The recipes and tips below are drawn from the culinary traditions featured in America the Bountiful’s 250th anniversary special. Some are reconstructed from historical practice. Some have been adapted for the modern kitchen. All of them connect directly to the story of how America fed itself into a nation.
Liberty Tea
Three plants. No imports. Total independence.
When the Boston Tea Party made British tea politically toxic in 1773, colonists didn’t go without. They walked into their herb gardens and found everything they needed. Mount Vernon’s horticulturalists still grow all three of the liberty tea plants featured in the America 250th special. Rose hip tea: Harvest dried rose hips, remove the seeds, and steep in boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes. High in vitamin C with a naturally tart, citrusy flavor.
Yaupon holly tea: Harvest fresh yaupon leaves, dry them, then lightly roast before steeping in boiling water for 5 minutes. North America’s only native caffeinated plant, used by indigenous communities for over 8,000 years. Delivers energy without the crash.
Lemon balm tea: Harvest fresh lemon balm leaves and steep in boiling water for 5 to 7 minutes. A member of the mint family with calming properties, used medicinally since 300 BC. Lemon-forward with a hint of mint.
All three can be brewed individually or blended. Colonists called the pot they brewed them in the liberty teapot — a deliberate act of defiance against the Crown.
Fresh Goat Cheese
From the homestead dairy, one ingredient at a time.
Before refrigeration, fresh milk spoiled within days. Colonists converted it to cheese — portable, protein-dense, and shelf-stable — as a matter of survival. Living historian Rebecca Serdiuk demonstrates this method in the special using milk from a dairy goat named Luna. It requires nothing more than heat, acid, and a cloth.
Heat one quart of fresh goat milk in a heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Watch for a thin skin to form across the surface. This appears around 165 to 175 degrees and signals the proteins are ready to separate. Remove from heat and add two to three tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar. Stir once and let stand for five minutes. The curds will visibly separate from the whey. Pour through a cheesecloth-lined colander, gather the corners of the cloth, and hang to drain for 45 minutes to an hour. Season the finished cheese with salt and fresh herbs — sage and honey were used in the special. Reserve the whey for bread baking, meat marinades, or fermenting vegetables.
Nothing went to waste on the 18th-century homestead, and nothing needs to here, either.
Small Game Pie
Any dark meat will do.
Squirrel was one of the most common proteins on the colonial table. It was both a food source and a way to protect crops from animals that would otherwise destroy them. Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield both named squirrel stew as their favorite dish. The pie prepared in the America 250th special uses squirrel, but the method works with any dark, bone-in small game: rabbit, pheasant, or squirrel all produce the same result. Brown bone-in small game pieces in lard or butter over high heat and transfer to a heavy pot. Cover with water or stock, add salt, pepper, fresh thyme, rosemary, and a generous pinch of nutmeg. (Nutmeg was a defining flavor of 18th-century colonial cooking.) Braise covered over low heat for 90 minutes. Remove the meat and pick it from the bone. Return the meat to the pot along with diced onion, carrots, celery, yellow squash, and turnips. Let the vegetables cook down until soft and the broth thickens.
For the pie crust, combine two cups of flour with two-thirds cup of cold lard or butter and a pinch of salt, working the fat in with your fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add cold water a tablespoon at a time until the dough just comes together. Roll out and line a cast iron skillet or deep baking dish, fill with the stew, top with a second layer of dough, and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes until golden. The cob oven, as featured in the special, is optional.
Storing Stock
The colonial method for keeping broth before refrigeration.
Colonists wasted nothing, including bones. Stock made from meat bones formed the base of soups, stews, and braises, and it was stored in a crock with a layer of rendered fat poured over the surface. The fat hardened as it cooled, sealing the stock from air and extending its life by several days without refrigeration. To replicate this, simmer bones in water for two to three hours with aromatics, strain the liquid into a ceramic crock or heavy jar, and pour a thin layer of melted lard or tallow over the top before storing in a cool place or the refrigerator. Skim the fat before using. The stock beneath will keep for up to a week.
Hercules Posey’s Pepper Pot Stew
The soup that won the war.
Hercules Posey was enslaved at Mount Vernon and in Philadelphia, and he was also the most celebrated chef in revolutionary America. The pepper pot stew attributed to him draws on Afro-Caribbean culinary tradition: salt pork, sweet potatoes, collard greens, Scotch bonnet peppers, and kitchen pepper, an ancient spice blend that historian Dontavius Williams describes as the ancestor of what we now call curry. Popular legend holds that this soup sustained Washington’s soldiers through the winter at Valley Forge. Free Black women known as the pepper pot women sold it on the streets of Philadelphia, using it to sustain their own freedom. Every ingredient tells part of the story.
Check out the full recipe here.
Washington’s Rye Whiskey
Distilled at Mount Vernon since 1797.
George Washington’s distillery at Mount Vernon was producing 11,000 gallons of rye whiskey annually by the late 1790s, making it one of the largest distilling operations in the young nation. The recipe was a rye-forward mash: roughly 60 percent rye, 35 percent corn, and a small percentage of malted barley to convert the grain starches into fermentable sugar. It was sold locally in Alexandria and distributed to Washington’s workers as part of their rations. The whiskey produced today at Mount Vernon follows this same formula.
For the home cook, the closest modern equivalent is an unaged rye whiskey — clear, grain-forward, peppery, and sharper than the barrel-aged spirits to which most people are probably accustomed. To taste what independence actually tasted like, find an unaged or white rye whiskey and serve it neat. Then try a barrel-aged rye alongside it. The difference between raw independence and the patience required to refine it is right there in the glass.
Watch America the Bountiful’s 250th anniversary special when it premieres July 3 on CreateTV. For more information, visit americathebountifulshow.com.