November 25, 2012
Helen Belcher
Historical
Interpreter
As we recover from our Thanksgiving holiday meal and get
ready for our Christmas feasts, we at the Museum have taken time to do a little
research on what Margaret Houston would have had on her table. Margaret Houston had the reputation as being
a gracious and easy hostess. Much of the
credit for her fame as a hostess goes to the indispensable Eliza Revel, a slave
who came to Texas with Margaret in 1840. Eliza, who, as a child of four, was
sold into slavery to Temple Lea, Margaret’s father.
According to William Seale’s book, Sam Houston’s Wife, “Eliza operated the kitchen and cooked the
cakes that brought compliments to Margaret.
Houston’s friends never hesitated to stop by for a meal, according to
the custom of a day when there were insufficient means of preserving food and
quantities of it had to be cooked and eaten or thrown to the hogs….At mealtime,
Houston and his guests walked to the house, where in the summertime they were
served at the cherry banquet table Margaret placed in the loggia. She set her
table with monogrammed silver and surrounded it with homely mule-ear chairs
whose cowhide seats, the general liked to note, retained their animal hair.”
The kitchen was the most important place on the Woodland
Home farm with Eliza directing kitchen duties.
The Houston household, including the servants, comprised nineteen
people, but at times there were as many as twenty-two people to be served at a
mealtime. At times traveling ministers,
political friends, and people with letters of introduction from all parts of
the United States sat down for a meal with the Houston’s.
When there wasn’t enough silver and cutlery, Nancy Lea,
mother of Margaret and a frequent guest, supplemented what was lacking. Blue and white china tureens and platters,
purchases from the Gibb’s store, were placed on tablecloths Margaret had
brought from Alabama. There was said to
have been a monogrammed punch bowl, which was a gift sent by the Sultan of
Morocco to the President of the Republic of Texas.
Most all of the food prepared was raised or grown on the
farm. Pork, chicken, corn bread, and
potatoes were staples of their diet. On occasion a beef was strung on saplings
to be cured for cooking. Other vegetables were added to the Houston
garden. In Margaret’s letter dated
December 23, 1853 to Houston, she requested seeds for the following: long
scarlet radish seed; cabbages( three varieties, the early York, drum head and
flat Dutch cabbage); the beet; salsify (a parsnip type root); lettuce;
artichoke; squash; long green cucumber; and eggplant. The herbs from the
kitchen garden were used to enhance the food, with rosemary being a favorite of
Margaret’s.
Holiday entertaining for the Houston’s would probably have
happened in mid-December before Houston left for Washington, D.C. According to letters from The Personal Correspondence of Sam Houston edited by Madge Thornall
Roberts, Senator Houston would be traveling in order to be at the opening of
the Senate session the first of January.
Margaret, the children, extended family, and friends would celebrate
Christmas dinner in a quieter fashion than when General Houston was in
residence.
On the Sam Houston Memorial Museum’s website we have a
variety of recipes from the Houston Family.
Check out the listing under “Fun Stuff – Aunt Eliza’s Recipes”. Sections include Margaret’s White Cake Recipe
from the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center in Liberty, Texas. Another favorite of the Museum’s staff is the Tea
Cakes; a very simple but tasty cookie. The recipe is as follows:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 ½ cups flour
pinch salt
2 tsp. baking powder
vanilla or lemon extract to taste
1 egg
Cream butter and sugar and then
add the well beaten egg. Fold the flour into this mixture with the addition of
a few tablespoons of milk or buttermilk and the vanilla. Add extra flour as
needed, in order to roll out the dough. Roll out to approximately ¼ to ½ inches
thick and cut out cakes with a small cookie cutter. These little cakes will
spread in the oven, so avoid making them too large. Bake at 350° until lightly
brown.
Please join us on the grounds of the Woodland Home on
Saturday, December 1st for Houston Family Christmas to start the
holiday season with period goodies from Eliza’s kitchen as the Houston family would
have done while living here over a 150 years ago. The historic Woodland Home will be open to
the public and historical demonstrations will be taking place around the
grounds. Santa Claus will also be in
attendance. For more information on this
free event contact the Museum at (936)-294-1832 or visit our website.
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