Boiling & Simmering

• While modern-day cooks use electric or gas stove tops to boil water and simmer food, the colonists relied on the kitchen hearth. By hanging kettles on hooks over the kitchen fire or settling pots directly on the hot coals, colonial cooks were able to heat food and boil water for coffee and tea. Soups and stews, vegetables and meats were also prepared using this method.
  
  

Frying

• Colonial cooks pan-fried eggs, bacon, bread and other food in iron frying pans. Similar to boiling and simmering, the pans were placed on the hot coals in the hearth, but they were greased with butter or animal fat instead of other liquids. Griddles were suspended over the fire in the hearth to cook food like pancakes. To deep-fry foods, cooks used special three-footed frying pans called "spiders," or deep pots. Spider frying pans had long handles, which allowed cooks to remain a safe distance from the hot frying liquid and coals.
  
  

Roasting

• By rotating food on a spit or suspending food over the fire with a hook, colonists were able to roast food over their hearth. Roasting allowed the meat to cook in the heat radiating from the fire rather than the flame or coals; however, a large amount of firewood was required to build a fire hot enough to roast meat, according to Sandra L. Oliver, a food historian and author of "Food in Colonial and Federal America."
  
  

Baking

• Due to the unpredictable temperatures in the hearth, baking in the colonial period was labor-intensive and time-consuming. Some colonial households had access to brick ovens, allowing colonists to bake bread, cakes and desserts by building an intense fire that lasted for days. Many cooks baked in the kitchen hearth by burying Dutch ovens in the hot coals. Cooks needed to tend the fire, shovel coals, and watch the temperature of the oven and placement of the foods carefully to ensure even cooking.