Simple Tea Muffins (Provided photo — Yvona Fast)

It’s July. On Thursday we will celebrate Independence Day. Did you ever wonder what the colonists ate in the 1770s?

Common garden vegetables of the time included potatoes, carrots, cabbage, beans, peas, turnips, tomatoes, leeks and onions. Common dishes included potato soup, bean soup, beef stew, molasses graham bread and chicken fritters.

A popular dessert was a fruit trifle — a traditional English dish consisting of sponge cake doused with sherry and topped with mashed or whole fruit, custard, and whipped cream. It is easy to make for a crowd. Other common desserts were fruit pies and crisps, puddings and custards. The famous Martha Washington Pie is a cake made with flour, baking powder, sugar, butter, milk and egg, and baked in a round pan. It is often spread with jelly.

George and Martha Washington hosted many parties for thousands of guests. The table at their Mount Vernon estate brimmed with many culinary treats — though it was her slaves and servants who did the actual cooking. But like many of us, Martha wrote down her favorite recipes.

Three years before her death, Martha (1739-1802) gave her 50-year collection of favorite recipes as a wedding gift to her granddaughter, Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis. The collection stayed in the family until 1892 when it was given to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, where you can still find it. In 1940, historian Marie Kimball used this recipe collection to create “The Martha Washington Cook Book.”

There were also recipes recorded at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate. Only 10 are in the President’s own handwriting; the rest were recorded by his wife, daughter and granddaughter. Marie Kimball also created a collection of these recipes.

Most of the recipes are simple, with fewer than eight ingredients and requiring only a knife for chopping and a bowl and spoon to mix ingredients.

In both books, she modernized the recipes a little so modern cooks can use ovens and stoves instead of open fires and iron kettles. In the 1700s, herbs were measured in “springs and blades,” not teaspoons. Often, the amounts of ingredients (like the proportion of fruit to sugar in a jam recipe) were not specified. Ingredients used were different; for example, lard was common, while olive oil was not. Pancakes were often made with ale rather than milk.

Other cookbooks from this period include “American Cookery” by Amelia Simmons, one of the earliest American cookbooks. It was first published just 20 years after the Revolution, in 1796. “The Virginia Housewife” by Mary Randolph, published in 1824, is also an important work for learning about recipes and cookery from this era. The main food historian for the time is Hanna Glasse (1708-1770), with “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.” Recent titles about cooking in this era include “A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America” by James E. McWilliams.

Here are a couple true-to-the-time recipes.

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Fresh Veggies Side Dish, Dutch style

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This recipe is based on an adaptation by culinary historian Nancy Carter Crump for her book “Dining with the Washingtons.”

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh veggies (young green beans, peas, or carrots)

3 medium shallots, peeled and finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/3 cup minced fresh parsley, divided

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:

Prepare the veggies. Shell the peas, trim the green beans, wash and slice carrots. Place vegetables in a pot with a little water; bring to a boil.

Add shallots and 3 or 4 Tablespoons of parsley, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook until crisp tender, about five minutes for young beans, longer for carrots.

Drain any remaining liquid. Add the butter and stir until melted.

Remove to a serving dish and garnish with remaining parsley.

Serves 6 to 8.

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Simple Tea Muffins

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Based on a recipe from mountvernon.org.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

1 “salt spoon” salt

1 tablespoon lard or butter, room temperature

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon maple syrup

1 large egg, separated

1/3 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Cream butter and sugar. Beat the egg yolk; add maple syrup and milk. Add to butter and sugar mixture and beat well. Stir in dry ingredients very briefly. Beat egg white until stiff, and stir in. Fill greased muffin tins two-thirds full. Place in preheated oven. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden. Makes 6 muffins.

Option: Stir in 1/4 to 1/2 cup berries or raisins.

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Author of the award-winning cookbook “Garden Gourmet: Fresh & Fabulous Meals from your Garden, CSA or Farmers’ Market,” Yvona Fast lives in Lake Clear and can be found at www.yvonafast.com.