{"id":3024,"date":"2009-05-06T04:41:57","date_gmt":"2009-05-06T08:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/\/wp\/?p=3024"},"modified":"2009-05-04T17:23:38","modified_gmt":"2009-05-04T21:23:38","slug":"a-taste-of-the-hearth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=3024","title":{"rendered":"A Taste of the Hearth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Susan

Susan Luczu and Her Gingerbread<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We sometimes take our kitchens for granted. They are much more than just rooms\u00a0in which\u00a0food is prepared.\u00a0They serve as\u00a0the centers of the home, places of warmth figuratively as well as literally.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My kitchen is like my life\u2014colorful, messy, and full of projects in various stages of preparation! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Historic New England<\/a> has dubbed 2009 the Year of the Kitchen and has put out a wonderful book America\u2019s Kitchens<\/em> (of which I\u2019ll write more soon!). I hope to follow its lead, not just by going to some of the events it has scheduled to celebrate this special year, but also by writing about the kitchens of neighbors and readers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My first personal Year of the Kitchen event took place recently in East Brunswick, New Jersey, where I observed food historian Susan Luczu give a talk called \u201cA Taste of the Hearth\u201d at the East Brunswick Museum<\/a>. Susan lives in an early-18th-century house near the museum. She collects historic kitchen equipment, which she uses to cook authentic, tasty foods in\u00a0her house\u2019s huge original fireplace. Susan brought several of her treasures and several of her foods to share with museum visitors.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"The

The East Brunswick Museum<\/p><\/div>\n

The East Brunswick Museum is a\u00a0tiny jewel located in a 19th century church in the historic village of Old Bridge. It is celebrating its own Year of the Kitchen with an ongoing exhibition called \u201cWhat\u2019s Cooking\u201d that features kitchen tools and accessories. Some are part of the museum\u2019s permanent collection while others are on loan from supporters like Susan.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Susan began with a bit of background about her interest in culinary history. She then showed off a number of the 18th-century kitchen tools and utensils she has collected over the years, which ranged from heavy pots to a portable toaster. \u201cPeople back in that period were pretty sophisticated in their cooking,\u201d she said of our colonial forebears. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Susan is almost as inventive as the 18th-century cooks she studies. She described how she had recreated some of her props. One of these was a sugar cone; she explained that people in the 1700s bought and stored sugar in cones and showed us how to extract a little sugar at a time using her antique sugar nipper (it looked a bit like pliers). Another homemade tool was a corn pot-scrubber for cleaning cast-iron pots, which she made from a whisk broom.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Pinching

Nipping Off Some Sugar<\/p><\/div>\n

Naturally, Susan concluded her talk with a lavish tasting. She was nice enough to share her recipes with her audience so I can pass one of them on to you.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Susan\u2019s next presentation at the Museum in East Brunswick New Jersey will be a Victorian Tea Day on Sunday, May 17. The Museum asks participants to reserve seats in advance; here is the web page<\/a> with contact information. (Attendees are encouraged to dress in garden-party finery.) I highly recommend this event: Susan is knowledgeable, smart, funny, and down to earth.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

New Englanders looking for a Year of the Kitchen event may want to attend the Spring Herb Sale this weekend at the Lyman Estate Greenhouses in Waltham, Massachusetts, or take the tour \u201cA Tale of Two Kitchens\u201d in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Saturday, May 9. Information about both of these events is available on Historic New England\u2019s Events Calendar<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nTo learn more about Susan, visit her web site<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be looking for more kitchen events to write about soon. Meanwhile, here is one of Susan Luczu\u2019s recipes. She baked this gingerbread in a lovely Turk\u2019s Head mold.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Part

Part of the East Brunswick Museum's Kitchen Collection<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Taste of the Hearth Gingerbread Cake<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1-1\/2 cups flour
\n1\/2 teaspoon baking powder
\n1\/4 teaspoon baking soda
\n1 teaspoon cinnamon
\n1 teaspoon ginger
\n1\/4 teaspoon allspice
\n1\/4 teaspoon nutmeg
\n1\/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter
\n1\/4 cup brown sugar
\n1 egg, well beaten
\n1\/2 cup molasses
\n1\/2 cup water
\n1\/4 cup powdered sugar for garnish<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Instructions: <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan or a small (4-cup) cake mold.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, and spices. Set aside.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Cream the butter until it is fluffy. Add the brown sugar and beat well. Add the egg and molasses, and beat for 1 minute more. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Gently add the flour mixture, alternating with the water. Stir (or mix on low speed) until just combined.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake it until the top springs back when lightly pressed with a finger\u2014or until a cake tester comes out clean (35 to 45 minutes). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Cool the cake for 5 minutes in the pan; then turn it out onto a plate and let it cool completely. Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Serve the cake warm or cold with vanilla sauce, lemon curd, or butter. Serves 8.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

By the way, we have a winner for the Lamson Good Now Green Tool!\u00a0 Chris Miller of Lebanon, New Jersey, will receive a potato masher. Thanks to Lamson & Goodnow<\/a> and to all who participated in the drawing. I\u2019ll announce another prize at the end of this month\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 We sometimes take our kitchens for granted. They are much more than just rooms\u00a0in which\u00a0food is prepared.\u00a0They serve as\u00a0the centers of the home, places of warmth figuratively as well as literally. \u00a0 My kitchen is like my life\u2014colorful, messy, and full of projects in various stages of preparation! \u00a0 Historic New England has dubbed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[9,476],"tags":[483,478,482,479,480,481,477,1744],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3024"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3055,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024\/revisions\/3055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}