What Did They Eat in the Massachusetts Bay Colony?
One of my more popular posts is about food in colonial Massachusetts. Here’s more information about the types of meals the colonists ate and other interesting tidbits about cooking in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Breakfast was a busy time of day in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The women were busy with milking cows and other chores, and it wasn’t convenient to cook a hot meal in the morning. Often the colonists ate a morning meal of leftovers from the previous day—meat or fish, bread, cheese, milk, and beer.
For the poorest among them, they would make do with hasty pudding, a recipe brought from England. In England, the pudding was made with wheat flour and boiling milk until it had the consistency of an oatmeal porridge. In the colonies, hasty pudding was made with cornmeal mush instead.
Cornmeal became popular among the colonists because it was more easily available, and women made what became known as Indian bannocks where cornmeal and water were mixed and spread an inch thick on a board and placed before the fire and baked. This was one of the more common forms of bread. Sometimes the water was mixed with rye meal instead, which created a brown bread.
Dinner (an early afternoon meal, now more commonly known as lunch) was the largest meal of the day. Anyone a fan of the crockpot or
Often meals such as leek soup, eel pie, and pork and apple stew were cooked in one pot over the hearth fire. Baked beans, another recipe brought from England, were also common on colonists’ tables. Other dinner meals might include small chunks of boiled meat with vegetables such as beans or peas. The wealthier colonists would cook their meat and vegetables separately, or, more likely, they had servants to do the cooking for them. C
olonists shared our love of sweet desserts, and often meals ended with ice cream or a fruit pie.
Food Preservation in the 17th Century
Droughts and floods happened in the unpredictable Massachusetts weather, sometimes destroying an entire year’s worth of crops. Food was hard enough to come by in colonial America, so preserving what you had was essential.
Wealthy people might have underground cellars packed with straw and ice, which kept the area cold enough to act as a refrigerator of sorts. Traditional methods such as dehydrating and salting were more commonly used. Other methods of preservation depended on the type of food. Beans were salted, pickled, and dried.
According to Oliver (2015), here is a recipe to keep beans green during the winter: “Boil salt and water to make a strong pickle; string the beans, and put them in a tight wooden firkin;sprinkle them with salt as they go in; when the pickle is cold, pour it on, and put on a weight to keep the beans under; they will keep in the cellar till the next spring. They should soak several hours in cold water before they are boiled.”
Butter was coated with salt and then soaked to remove the salt before use. Bacon was also salted.
What Did They Drink in Colonial Massachusetts?
Beverages were kept in the cellar or the coldest part of the house. Water wasn’t considered safe, so the colonists drank beer and ale. According to Johnson (2017), people in the northeastern colonies like Massachusetts may have been healthier than their southern counterparts because of the abundance of apples and the hard cider made from them, of which the colonists drank copious amounts.
The wealthier citizens, who had most of their goods imported, were more likely to have wine at their disposal. Imported foods and goods were often obtained at shops in larger towns, such as Boston in Massachusetts, usually by barter since coins were scarce.
Chimneys had a brick oven with an opening in the kitchen fireplace. Cooking was a fire hazard for colonial women, and they had to beware that their woolen skirts didn’t catch the flames. Domestic animals were considered too valuable to kill for food, but
The meat was roasted on iron spits which were held by curved brackets and the spit required constant turning. In poorer families, that duty often fell on a child, while the wealthier had a “jack”—a pulley and cord fastened over the fireplace that, as it unwound, turned the spit and kept the meat from burning.
The poorer colonists used trenchers, carved wooden bowls, to hold their meals. The poorest families would often share one trencher amongst themselves. They drank from tankards made of wooden staves, and the only utensils they had were spoons and sometimes knives. Forks weren’t common until the later 17th century (they were in use by the time Down Salem Way takes place in 1692).
The colonists used their knives to move their food from their trenchers into their mouths. The poorer colonists had earthenware or stoneware bottles and jugs. The wealthier had pewter or even silver at their disposal. China dishes or dishes made in Holland were imported by the East India Company.
I’ll talk more about children in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in another post. For now, it may be interesting to note that children were not seated at the table with the adults for meals. This may be because poorer families simply didn’t have enough chairs or space for the children to sit at the table.
The children would stand behind the adults with their plates or trenchers, and they ate whatever was handed to them. In other families, the children sat at a side table and went to the main table for their food and drink. In the wealthier families, there was more formality during meals (think Downton Abbey in colonial Massachusetts).
Children were given some wine in order to drink to the health of their parents. According to Oliver (2015), one such blessing from the children was “Health to Papa and Mama, health to brothers and sisters, health to all my friends.”
Not a bad way to begin a meal.
References
Demos, J. (2000). A little commonwealth: Family life in Plymouth Colony. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dow, G. F. (2012).
Johnson, C.D. (2017).
Oliver, L. (2015). Colonial and early American fare. Retrieved from http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcolonial.html#colonialstorage
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Down Salem Way, the prequel to the Loving Husband Trilogy, is set during the Salem Witch Trials.
Winner of the B.R.A.G. Medallion and a semi-finalist for the Chaucer Award for Early Historical Fiction
How would you deal with the madness of the Salem witch hunts?
In 1690, James Wentworth arrives in Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with his father, John, hoping to continue the success of John’s mercantile business. While in Salem, James falls in love with Elizabeth Jones, a farmer’s daughter. Though they are virtually strangers when they marry, the love between James and Elizabeth grows quickly into a passion that will transcend time.
But something evil lurks down Salem way. Soon many in Salem, town and village, are accused of practicing witchcraft and sending their shapes to harm others. Despite the madness surrounding them, James and Elizabeth are determined to continue the peaceful, loving life they have created together. Will their love for one another carry them through the most difficult challenge of all?
