Next, tasteful history, both bitter and sweet, a focus on foods that transport us back into the past.

- Wow, is this something you would readily see at an encampment?

- Yeah, - Wow.

you would, because they did have those big cauldrons.

Historian Dr.

Libby O'Connell hand picks cuisine that opens a window onto the American Revolution.

Discover how food brings new flavor to our understanding of the fight for freedom.

Drive By History starts now.

[Theme Music] Made possible by the Preserve New Jersey Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the New Jersey Historic Trust, State of New Jersey.

Every day, thousands of motorists pass by countless history markers and say to themselves, “One of these days I'm going to stop and read that.

One of these days, I'm going to find out what happened and why it mattered.” Well, this is that day.

I'm heading to a history marker that involves a vital part of colonial life, the bread and butter of the community.

Well, maybe not the butter, but definitely the bread.

I'm Ken Magos, and this is Drive By History.

[Music and Musket Fire] Today's investigation, part of our special series focused on the American Revolution, begins in Readington Township, New Jersey.

Located about 45 miles west of New York and 60 miles northeast of Philadelphia.

In the 18th century, Readington was a prominent agricultural community with all roads leading to this important place.

- I'm talking about Taylor's Mill and the surrounding village.

- Here's the history marker -- it says, “Taylor's Mill Historic District.

English settler John Taylor established a gristmill circa 1760, approximately 0.7 miles downstream on Taylor's Mill Road.

The mill supplied flour to American troops during the Revolutionary War, and continued to operate into the early 20th century.” - The rest of the sign goes on to talk about the bridge behind me, but I want to focus on the mills.

- Once, mills like this were found all throughout the region, but so many of them are gone, although the footprint of this one still remains.

- I'm off to find out more.

[Music] Down the road, just a few steps away are the remains of the mill itself.

The site is at risk, though efforts are underway to preserve it, giving this historic real estate a new lease on life.

And that's where I find Anthony Bernard.

He's been researching mills in early America and finding that this kind of work is a real grind.

- Ken, thank you ever so much for getting me out of the library.

- Well, you were starting to look a little pale.

- I was feeling guilty about that.

- Not to mention the fact that researching history doesn't just involve books.

- There's a history marker up the road here.

- I'm sure you saw it on your way in.

- Yes, It talks about how Taylor's Mill supplied flour to troops during the American Revolution, - And thats just the kind of local history that I think sits squarely within the larger national narrative.

- Now, mills were really important to the communities back then, and almost every town had one.

- Yes, There were all kinds of mills.

- There were paper mills, there were textile mills, sawmills, all kinds of mills.

- Right, and Taylor's Mill was a grist mill, which meant it was involved in food production.

- They would take grain here and grind it into flour.

- Exactly.

- Now, if you would have lived in colonial times this would have been a very familiar place.

- You would have brought your grain to the grist mill.

- I know that grist mills were staples of the community back then, but what was that experience like?

- Well, it could take all day.

- Yeah?

- So the records show that you would arrive, unpack your sacks of grain and then weight in.

And then just wait?

- And then just wait.

- Eventually, the grain would be poured into a hopper, which would be fed to the giant millstones below.

- So you would pay for that service then, is that it?

- Sometimes.

- Often, the millers operated in what was called the millers toll , in which they kept a portion of the grain for themselves in exchange for the service.

- So it's more of a barter system then?

- Yes, exactly.

- So the farmer would go home with most of his grain having been turned into flour, but a little bit left for the miller.

- So the millers keeping a little bit of flour from a lot of people.

- In the end, the miller has a lot of flour.

- Yes, and as you were saying, flour from Taylor's Mill went to feed the Continental Army.

- That's why it's so important to preserve this history.

As we continue our walk and turn the corner, I discover that Anthony has arranged a surprise for me.

He's arranged for us to meet with Michael Hanrahan and hear about plans underway, which would transform these ruins into a vibrant landmark and protect the legacy of the mill.

- Okay, Michael, let us inside your vision here.

- Can you describe what you plan for this site?

- Sure, we're imagining an open air structure where the existing stone walls remain.

- Okay.

- The window openings will still be there, but there won't be necessarily windows.

- Okay.

- The second floor will be removed.

