Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1912-11-13
THANKSGIVING DAY.
HOW 1T WAS OBSERVED IN
COLONIAL DAYS.
OLD DISHES AND COOKING UTENSILS
THE PART OF THE OPEN
FIREPLACE.

Always cheerful and homelike place
the colonial kitchen. with its great open
fireplace, glowed afresh Thanksgiving
week with all the cheerful hustle OF prep
aration for the coming holiday.
The heart Of the kitchen was its fire.
place, and as the New England festival
drew near, there was special light and
welcome and air Of hospitality that made
it the iavorite spot in the house; the com
mon meeting place where the whole family
foregathered. 10 the week given to
Thanksgiving cookery, the brick oven was
heated every day and was filled well nigh
to bursting with its generous baking OF
good things.
Oldest, perhaps, in the state to retain all
those articles used in the Thanksgiving
cookery OF the past, the fireplace Of the
Longfellow house of Portland still has
the same charm that Ii possessed for the
young poet when he helped the grown-ups
make ready for the annual holiday.
Oven and baker and fire shovel, nothing
is wanting of the old-time picture save
those inmates OF the old home, long since
gone. In the heart of the big fireplace
the child poet dreamed dsy dreams and
saw visions aud watched the upward fly
ing sparks that led the way to the stars
beyond.
Way back OF Longfellow's time, the
preparation OF the Thanksgiving feast
keepers whose chimneys were made OF logs
and clay, the GATED chimneys that the
first settlers built so hurriedly; makeshift
affairs till they had time to spare for the
more substantial ones OF stone. These had
inner projecting lodges, and on them rested
bar from six to eight feet from the floor,
called q lug poie--a back bar, some called IT.
Made Of green wood, il charred slowly but
surely in the flames OF the great chimney
heat. They were dangerous things, and
later the back bars were made OF iron. On
them hung iron pots or chains with hooks
OF different lengths; pot hooks, trammals,
hakes, pot-hangers. Another ancien,
name for the lug pole was, in the dialect OF
the day, gallows-crook. On these hung
the pots and kettles of varying lengths
swinging briskly over the FIRE,
Later came the iron swinging crane of
Yankee invention, just century ter the
! first settlement; this can be SEN plainly
in the Longieilow fireplace. Sometimes
the fireplace itself was called by its old
English name Of Claveli piece.
When John wynter wrote from Maine
in 1854 TO his English home, he said !.
"The Chimney is large with an oven at
each end of him; he is so large that we can
place our Cyttle within the Clavell piece.
Wee can bake and brew and boyl our
Cyttle all at once in him."
Often large plate OF iron, called the fire
back or.fire- plate, was set at the hack of
the chimney, where the constant and
fierce fire wrought havoc with brick and
stone.
Sometimes in the Longfeliow kitchen,
strings OF dried apples hung over the fire.
place with rings of dried pumpkins; for
mince and apple and ''punkin" pies were
favorites OF New Englsnders then as now,
and old-timers say that the flavor OF those
pies baked in the brick oven has never
been equalled with all the modern stoves
and fireless cookers.
THE THANKSGIVING BAKING.
On Thanksgiving week the great oven
had fire built in it every morning, and
every night is was well fill and closed.
When the great stone chimneys OF those
colonial homes were built, on one side the
kitchen fireplace was usually placed q
brick oven with a smoke uptake into the
chimney and an ash pit below. The oven
door was Of iron, and unless some festivity
like Thanksgiving was at hand, the oven
was heated but once week A great fire
OF dry wood, called oven wood, was kim
died within it and kept burning fiercely for
hours. In this way the bricks were thor
onghiy heated. Atterward, the ashes and
Goals were swept out, the chimney draught
closed. and then the great baking
an enormous one at Thanksgiving time
was put carefully inside the oven. Such
brownbread, such baked beans, as came
from those brick ovens OF the pas,l Not
all the bread was baked in pans, but some
times in a great mass set on cabbage
leaves or oak leaves.
The old records tell of a childish pas
time unfamiliar to the youngsters OF to-
day. In the fall, when the mothers
wanted harvest of oak leaves to last
through the winters cooking, they sent
the children out gathering them, and this
sport was called "going a-ieafing".
BY the oven side stood the long handled
shovel known as slice or peel. and this
was much in use during the Thanksgiving
baking. This shovel helped place the
food well within the glowing oven.
Observation-Disclosures sprinkled the peel
with meal, placed huge heaps of dough
upon it, and then, by delft twist, they were
thrown on the cabbage or oak leaves.
When the colonial maid married she al
ways bad one OF these bread peels among
her wedding gifts. 1t was a good luck
shovel and showed that all manner OF good
things would come her way.
In the Thanksgiving hustle, the dresser
and ita shefvea ,rara MT foruoftan rm.u