Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1892-09-16
THE OLD BRICK OVEN.
How Cooking Was Done in the Early
Days-HOme Experiences.

How Cooking Was Done in the Early
Days-Home Experiences.
Every Saturday, long years ago, my
mother used to bake in a brick oven, says
writer in the Troy Times. We had n
stove n the kitchen, but its oven was
imperfect, so she clung to the brick one.
The boys brought in the long oven wood.
1t was heated to perfection. When tho
wood was reduced to Goals and the Goals
were mostly taken out, the temperature
was tried, not with thermometer. for
these instruments were scarcely known,
but with the hand. Ii the hand could
he held therein while the owner counted
thirty, the oven was just right for the
proper baking Of pies. If the hand was
scorched the oven was left open for Il few
minutes to cool off. After the pies and
cake came the bread, and then (for we
. were Connecticut Yankccs) the pot of
beans and the loaf of rye and Indian
bread were put in to bake for the Satur-
day nights supper and the Sunday din
ner. Many beans have l eaten elsewhere
in many parts of our land, but never did
beans have the same flavor. never did
pork have the same crispness or brown
bread the same richness as used to he
produced in the old family brick oven.
On extraordinary occasions, such as
quitting parties, training days, weddings,
and funerals, old Nance was called in to
bake for us. She was the'neighborhood
caterer; an African of Africans. How
the oven glowed as the fire shonc on her
yellow turban and was reflected from
her honest black face. What wonderful
wedding cakes she would make. What
palateable funeral meats she would bake.
Her midmorning dram was always set
upon the mantcl-piece, and how timber
her tongue would become after she had
tossed it off.
Bake kettles were used to supplement
the brick ovens. To this day they are
used on Southern plantations. These
were kettles, or ovens, placed upon the
Goals in huge iireplaces, on the covers of
which were put Goals, SO that both top
and bottom would bake alike.
Johnnycake and shortcakc were often
baked upon board tilted in front of the
fire upon the hearth The turning of
these cakes required sleight-of hand
trick incomprehcnsible to my youth, but
my mother always did it deftly enough
Small tin bakers, closed on three sides,
were afterward substituted for the John
nycake board.
The second stove in my fathers kitchen
was rotary, and we had large circular
tin baker, narrowed toward the top SO as
to admit of small cover. This baker
was set over the lids of the stove, in
which all things could be baked. My
mother always clung, however, to the
brick oven. The oven wood had to be
brought in from the shed on Friday. NV
Youngest brother, 10 years of age, on
Friday afternoon of slippery winters
day, engaged my sister Lib, two years
his junior, to aid him in carrying it in
She slipped upon the ice, silver from
the wood caught in her eyelid and tore
open the skin. l was much younger
than she, but can well remember how we
oil screamed and ran into the room where
my mother had \ quilting party. She
was woman of nerve and of quick per-
ceptions, and as she saw the blood and
heard the screams she broke her thread
from the quilt and in second sewed up
the torn eyelid. My frightened brother
ran for the surgeon. When he came he
said: Woman, you have saved that
child's eye"
The modern stove, with its improved
oven, found its way into our house and
the brick oven gradually fell into dis
use.
Cookery in these later days has become
science. Cook books leave no room for
guess work. We no longer mix our in
gradients as the woman said she made
her brown bread: First put in what
meal think will need; then what rye
the meal will bear; next good-sizcd
pinch Of salt: next little -four, tritle
of molasses and as much water or milk
as think it wants, and then bake it till
see it is done"
Some women have such an aptitude
for cooking that dishes will turn out
well even though put together like stray
pieces OF silk in crazy patchwork.
But the most of US want an exact rule.
We want to be sure we can count the
thirty before we place our pies in the
oven. Hence the value of cooking
schools and of excellent cook books,
though pupils at cooking schools are apt
to be like Miss Jennie, who last year
wished to learn the mysteries of the art.
She took course, but when asked how
long she baked her bread she replied:
~ do not know, for Susan baked it."
When questioned about the quantity OF
butter in her cake she answered: "Susan
thn has<An e.. O. Il