Cooking at Odell House
By Kathy Evers
The Odell House archives are full of interesting documents—including recipes, or “receipts” as they were called once upon a time. Seems the term “receipt” was still used well into the 1900s. Maybe you had a grandmother or aunt who insisted on using that word instead of recipe?
The recipes in the archives date from the late 1700s and into the 1800s. The handwriting is full of swirls and flourishes, and they are remarkably easy to read. Most are related to food but there are a number of interesting “medicinal” concoctions as well. Of the latter, the “Cure for Cancer” caught our attention. It involved making lye from the ashes of red oak bark and applying it to the cancer, then applying a “plaister of tar” for multiple days, and lastly covering the wound with “any common salve.” That does not sound like much of a cure to us.
A recipe for Peach Cordial sounds simply delicious and promises to be ready by Christmas—hooray! But wait, where did they get the peaches? It turns out that peaches were brought to St. Augustine, Florida, by the Spanish in the 1500s. They were so delicious and easy to grow that eventually they made their way across the southeast and up into the northeast. From other documents we’ve found, we know that the Odell farm had multiple peach trees and even won some prizes at agricultural fairs for their excellent quality. The recipe calls for a peck of peaches—no problem, just go out the backdoor and pick them! The peaches would be picked at their ripest in the early autumn and prepared as described. As they sat in the tightly covered crock until Christmas their flavor infused the brandy and created the cordial.
We are greatly intrigued by this recipe for Plumb Cake, which has no plums in it and looks like it will feed a small army given the huge amount of ingredients involved. Thanks to Google, we discovered that this cake recipe likely originated in England in the 1700s, and would have currants rather than plums. This particular recipe would make many cakes and we are left wondering how on earth they would mix all the ingredients! That would be one enormous bowl.
And how about the recipe for “Pickled Walnuts?” Apparently they were (and possibly still are?) considered a delicacy in England dating back to the early 1700s. So that recipe probably came over with the colonists. We’re not sure about origins of the recipe for “Hog’s Liver Hash,” but we can’t be too surprised that the Odells and their neighbors would eat every last edible bit of a hog. Today folks who specialize in barbecue say you can make some good hash from a hog’s liver. Will this be the next gourmet treat in a local restaurant?
Several recipes were named after our founding father: Washington Cake and Washington Pie. No, neither one featured cherries, although some of the later versions of these recipes did include either cherries or apples. The cake is similar to a pound cake, whereas the pie was made from two layers of cake with custard in the middle.
Making a cake or pie in colonial times was quite a challenge. The cooking facilities could be quite rudimentary; some made do with only a small hearth, an open flame, and a wooden, clay-lined chimney. Baking was done in so-called “Dutch ovens,” which were heavy iron pots with legs and a tightly fitting lid. The entire pot was set in the coals, and more coals were heaped on the lid. A family of greater means would have a much larger hearth, possibly with a bricked, built-in oven, and a brick chimney.
More to follow as we explore the history of cooking at Odell House!
