We have attended pretty much every event that OSV has put on over the last 5 years. The event that we attended last weekend was one of their after-hours events called Dinner in a Country Village. What is so special about this event is that you actually get to cook an entire dinner and eat it family style in the ways of the 1800s in one of their exhibit homes! That is something we have observed before, but never able to actually take part in. I wanted to share our experience with you today and encourage you, if you ever have the opportunity, to not only visit Old Sturbridge Village, but their evening events as well.
So my husband and I arrive around 5 PM, it’s already FREEZING COLD! We met up with one of the costumed interpreters and the other 9 participants. They usually have groups of adults (age 18+) of up to 14 people – but a few had cancelled because of the cold temperatures. We made our way over to Parsonage building where we would be cooking that evening. Everyone broke up into 4 groups – appetizers, baking, vegetables, and meat; my husband and I took on vegetables. Everyone had their tasks and a dish that they were responsible for making. Everything prepared in the old ways and cooked over the open fireplace, hot coals, and in the brick bake ovens. At the vegetable station we made roasted carrots, gourd soup, stewed red cabbage, and fricassee of parsnips. When all the food was done, we set the table, learned traditional table manners, and sat down to enjoy the results of our labors family style. The food was delightfully simple and delicious and everyone glowed with their successes. The complete evening included the following all made by our own hands: potted cheese on common crackers, mulled cider, gourd soup, stewed red cabbage, fricassee of parsnips, roasted carrots, scots collops, roasted stuffed chicken, cranberry sauce, butter biscuits, apple pie with cheddar cheese, floating island, and hot chocolate. After dinner we moved into the parlor for hot chocolate and a dessert which we sat and ate by the fire before heading back out around 10 PM.
Here are a few things I learned from this experience:
- I really appreciate my immersion blender. While making the gourd soup we had to essentially puree the squash and onions by pressing the simmered vegetable through a colander with a mallet. Oh my word did my arms hurt the next day! It took us a good 20 minutes of trading turns to push all the vegetable through the colander.
- Being one who is used to following recipes very specifically I had a hard time working from authentic recipes (or receipts as they were called) because they are so vague with their measurements.
- Cooking over an open fire is hard and hot work. We frequently had to pull out to metal bar suspended over the fire to add or remove the metal cooking pots or to adjust how close to the fire they were. We pulled hot coals out onto the front of the fireplace to place a clay cooking vessel directly onto them and cook via that heat. We baked in the bake oven where you determine the appropriateness of the temperature by sticking your arm into it and counting to a predetermined number.
- Despite the temperatures outside and lack of modern heating, the kitchen was HOT from the fireplace and oven.
- Doing anything from fire/candle light is difficult! You have to make sure to not catch you hair on fire and look really closely to see. And we had more candles going than the average household would have on a normal night.
- Apple pie would have been eaten as part of the meal, which I struggled with. I kept finding myself leaving it for later until I remembered. Adding the cheddar cheese to each bite was AMAZING!
- The biscuits were the best any of us had ever had and were very easy to make.
We appreciated how difficult it was to cook in these times but also how the food was still very good, not just boring as we had anticipated. It was a great time had by the couples that attended. Here are a few of the photos from the event – we didn’t manage to get photos of all of the food.
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| L. My husband cooking over the fire. C. Me chopping veggies. R. The bake table |
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| Hearth side cooking |
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| L. The dinner table being set. R. My husband, myself, and mulled cider |
OSV also has cooking events that can involve families, called Families Cook, or if you would rather have someone else cook it all for you and you just sit back and enjoy, they have an event called Hearthside Bounty. You can find out more about their hearth cooking events here.
I would like to share one of the recipes we made with you today, that of the butter biscuits, the favorite of everyone present.Butter Biscuits
Makes about 8-12 depending on size
Recipe from American Cookery, 1796:
One pint of milk and emptins, laid into flour, in sponge; next morning add one pound butter melted, not hot, and knead into as much flour as will, with another pint of warm milk, to be of sufficient consistence to make soft. Some melt butter in the milk.
