Colonial Cooking and Food
Kelly Chen 7C1 ID4
The New England Colonies
In the New England colonies, the soil was
very rocky which made it very hard for the
colonists to grow anything. The colonists
there called this soil scrabble. They had
short growing seasons and long cold
winters. Fishing was a means of survival in
the winter. New Englanders learned to
make breads, stews, puddings, and jams
from the Native plants. The Native plants
were corn, squash, sweet potatoes,
pumpkins and beans. Tomatoes were also
a native plant, but many colonists thought
that it was poisonous and refused to eat it.
The Middle Colonies
The Middle Colonies had long growing
seasons and rich soil which gave them a
wide variety of fruits and vegetables such as
peas, pears and apples. They also grew
wheat, rye, and other grains. This area
became known as the bread basket because
of all the wheat it grew It also supplied the
New England and Middle colonies with
grains for bread and biscuits. Middle
colonists had a love for sweets and their
desserts included baked cookies, pastries,
pies, and candied fruits and wild nuts.
The Southern Colonies
The Southern colonists mostly owned
large plantations where they grew cash
crops such as tobacco, rice and indigo.
Here they grew crops for trading. From
these trades, they received spices and
sugar to flavor their food. The colonists
learned how to grow rice from the slaves
who were brought over from West
Africa. Some other crops they grew in
the kitchen gardens included: apples,
pears, cherries, peaches and plums.
Grapes, raspberries and strawberries
grew in the wild and were often used in
desserts.
Who Was the Colonial Cook?
In colonial homes, the woman of the family
ra n t h e h o u s e h o l d . I n t h e w e a l t h i e r
households, the women of the homes did not
do the cooking. They simple supervised, the
servants and slaves who cooked and
prepared the food. A slave cook had to cook
for her master’s family and her own family.
Although most of the cooks were women,
some men were also cooks and bakers.
Children’s Chores
Colonial children started helping their
parents gather and prepare food when they
were 5-6 years old. The children searched
the forests for wild mushrooms, mustard
plants, dandelion greens, and celery. They
also picked nuts and wild fruit from bushes
and trees. The children also removed the
kernels from ears of corn and threaded
f r u i t s a n d v e g e t a b l e s t o d r y.
This is exactly how colonial
kids looked! Well… maybe
they looked just a little
different than this…
The Colonial Kitchen
In many colonial homes, the kitchen was the
center of daily life. In the southern colonies,
some of the kitchens were separate from the
house because it was too hot. The largest part
of the kitchen was the fireplace which often
took up the entire wall. In some homes, the
kitchen fireplace was the only source of light
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Tableware
Early settlers had very little tableware.
Family members ate from trenchers.
(trenchers are blocks of wood with the
centers cut out do that it could hold food)
Two people shared a trencher and family
members shared wooden cups. Early
colonists also made spoons out of sticks
or shells. Forks were not used by
colonists until the late 1700s.
Corn
Corn was introduced to the colonists by
Native Americans and it was used in
almost every meal. However corn was also
used as money to pay their taxes. In the
early 1600s, Massachusetts colonists used
corn and beans to vote. A kernel of corn
stood for a yes and a bean was a no vote.
Vote yes!
Vote no!
Beans
Beans were an important food in colonial
cooking. The colonists dried the beans and
stored them for winter. When there wasn’t a
lot of meat they used beans in stews. Beans
have a lot of protein and took the place of
meat in many dishes. Pinto, lima, snap,
kidney, wax, and pea beans grew well in the
New England colonies. Boston,
Massachusetts was known for baked beans.
Fun fact!: Boston became
so well known for its
baked beans that people
called “Beantown.”
Bread
One day each week was set apart just for
baking bread. On this day, colonial women
baked enough bread to last for an entire
week. Bread was eaten at almost every meal.
As towns developed. Bakeries became
common and colonists were able to purchase
breads and biscuits from these bakeries.
Meat
Deer, moose, elk, rabbits and squirrels are
native to North America. Passenger Pigeons
were a popular meat for colonists, but they
became extinct. They colonists fished and
caught cod, mackerel, sturgeon, lobsters, and
crabs. The colonists also brought farm
animals from Europe such as cows, pigs,
horses and chickens. Much of this meat was
preserved for winter.
Sweets
Ingredients for desserts such as butter, eggs,
and sugar were expensive and limited in
early colonial days. Most of the time, dessert
was saved for special occasions. Pies were a
very common dessert. When they lacked
ingredients, colonists invented new desserts.
Colonial cooks mixed fruit with cornmeal
dumplings and made a dessert called slumps
and grunts. The colonists also sometimes
rolled the fruit in a layer of dough in order to
make cobblers and pandowdies.
Colonial Sugar Cookies
Recipe
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted sweet butter -- softened
1 cup sugar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
Beat egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar until thick and lemon colored. Reserve.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg whites.
Mix in egg yolk mixture, baking soda, cream of tartar, nutmeg, salt and
vanilla.
Mix in flour gradually.
Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll out dough on floured surface. Cut into shapes.
Bake on greased baking sheet, 8 to 10 minutes.
Either sprinkle with colored sugar before baking or bake plain and use a
powdered sugar glaze.
Sources used:
Books
Colonial Cooking by: Susan Doiser
The Colonial Cook by: Bobbie Kalman and Ellen
Brown
Website
http://www.lovelyrecipes.com/recipe.php?recip
eid=4720