Seasonal Cooking and Recipes
Fall (October – December)
At this time of the year, there are a number of vegetables that have been planted in late summer that can be harvested. Pumpkins, some fall greens such as cabbage, and sweet potatoes are harvested in October and November. Other root crops can be left in the ground, such as carrots, that will be pulled as they are needed during the winter. Apples are harvested and preserved whole or dried, and as cider and applebutter. Sauerkraut, a German tradition, is made during this time with the fall crop of cabbage. Fish is available until about mid-November, when the water gets colder and the fish hibernate until spring. Butter is made in large amounts during fall, and some consider fall butter the best. In December, it begins to be cold enough to do some early slaughtering, so fresh pork becomes available at this time. Christmas is a much smaller celebration than it is today, but special baking the week of Christmas, and a special dinner on Christmas Day, are both common.
October 15th, Tuesday Almost I am afraid that I have eaten too much at dinner and supper to day. Sweetpotatoes taste so delicious, that it requires a considerable share of selfcommand to stop sending them down into the stomach.
Peter Wolle, 1816
October 28th (Friday) …For supper I was invited to eat with Bro. and Sr. Schweinitz. …The food was just excellent – a turkey, two kinds of potatoes, cabbage salad, cucumbers, cranberries, tea, and bread and butter – and then also a wonderful pie and wine with it. It goes without saying that all of this was very interesting and agreeable.
Peter Wolle, 1814
December 19th (Sunday) I walked in a hurry with the boys to Mr. Sevillys where the Lady of the house was busy baking Christmas cakes, of which she presented me with a couple.
Peter Wolle, 1814
Recipes
Apple Tarts
Stew and strain the apples, add cinnamon, rose-water, wine and sugar to our taste, lay in a paste, royal, squeeze thereon orange juice – bake gently.
American Cookery, Amelia Simmons (1796)
Pompkin
No. 1. One quart stewed and strained, 3 pints cream, 9 beaten eggs, sugar, mace, nutmeg and ginger, laid into a paste No. 7 or 3, and with a dough spur, cross and chequer it, and baked in dishes three quarters of and hour.
No. 2. One quart of milk, 1 pint pompkin, 4 eggs, molasses, allspice and ginger in a crust, bake 1 hour.
American Cookery, Amelia Simmons (1796)
Christmas Cakes
Rub 2 # Sugar with 2# butter to cream, by degrees add 2 ¼ # flour & the yolk of 8 eggs well beaten - 2 spoonsful alchohol, the whites beaten to snow add last, spice ¼ oz cin. ¼ oz cardamom & ¼ oz cloves. roll out thin with flour & sugar
Anna Paulina Schober Herman, Salem, N.C. - b: 1791 - d: 1869
Modern translation for Christmas Cakes
1 lb. butter
4 cups sugar
4 ½ cups flour
4 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon brandy
¾ tablespoon cinnamon
¾ tablespoon cardamon
¾ tablespoon cloves
Rub together sugar and butter to cream. By degrees add the flour and egg yolks (well beaten). Add brandy and egg whites beaten to snow. Last add cinnamon, cardamon, and cloves. Roll out thin with flour and sugar. Cut into cookies. Bake 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Winter (January – March)
During winter preserved foods, pickled and dried, are commonly put to table. Root vegetables, such as potatoes, onions, carrots, and others can be stored in the cellar or protected from freezing by burying them in holes below the frost line, with straw and dirt on top for protection. Whole cabbage can be stored the same way for use during the winter. Dried fruits from the late summer and fall crops are usually eaten by late February, having been used in pies and puddings. January and February are the primary months for slaughtering hogs, so fresh pork is available at this time, and the rest is salted or made into sausage. Fresh sausage is often served with potatoes, apples, and onions, or with sauerkraut. If families or farmers continue to feed the cattle and hens during winter, they will continue to produce milk and eggs; without supplemental food, neither will produce dairy products. Mid-March, when preserved foods and stored root vegetables begin to run low, is known as “the starving time” in many places, since the spring planting is not far along enough to provide fresh food.
