Cuisine of the Colonial Era

by Amanda Peterson

Back in pre-Revolutionary colonial times, settlers had to rely on in-season fruits, vegetables, and game. Without refrigerators or other modern preservation methods, most excess food was either sold or consumed quickly. Though there was not a typical colonial meal, as availability of certain goods varied from region to region, there was a set order of meals. First was breakfast, which was taken small and early by the poor, as they had to get up early to work, and later and larger by the rich. Dinner, served in the early afternoon in the hall or the common room, was the biggest and longest meal of the day for all classes. Last came supper, which, in certain parts of the country, consisted of leftovers.

Some farms had a breakfast of porridge, washed down with beer or cider. In towns, citizens drank the same things, but had cornmeal mush and molasses instead. As time went on, this meal got more extravagant: in the 19th century, it could consist of tea or chocolate, wafers, muffins, and toast, set next to a butter dish and knife. In the south, cold turkey and cider were popular.

The size of breakfast was in direct correspondence to how wealthy the family was. The poor rose earlier to get to work while the rich slept in. Pastries and fruit pies joined the menus in the Northeast, while the Middle Colonies adopted such things as Dutch sweetcakes, which were fried in deep fat, and scrapple, a cornmeal and headcheese dish. Many of the higher-class citizens had hired chefs.

By the 18th century, supper, especially in the south, was brief and light. Leftovers or gruel, a mixture of oats, corn, and other meals, could be found on the table.

Since the English colonies were largely unexplored, an abundance of native animals thronged the woods. Unlike its motherland of England, which only allowed the wealthy to hunt, many pre-American families’ lives relied solely on what they could catch. Popular game included birds, raccoons, squirrels, venison (available only to the higher classes in England), and opossum. Fishing, too, become popular, especially along the Eastern seaboard. Cod, clams, crabs, and salmon were common, with the poorer settlers relying mostly on oysters, which were abundant.

Regionally, even the subject of eating differed. The New England colonies saw the act as practical, and would not often stuff themselves full. The only occasion on which they would do so, in fact, were funerals, where copious amounts of food and alcohol were consumed. Even children of the time could drink beers, as it was thought to be healthier than water. Baked beans and pease porridge were quite a common dish, along with a coarse, dark bread. Boiled vegetables and meat were cooked together and without seasoning, prepared unlike the other colonies.

In Virginia, dinners were very important social events. Roast beef, oysters, and geese were particular favorites among the aristocrats, and the wealthy would complain at the absence of meat. This region was the only place in North America where haute cuisine, or food served in small portions over many courses, appeared before the 19th century. This, along with the colonists’ taste for spicier foods, may have been influenced by immigrants, especially from places such as India and France. Frying, simmering, and roasting were popular amongst the Virginians, and cooking methods of the higher-up tended to vary greatly. Their poorer counterparts, however, were stuck with boiled and fried foods.

In the Delaware Valley and Mid-Atlantic regions, which were made up mainly of Quakers, food was plain and simple. As in New England, moderate consumption, both of food and alcohol, was encouraged. Overeating was punished simply by public self-criticism. The strictest of the Quakers avoided tea and meat, while the rest swore off butter. This may have been because they refused to eat foods “tainted by sin,” which included disputed English goods. Unlike other colonies, the entire household, including children and servants, dined together. Most food was boiled, from apple dumplings to pop-robbins, or balls of flour-and-egg batter boiled in milk. Scrapple, a pot pudding made of meat scraps and grain, became a popular dish for many generations.

The frontier and the highlands of the north and south, which were populated mainly by Scots-Irish and those from northern Britain, were called the backcountry. Diet consisted heavily on a mush made from soured milk and boiled grains. Charles Woodmason, an Anglican missionary who spent time in this area, described these people as dependents “wholly on butter, milk, clabber, and what in England is given to the hogs.” Oatmeal made from corn, now known as grits in the South, was popular, as were early versions of pancakes. Food was eaten from wooden trenchers with one of a variety of utensils, including a two-tined fork and a large spoon.

In many places, British cuisine, familiar to many, was preferred, especially over French ways. In fact, many cookbooks made degrading remarks about this type of food. This distaste went on until the American Revolution, when the French became allies instead of enemies. Though it was still not widely accepted, certain regions adopted this cooking style with open arms.

Just like today, the effects of overhunting were crippling. The hunting of buffalo, an important source of protein leading up to this point, was ceased by roughly 1770. Despite the booming seafood market, post-Revolutionary merchants found that the ships docks and navy units deployed in their bays had scared away – if not destroyed – much of the lobster and cod supply. After the Revolution, though, Scots-Irish, among others, were immigrating cattle to the United States, thus repopulating the hunting supply of certain animals.

Sheep were an important part of the colonial lifestyle. Wool was used, as it is today, to be spun into yarn and, later, made into clothing. Many realized, however, that when the sheep reached a certain age, or when they stopped producing enough wool, they could be used as mutton. However, during the Revolution, mutton was no longer popular, as sheep had to be harvested for wool to make uniforms for the soldiers. In fact, Virginia even banned the consumption of this meat except in times of extreme necessity.

After the American Revolution, major dietary changes occurred. Coffee replaced tea as the preferred drink, and whiskey was being more and more popular. The first corn grown in Kentucky was, in fact, for the production of this alcohol. With the arrival of cattle, butter was more enjoyed than pork fat.

The British had a huge effect on the Americans in the way of cuisine. Did you know apple pies even originated from the Quakers? Aided by such a profound influence, along with the cultural inspirations our ancestors drew from other immigrants, an American way of cooking, baking, and even eating, was established.