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Colonial Foods in Connecticut

I was researching a location and menu for the Annual Meeting of The Flagon and Trencher    (Descendants of Colonial Tavern Keepers....Those persons, either male or female, who can prove direct descent from a person conducting a tavern, inn, ordinary, or other type of hostelry prior to 4 July 1776 (within the area which became the first 13 states).

The society dined at The Griswold Inn in Essex, CT and enjoyed a tour of the establishment which has been in consistent operation since 1776.  Since it is located on the CT River, of course the colonists would eat locally caught fish.   It was normal practice for a colonial home to maintain a "kitchen garden" that could include, herbs, root vegetable, corn, beans and green vegetables.  Therefore the menu included:  white fish, brisket, mixed root vegetables, baked beans and Apple Betty.  An alcoholic colonial rum punch and fresh lemonade rounded out the menu.

The Trencher Award was presented to me for researching, organizing and running this annual event.

In my research for this project, I ran across this colonial "Bar Tab" for George Washington, which I presented to the amusement of the crowd of just over fifty people.

"The tab comes from a farewell party Washington's troops threw him in 1787, just days before he and the rest of the crew signed off on the Constitution. The celebration was obviously held at Philly's historic City Tavern, and things took quite a turn. Here's what George and 54 of his closest friends consumed in one crazy night:

• 54 bottles of Madeira
• 60 bottles of claret
• 22 bottles of porter
• 12 bottles of beer (probably a growler size)
• 8 bottles of hard cider (probably a growler size)
• 8 bottles of Old Stock (a.k.a. colonial whiskey)
• 7 large bowls of spiked punch

It's highly impressive Washington was even alive the next day, much less able to talk constitutional preambles and chop down the rest of the cherry trees in America, but it's this kind of freedom America was founded on.

Kristin Hunt is a food/drink staff writer for Thrillist. She definitely wishes she wrote her history thesis on this instead of the stupid Korean War. Follow her at @kristin_hunt."