Historic Cookery

Yep, more photos from the Historic Baking Symposium, held
at Fort Lee, NJ, and sponsored by Deb Peterson. HUZZAH!
Sorry for not posting these earlier, but hey, I’ve been busy
doing other things!

Okay. A bake oven workshop was held the day after the Symposium.
Our instructors were Clarissa Dillon and Cate Crown. Using historic
receipts (recipes), we prepared, cooked, and ate (of course!) four
different dishes. They included: pound cake; spice cake; potato
pudding (baked, obviously); carrot pudding (also baked); Naples
Biskets; and my personal favorite, shoeing-horn biscuits. For the
most part, Clarissa dealt with preparations of each dish, and Cate
handled the oven.

Enough of that. On to the photos!

First, a bit about bake ovens. A fire is built just inside the oven’s
neck or opening:

The fire is slowly moved around the oven, thus ensuring all parts are
heated. The interior starts out covered in black soot, but as the fire
burns and the temperature rises, it eventually turns white.

Once the oven is up to temperature, the coals are swept out, its floor
is swabbed with a wet rag, and the door is quickly set in place so as
not to lose precious heat:

Now it’s ready. Time to bake!

We made the different dishes in stages: the two cakes; the puddings;
and finally, the biskets/biscuits.

The two cakes were already in the oven by the time our carrot pudding
went in:

Then the potato pudding was ready:

Two puddings and two cakes are now baking:

Clarissa speaks to the class:

Before long, the spice and pound cakes were done!

dagnabit. I’m not sure which is which!

______________________________

UP NEXT: the baking continues