Jan. 21st. Our dinner consisting of beef and cabbage, once an every day’s dish, but now a rarity, was highly relished.
G. H. Bahnson, 1835
Febr 11th. Cutting stuffing sausages & attending to all other things connected with this business. My dear H was very smart. We got done with our sausages, 13 smoke-sausages & 2 other, the greatest part of which I stuffed. I was also the judge of the quality of the composition, neither my H or Caty liking to taste the raw mass, which did indeed not look very inviting. Towards evening Grabs came once more to put salt upon the hams, which were deposited in our meattub, & will be at the service of any of our kind friends,…
G. H. Bahnson, 1835
March 20th. We bought some mountainpotatoes, a peck only, at 25 cts, it is enormous! & still one cannot be without potatoes – Many many bushels froze during the winter at places where they had been safely during many previous winters & therefore none are to be had hardly & people may charge what they please.
G. H. Bahnson, 1835
Recipes
Winter Squash
The crooked neck of this squash is the best part. Cut it in slices an inch thick, take off the rind, and boil them with salt in the water; drain them well before they are dished, and pour melted butter over—serve them up very hot.
The large part, containing the seeds, must be sliced and pared—cut it in small pieces, and stew it till soft, with just water enough to cover it; pass it through a sieve and stew it again, adding some butter, pepper, and salt; it must be dry, but not burnt. It is excellent when stewed with pork chops.
The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph (1831)
Fried Sausages
Take half a pound of sausages, and six apples, slice four about as thick as a crown, cut the other two in quarters, fry them with the sausages of a fine light brown, lay the sausages in the middle of the dish, and the apples round. Garnish with the quartered apples. Stewed cabbage and sausages fried is a good dish.
The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse (1796)
To Make Saussages
Take the leane of a sweete bone of porke that is without strings, & to your leane take a double quantey of fat. chopp them small together. then beat them in a mortar very well. then season them with cloves & mace, & as much pepper as them both, & what salt you please. & put in or leave out what hearbs you fancy. then stamp them well & fill them, but not too full. they will keepe good to fry or broyle a moneth. your guts must be thin scoured.
The Booke of Cookery, Martha Washington (1749-1799)
Spring (April – June)
Early April continues the “starving time”, when vegetables are hard to come by, and fruits almost non-existent. Reserves of preserved food and stored root vegetables will be mostly used up by this time, so meals for the average person would be restricted in content. Depending on the weather, in late April to early May the earliest spring greens will begin producing, such as asparagus, lettuce, cabbage, and turnip greens from turnips left in the ground over winter. In mid to late June, other spring planted crops such as carrots and kohlrabi can be harvested. Strawberries are the earliest fruits in May, and cherries follow in early June, lasting only about a week. Fishing begins in mid to late April, providing throughout the spring and summer. Butter is also made in spring; even if a family did not feed the cattle during the winter, causing the milk to dry up, spring brings back grazing, and the cool spring temperatures make it easy to make butter without spoiling.
April 16th. Being entirely without vegetables of any kind whatever, we could put nothing green on our table in spite of its being “Grun Donnerstag” (Green Thursday); oh it is hard to have to without all vegetables, being limited to ham & bread.
G. H. Bahnson, 1835
May 24th. Our lady was goodnatured enough to employ the afternoon for gathering a great many strawberries, which grow in abundance in several fields near town. We began immediately to clean them, & it got pretty late before that was done & meeting commenced.
G. H. Bahnson, 1835
Their garden has given them good service; from May 8th to July 5th they had salad every day for dinner, and nearly every evening also.
Bethabara Diary, 1754
Records of the Moravians in NC, Vol. I, pg. 104
Recipes
Turnip Tops,
Are the shoots which grow out, (in the spring.) from the old turnip roots. Put them in cold water an hour before they are dressed; the more water they are boiled in, the better they will look; if boiled in a small quantity of water, they will taste bitter; when the water boils, put in a small handful of salt, and then your vegetables; they are still better boiled with bacon in the Virginia style: if fresh and young, they will be done in about twenty minutes—drain them on the back of a sieve, and put them under the bacon.
