Comfort Foods at the Tangen House

I love going to Living History Farms.  They have a full scale replica of a typical 1875 town complete with real shopkeepers and other interpreters to explain what life was like in 1875.  Our first stop is always the Tangen House.  This is an upper middle class family home with a beautiful kitchen that most pioneer women would be grateful to have at that time.  Whenever I visit, I am reminded how easy we have things and how we need to simplify our lives.  I have always thought it would be so fun to actually cook a meal there instead of just watching.

Tangen House - Summer 2010

Last week I was able to fulfill my dream of cooking in the Tangen House when I took a cooking class there.  Our class of 5 students plus our teacher, Allison, cooked a full meal on the wood burning stove using only the kitchen tools commonly available in 1875.  Our menu was beef and noodles, chicken and dumplings, rice pudding, biscuits with butter and jam, and apple crisp with whipped cream. Is your mouth watering yet? 

We divided up the tasks between us.  I made the noodles.  Since this was my first time making noodles, it took me a while.  Next time I will know to use more flour on the counter so they don't stick.  The proper way to dry them is to hang them over a rod on the back of the woodburning stove but they felt like they were going to fall apart if I tried hanging them so we used a cookie sheet next to the stove and turned them over after the tops were dry.  My noodle making seemed to take a long time so it was good that there were 5 other cooks in the kitchen to make everything else.  This would have been a big job for one person.  Everything tasted fantastic - now I want to try the recipes at home to see if I can duplicate them in my kitchen with my freshly milled flour.  We used white flour for baking.  The wood burning stove probably made the apple crisp and biscuits better since they were baked in the oven.  The apple crisp was also baked in a pie shaped stone.  Everything else was cooked on the stovetop using cast iron pots.  The chicken was pre-cooked when we arrived and I forgot to ask where it was cooked.

Noodles Drying by the Stove

 Beef and Noodles

 Whipped Cream, Biscuits and Rice Pudding

Apple Crisp

Our teacher, Allison

We ate in the dining room and it was dimly lit with a few kerosene lamps.  To save on dishes, we used paper plates and plastic utensils - not very authentic but since we would be doing dishes in big basins and then dumping the water out the back door, I don't think anyone missed using real dishes.  Here is how I rate our menu in order of how likely I will make them again:

1.  Apple crisp -really good and really easy
2.  Chicken and dumplings  -really good but more work than apple crisp
3.  Rice Pudding - good and easy and my husband likes rice pudding.
4.  Biscuits - I want to try these with fresh flour - I am not a big biscuit fan but will try again.
5.  Whipped cream - really, really good but not sure if I will take the time to do it
6.  Beef and noodles - this was good but not fantastic enough to make again - I will try the noodles again and maybe substitute noodles for dumplings with the chicken.  That is how my grandma made it.  I also need to get the noodles skinnier when cutting into strips. The knife wasn't very sharp so it was difficult to make thin noodles.  The noodles plump up so they will be larger than when you cut them.

I loved the class and learned a lot. Most of all, I am inspired to try some new foods at home.  I was not able to make all the foods myself since we split up the tasks however we went home with all the recipes so we can try them on our own now.  When I try the foods at home using freshly milled flour, I will post as to whether it made a difference in the end result.  If you were in the class with me, please post a comment if you tried any of the foods at home and if you have any tips for the other dishes.

Living History Farms is open for their regular season on April 30th.  I can't wait to go back!
http://www.livinghistoryfarms.org/