Margaret Quinn cooking in open hearth
Open-hearth cooking expert Margaret Quinn returned on Sunday to Durand-Hedden House where she cooked and taught attendees about how seasonal foods were made during the 18th century.
Quinn first made a lentil dish recipe from 1715. It consisted of salt, water, lentils, butter, and apple cider vinegar.
“There were a lot of apple orchards,” she said, explaining that whatever was available was eaten, depending on location and socio-economic status. Squirrels and rabbits were hunted. Lobster was considered a poor man’s meal because it was easy to catch and there was a great deal of it. Most pork was purchased smoked and sugar-cured. Fresh pork was not a thing you ate.
Samples of the lentil dish were passed around. “It’s good,” said Matt Goldman of Maplewood. “Fermented. I can taste apple cider vinegar.”
Emily Goldman agreed she could taste the cider. “Nice and cozy,” she said.
“It’s delicious,” said Paula Radding of Maplewood.
Next Quinn began making a winter vegetable pie with a crust made with flour, salt, lard, and water. It was made without yeast. Butter was beaten sufficiently.
Eggs could be used too.
Quinn shared that she is not one to order out and does most of her own home cooking. Moreso in the winter. She said, “When someone says, ‘I don’t make crust, I buy’ then you’re not making homemade.”
While working, Quinn said she never measures.
Inside the pie was precooked—and sauteed in butter—cabbage, potatoes, turnips, carrots, and onions.
As Quinn was cooking, audience members asked questions. One of the questions that came up was what a little girl would do in the kitchen.
“She’d be my gofer,” said Quinn. “Go for this, go for that. She would roll pie dough. She would cut stuff. If she was old enough and very careful, she’d work at the stove.”
Quinn shared other interesting tidbits such as “meat stew” was then called “stewed meat.” Recipes were originally called “receipts.” The word “recipe” became dominant in the early to mid-20th century.
Meanwhile, next door in the Carriage House, children were churning butter and rolling dough.
Sarah Vreeland of Maplewood’s daughter Eva, 7, was churning butter. Vreeland said, “It’s great to see how everything is made when this town was first founded.”
Khadijah Costley White of Maplewood was there with her children Ella, 7 and Ominira, 3.
“It’s really nice to think about the history of the place you live in and raise your family in,” she said. Durand-Hedden House is dedicated to telling the history and development of Maplewood and the surrounding area in new and engaging ways. It’s located in Grasmere Park in Maplewood. It’s a historic house museum owned by the Township of Maplewood and managed by The Durand-Hedden House & Garden Association Inc., a non-profit association of citizen trustees. Its purpose is to preserve, restore, and interpret the historic Durand-Hedden House and grounds and related collections.
To learn more about the Durand-Hedden House, visit: https://www.durandhedden.org/.
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