- Okay.

- And it'll be an open air structure with a steel frame inserted into it.

That might not be what you were expecting to hear.

This kind of project is sometimes called adaptive reus .

That's when a site is not demolished, but it's not entirely restored either.

Rather, it's given a new function, so the cultural heritage it symbolizes can be protected from the wrecking ball.

- And it'll just become this haven for environmentalists, hikers, cyclists, and just a nice place to be on a gorgeous day like today.

I think the plans for the future are fascinating, but for now, let's turn attention back toward the past.

- So, Anthony, you were saying that flour from this mill was actually given to the Continental Army?

- What did they make with it?

- That's a great question, but one I'm not going to answer.

- What?

- Ken, I often hear you say that food plays into our history, but usually there isn't time to chew on that part of our past.

- I do say that, yes.

- However, today there is time, and that's where the next leg of this investigation begins.

- Good.

[Music] To find out more, Anthony sends me to Suffolk County, New York, for a conversation with one of our nation's most celebrated food and culture historians.

I'm talking about Doctor Libby O'Connell, author of The American Plate and academic advisor to Drive By History.

- So I'm curious, were the millers and farmers who are producing this flour mandated to provide it to the Continental Army?

- There was no national mandate by the Continental Congress saying every miller has to provide flour to the soldiers.

- But at a local level, when the soldiers or when the commander of the regiment came up and said, “we need flour for our troops” it put the miller in a bind.

- Right.

- And offering to pay for that flour with continental money wasn't always something that excited the miller, because continental money was not worth a continental.

- That phrase means it's worthless.

In other words, the Continental Army did not seize flour, they paid for it.

However, they paid in paper currency that was not backed by gold.

Had the Americans lost the war, the currency would have held no value.

As a result, selling flour to the Continental Army was as much a show of support as anything else.

And make no mistake, the Continental Army needed a lot of flour.

- So I'm curious about the rations that the Continental Army were receiving.

- How much did they receive and what was it?

- Ideally, they received a pound of flour that had been made into a loaf of bread.

- Okay, so not raw flour.

- That wasn't what they had hoped for.

- They wanted the soldiers to get a loaf of bread.

- Okay.

- But too often that didn't come to pass.

- What happens is that the ability to bake on the fly -- these regiments are on the move -- was very limited.

- So generally they were given a pound of flour if they were lucky.

As we continue toward the table, Libby tells me the flour was critical for survival, and one of the most common foods eaten by soldiers of the Continental Army was something called fire cake or ash cake.

- Same thing, you mixed together essentially a gruel of water and flour.

- The flour could be wheat flour if youre lucky, or it could be corn flour, where you had to mix it together and you make a pretty thin dough and you put it on the hot rocks around, that are surrounding a campfire.

- So the rocks are already hot.

- When you put that dough on there, it cooks very quickly.

- It picks up whatevers on that rock, you know, little pieces of moss only add flavor.

- A little ash, whatever.

[Laughter] - Hence, ash cake.

Ash cake is sometimes called the food that fueled the Revolution.

It was that important.

However, when circumstances were not quite so dire, soldiers ate something else.

Although made from the same ingredients, the mix of flour and water was known as hard tack.

[Music] - Hardtack is what the British called seabiscuit -- hard as it can be.

- It's made, you make the dough with water and flour mix it together and it... the trick is to slowly add the water until you get to the consistency of something like Play-Doh.

- And you cook that on a hot rock.

- Turn it over.

- That will last forever.

- I mean, there examples of hard tack that are over 100, almost 200 years old.

- And people would put their initials in it and they kept it as a memento of war.

- And that just shows you (a) how hungry people are but also how long these things last.

- But there's nothing to spoil in it.

- That's right.

- I mean, you know, you hear about bugs being in a supply of flour, but they're not in hard tack.

[Laughter] In some cases, hard tack was made at camp, but other times it was made in nearby bakeries, dispatched as bread... hard bread.

- What was beginning to happen is that the commanders in the Continental Army would order bakeries to produce hundreds of these things, put them in boxes, and have them taken as rations along by the soldiers who were moving.

- Okay.

- And this is a very mobile war.

Hard tack was so hard, soldiers struggled to eat it straight.

