In an attempt to jump-start the camping season, we headed to Green Ridge last weekend. The March weather opened up just enough time for two nights of campfire life, with a long walk on the C & O Canal and of course a hearty campfire dinner one night.
I found a lot of great recipes in “At the Hearth: Early American Recipes” by Mary Sue Pagan Latini, a hearth cook who demonstrated at the “Baltimore’s City Life Museums’” 1840 House, and the 1812 Flag House.
The Flag House still exists as the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House but sadly the 1840 house closed in 1997 and is now a bed & breakfast.
The City Life Museums encompassed the Phoenix Shot Tower, Carroll Mansion, H. L. Mencken House, Fava Fruit Company, Brewer’s Park, and the John Hutchinson House (a.k.a. The 1840 House.) Hutchinson was a wheelwright who lived in the home from 1835 to 1840 with his wife, three children, two boarders and an African American servant. Reenactors presented scripted dramas in different rooms of the house, providing visitors with a glimpse of the daily life and concerns during this tumultuous time in Baltimore.
Originally from Arkansas,
Latini got into hearth cooking after retiring from the Naval Academy. While
volunteering at the 1840 house she learned about hearth cooking – and taught
others in turn.
In addition to recipes, her
book offers some hearth cooking tips and some background on the Colonial
American diet. I’ve earmarked several recipes for future camp trips.
For once I didn’t cop-out and
use the little enameled dutch oven, and instead used my cast iron, and the
tripod. The afternoon offered a reminder of how laborious and slow of a process
cooking once was – how much effort was spent lifting, sweating and waiting.
Still, there is something calming and meditative about cooking over a fire or a
hearth. And there is an extra relaxing
sigh of relief when you can sit back afterwards and watch while the fire lives
on, and not have to worry about controlling it.
Recipe:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- several sprigs of thyme
- 4 medium sized potatoes, diced
- ½ teaspoon pepper sauce (I did not have this so I used some
jalapenos I diced up and put in in vinegar the night before) - 12 carrots, finely diced
- 6 cups soup stock
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 2 Cups milk
- 1 cup cream
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Black pepper
Melt the butter in large pot hung from a crane or tripod. Saute
the onion in butter and then add the diced potatoes, carrots, stock, and bay
leaves. Cook until the vegetables are tender. Add cream, milk, thyme, pepper
sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper and heat to boiling*. Remove the bay leaves
before serving.
*The milk might curdle especially with the
vinegar! It still tastes good but you can prevent it if you’re finicky.
Recipe adapted from
“At the Hearth: Early American Recipes” by Mary Sue Pagan Latini
Hey man I said it’s a long, slow process.
