Information About Colonial Baking

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To understand the history of baking in America, you need to start with some information about colonial baking.

Save the Receipts

In colonial times, recipes were called "receipts." More often than not, the author of the "receipt" would have assumed that the baker had already prepared to bake. This would have included making sure the household fireplace was hot, raked, banked, and ready to cook on. Yes, I said cooked on. According to our information about colonial baking, most baking was done directly on the coals unless it was done just in front of the hearth.

Flavoring in colonial baking would include molasses, rose water, caraway seeds, lemon, almonds, and coconuts and just about any spice the baker could get their hands on. If you are looking for vanilla beans to show up in the recipe, you’re in for a long wait--vanilla was rarely used.

Some other ingredients that would not be found in the baked goods in colonial times would include peanuts and oats. Up until the Civil War, peanuts and oats were considered animal food. Peanuts were fed to pigs and oats were horse food. The old stand by, the oatmeal cookie, didn’t show up until around 1880.

No Cookie for You

Ok, that isn’t completely true. Small baked goods, not called "cookeys" until the late 1700’s, were not common, but they were around. In colonial times, there were no chemical leavenings, so the cookies made back then must have been thin, hard, and dense. With only air and egg whites to use as leveners, macaroons were popular and more than likely the only baked good made back then that we would recognize as a cookie. It wasn’t until 1742 that pearlash was discovered. The discovery of this leavener lead to the creation of quick breads. But until that time, the only other leavener available was yeast which, although good for bread, is not so useful for smaller baked goods.

Into the Fire

Information about colonial baking tells us that the baking process was incredibly complicated. Making small sweet snacks for your friends and family would not just be a gift of baked love, but literally a labor of love. Baking was not an endeavor to be undertaken lightly. The baker had to dry their flour by the fire and then sift it before it could be weighed out. If raisins were to be used, the baker had to rub the raisins between towels to remove the dirt and stems and then deseed them one at a time. Sugar would be bought in blocks and the baker would have to cut off pieces of the sugar using "nippers." They would then have to pound the sugar to granulate it so that it could be measured and mixed correctly.

Any spices that were used would have to be dried by the fire and then pounded to a powder and sifted. Butter would have to be washed, with either plain or rose water, to remove the salt that was used as a preservative. The butter, by the way, was likely churned by hand by the baker. Then, once all the ingredients were mixed, the bread was either baked directly on the fire or on the hearth just in front of the fire.

Advances came slowly. First, there was the Dutch oven that would at least offer radiant heat but only in the small space of the oven. Next came the roasting kitchen which used a reflector placed in front of the hearth and reflected heat back into the fireplace. This was the start of dry heat baking and the birth of baking, as we know it today.

It wasn’t until the 1800s that stoves with ovens came along. Although this sounds like a blessing for bakers and a chance to explore more options than just bread and the occasional cake, these ovens were still an ordeal. Early ovens were high maintenance devices that required daily cleaning and polishing. Learning how to artfully manage the flues of the oven to control the temperature was a trial by fire. Determining the temperature of these ovens was a rather vague process. The standard advice offered bakers back then to hold one's bare arm in the oven. If it could be held there for 20 to 35 seconds, it was called a quick oven; for 35 to 40 seconds, it was a moderate oven; and for 45 to 60 seconds, it was called a slow oven.

Information about Colonial Baking

All our information about colonial baking tells us that baking in the early days of our country was a difficult and complicated task. But these early attempts helped develop the baking conveniences and appliances we have today.