The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph (1831)
For preserving Strawberries.
Take two quarts of Strawberries, squeeze them through a cloth, add half a pint of water and two pound of sugar, put it into a sauce pan, scald and skim it, take two pounds of Strawberries with stems on, let your sauce pan on a chaffing dish, put as many Strawberries into the dish as you can with the stems up without bruising them, let them boil for about ten minutes, then take them out gently with a fork and put them into a stone pot for use; when you have done the whole turn the syrup into the pot, when hot; set them in a cool place for use.
Currants and Cherries may be done in the same way, by adding a little more sugar.
American Cookery, Amelia Simmons (1796)
Cherry Pudding
Take rolls, cook such in milk until quite thick, then let it get cold. Now take ½ lb fresh butter, let it melt and stir with 6 eggs until foamy, add a little lemon peel grated, sugar cinnamon powder and some sour cherries or sweet cherries mix all with the cooked bread dough and put in a well buttered casserole and bake.
Winkler Receipt Book, Salem NC (late 18th century)
Summer (July – September)
During the summer months, the greatest amount of vegetables and fruits are available fresh. Cucumbers, beans, peas, potatoes, summer squash and “green” corn are just some of the vegetables being harvested during these months, especially in July and August. Pickling and drying all of this produce would be one of the main tasks of any kitchen. Peaches and pears in late July and August would be dried in large quantities, while watermelon and muskmelons would be eaten fresh. Blackberries and grapes were generally gathered from the wild, while currants and gooseberries were planted in most kitchen gardens. Apples would begin ripening toward the end of August and into September, and would be used fresh, stored in the cellar, and dried for use, or turned into cider. Large amounts of peaches were turned into brandy at the Single Brothers’ Distillery. Fresh meat is more scarce at this time, since the heat causes it to quickly spoil, so beef and pork used at this time would often be salted or otherwise preserved. Fish and chickens, which could be used quickly, would be the more common fresh meat to be found. Milk would also have to be quickly turned into butter or cheese, or used soon after gathering; storing it in a springhouse or cellar would give it a slightly longer life.
…When salad came to an end they had cucumbers for three weeks, with three or four meals of sugar peas, beans several times, occasionally cabbage, and squashes twice. Everything grows rapidly here.
Bethabara Diary, 1754
Records of the Moravians in NC, Vol. I, pg. 104
Aug 5th. We regaled ourselves in the evening with roasting ears of hot corn & apple fritters, for which I had got good appetite from fetching bricks.
G. H. Bahnson, 1835
Sept. 12th, Thursday For dinner we had a supply of excellent eels, which with beats [beets] made a good meal. – some of the brethren have caught a great many of these snakelike creatures for some days in a fishbasket placed in the creek behind Folzens hill.
Peter Wolle, 1816
Recipes
To stew Cucumbers
Take six large cucumbers, slice them; take six large onions, peel and cut them in thin slices, fry them both brown, then drain them and pour out the fat, put them into the pan again, with three spoonfuls of hot water, a quarter of a pound of butter rolled in flour, and a tea-spoonful of mustard; season with pepper and salt, and let them stew a quarter of an hour softly, shaking the pan often; when they are enough dish them up.
The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse (1796)
Little Apple Cakes from Fresh Apples
Make a little bit of a dough of flour and wine. When ready to use take the whites of 4 or 6 eggs and beat until peaks form and fold in the dough. Thereafter bake golden in clarified butter. [Cut up apples, as many as the cook wished, would be put into the batter.]
Winkler Receipt Book, Salem NC (late 18th century)
Eel to cook
Now take fresh eel and remove the head and also remove the skin. Thereafter clean out the inside, cut into small pieces, place it in a pot, pour over fresh butter, one nutmeg and lemon juice. One may also pour over broth to cook it in, instead. After pour vinegar over with nutmeg, salt and lemon peel also small dots of fresh butter. Pour this all over the cooked eel pieces, one may also use hot butter over fried pieces of eel.
Winkler Receipt Book, Salem NC (late 18th century)
