What’s cooking?

For many of us, cooking means opening a package taken from a shelf or a freezer, putting it into a microwave and setting a timer. But before 1964-66, when microwaves became household appliances, cooking was a far more complex, and time-consuming, process.

To find out just how complex, one need only sit down with food historian Diane Schwindt, who uses a brick fireplace built in 1693 and 30 pieces of wood to cook each meal.

According to Schwindt, a major improvement in home cooking came with the invention of the cast-iron stove in 1863.  As immigration increased our population, many new arrivals were housed in city tenements.  Stoves came apart and could be reassembled to accommodate the frequent relocation of their owners.

More efficient gas stoves were invented in 1826, but it would take a century before they were in most homes.  By the 1950s, a post-war economic and population boom increased demand for both gas and electric stoves and other conveniences like refrigerator-freezer combinations and washing machines. 

New technology, improved roads, more cars, and the arrival of “The Space Age” brought us roadside restaurants like Howard-Johnson’s and TV dinners, pre-made, convenient, and portable, so families could open a package and consume them right out of the oven while watching television together.  After the meal, the segmented aluminum tray went into the trash.  Ease of storage, preparation, and consumption made because of innovations in refrigeration and freezing lengthened shelf life and shortened kitchen prep time.

How much shorter? Once again, Schwindt offers some telling details about life in a colonial kitchen.

Early settlers arrived during a perilous time.  Everything from building and heating their shelters to weaving, sewing, dyeing and washing their clothes was labor intensive.  Nothing could be taken for granted.  In learning to adapt to their new environment, much was learned from indigenous people, as when they found they could gather the dried corn kernels left at the top of the cobs after harvest. Later, softened in water, they could be used for meals during the winter.

Turnips, corn, beans and onions were in North America by the 1600s and would have featured prominently in their diet.  Colonial apples were a basic food source as well. Brought from Europe as cuttings that could be grafted instead of started from seeds, they were especially useful because of their long-lasting quality, which provided additional food during the winter. Combined with other ingredients like yams, onions and molasses, apples became part of a stew that was a substantial food source.  From cider to desserts to main meals, apples were a mainstay in colonial households.

In the absence of refrigeration, gathering and preserving food, especially after the autumn harvest, was crucial for survival.  In the 1700s, ceramic crocks were filled with “potted meat”—leftover animal protein that was ground up, pressed down to get rid of the air bubbles, and topped with a layer of fat. 

Covered with a pig’s bladder and secured with a piece of animal sinew, the crock of meat was stored until needed. Later, linen tops coated with a beeswax film or pitch from pine trees replaced the pig bladder.

Fruits and vegetables might be dried or pickled in brine.  In 1853, John Mason introduced the glass Mason canning jar, followed in 1884 by the Ball jar, still in use by home cooks today. In cold climates, people might harvest ice from frozen rivers and store it in ice houses for later use.

“Corned,” or salted meat, was another option prior to refrigeration. Imported from England or collected after boiling down saltwater, salt prolonged the shelf life of meat after slaughter and butchering.  There were no formal butcher shops until 1916.  Fishing, hunting, birthing, tending, slaughtering and butchering meat were all necessary components of early living, performed by those who consumed the animal.

A farm wife with cows would have to work hard to store and preserve the 7 to 9 gallons of milk each cow produced during lactating periods. Some she would store in crocks or kegs in a cellar. More could be used to make soft cheese in summer and hard cheese to use as a protein source instead of meat in winter.

To light home and hearth she would make candles, first from tallow, rendered animal fat, and later of wax skimmed from boiling kettles of bayberries.  From lard and animal fat, plus lye water made from hearth ashes or “harmony corn” left from harvest, she made soap.

Wood to warm the house and cook the food had to be cut, corded, and stored a year in advance. Wood not used for heat could be used for tools, furniture and baskets.  Once harvested, corn and wheat were sent to a local miller to be ground into flour. Sugar and molasses were imported from Barbados. Butter was churned by hand from cream.

Schwindt reminds us that Long Island’s many bodies of fresh and salt waters made for a plentiful supply of eels, as she points to a cluster of white oak split weave eel baskets and traps.  Smoked eels became a standard part of early meals, including at the first Thanksgiving.

Far from the neatly packaged grocery store items of today, these eels were consumed along with deer meat and oysters, locally sourced foods, caught, processed by hand and consumed in a direct relationship between early residents and the land and water around them.