LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - SEPTEMBER 22, 2019 by Lynne Belluscio In the basement of LeRoy House is the early open hearth fireplace. It was rebuilt in the 1940s on the foundation of the original fireplace, with the brick oven on the left. It is doubtful that a cooking fireplace and kitchen ever existed on the main floor since the LeRoy family was wealthy and had a cook. The kitchen was not the center of the house like most homes. Rather it was a hot and busy work place and the LeRoy household was large. During the time that the family lived here, nine children were born, and the household included several servants, so the cook had a huge job preparing three meals a day. There was no running water so all the water had to be drawn from the well under the back porch. There was water in the cistern across the hall that might have been used for washing clothes but certainly not for cooking or washing dish- es. Against the wall is what is known as a bucket bench, where a shelf could hold buckets of fresh water. Hot water had to be heated in a large kettle or large tea kettle over the fire. Dirty dish water had to be carried to the back of the house and thrown out. Once a week, the brick oven was fired to bake bread and pies that would be eaten in the next several days. Baking day start- ed the night before, when the bread starter was placed in the huge dough box to rise. The next morning the dough was shaped into loaves and allowed to rise again. During this time, a fire was built in the oven and the brick absorbed the heat. It might take an hour or two to fire the oven. During that time, all kinds of pies were made so they would be ready to load into the oven at the same time as the bread. The pies in the back be- cause they would take an hour to bake, and the bread near the front, to be removed in 40 min- utes – or “until done.” Meat was boiled or roasted on a spit – even turkeys were boiled. The iron Dutch oven could sit on top of coals with the lid filled with coals, to bake biscuits. Some- times a kitchen would have a tin reflecting oven for cookies and tarts. For special occasions, the cook would make wafers (think of pizzelles) or waffles for breakfast. The long legged fry pans called spiders were in- dispensable for anything fried or sautéed. Ingredients were of- ten weighed on a steelyard, but many cooks used “handsful” of flour, and tea cups of sugar, and butter the “size of an egg.” (Pre- cise measuring was a long way off.) The kitchen often has small displays. This summer there was a display of coffee making equipment with green coffee beans and a coffee roaster. On another table was an explana- tion of all the lemon recipes that were found in Charlotte LeRoy’s receipt book. On another table were dishes of cocoa beans, chocolate “nibs” and a chocolate pot. The white sugar cones, that were bought at the store, were very expensive. Some people refused to buy white sugar be- cause it was made by slave labor. They used maple sugar instead. Flour was probably bought by the barrel and stored in a cool place. No doubt, the LeRoys bought wheat flour ground at their mill on the west side of the creek. (Behind where the post office is now.) Butter, milk, cheese and eggs they bought from their neighbors, since they probably didn’t keep chickens or cows. Spices were a precious commodity and had to be pur- chased. In the small spice chest would be cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, mace (the cover- ing on a nutmeg) and cardamom (or coriander.) Peppercorns were not kept in the spice box with the other spices. In addition, herbs from the kitchen garden would have included dill, parsley, mar- joram, sage, rosemary, thyme, chives, loveage, mints, lemon balm, and borage. If the cook wanted any of these herbs during the winter, she had to make sure she dried enough for the follow- ing year. Fresh meat and poultry was bought at the butcher mar- ket or directly from a farmer. Meat could be salted and either smoked or packed in casks. Salt around here came from Salina (Syracuse). Food was prepared in this kitchen and then taken up the stairs into the dining room (which is now the 1920s kitch- en.) The servants may have eat- en in the kitchen, or there may have been a small dining room in the basement where they ate. Not much is known about the families that lived in the house after the LeRoys moved back to New York City. More than likely, a cast iron stove re- placed the fireplace shortly be- fore the Civil War. (The White House did not have a cast iron stove until the 1850s.) Rev. Samuel Cox lived in the house at that time. We have no idea where the kitchen was located. But when the house was used as a boarding house after the Cox family moved out, we know that this room became the dining hall for all the tenants. That is when the ship-lap ceiling was installed, and probably at that time, the fireplace was boarded up. It is believed that the kitch- en might have been in the area where the boiler room is today, but no one knows for sure. Like so many things in Le- Roy House, we can only take an educated guess about who cooked in this kitchen. And each year we learn a little more and then can share it with our visi- tors. On the Tour - Charlotte LeRoy’s Kitchen Brick Oven in the LeRoy Kitchen