35 colonial recipes

Philadelphia pepper pot soup with ham, leeks, onions, celery, tomatoes, rice, and bouillon, seasoned with pepper and simmered until the vegetables are tender. A quick, hearty American colonial-era soup.

Beer pancakes with molasses served with a homemade brown sugar and beer Pilgrim syrup. A hearty, colonial-inspired breakfast with malty depth and caramel sweetness.

Mole Castellano: a Spanish-style Mexican mole with four nuts, ancho chiles, and sesame seeds, simmered with turkey. A classic colonial-era mole without chocolate.

Cocada imperial: a silky Brazilian coconut custard pudding made with fresh coconut, homemade reduced milk, and egg yolks. A beloved tropical dessert from Portuguese colonial kitchens.

Chowning's Tavern wine cooler with lemonade poured over crushed ice and topped with dry red wine, garnished with fresh mint and a cherry. A two-layer Colonial Williamsburg classic.

The original baked whole pumpkin pie, custard filling baked right inside a hollowed pumpkin. A heritage colonial technique that turns the shell into both vessel and dessert.

Indian pot roast braises beef in rum or red wine with allspice, peppercorns, bay leaf, garlic, and horseradish, finished with carrots and steamed dumplings. A West Indies-influenced colonial-era recipe.

Jumbles are a colonial-era ring-shaped cookie scented with rosewater, caraway, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Crisp, buttery, and dusted with sugar. A historical American recipe from the 1700s.

Election cake is a yeast-raised colonial American cake with brandy-soaked currants, mace, cinnamon, and lemon. A slow-rising, historically rich sweet bread traced to 1700s New England.

Philadelphia pepper pot is the legendary Revolutionary War-era soup of tripe, calves feet, red pepper, herbs, and potatoes. A heritage colonial stew that fed Washington's army at Valley Forge.

Great cake is an old-fashioned colonial American pound cake loaded with currants, candied citron, and rosewater. A Martha Washington-era recipe that's dense, buttery, and built for special occasions.

British-Indian style beef curry with cubed beef, apples, raisins, and chutney in a curry-spiced gravy, then oven-braised two hours until fork-tender. Classic colonial-era comfort food.

Baked Indian pudding with molasses is the colonial New England dessert at its purest: scalded milk, cornmeal, dark molasses, and warm spices baked low for 2 hours into a quivering, deeply spiced custard. Serve with cream.

Haymaker's switchel with molasses, brown sugar, ginger, and vinegar stirred into cold water. This colonial-era farmhouse thirst quencher predates modern sports drinks and tastes like a complex, grown-up lemonade.

Cream of peanut soup from Colonial Williamsburg's Kings Arms Tavern: a velvety blend of peanut butter, chicken broth, sauteed celery and onion, finished with cream and chopped peanuts. Southern tavern classic.

Old-fashioned blackberry shrub, a sweet-tart fruit syrup mixed with lemon juice. Serve over ice, top with club soda, or float a scoop of sherbet for a colonial-era refreshing drink.