Food, literature and history will meet at Greenfield Community College’s Senior Symposia program at the John W. Olver Transit Center tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m.
Local culinary historian Elyse Moore will present her talk “Jolly Good Times in the Kitchen.” Moore will discuss local author Mary P. Wells Smith (1840-1930).
Wells Smith was a children’s author. She is perhaps best known for books like “Boy Captive of Old Deerfield.” According to Moore, Wells Smith wrote several books in the “Old Deerfield” series as well as three other series, including one called “Jolly Good Times.”
In addition to being an author and “a foodie,” Moore told me, Wells Smith was a serious feminist. Mary Prudence Wells was born in Attica, New York, but moved to Greenfield when her uncle there died; her family wanted to help the widow.
She attended Miss Draper’s Seminary in Hartford and went to work at the Franklin Savings Institution in Greenfield. “By all accounts, she was the first woman bank clerk in Massachusetts,” said Moore.
The experience at the bank honed Wells Smith’s lifelong advocacy for women, reported Moore. The young woman was asked to share her job with a man who would be paid more than she. “When she requested equal pay for equal work and was refused, she gave her notice,” said Moore.
Mary P. Wells married lawyer Fayette Smith in 1875. Her husband went to work in Cincinnati, and his wife followed.
Writing and cooking anchored her. The couple had one daughter, who unfortunately died young. Wells Smith had begun to write as a teenager, but Moore believes that the author’s writing blossomed when she became a mother.
“I think Ms. Wells Smith wrote these stories to be able to recount the memories of her childhood for her daughter. You can see it in her dedications … These books were her books. They were tales that would be told every day as a way for this only child to relate to her parents’ childhood,” mused Moore.
Mary P. Wells Smith eventually returned to our area, where she continued to write and to explore local history. She founded the Historical Society of Greenfield in 1907 with her friend, State Supreme Court Justice John Aiken.
Perhaps because Wells Smith was close to Deerfield historian George Sheldon, the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library in Historic Deerfield contains a large collection of the author’s fiction. It also houses a number of manuscript cookbooks, including Wells Smith’s personal recipe collection.
“In those times before big supermarkets and before the broad distribution of cookbooks, most women kept their own cookbooks that were sort of in journal form,” explained Moore.
Moore grew up in Shelburne Falls — she now lives in Greenfield — and read Mary P. Wells Smith’s works in her youth. She attended Mount Holyoke College and the New England Culinary Institute. After working for years as a cook, she decided to embrace her love of history by working at Historic Deerfield.
There she demonstrates food preparation in the Open Hearth Cooking Program and writes historical essays. She has adopted the manuscript cookbooks at the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library as a personal project and was happy to find Mary P. Wells Smith’s recipes there.
At Moore’s talk at the Senior Symposium tomorrow, she will talk about the relationship between Wells Smith’s fiction and food. Please note that pre-registration is required; tickets are not available at the door.
To register or learn more, visit https://engage.gcc.mass.edu/workshops/jolly-good-times-in-the-kitchen/ or call Judy Raper at 413-775-1819.
Naturally, I asked Moore for a recipe to share with readers. She selected Mary P. Wells Smith’s doughnut recipe, which she frequently makes at Historic Deerfield. The photos show preparation on the museum’s open hearth, but they may also be made on a modern stove!
“There were many references to doughnuts in [Wells Smith’s] fiction,” explained Moore. “I have made this recipe at the hearth at Deerfield. When people come in … very often there are historical societies who bring in people for special trips.
“They stop in at the hearth kitchen. If I’m making donuts, it really strikes a chord with people my age and older … There’s a thing about memory and sensory experience.”
Aside from the nostalgia factor and the taste, Moore confessed that she loves the doughnut recipe because it contains only ingredients. “It shows that [Wells Smith] was a cook,” Moore said of the lack of directions. “Half the recipes in her book are like that.”
Fortunately, Moore has added instructions for the recipe she supplied here.
/ Courtesy of Elyse Moore
Mary P. Wells Smith’s Doughnuts
Ingredients:
1 quart (4 cups) whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups sweet milk (regular whole milk; you may substitute all or part of this with buttermilk if you like)
1 egg
lard as needed for frying
cinnamon sugar for dusting
Instructions:
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the milk and the egg. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix the dough, and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour. (Waiting a bit longer will yield a better shape and texture.)
On a lightly floured board, roll the dough out to a thickness of 3/4 inch. Use a doughnut cutter to cut out 3-inch doughnut shapes.
Preheat the fat to 355 to 360 degrees in a deep kettle. You’ll want 6 inches of melted lard or a combination of lard and sunflower oil.
Fry the doughnuts for a few minutes on each side. Don’t crowd the pan. Remove the doughnuts with a slotted spoon, and drain them on plain brown paper. Dust with cinnamon sugar.
Makes 2 dozen doughnuts. These are best served warm.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.