Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Are you ready to eat a nice bowl of samp?

What's samp? It's a cornmeal mush, which was popular during Pilgrim times. Samp was a lot like polenta, an Italian dish that's eaten today.

Most of the foods the Pilgrims ate still are eaten in America. But there wasn't much variety compared to what we have now: hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos, pizza, spaghetti and ice cream. And there were no snacks - unless you count bread and cheese. It just wasn't a snacking kind of culture. Pilgrims worked when they worked. They rested when they rested. And they ate when they ate.

Pub Date: 11/23/98