They often resorted to softening it in coffee, or broth or water.

And yet it was a very familiar food for the rank and file.

- So were these time honored recipes from times of war?

- Absolutely.

- Yeah?

- Yeah, I mean, the sea biscuits or hardtack stems from naval history.

- Necessity is the mother of recipes.

- Right, right, exactly.

- So, hardtack has been around for a very long time.

[Music: Yankee Doodle] As the conversation continued, Libby and I imagined ourselves at camp with the Continental Army.

And like any good soldier, it wasn't long until we found ourselves singing Yankee Doodle.

- “And there we saw the boys and men as thick as hasty pudding.” - Yes.

That takes us to our next stop on our tour of colonial cuisine: hasty pudding.

- Hasty pudding is actually another name for what we would call cornmeal mush or hot cereal made out of cornmeal.

You might have heard of hasty Pudding before, but what you might not have heard is that the name of this dish is somewhat misleading.

- Despite the fact that it was called hasty, it wasn't as hasty as we would think something... it wouldn't be a quick hot cereal.

- You had to stir it gradually, pour the cornmeal in very gradually as you were stirring the water, and then keep stirring, or you'd end up with lumps the size of potatoes.

[laughter] - Don't want that, right?

- Is this something you would readily see at an encampment?

- Yeah, you would, - Wow.

because they did have those big cauldrons, and you could hang it over an open fire.

- You didn't need an oven, and it was cheap, but it did require somebody stirring carefully.

- Maybe they took turns.

- Yes, maybe they took turns.

As you might imagine, most of the flour sent by Taylors Mill would have been used in these very utilitarian ways to nourish the troops.

Again, most of the flour, but not all.

- Well, the corn flour could be used in another way.

- They loved hoe cakes.

[Music] - Its called a hoe cake, because the griddle they used was very similar to the blade on a hoe, which is a... - Farm implement.

- farm implement, exactly.

- So we would today call that a griddle, and that was how they were cooked.

George Washington famously enjoyed hoe cakes as often as possible.

- Washington liked it swimming in butter and he added honey to it.

- Up north in New England, you might have maple syrup.

- You could have maple syrup in New York, thats for sure.

- You're making my mouth water talking about it.

[laughter] - They are delicious.

But my point is, these weren't just reserved to the elite.

- In fact, it was something that would be enjoyed all over.

To Libby's point, hoe cakes were a simple food eaten by all levels of society, from soldiers to generals.

As a result, hoe cakes matter to history because they take an abstract idea and make it tangible.

That is, the new nation intended to be an egalitarian nation.

Hoe cakes reflect that ethos as a food that bridges class and culture.

Moving on, Libby and I continue to imagine how flour from Taylors Mill might have been used by the Continentals.

- So I know that apples were a very important part of the average diet at the time of the Revolutionary War.

- Are there any recipes that you can think of that incorporate the flour and apples?

- Well, the easiest one today would be apple pie.

- Okay.

- But that's a pretty elaborate dish for a bunch of soldiers.

- I can't picture them out in the field making apple pie.

- Theyre not going to do that.

- So one of the things they might do is make an apple pottage, which is like an apple stew.

- So this was a... a stew of vegetables that included apples, which were inexpensive, onions, potatoes, all of these are pretty inexpensive.

- Then you put them together with parsnips.

- And if you add in some of the raw flour that you have on hand, that'll make the soup thicker.

Libby and I both realize this isn't a dish that relies on flour.

However, apples were so important to the colonial diet, we wanted to include them here, and Apple pottage is a very authentic recipe.

- And that's the type of cooking that was going on in households everywhere, high and low.

- They have delicious stews cooked in a big pot.

- If you were at home on the home front, you might have bread and butter with that.

- But when you're a soldier, you just have that.

For our next recipe, Libby turns to a famous 18th century foodie, someone who definitely knew her way around a colonial kitchen.

- So let's talk a little bit about this book that you have sitting there on the table.

- Amelia Simmons?

- Yes.

- She wrote the first American cookbook, and the first one was published after the Revolution, 1796.

- Okay.

- But what's important about Amelia is that... I'm on first name basis... - [laughter] You and Amelia.

with Ms.

Simmons... is that she included American ingredients.

