If you’ve ever eaten an orange in a snowstorm, sampled sushi in South Dakota (the American state furthest from the ocean), or just opened your fridge for a Twinkie and milk you bought a week ago, you’re enjoying advancements in transportation, refrigeration, and food preparation unimaginable to your ancestors in the early days of the American republic.
At Home, in the Kitchen, Always in the Kitchen
In 1800, more than 90 percent of Americans lived on farms, and grew much of the fruits and vegetables they ate (corn and beans were particularly common) themselves. Not surprisingly, people ate seasonally—in the spring and summer, 19th-century Americans ate many more fruits and vegetables than they did in the fall and winter. The greens they ate in colder months had been sun-dried, pickled or kept in a root cellar.
In the north, cows provided milk, butter, and beef, while in the south—where cattle were less common—pork was a primary source of meat (and remained so until the 1940s), along with venison and other game. Meat was preserved by smoking and salting for about a month.
With the exception of those belonging to the wealthiest families, kitchens in the early 1800s, still resembled what a modern-day cook thinks of as “primitive.” A typical kitchen in that period centered on an open hearth—a cooking area at the base of and around a fireplace. Without running water, many homes had a “dry sink,” which consisted of a recessed countertop with room for a basin and pitcher of water.
Women would wake early to prepare the hearth for what they planned to cook that day. Roasting would require a larger flame, while boiling and stewing suited a smaller one. The fireplace of the 1800s was often fitted with a “reflector”—a spit-like rotating contraption similar to today’s rotisseries, but that relied on woman-power to turn. In addition to cooking over the flames, people would pile coals and ashes around and atop cast iron dutch ovens. Cast iron, today considered throwback cooking equipment, was considered a miracle material of the early 19th century made possible by advances in coal and iron mining in the 1820s. It was more durable, able to be cast into a greater variety of shapes and better at handling wide swings in temperature. It was, however, heavy, adding to the burdens of women in the 19th- century kitchen.
Other time-consuming tasks included the hand-grinding of spices, the milking of cows, and churning of cream and butter. Men and boys, meanwhile, would be outside tending the farm or hunting for meat; girls helped cook or care for smaller animals.
As for food budgets, one record notes the following retail prices in 1818 in Washington, DC: beef cost 6 to 8 cents a pound, potatoes cost 56 cents a bushel, milk cost 32 cents a gallon, while tea cost 75 cents to $2.25 a pound.
Mealtime!
Like most Americans today, people around in the 1800s ate three meals a day. Their primary meal, however was their second.
In one region of the mid-Atlantic in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a typical breakfast would be eaten after several hours of work. Foods and drink might include coffee, bread and butter, cold turkey, fried hominy, toast and cider, three small hoe (corn) cakes, or beer thickened with wheat flour.
Lunch, also called dinner, was served in the mid-afternoon. Typical foods included sausage and dried pumpkins, pig’s feet and head and turnips, or beans and butter.
“Supper” was the evening meal, and would include porridge or bread and milk, apple pie (an evening meal for children), or milk and mush. If milk wasn’t available, sweetened water or molasses would fill in.
Who’s in the Mood for Calf’s Head?
Some “receipts,” as recipes were known then, are still preserved in popular cookbooks of the early 19th century. One popular cookbook from 1829, The American Frugal Housewife by Lydia Child, included the following receipt for hasty pudding:
1: Boil water, a quart, three pints, or two quarts, according to the size of your family
2: Sift your [rye] meal, stir five or six spoonfuls of it thoroughly into a bowl of water
3: When the water in the kettle boils, pour into it the contents of the bowl
4: stir it well, and let it boil up thick
5: Add salt to suit your own taste, then stand over the kettle, and sprinkle in meal (handful after handful) stirring it very thoroughly all the time, and letting it boil between whiles.
6: When it is so thick that you stir it with great difficulty, it is about right. It takes about half an hour’s cooking. Eat it with milk or molasses.
But not every receipt has retained its popular appeal. Another receipt from The American Frugal Housewife, is for “Calf’s Head,” with the following directions:
1: The head, the heart, and the lights should boil full two hours
2: It is better the wind-pipe on, for if it hangs out of the pot while the head is cooking, all the froth will escape through it.
3: The brains, after being thoroughly washed, should be put in a little bag with one pounded cracker, or as much crumbled bread, seasoned with sifted sage, and tied up and boiled one hour.
4: After the brains are boiled, they should be well broken up with a knife, and peppered, salted and buttered. They should be put upon the table in a bowl by themselves.
Nothing brings people together like fellowship over meals. And few things can help people today imagine the lives of their ancestors than learning about what they ate and how they cooked that food. Learn more about your past with a free 14-day trial to Ancestry
