existed to keep food from spoiling over long periods of time. 

The Schulenburg Sticker bring us “The Kitchen Cabinet” column, from November 18, 1921.  This recipe column suggests that “a few pieces of nicely smoked trout added to a potato salad give a flavor that is especially appetizing.”  These recipes take advantage of common foods that would have been in a 1921 Texas kitchen in the late autumn.  “Usually two or three vegetables with the meat course is considered enough.”  Ranging from suggestions on cooking sweet potatoes attractively, to fruit- and coffee-flavored desserts, to recipes for different varieties of squash that were readily available in the Texas Hill Country during the 1920s, any of Nellie Maxwell’s recipes would add a unique experience to a large family Thanksgiving.

“Meet the Bean Family,” from the November 25, 1943, issue of The Tulia Herald, states, “[Dried beans] are food pinch hitters for meat, fish, eggs, and cheese when supplies of these No. 1 protein foods are short.”  Written during a time of war rationing, this bean recipe list illustrates an era and a region when resources were limited and when sensible planning of meals was a necessity.  These recipes could add a unique twist to any 2013 Thanksgiving feast.