17th Century Cooking | Pennsburymanor

Cooking at Pennsbury Manor

Watch Chef Walter Staib from A Taste of History cook at Pennsbury here!

Unlike today, people in the 17th century did not have grocery stores that provided them with all the fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy products that we have in the 21st century. In fact, the food that would have been available for the people at Pennsbury would have been limited to what could be grown on the plantation at a particular time. When you only have access and cook what is grown in a season you are doing something called eating in season. This is something everyone in William Penn’s time would have had to do. An example of eating in season would be only having apples in the fall. See the chart below to learn what is available during the different seasons.

Spring:

Asparagus

Dandelions

Peas

Lettuce

Mushrooms

Spinach

Summer:

Beets

Corn

Green Beans

Onions

Peaches

Potatoes

Fall:

Apples

Broccoli

Pumpkins

Squash

Sweet Potatoes

Turnips

Winter:

Brussel Sprouts

Kale

Leeks

Turnips

If you were lucky and your family was wealthy your father might be able to import goods from other countries to help off set some of the foods that were not in season. Some foods that would have been imported to Pennsbury include sugar, spices, oranges and lemons, and even chocolate! Can you name three other goods that might need to be imported to Pennsylvania?

1.________________________ 2._________________________ 3.________________________

Is it Grass or a Salad?

Some of the earliest edible plants that come up in the spring can be found in your backyard or local parks. Things that we today consider a weed in William Penn’s time were grown in gardens as food! Some of these plants included dandelions, clover, violets, and plantain. Some of the Germans that came to Pennsylvania made a dish that consisted of dandelion greens and bacon. This was an import dish for them and many other settlers because it would have been the first green vegetable they had since fall! Remember during the winter very little is growing and our 17th Century friends would not have access to the foods and markets we do today.

Let’s take this opportunity to go outside and see if we can some edible plants. If you see this plant put a check it off of your list! It is important to remember that you should never eat anything in the wild without first asking your parents or a trained gardener!

Dandelion___ Clover___ Broadleaf Plantain___

The Kitchens

Now that we understand the importance of eating in season, lets take a look at the kitchen and the equipment the cooks at Pennsbury were using during Penn’s time. The plantation kitchen would have been an incredibly noisy, busy, and smoky place. The cooks in this kitchen would have been responsible for feeding not only the Penn’s, but the enslaved and free labor of Pennsbury as well.

The hearth was the most important feature of the kitchen. This large brick structure would have acted as the stove and provided the heat and coals needed to cook the food. It is in the hearth that the fire would have been built and “burners” would be made from the embers.

In addition to the hearth, bake kettles or Dutch ovens were an important tool in the kitchen. These cast-iron pots were used to bake in as well as stew and even fry things. While you may not have seen some of these tools, there are others that you might have in your house. Including spoons, forks, frying pans, and more. It is important to remember that while cooking in the 17th century may look different, it is still very similar to what we do today in our own kitchens. With all of this in mind, can you identify some of the cooking tools in these pictures?

Cooking in the 17th century was an all-day affair often the cooks would need to wake very early in the morning to get the fires started to have breakfast prepared for the household on time. The largest meal of the day would be dinner, which was typically a mid afternoon meal, around 2pm. This meal could consist of three to five courses with five to eight dishes in each course. Take a look at the course description below, do any of these dishes sound good? Circle one of the dishes you might like to try if you were invited to have dinner with William and Hannah Penn.

We already know that the kitchen was a busy place, but who did the cooking? The cooks working at Pennsbury where a mixture of free and enslaved laborers, Ann Nichols was one of the cooks at Pennsbury during William Penn’s second stay in Pennsylvania (1699 to 1701). Ann was a paid employee of the household and would have had significant responsibilities while overseeing the day-to-day routines of cooking and meal planning. Sue however, who also worked in the kitchens, was enslaved. She would have worked under a woman like Ann as they prepared meals for the family as well as the other staff. Very little is known about Sue and the other enslaved individuals at Pennsbury. What we can say is that there was a strong African American presence at Pennsbury and their work was critical to running and overseeing of the plantation both while the Penn’s where in residency and abroad.

Pop Quiz:

Throughout this packet there may have been words that were new to you. Take a few minutes to see if you know these vocabulary words. Some of the answers can be found in the pack, others might require a trip to the internet.

1. Plantation:

2. Eating- in- season:

3. Hearth:

4. Cast-iron:

5. Enslaved:

As we have discovered cooking at Pennsbury was a complex and time-consuming task. the types of dishes that could be prepared depended heavily on the season. In the spring people could once again begin to eat fresh vegetables and greens like dandelions. The equipment that was used to prepare the food for the household was also a little different. However, once you begin to look at the 17th century with an open mind we can begin to see that cooking really isn’t that much different from what we do today.

We hope you have enjoyed this short introduction to 17th century cooking and are excited to learn more. Check out some videos on hearth cooking on the internet or come visit us at Pennsbury and see firsthand how food was prepared during William Penn’s time.

Try your hand at some cooking! Do with a grownup.

Spinaige (Spinach) Tart Serving Size 6

9-inch piecrust

1 package frozen chopped spinach (or gather some from your garden)

4 egg yokes

1 cup cream

1/4 tea spoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons melted butter

Prepare piecrust and bake in 400 degree oven for 5 minutes. Prepare, defrost and drain spinach. Beat egg yolks, then mix in the rest of the ingredients, including spinach. Pour into piecrust and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!