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Many different type of meats such as cod, eel, lobster, fowls, venison, rabbit and chicken, would have been there but the common mentality of the 17th century did not call much use of the vegetables in the preparations. Moreover, many vegetables would not have been available, according to the time of the year when the feasts were held, to the colonists. Since there were no ovens, there were no cakes, breads and pies. Sugar that pilgrims had brought with them on the Mayflower was also at its end, so there were no sweets too. Though, the food was rich and would have been considered unhealthy by today's standards, pilgrims were hard working people and were quite active. They need more protein too.
Hear attacks were rare, if there, and dangers of plague and small pox were more threatening to them. Despite the common concept of bland taste of English food, pilgrims prepared spicy dishes and used spices, such as cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper and dried fruit, in sauces for meats. Measures for cooking were unknown and cooks just improvised while cooking and it was mostly experientially done. The best way to prepare meat in those days was to roast it and someone in the pilgrims was made to sit for hours at a time and turn the spit every now and then so that meat was evenly done. There was no refrigeration system yet, so pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians used to dry many types of food materials such as Indian corn, hams, fish and herbs and used it later while cooking.