- This is the first cookbook you're going to find corn and cornmeal and corn flour.

- Is there any particular recipe that caught your eye?

- Yeah, yeah.

And later she... she wrote a recipe for independence cake.

- Okay.

- Independence cake is a great big cake.

Always one for details, Libby pointed out that this recipe comes from the book's second printing, and that although the recipe was published long after the American Revolution independence cake was likely enjoyed at the earliest 4th of July celebrations.

- It takes 20 pounds, [laughter] it takes 20 pounds of flour, 15 pounds of dried fruit, a quart of brandy, pounds of butter.

- So it serves one.

- Yeah.

[laughter] - Now, giant cakes have existed in history, but it's nice to see how much they celebrated Independence Day to create one of these giant cakes.

- And that's what this was.

- Well, you're using a lot of ingredients to create it.

- You are, and you're also using ingredients that are going to last a long time, so if it's not all eaten in one seating, you know that it'll be there for a few days or maybe weeks.

- If you put enough booze and dried fruit in the cake, its... - You wont remember how long it's been sitting there.

As Libby so often tells me, food provides a powerful window into the past.

Cuisine carries insights that words can never fully capture.

Will some of these flavors feel familiar, or will they just be hard to swallow?

To find out, I turned to Chef Leslie from our sister show, Drive By History Eats.

- So I'd love to start with the fire cake -- I know this was a survival food for the continental soldiers.

- This is a really rudimentary dish.

- It really is.

It was also known as ash cake, because, well, sometimes there were ashes on it from the fire.

- That's right.

- It cooks for a very long time.

- It makes it shelf stable.

- But here we go.

- I took the liberty of breaking it into small pieces.

- Thank you, I'd like to keep my teeth.

- Use your molars.

Okay.

- Ready?

- Uh huh.

- Right?

- It tastes like a cracker.

Well, it essentially is a cracker.

- That's not bad.

- It is not bad.

- I wouldnt want to make a steady diet of it.

but... But no.

- No, and you're going to want a lot of water to drink with it.

- True.

We kind of understand the sacrifice that our soldiers were making at the time.

- Absolutely.

- So let's move on to the hardtack.

- Now, I know that term came about in the 19th century -- it was really around the Civil War -- but the Continentals would have eaten something very similar to this.

- Im curious to try it.

- Now, it lives up to the hardtack name.

- Oh, it would definitely does.

- So rather than carrying around a loaf of bread, this is very nutrient dense.

- You've taken the water out.

- It's still the flour, water, salt, cooked down so that you can take it, you can put it in your pocket.

- It's stable for a long period.

- Its stable.

- However, you're not going to eat it like this.

- You're definitely going to want to soak that.

- Okay.

- And dunk it.

- Okay.

- And they would have had coffee sometimes.

- They would have had coffee, they would have had water, they would have had milk.

- Maybe if they're lucky, some soup.

- All right, do I dare risk taking a bite of this?

- I, again, maybe with your molars.

- It's not bad.

- No, its not bad at all.

- And it's actually soaking up the taste of the liquid.

- It will, yes, it does.

- Well, that's part of why the holes are in there.

- It helps.

- Mmhmm.

- Yeah, Helps to rehydrate it.

- Exactly.

- It is a... it is a dense chew, I'm not going to lie.

- It is, it is.

- But they need the calories, need it to be nutrient dense.

- So now we're up to the hasty pudding.

- Yes.

- Not what I think of when I think of pudding.

- No, this is not the vanilla custard in a bowl.

- This is a traditional English type pudding.

- Only this one, rather than being made with wheat, wheat flour or oats, is made with corn.

- Because it's an American recipe.

- Because it's an American recipe.

- It was plentiful in the colonies.

- Well, that makes.

- So, that's what they had, that's what we made it with.

- All right, let me help you with the plate.

- All right.

- Oh, yeah, oh this is... - I know nice and dense.

- Yeah it is.

- It's got some raisins in there.

- It's got all kinds of stuff.

- You know what, I think with the amount of butter in there, we just need one slice to taste.

- Okay.

- I think you're right.

- It's really good.

- That is fantastic.

- It's very good.

- So I'm curious now for us to move on to the hoe cakes.

- Yeah.

