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My craft is baking. The steps for baking bread are mixing ingredients, putting it in a baking pan, bake it in the fireplace or oven and eat it.
Some of the tools used are:
If
the fire went out, a person was sent to another house to get some hot coals
to start a new fire. They used the fire spoon to carry the hot coals back home.
When sugar could be bought, it was sold in large cones and a sugar cutter was
used to get a piece of sugar. A quern was used to grind corn into cornmeal.
A spider is the cooking utensil that allowed colonist to fry items in teh fireplace
without having to stand and hold the pan. A samp mortar was the old fashioned
way to grind corn. A butter churn was used to turn cream into butter. It required
back breaking work that left muscles aching from all the work. A waffle iron
was used to makea waffle over the fire.
The setting was either in a house or in a tavern. It was in a clean environment and it would be in the country or in a town.
This person needed to know how to make the fire and keep it going and know how to use utensils. They had to know how to cook and clean and take care of people. They got skills by being an apprentice to a baker, learning from home or watching the lady of house prepare meals. A baker would not go to school like a chef or baker would today.
Travellers depended upon meals in taverns. Cooking at
home was necessary and cooking in a tavern was a luxury, unless you were travelling.
Eating at taverns was not just for the rich. Local people might eat at a taverrn
like we would go to a restaurant. This was especilly true if the tavern owner
had a musician or entertainment in. The baked things would be a good dessert.
Having a baker in town freed up women to do other things.
Cooking is fun for almost everyone. If you are good you could own and run a restaurant. i would like this to create new foods. Today, we have more food choices; but people still like to eat fresh baked breads and cakes.
and pies.
Article # 2 - Cook
P.J. G.
11-18-02
Colonial cooking was very hard times food was very scarce. The tool they used to cook was homemade. The kitchen was separated from the main house so that a fire in the kitchen would not catch the whole house on fire. The skill needed to cook was patience not like today cooking, which is easy as 1, 2, and 3.
Most of the ingredients used were herb and spice like purple
cabbage, nasturtium, buds, green walnuts, lemon radish pod, bar berries
,
elder bud, parsley, mushrooms, asparagus, and many kinds of fish and fruits.
Another type of food was beef jerky, which was a favorite. They hunted for their
meat. Some of the things they hunted for were deer, rabbit, buffalo wild turkey,
and pigs. They also kept herds of cows, sheep and goats. They would fish for
many kinds of fish. The way they preserved all they meat was by pickling it,
smoking it, or salting it. The crops were corn, beans, and pumpkins. Other farm
products included milk and cheese. Most of the crops were ok to leave out, but
the cheese was a different story.
The tools were that were used included an iron peel. The pot lifter is tool that lift and lowers the pot to control the temperature. The andiron is a metal wood holder that keeps the wood off the floor of the fireplace. When you put the wood on the pair of andirons, the ash would fall and the wood would stay on. This was also good for the fire so it can get more air and burn better. The frying pan was for the non-soup food that could be cook on it. It had a big handle so that you would not have to get close to the fire and burn yourself. The pothook let the pot move around over the fire. It was good to have to control the head that the pot got from the fire and just in case there was some wind. The hanger is the hook connected to the pothook. The trivet is sort of a coaster but it some times has little legs so it won't sit right on the table. It keeps a hot pan from burning the top of the table. A roasting rack is a rack almost like a grill but in colonial times it could hold the meat over the fire to roast. Rings are little metal rings that hold the meat on the pot lifter. Most of these tools were made by a blacksmith or made at home. They were used to cook with the fire.
This site is created and maintained by Holly
Geddes.
Last updated on
May 19, 2003