Durand-Hedden offers taste of history at annual open hearth cooking demo

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — In an annual tradition spanning 35 years, visitors have gathered around Durand-Hedden’s 18th-century hearth and experienced how Maplewood residents of long ago cooked, ate and kept warm during the long winter months. On Sunday, Jan. 22, from 1 to 4 p.m., Durand-Hedden is pleased to welcome a new cook to its kitchen.

Susan Luczu is a New Jersey food historian who has a passion for open hearth cooking that she has practiced at historic sites such as Monmouth County Historical Society’s Covenhoven House as well as the cooking fireplace of her own circa 1705 home in the historic Old Bridge community of East Brunswick. A participant in many culinary organizations and activities, she is webmaster of the Historic Foodways Society of the Delaware Valley and in April 2016 received the NJDAR “Women in American History Award” for her work in preserving, promoting and demonstrating Colonial domestic arts and skills in hearth cooking.

On the menu this year will be vegetable beef soup, apple-cornbread fritters, bubble and squeak, beer batter bread and hearth-roasted beets cooked over the fire. Watch how it’s done, breathe in the wonderful aromas in the historic house and sample a few traditional treats. Children can try their hands at old-fashioned cooking chores like kneading dough and churning butter, and can watch a spinster make yarn at her wheel.

Durand-Hedden House is located in Grasmere Park at 523 Ridgewood Road in Maplewood. For more information or to arrange group tours call 973-763-7712 or visit www.durandhedden.org.

  Durand-Hedden