- These look like pancakes to me.

- Yes, but they are anything but pancakes.

- Once again, were using cornmeal.

- Okay.

- We are soaking them.

- There are no eggs in here, there are no... it's really just the cornmeal, some water, maybe a pinch of salt.

- They take a very long time to cook.

- Whereas a pancake might be a couple minutes a side, - Right.

these are ten minutes per side, - And you're going to put some syrup on it.

- I am going to put a little bit of maple syrup on it.

- They would also eat them possibly with some honey.

- Yes, famously George Washington enjoyed hoe cakes with honey and butter.

- Right.

- But I also know from talking with Michelle McDonald that this is a dish that is sort of representative of the egalitarian attitude that was being developed here.

- We're looking at it from a political standpoint, but also looked at it from a food standpoint.

- It gives us a window into that.

- Well, and it gave everybody, everybody ate hoe cakes.

- Right.

- Everyone did, Washington on down.

- All right, Let me get a little bite here.

- Try that, Ill try one too.

- Oh.

- You like it?

- I mean, what's not to like?

- The syrup is delicious, but honestly, that's a great base for it.

- It's a little heavier, a little more dense.

- Definitely, theres a little crunch.

- So I'm really looking forward to trying this apple pottage.

- This is not a dish that should be unfamiliar to our audience.

- No.

- We have side dishes like this today.

- We do indeed, and basically, I mean, a pottage is basically anything you would cook in the pot.

- Right.

- You throw things together.

- In this particular one, I used apples, onions, a little bit of mace, some chicken stock because apples were so plentiful at the Revolutionary time.

- It was, this is, this was a staple in the diet.

- Okay.

- So, I think we should give it a little try.

- Lets see, yeah.

- A little bit sweet.

- But onions are sweet as well.

- They are, they can be.

- It's not, it's not a completely savory dish.

- No, it's got, it's got some depth of flavor.

- So now we're up to the point Ive been looking forward to: Independence Cake.

- Yes, or celebration cake, - Right.

or election cake.

- But yes, this was a big deal.

- It was also a really big recipe.

- Yeah.

- Well, the Amelia Simmons, I think, was 20 pounds of flour.

- It was 20 pounds of flour.

[laughter] - We did not do that today.

- Yeah.

- And I know it resembles a little bit like a fruitcake, but I assure you this is not your Christmas fruitcake.

- There's not soaked in brandy for a month, there's not, this is a beautiful cake with some raisins, some citron and some dried currants.

- All good things.

- All right.

- Yeah.

Okay, well, let's give it a taste.

- Let's see how it came out.

- All right.

- It's good.

- That is delicious.

- Nothing like a fruit cake.

- So this recipe really lets us experience that original cake.

- Absolutely.

It's, it's this, if you want to make an authentic independence cake, this is it.

You know, I'm going to put the recipe for this on our Facebook page for anybody at home who wants to actually make it.

- That's a great idea, I love that.

- Try it at home, a little taste of the past.

- Absolutely.

- This is fantastic.

[Music] As the investigation draws to a close, I find myself again appreciating how food provides a window into the past.

Sometimes history can feel weathered and worn.

History, by its very nature, is old.

For a moment, food makes the history fresh.

For this episode, I've asked historian Scott Stephenson, CEO of Philadelphia's Museum of the American Revolution, to help us better understand all that we've uncovered today.

- That revolutionary generation can seem almost unimaginable to us.

- And so thinking about their lives through food is a way to help bridge that gap.

Of all the foods we explored today, Scott Stephenson tells me fire cake opens a particularly powerful window into the American Revolution, not just for the modern audience, but also for the Continental soldiers themselves.

- When you read the narratives of these soldiers who during these times of scarcity are literally making like fire cake, theyre mixing flour with water and baking it in the ashes.

- No one would eat that on purpose.

- No, you're right.

[laughter] - And and it became a kind of symbol of their commitment to the Revolutionary cause.

- They're still writing about this and remembering this in memoirs written, you know, in the 1830s, literally 50 years plus after the Revolution.

- So it becomes symbolic of their fervor, their commitment to that Revolutionary cause.

- Wow, so it's really a touchstone to their sacrifice.

- Absolutely.

- See you next time.