What's Cooking at the Buckingham-Hall House?

No matter your maritime interest, Mystic Seaport is ready to deliver. Climb aboard a tall ship, wander through exhibit halls or take a stroll through a re-created 19^th-century seafaring village. Learning exactly how people lived during the 1800s is made easy by the many staff members and volunteers who spend countless hours researching and fielding questions. Buildings within the village include an apothecary, a cooperage, a clock shop, a shipsmith’s shop, a ship’s chandlery and a general store, among others. There are three homes you can venture into: the Buckingham-Hall House, the Burrows House and the Thomas Greenman House.

Shirley Gilmartin has been an interpreter in the Buckingham-Hall House for 20 years. She washes dishes, tends the fire and keeps a watchful on the food cooking over the open flames. Shirley has spent this particular morning baking a plum tart and basting a chicken.
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Sitting at the edge of the warm hearth is a tin oven. Used for roasting, the back of the oven faces the fire open to the heat of the coals. The overall shape of the oven is domed, so as heat enters the oven from the back, it rotates around and cooks the meat inside. Ever so often, Shirley rotates the chicken or opens the door to baste it.
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In the back corner of the hearth is a cast iron bucket. Inside is a plum tart, and according to a visiting staff member, “Shirley makes the best dessert.” The bucket has a layer of hot coals in the bottom and the tart pan sits in the middle, surrounded by an additional layer of hot coals. Shirley will also check this every so often, replacing coals and waiting for the tart to finish.
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This method of open hearth cooking is common to the 1830s. Above the hearth is a small compartment where weekly bread baking would take place. What is most interesting about “The Buck” (as staff members fondly refer to the house), is the house garden in the backyard where interpreters can pick vegetables and herbs to use in their traditional cooking. Shirley, along with the rest of the Museum’s interpreters, feel passionately about their role at Mystic Seaport and picking fresh herbs is just another way they try remain as authentic to this past era as possible.  

Though they may have a faucet in a closet, the dishes and pans are cleaned by using a bucket and elbow grease. Take the opportunity to see history living in the present. Stop by and visit Shirley or one of the other interpreters in The Buck’s warm kitchen.  Who knows – you may even be able to taste a piece of that famous plum tart.
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For more information on Mystic Seaport, visit us at www.mysticseaport.org. 

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