Groaning Boards

The abundance of game in America astounded the colonists. When the wild fowl were migrating, the skies were darkened by flights of thousands of ducks, geese, passenger pigeons, doves and other game birds. Anyone shooting into such flocks of game could hardly fail to bring down several birds for dinner.

Some birds could even be captured by the hundreds. Passenger pigeons were once the most abundant of birds in America. But they were hunted in such numbers that now they are extinct. And although wild turkeys were as numerous in the woods then as rabbits are today, by the early 1700's they were becoming scarce.

Most of the large wild birds were anything but tender. Tough meat was a challenge that every colonial cook met by making one-pot meals, which involved long, slow cooking over a low fire:

In New England, the one-pot boiled dinner was a favorite; in New Amsterdam, hutspot; among the Pennsylvania Dutch, sauerbraten was the best know; and in the south, Brunswick stew and burgoo were favorites.

Burgoo is a stew that cooks for many hours. Burgoo originated in the 17th-Century on the high seas. Tales are told that sailors subsisted on an oatmeal-like porridge made from the Middle-Eastern grain, bulgur wheat and Burgoo is a corruption of the word bulgur, referring to a cooked porridge of meat with what-ever-else added.

Brunswick stew has an interesting genesis. Some Southern folklore attributes its origin to the Carolinas and Georgia, but the fact of the matter is that Brunswick stew was more likely created in the Old Dominion. Virginia tales recall that intrepid hunters in the early 1700's created the dish in the Old Dominion's Brunswick County, relying on resourcefulness and whatever happened to cross their path in the wild. This turned out to be more often than not squirrels, rabbits and opossum.

In addition to resourcefulness, all of the coastal plantations supplied the colonists with such delicacies as wild duck, doves and salt water and fresh water marsh hens.

With so much meat, is it any wonder that their tables groaned under the weight? Early and mid-colonial tables were made by placing boards on a trestle or triangular wooden horses. These tables were known as groaning boards. When the tables were set with

The copyright of the article Groaning Boards in Folklore is owned by Virginia Marin. Permission to republish Groaning Boards in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic