Serving breakfast with a side of history

“You have to wait until it spits,” said Diane Schwindt, as she swabbed the antique waffle iron with melted butter.

Behind her, a wood fire blazed in the open brick fireplace, where a line of long-handled implements rested until hot enough to use. She had all of her irons in that fire as her guests arrived for a special Fathers’ Day breakfast at the Ketcham Inn on June 15.

Up and at work to prepare the meal since 5 a.m., she continued to check the temperature of each iron using a method she’d learned from the curator at Mount Vernon, where irons identical to these were used during George Washington’s time.

Around her, an array of crockery, sieves, ladles, spoons, linens, and her assistant, Danielle, stood ready to help move preparations forward.  Heavy cast-iron pots, made more so by the weight of their contents, hung on extended hooks that were swung into and out of the fire.

A spit on which whole roasts of meat could be turned framed the space above its interior.

Inside the walk-in hearth 16 pounds of bacon—the equivalent produced by one hog, she explained—rested in its long-handled iron skillet, while she ladled batter into each sizzling iron, then set them on the iron grate to cook.

Careful not to allow any accoutrements of modern life to remain in view as she worked, Schwindt explained that breakfast waffles originated from communion wafers. 

After acquiring both early communion and breakfast irons, she traveled to Mount Vernon and spent two hours with its curator to learn more about their place in colonial kitchens.  While Washington’s kitchen served a family and guests, the Ketcham Inn served travelers in a commercial establishment.  Both would have necessitated kitchens in use most of each day.

Open-hearth cooking was not only time consuming, but physically demanding and dangerous as well.  The large open fire, and its proximity to wood-frame buildings, meant great care had to be exercised to prevent loss of buildings and life.  The Ketcham Inn kitchen is a fully restored space from 1690.  Later kitchens were often constructed as separate outside buildings, well away from the main house.

Outside the inn’s tavern entrance, an array of men’s ties were strung across the porch’s perimeter, a follow-up display to the colorful aprons on Mothers’ Day.  Like the communion wafers that gave rise to the waffle, these bits of fabric played an important part in early domestic life. Each helped define gender roles and the distinct tasks for men and women in their time.

However, necessity could create exceptions. When men were away for long periods fishing, whaling, or fighting in war, women were left in charge.  Increasingly, they learned to take up the challenges of maintaining life at home, up to and including setting hot rivets during W.W. II.

Her guests served and sated, Schwindt took up her place before them to explain the multiple demands of a colonial household beyond waffle making: the four hours needed to cook bacon; the necessity of keeping the cook’s apron from going on fire; linen weaving; the household chamber pots and more.

From hot irons to hot rivets, history has a home at The Ketcham Inn.