Modern Translation from Food Through the Pages:
Ingredients:
1 pint milk (2 cups)
1 pint emptins (you can just use a yeast mix)
Flour
1 lb. butter
1 pint of milk (2 cups)
Additional flour
Directions:
1. Mix the half cup milk with the half cup emptins, along with a ½ cup flour to make a sponge. Cover loosely with a dish towel and let sit out overnight. In the morning, your sponge will be larger, bubbly, and, well… spongy.
2. Melt 1 stick of butter into another half cup of milk, and let cool until it’s just warm; if too hot, it will kill the yeast in the sponge. Add to the sponge, and gradually mix in 2 cups flour. At this point, you should have a thick batter. Gently knead in additional flour until the whole mixture comes together into one cohesive mass that is soft but not sticky.
3. Tear off 8-12 pieces of equal size, and gently form into small rounds. You may either place these directly onto a baking sheet, or into the cups of a muffin pan.
4. Bake at 350° F for 25-30 minutes, until the tops are just slightly golden, and the biscuits feel firm to the touch.
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| Two trays of biscuits and the roasted chickens |
These biscuits were absolutely amazing! They are fluffy and more like dinner rolls than biscuits. You could use them as dinner rolls with butter, at breakfast with jam, or even with a fruit compote for a pseudo shortcake. SO good!!
I received 2 complete sets of the receipt cards for the meal we made at the Dinner in a Country Village event – and we really only need one. So I’m going to offer the second set for a giveaway! Make your entries through the Rafflecopter below. Giveaway is open to the USA and Canada only and ends February 27th.
Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and anything even remotely cooking related can participate in this event.
Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court
We had the opportunity to talk with a period horticulturalist who knew so much about apples. First of all, in the earlier part of our history, apples were primarily grown to be pressed into cider. These cider orchards were created by planting mashed apples in the ground and letting these trees grow from seed. They did not care how they grew or what they grew in to. It didn’t matter the types of apples, they were just looking for a large variety of apples that had the 3 characteristics to make the best cider: sweetness, juiciness, and acidity. Now the most shocking thing to me was that if, for example, you plant the seeds from a Macintosh apple in the ground, the trees that grow out of those seeds will not be Macintosh trees! They may have some of the qualities of Macintosh, but also the qualities of the type of apple tree that pollinated it. Sort of like how your child will not look exactly like you, but have the traits of yourself and your spouse.
Families grew small family orchards (maybe 5 trees or so) where they would tend them carefully to produce the best fruit to use for cooking and baking. These trees were trimmed and fertilized. They were not meant to produce high volume of fruit, but the best tasting. These trees were not usually grown from seed (because you never knew what you were going to get), but were grafted. The simple description of grafting is taking a cutting of the type of tree you want to grow and inserting it into a cut made in a sapling tree. This cutting would grow into the sapling and grow into the type of tree you were looking for. This is the only way to get another Macintosh tree, for example.
Now the most awesome event of the Apple Day festivities was the member’s apple pie contest. Myself and 14 other contestants entered our best apple pies for judging. Now prior to this event, I had not had an apple pie recipe. I made my Dutch Apple Pie recipe 2x this past week in order to make sure it came out well, and I had rave reviews. While waiting for the judging event, I became very nervous because a) I was the youngest entrant b) most of the others had entered before and/or won before and c) I have never entered a contest before. Well wouldn’t you know it, I won third place! I was so excited! I won tickets of a brunch at a local inn for two as well as the Sturbridge cookbook and a traditional apple corer. That was pretty awesome and a great end to a great day. I'm already planning on how I will edit my recipe to make 1st place next time.
Old Sturbridge Village is a replica town right out of the early 1800’s. Most (if not all) of the houses are from that time period but have been moved to this site to create the town. You can tour their 59 buildings, walk nature trails, talk with costumed and knowledgeable “townsfolk” and take part in hands-on experiences. Events go on all day and they even have special event theme type days throughout the year. As I attend some of these events and learn and see some interesting stuff, I will be sure to fill you all in.
I went this past Saturday and it was a wonderful summer day, before this massive heat wave hit. I visited some of the houses (didn’t have time to see them all), walked a nature trail (learned about why there are few American Chestnut trees left) and enjoyed some demonstrations. I even got to try my hand at milking a cow (albeit a fake one, but still). 
I learned some interesting things about architecture of this time period that I had no idea about and thought I would share.