No fast foods in the Colonial kitchen

KENT — The simple act of brewing a cup of coffee, something that we take for granted every day, would have been a laborious and time-consuming task for our Colonial forefathers. 

In a Kent Historical Society Sunday Series talk entitled Food of Our Founders held on May 21 at Town Hall, Wilton Historical Society Museum Educator Lola Chen spoke about how the early settlers obtained, prepared and preserved food.

“If you wanted a cup of coffee in the early 1700s, you would have to roast and grind the beans, start a fire in the hearth, get water from the well, and boil that water in a heavy cast-iron kettle over open flames,” Chen explained.

Things we take for granted every day, such as supermarkets with an abundance of fresh food no matter the season, did not exist in Colonial Connecticut. Most food eaten at that time had to be grown, hunted, caught or foraged. There was also less variety than we are accustomed to today. 

“The staples of the Colonial diet would have been ‘the three sisters’: corn, beans and squash,” Chen said. The Native Americans introduced these three crops to the first settlers and they quickly adopted them into their repertoire. “If you were living on the frontier in Colonial times, you would have eaten some form of corn with just about every meal.”

Kent’s proximity to the Housatonic River would have provided a good supply of fresh fish. 

“But as we all know, fish spoils after a few days, so people back then learned to preserve food for future use,” Chen said. 

Preservation methods still used today, such as salting, drying and pickling, would have all been employed. Root cellars under ground and below the frost line were where root vegetables were stored. 

“The rafters of a Colonial kitchen would have been full of fruits and herbs hanging to dry,” Chen added.

Those with enough money to afford luxury items such as sugar, which came in the shape of a cone, would not have kept them hidden in a pantry. Rather, they would have been displayed in a prominent place for visitors to see. 

“Sugar was a status symbol,” Chen said.  

The Colonial kitchen also looked different from the ones we use today. The large, open fireplace was the heart of all Colonial kitchens. Cast-iron Dutch ovens and kettles were hung over the fire, a primitive toaster would have been resting on the floor near the flames, and most homes would have  had a beehive brick bread oven. There were no iceboxes yet, or even wood-burning stoves.

The kitchen would not only have had a table and chairs, but may also have contained a bed, cradle and other furnishings. 

“Back then, homes were not built to any construction codes, so an elderly person might have had difficulty climbing up steep stairs. So, they would have slept on a bed in the kitchen to be near the warmth of the fire.” 

Gender also defined roles.Women did all of the food preparation, so a cradle in the kitchen would have been a necessity to keep a close eye on a baby. As families were often quite large in those days, a mother might have as many as 14 or more mouths to feed each day. 

“The phrase ‘A woman’s work is never done’ truly applied to Colonial women,” Chen observed.