Hearth Cooking at Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg, Virginia, Governor’s Palace
Williamsburg needs no introduction. My most recent visits have been in the winter. The deep colors of this picture are those of a late afternoon in January. Winter is a good time to visit Williamsburg because there are comparatively few visitors and the interpreters have more time to talk with you. For hearth cooks, Williamsburg is the place to see formal 18th century foods.
The foods displayed no this table were cooked in the fireplace, below. It is important to remember that seemingly primitive cooking facilities do not imply primitive food. In fact, as I explain in my book, The Magic of Fire, an open hearth provides cooks with more control over temperature than a modern kitchen stove.
In this picture embers are being shoveled out of the fireplace onto the hearth. A short legged tripod will be placed over the embers and pot placed on top of that. While this method of cooking over embers is superficially similar to cooking over gas or electricity on a stove, in fact there is more control with embers. In this picture the cook is setting out a huge pile of embers to bring her pot to high heat. But she could have put only a few embers on the hearth for very low heat. The embers are never hotter than at this moment. From this point on they are getting cooler. For delicate preparations, like onions cooked very slowly for a long time, embers are the best. One adds a few more embers under the saucepan as the onions stop cooking. In this way they never burn.