Erin E. Moulton

I’ve been deeply absorbed in the looming deadline for my Board Certification for Genealogy. My portfolio is due, imminently, so my historic cooking has been somewhat sidelined. Yet, recently I had the luxury of visiting this New Hampshire gem, the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion, to chat about all things historic cooking. The Wentworth-Coolidge is located in Little Harbor, Portsmouth, and was the home of Benning Wentworth, New Hampshire’s first royal governor from 1741-1767. The mansion was not only his home, but an operating farm. During the spring, it would very likely have been a busy season for harvesting and putting up all things flowers.

While I was visiting, the lilacs were in fierce bloom, but our conversation quickly turned to roses…and once my rose bush began to wake up it nearly begged me to yank off the blossoms and, well, do something with them. And I did! To some success….

THE RECIPE:

While no known manuscript of Benning Wentworth’s kitchen seems to have been preserved, there is a tome of the time period that may have mirrored what was happening during this season and that book is Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery And Booke of Sweetmeats transcribed by Karen Hess (To Preserue Red Rose Leaues, p. 266). Such was the method I followed for my first attempt at rose preservation.

A few notes:

1. I had had never very seriously cooked over fire, outside of your standard camping, and found it rather labor intensive, especially when the thunderstorm rolled in….but it also felt adventurous and pressed up against life and that’s something I love.
2. All of my attempts were done with a 6 year old in tow which gave it an extra edge of fun, explanation and experience.
3. While stoking the coals, I had much time to contemplate who in Benning’s estate would have been putting up and preserving the roses. Was it a servant, a slave, a cook? Was it a whole team or just a few? It certainly was not the royal governor himself sweating over the hot coals.
4. Though it was labor intensive, it also was quite gratifying to have the result actually mirror the concept.
5. I chose to strain the actual rose leaves out, partly due to my clumsy cooking and dropping a few extra goodies in along the way. This left me with just the syrup which was….
6. DELIGHTFUL. Even though the recipe was from the mid-1700s, I felt rather posh splashing some into my sparkly water with raspberries and lemon :).

Certainly a good refreshing spritzer to sip while chasing after the six year old and the deadline!

Who do you think made the rosewater in Benning Wentworth’s mansion? Would you give the method a try? Should we do something else from Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery? Candied Marigold’s perhaps? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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