Thanksgiving

The New York Times Pens Legendary Correction for Its Big Thanksgiving Feature

Is it time to eat yet?
Is it time to eat yet? Photo: Shutterstock

The New York Times kicked off Thanksgiving with a huge recipe package that, in theory, pulled an exemplary recipe from each state. Of course, anything that spans as much of the USA and its culinary terrain as this one is bound to hit a pothole or two along the way. For its inaugural go, chile peppers, the correct spelling of “District of Columbia,” and du Pont family history were among the casualties. You might want to grab a chair, a bowl of grape salad, and go have a good laugh.

Correction: November 26, 2014

An article last Wednesday recommending a Thanksgiving dish from each state, with a recipe, contained numerous errors.

The recipe from Connecticut, for quince with cipollini onions and bacon, omitted directions for preparing the quince. It should be peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks. An illustration with the West Virginia recipe, for pawpaw pudding, depicted a papaya — not a pawpaw, which is correctly depicted above. The introduction to the recipe from Arizona, for cranberry sauce and chiles, misstated the origin of Hatch chiles. They are grown in New Mexico, not in Arizona.

The introduction to the Delaware recipe, for du Pont turkey with truffled zucchini stuffing, referred incorrectly to several historical points about the Winterthur estate. It was an ancestral home of the du Pont family, not the sole one; it was established in 1837, not in 1810; the house was completed in 1839, not in 1837. The introduction also misstated the relationship of Pauline Foster du Pont to Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. Pauline was the wife of Mr. du Pont’s grandson, not his daughter-in-law.

And, finally, the label for the illustration for the nation’s capital misspelled the District of Columbia as Colombia.

Good lord, @nytimes, it’s Thanksgiving. Pull it together pic.twitter.com/C07QBrGydA— John McQuaid (@johnmcquaid) November 26, 2014

Whopper of a correction on Thanksgiving dishes from each state that made me smile. Thanks, @nytimes http://t.co/DBRqSOGXzz— Anne Cronin (@annecronin) November 26, 2014

Strangely, though, the 200-word breakdown makes no mention of that flame-broiled-grape recipe that had thousands of Minnesotans up in arms last week, or Iowa’s Thanksgiving cookies recipe, which is allegedly from Illinois, for that matter.

Related: New York Times Agrees to Stop Trolling Minnesota With Its Ridiculous Grape Salad Recipe

The New York Times Pens Legendary Correction for Its Big Thanksgiving