Hearth Cooking Day - Cooking a Mid-Day Tavern Meal - Every Thursday thru December 19, 2019

Thursday, October 24, 2019 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM Salem Tavern Museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sit right down and join the Sisters every Thursday in the Tavern Museum kitchen to see the way Tavern cooks, both enslaved and free, historically cooked for Tavern guests. As dinner was eaten in the middle of the day in the 18th century, most of the cooking was done in the morning and early afternoon. Stop by early to see the cooking in action and later in the day to see the finished meal.

The more questions you ask, the more fun you have!

The Tavern was usually filled to the brim with travelers (or “strangers” as the Moravians called them) and the tavern kitchen had to keep up with the food production to feed them all.  The Moravian Church didn’t want the tavern food production to interfere with other sales within the town of Salem, especially the bakery, so they made sure that the commercial sales never overlapped:

April 4, 1787 (Aelt. Conf.)  “When Br. Blum comes to the tavern it must be understood from the beginning that the gingerbread baked there is for the benefit of the tavern only”.  Vol. 5 p 2180

May 14, 1787 “When Br. Meyer leaves the tavern his support will fall on the congregation diaconie, but it would be well to find work which he could do, which would help support him and give him profitable occupation.  If his wife continues to bake gingerbread for the tavern it must be understood that she does not sell it in town or to visitors. “  vol 5, p. 2183

June 5, 1787  (Auf. Col.) “ Br. And Sr. Blum will undertake the gingerbread baking for the tavern.”  Vol 5. P 2184

(Quotes from Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, ed., Adelaide Fries)

 

 

 

 

Salem Tavern Museum – Access from street level 10 steps up, access to kitchen 2 large steps up.