Lincoln Home

[Eva Elisabeth]

(04-28-2014 03:24 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Did she even know how to cook when they got married?

Gene, I doubt it. In “Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography” (p. 111), Jean H. Baker writes:

"Having grown up without any practical experience in cooking...in any case, she learned to do what the slaves had done in Lexington: roast coffee, make calf's foot jelly, preserve fruit, and prepare cheese...By 1851, after nearly ten years of housekeeping, Mary Lincoln had progressed to an advanced version of Miss Leslie’s Cookery… there were recipes for everything from family soup to invalid cookery of beef tea and blackberry preserve...Because she had not learned the vices of sugar and, like everyone in Springfield, innocently believed it the “most nourishing substance in nature,” she spent hours making puddings, cakes, candies, and cookies."

And while washing the dishes, she once (according to Harriet Hanks Chapman to J.W. Weik) remarked: "What would my poor father say if he found me doing this kind of work."

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(04-28-2014 03:17 PM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  I am looking for information about the condition of the Lincoln Home when Abraham purchased it. Someone asked me if Mary cooked on an open hearth. I know Mary purchased a stove during the renovations of the home, but I do not know there was a cooking stove in the home when they first moved in. I always assumed she cooked on a hearth, but am not sure.

Donna, obviously there's not much known about that.

This is from D. Donald's "Lincoln" (p.96):
"The downstairs rooms were heated by fireplaces and there were wood-burning stoves in the upstairs bedrooms. Of course, there was no gas or electric light. Water came from a cistern and a well in the backyard. A latrine offered the only sanitary facilities. Despite its limitations, it was a sturdy, well-built house, and the Lincolns thought it was worth every penny of what it cost."

In the respective "sources and notes", he recommends "Historic Furnishing Reports: The Lincoln Home" by Katherine B. Menz (1983), which is here:
http://archive.org/stream/historicfurnis...z_djvu.txt

Wow, listed there is also the following: "Carving set , including knife, fork, and sharpener, marked J. A. Henckel's Twin Works, Solingen, Germany." That ennobles most of my steely kitchen equipment.