7 Fantastic Colonial Food Recipes You May Love

Can you imagine the cuisine of our ancestors from the Thirteen Colonies? For years, I believed that I couldn’t imagine eating only a few dishes every single day, including corns, sunflowers, or meat. It sounds so boring, doesn’t it?

But, was the nutrition of early colonists really so monotonous? It looks like I was wrong. Some of these recipes are pretty attractive, and meals I have chosen for you are actually fantastic. Let’s try to eat like first Americans! It can be fun and yummy.

1. Cream of Chicken Soup

This is an old recipe on how to make soup for Christmas. You will need just about twenty minutes to prepare it.

Ingredients

• 6 cups of chicken stock
• Cooked chicken
• 1 cup cooked rice
• Two eggs (beaten)
• 2 tbsp parsley
• Pepper and salt to taste

Instructions

Let your chicken stock boils in a soup pan. Add meat, rice, and spices. If it is necessary, correct to taste. After bringing your soup under a boil, you should reduce the heat to medium-low.

After a few minutes, the soup will stop bubbling. It is the perfect moment to add the beaten eggs in it. Do it slowly while stirring the soup non-stop for the next three minutes. Add the parsley on the top once the soup is in a plate, just before serving.

Let me know if you like it! Enjoy!

2. Yankee Pot Roast

Ingredients

• 4 pounds (1.8 kg) chuck roast (boneless, trimmed)
• 25 pounds (0.57 kg) red potatoes
• 1 pound (0.45 kg) carrots (peeled, cut into pieces)
• 2 cups of beef broth (low-salt)
• 25 cup of ketchup
• 1 cup plum tomato (chopped)
• 2 cups onion (coarsely chopped)
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 tbs black pepper (cracked)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbs lemon juice
• Parsley (chopped) to taste

Instructions

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat, add your chuck roast, seasoned with salt and pepper, in it, and cook the meat up to ten minutes ( it should be golden-brownish from all sides).

After removing the meat from pan, add onion to it and cook for a few minutes until it becomes brown. Return chuck roast to the pan, combine broth, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and tomato, and keep boiling over low heat.

Cover the pan and put the meat in the preheat oven to 300F (150C). Bake it for approximately two and a half hours. Then add potatoes and carrots, cover the pan, and keep baking everything for an additional half an hour.

Before serving, drain the lemon juice over the meat and garnish it with fresh parsley.

Let me know if you like it! Enjoy!

3. No Knead French Bread (Martha Washington’s recipe)

For me, this bread is something special. Try the former first lady’s recipe and impress your friends.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of beer
• 2 cups of warm milk
• 25 tsp yeast (dried)
• 5 cup flour
• 2 tsp salt

Instructions

It is always unusual for me to mix the yeast with the beer, but it surprisingly works well. OK, combine them and expect yeast becomes foamy after approximately ten minutes.

Meanwhile, put the flour and other dry ingredients into a bowl. Add yeast when it is ready, and start stirring. Fortunately, we have a stand mixer nowadays, and the procedure is more comfortable than in the time when Martha Washington used this recipe.

Well, slowly add the milk into the flour (it is possible that you won’t need all two cups, but that directly depends on the dough texture).

Take the dough out, divide it into two approximately equal halves, and put both of them in a greased loaf pan. Cover your future bread with saran wrap to prevent the dough of sticking to the pan while rising.

After the dough doubles in size (keep it in a warm place to speed up the process), put it in the previously heated oven to 450 F (230C). It is needed about fifteen minutes for loaves to bake and get golden-brownish color.

Let me know if you like it! Enjoy!

4. Nice Indian Pudding

Indians were making this pudding with cornmeal. When the early colonists came to the New World, they transformed the original recipe by replacing corn with wheat. The first recipe of this dish was published in 1796 (in Amelia Simmons American Cookery).

Ingredients

• 2 cups of milk
• 25 cup cornmeal
• 5 cup sugar
• 6 tbsp raisins
• 2 tbsp of melted butter
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 25 tsp of cinnamon
• 25 tsp of nutmeg
• 25 tsp of cloves
• 3 eggs

Instructions

After heating milk (slightly over medium heat), remove it from heat. Add the cornmeal as slowly as possible and continuously stir the mixture. When it becomes smooth, put a pot back on the burner.

Cook your pudding (don’t stop to whisk it) over low heat until it becomes entirely thick. After removing the pot from heat, add sugar, butter, and other ingredients into the mixture and blend them.

On the other side, whisk three eggs, add the cream, put this yummy mixture to the cornmeal, and mix it with a large spoon. Put the future pudding into the 8-inch pie plate. After preheating your oven to 360F (180C), bake it for about half an hour.

Let me know if you like it! Enjoy!

5. Shepherd’s Pie

Basically, this pie is a comforting casserole made with ground lamb (beef or turkey), various veggies, and cheese.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds (0.9 kg) of lean boneless lamb’s meat (preferably leg) cut into cubes
• 2 pounds (0.9 kg) of boiled potatoes (peeled, cut into cubes)
• 5 pound (0.23 kg) of turnips (peeled, diced)
• 5 pound (0.23 kg) of carrots (peeled, diced)
• 1 medium onion (peeled, diced)
• 25 pound of butter (unsalted)
• 2 cups of beef stock (or water)
• 3 cup of tomato paste
• 5 cup flour
• One yolk
• One egg
• 1 tsp thyme leaves (fresh)
• 4 tbs butter (unsalted)
• 5 tsp ground white pepper
• 3 celery stalks (trimmed, sliced)
• Ground black pepper and salt to taste

Instructions

At the very beginning, you should make the stew. It is not so complicated if you follow the instructions carefully. Put a larger saucepan over medium heat and start with melting butter.

Add your lamb over the butter and let it become brownish on all sides. Then, move it to the bowl and put onions, celery, carrots, and turnips in the same saucepan for about three minutes. Stir veggies frequently until become soft.

Turn your lamb back, add herbs and flour over meat, and cook it for an extra three minutes. Pour the meat with beef stock, increase the heat, and let it boil. After adding tomato paste, cover saucepan and cook your lamb for another 40-55 minutes over low heat.

Meanwhile, you will have time to start making the mashed potatoes. Peel the potatoes and boil them in salted cold water. Drain and mash it. In the end, add eggs, salt, pepper, and butter in it.

Put the baked lamb into a large baking dish and pipe the mashed potatoes over the top. Expect your pie to be perfect.

Let me know if you like it! Enjoy!

6. Gingerbread

It is a very old recipe for a Twelfth Night Celebration.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup margarine (melted)
• 1 cup molasses
• 4 cups flour
• 5 cup of milk
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 5 tsp baking soda
• 5 tsp salt
• 75 tsp vanilla extract
• 75 tsp lemon extract

Instructions

Put the sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl and mix them well. Add molasses, milk, melted margarine, and both extracts. Slowly add the flour while stirring this mix constantly.

You should knead the dough until it becomes smooth and stiff. To avoid sticking, you can add some additional flour if necessary.

Roll the dough out 0.25 inch (6 mm) thick and cut it to rectangles or choose another shape as desired. Put cookies on the greased sheet, place the baking tray in a preheated oven, and bake your cookies in 375 F (190C) for approximately ten minutes.

Let me know if you like it! Enjoy!

7. Apple Pie

I will give you here an original recipe for a big family. Of course, you can always adjust it with your current needs or make a pie with the given measures when you invite the dearest guests.

Ingredients

• 24 green apples
• 2-3 cups sugar
• 2 tbs flour
• 8 tbs butter
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 4-5 tsp cinnamon
• 2 pastry crusts
• 4 lemons
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

Yes, I hate the beginning of this recipe either. I really don’t like peeling the apples, but this pie is worth that effort. Don’t forget to sprinkle apples with lemon juice after peeling, to avoid darkening.

Put flour, sugar, nutmeg, salt, and cinnamon into a big bowl and place the peeled apple slices in it. Toss until fruit is coated, and set them into the pie crust. Add some butter, put the other crust over your pie and connect the edges.

Preheat the oven at 425 F (220C) and bake the pie for approximately half an hour.

Let me know if you like it! Enjoy!

Summary

Nearly half of the first Pilgrims died of starvation, hardship, or disease. Finding food was a challenge, and they depended on the help of the Indians. Later, colonists adapted European cuisine to newly discovered vegetables. That is particularly noticeable after 1776 when they started to be self-sufficient.

Books about colonial diet and the most popular recipes from that time showed us how interesting it would be to make and serve dishes on the way that was common to colonists, but slightly exotic and unusual for us.

Let’s get back to our own roots and enjoy the ‘new’ old tastes.

Resources

1. Butter Chicken: American Colonial Curry
2. Foods People Really Ate In Colonial Times
3. Sean Sherman’s 10 Essential Native American Recipes
4. Native American Recipes: 25 of Our All-Time Favorites
5. Colonial & early American fare