Last updated: June 10, 2024
Place
The Fort's Kitchen
NPS Photo
There was access to this room through doors from the cook's quarters, an inner corral and the attached pantry. Historic references to a kitchen come from Field in 1839, Boggs in 1844, Magoffin in 1846, an unsigned article from the St. Louis Weekly Reveille of May 18, 1846, and the letters of George Bent. Some of the earliest sources indicate that cooking was done on a dispersed basis in individual rooms.
The room's hearth is from uncut pieces of limestone, but bears little resemblance to the cut and finished stone hearths in other rooms from the stagecoach era. A small area of wall had red plaster, and there was evidence of a drainage ditch beneath the floor.
Scattered are dutch ovens, an iron ladle, a tin reflector oven, fireplace pokers and hooks, a trivet, crockery, and a variety of spits and other cooking utensils. Try to imagine the smells that visitors to the old fort would have noticed: cottonwood smoke, spices, and grease drippings, or perhaps the rank odor of spoiled meat and rotting foodstuffs. One can only guess at the rush required to feed several dozen occupants of the fort at each meal. Amidst flying towels, steam, and clanging pots one could find the cooks, hurried in their preparation for meal to support the fort's workforce.
As to the food being served, we can refer to a few personal writings, but our best indicators come again from the work of archaeologists and business ledgers. Bones recovered from trash pit excavations provide clues to meat consumption. The earliest deposits are duck, wild turkey, pronghorn, deer, elk, and buffalo; later deposits include cattle, sheep, and chicken. Bent, St. Vrain & Company orders for 1839 included flour, dried peaches, cheese, rice, almonds, raisins, 1,190 pounds of bacon sides, and 2 barrels of pork in addition to large amounts of coffee, tea, sugar, salt, molasses, and alcoholic beverages. Local efforts at irrigation were supplemented by agricultural produce from New Mexico: chilies, pumpkin, beans, onions, and corn.
Employees and guests have left a record of specific foods. Alexander Barclay wrote that milk was always "plentiful having 4 cows, and a great many goats...." Another employee recalled "butter" and "eggs" as indigenous; while James Abert mentioned having "...coffee all prepared, and enough bread baked to last several days..." Perhaps the reminiscences of William Boggs offer the best description; he remembered the Bent's Fort table as "...always provided with the best of food, and well cooked."
The room's hearth is from uncut pieces of limestone, but bears little resemblance to the cut and finished stone hearths in other rooms from the stagecoach era. A small area of wall had red plaster, and there was evidence of a drainage ditch beneath the floor.
Scattered are dutch ovens, an iron ladle, a tin reflector oven, fireplace pokers and hooks, a trivet, crockery, and a variety of spits and other cooking utensils. Try to imagine the smells that visitors to the old fort would have noticed: cottonwood smoke, spices, and grease drippings, or perhaps the rank odor of spoiled meat and rotting foodstuffs. One can only guess at the rush required to feed several dozen occupants of the fort at each meal. Amidst flying towels, steam, and clanging pots one could find the cooks, hurried in their preparation for meal to support the fort's workforce.
As to the food being served, we can refer to a few personal writings, but our best indicators come again from the work of archaeologists and business ledgers. Bones recovered from trash pit excavations provide clues to meat consumption. The earliest deposits are duck, wild turkey, pronghorn, deer, elk, and buffalo; later deposits include cattle, sheep, and chicken. Bent, St. Vrain & Company orders for 1839 included flour, dried peaches, cheese, rice, almonds, raisins, 1,190 pounds of bacon sides, and 2 barrels of pork in addition to large amounts of coffee, tea, sugar, salt, molasses, and alcoholic beverages. Local efforts at irrigation were supplemented by agricultural produce from New Mexico: chilies, pumpkin, beans, onions, and corn.
Employees and guests have left a record of specific foods. Alexander Barclay wrote that milk was always "plentiful having 4 cows, and a great many goats...." Another employee recalled "butter" and "eggs" as indigenous; while James Abert mentioned having "...coffee all prepared, and enough bread baked to last several days..." Perhaps the reminiscences of William Boggs offer the best description; he remembered the Bent's Fort table as "...always provided with the best of food, and well cooked."