I was very close to my granny as a child, my mom’s mom. We spent a lot of time together and she taught me how to cook. I was said to be her favorite, probably because I’m a foodie:) Cooking was her love language. Family dinners, especially on holidays, are among my favorite memories. Her gift to me each birthday & holiday was a 3 layered German Chocolate Cake. I still remember my delight in going to the back closet on her rear porch which was actually a pantry that held cakes, pies, cookies, soaking/brining hams & turkeys, fudge & sugar cookies & all manner of Granny’s most delectable things.

This year for an April birthday I’m making her German Chocolate Cake. I’m sure it won’t taste the same without her. What I’d give to sit down with her at her round table on the back porch for coffee & cake & tell her how much she means to me. There are so many questions I wish I’d asked her that I never thought of till I grew up & realized what truly matters. Maybe that conversation will be held in heaven instead.

I just know there will be cake!

GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

1 package German’s Sweet Chocolate from Baker’s Chocolate

1/2 cup boiling water

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

2-1/2 cups Swans Down Cake Flour

1 cup buttermilk

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites, swiftly beaten

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray three 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Melt chocolate in boiling water, then cool. Cream butter & sugar together in a bowl till fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, & beat well after each. Add melted chocolate & vanilla & mix well. In a separate bowl, stir together salt, baking soda, & flour. Add alternately with buttermilk to chocolate & butter mixture, beating well till smooth. Beat egg whites till soft peaks form & fold into batter. Divide mixture between cake pans & bake each at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

COCONUT PECAN FROSTING

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

1/4 pound margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups coconut

1 cup pecans

DIRECTIONS:

Combine evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, oleo & vanilla in a saucepan & cook over medium heat till thickened. Stir frequently. Remove from heat, add coconut & pecans & beat till thick enough to spread. Frosting should make approximately 2 cups. Spread between cooled cake layers & on top of the assembled cake.

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Every spring we sow several rows of pea seed in our garden. One of my favorite things is shelling peas on the porch and then steaming them for supper. I just add a wee bit of butter and some salt and pepper before serving. Until I went to a Colonial Culinary Workshoprecently at Fort Boonesborough. Those early settlers ate high on the hog as we Appalachians like to say and this historic recipe is no exception! I even had seconds:)

PEAS FRANCOISE

The English Art of Cookery 

by Richard Briggs, 1788

Take a quart of young peas, put them in a stew-pan, with a large Spanish onion, if you have one, or English ones chopped fine, and two cabbage or Silesia lettuces cut very small, with half a pint of water, seasoned with beaten mace, nutmeg, pepper and salt, cover them close, and let them stew gently for half an hour, then put in a quarter of a pound of butter mixed with half a spoonful of flour, a spoonful of ketchup,* cover them close, and let them simmer half an hour, then dish them up.

VOILA!

*Ketchup was not the same then as now. Back then it was mushroom-based, more like Worcestershire. Tomatoes were even regarded as poisonous at that time. Here’s the product used in the workshop:

George Watkins Mushroom Ketchup

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Daniel Boone would have chuckled to see us frontier fans concoct a meal in the leanness of late winter that they only dreamed about. And at Fort Boonesborough, to boot. While I longed to eat with a pewter fork on a pewter plate, modern paper reigned. Water, so often spoiled back then, took the place of their usual small beer or ale. But the fare… Oh my!

THE MENU:

Oxford Kates Sausages with a selection of mustards

Sops

Chicken Fricassee ~ Brown, in a Good Gravy

Potatoes

Peas Francoise

Another sort of little Cakes

Tea

FASCINATING FACTS:

Settlers ate seasonally. Whatever was growing depending on the time of year became the bulk of their diet. In spring, when nettles were new & tender, they ate these, etc.

Fort women often followed the cows into the woods to see what they ate and then they ate that, too.

Spoons came in a multitude of sizes. There was no such thing as a uniform spoon. Utensils of any kind were carried by the person who ate. Often several diners partook from a shared dish or trencher.

Corn crops took 2 years to take hold and land on the setter’s table.

Settlers ate green ham, a far cry from the country ham of today.

Spices were often kept in horns like powder horns.

Men hunted for furs, not only meat, so there was a lot of waste. Most settlers consumed meat with every meal. Almost immediately the game began to scatter and hunting became harder and harder.

A baby boom began in Kentucky after 1780 but not before due to women’s health being poor and the struggle to eat and simply survive. Once corn became commonplace, a midwife was escorted in by armed men to help deliver all the babies being born.

Men often carried nutmeg graters in their pockets, especially when frequenting taverns. A grating of nutmeg took a drink to the next level.

Tea leaves were often several years old in colonial America. STALE. The tea dumped overboard in Boston was mourned by no one.

MY TAKEAWAY:

Frontier cuisine is quite tasty. I had seconds on the peas. Bohea tea, a staple in my novels, is delicious especially when paired with a little Caribbean sugar and cream. Today we have very little grasp of how hard it was to simply serve up a meal back then. From the wood that had to be chopped first thing to kindle a fire, fresh water drawn to cook, animals to butcher, eggs to gather (only in season)…

Hats off to Michael Dragoo and Emily Burns! “Michael is a contributor to https://savoringthepast.net/ and the video series called 18th Century Cooking with Jas. Townsend & Son, These media have been started as a means to share authentic recipes, foodie history, and all of the details they found most interesting from their research and experimentation. We invite you to join us at the table as we savor the flavors and aromas of centuries past.”

Fort Boonesborough Living History

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