PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Tani Mauriello pulls and tugs at the dough in front of her on a wood table, folds it like a comforter that just kept her warm on a crisp night and places it gently in a bowl waiting for the slow, steady rise.
This weekend, for the first time, visitors to Plimoth Plantation will get a real taste of 17th-century living as Plimoth Bread Company opens its doors for the first time during what’s being billed as the #i(Craft) History celebration.
The bakery was added during the renovation of the Plantation’s Craft Center inside the former Hornblower Carriage House. It’s the place where visitors could always see demonstrations of wood carving, pottery spinning, textile weaving, and now they’ll be able watch Mauriello, an Oxford University-educated historical baker, make the breads and sweets of Pilgrims and Wampanoag.
And, oh, yes, there will be samples.
Plimoth Plantation has always demonstrated cooking in its 1627 village, but as much as visitors begged the Pilgrim interpreters to share, the practice is not allowed in the village because of public health concerns, Sarah Macdonald, a spokesman for the Plantation, said. (Apparently, health inspectors frown on food cooked over dirt floors by Pilgrim interpreters not wearing latex gloves.)
“It’s always been a source of frustration for our visitors,” Macdonald said.
Frustration, no more.
Mauriello has planned a menu of Pilgrim staples and is using fruits and vegetables harvested from the village gardens, corn meal ground at the Pilgrim Grist Mill - a Plantation-related attraction - and brewer’s yeast from Mayflower Brewing Co., a Plymouth manufacturer of Mayflower IPA.
The menu includes Plimoth Thirded Bread - an artisan bread - Cheate Bread, which comes from a 400-year-old recipe, and Brewer’s Bread, which will vary seasonally based on what’s being brewed by Mayflower Brewing, Mauriello said. There will also be a variety of other breads and a collection of pies and tarts available.
Wampanoag Ash Cakes, which are described as pockets of corn cake filled with pumpkin or strawberries wrapped in corn husks, are also on the menu.
Some of the recipes have taken time and interpretation to perfect, said Mauriello, 34, who has been preparing for her new duties at Plimoth Plantation for three months. “Recipes make reference to ’some flour’ and ’some water,’” she said. Others call for “baking with a gentle heat.” ’’Your guess is as good as mine what that means,” she said with a laugh.
You’ll see Mauriello and other bakery employees demonstrating the methods used for baking - and none of those fancy KitchenAid mixers to help speed the process, which can take up to 48 hours for the dough to rise. “Everything is mixed by hand,” she said. “Nothing is mechanized.”
The one tool she does have that Pilgrims didn’t is an impressive wood-fired oven. The clay oven was built by a company in Maine. It is surrounded by a facade made from bricks recycled from walls taken down in the carriage house to make room for the addition.
There will be samples at the ready inside the Craft Center, as well as bagged loaves of bread and boxed pies inside the nearby gift shop for sale. The Plantation also will sell the bread inside its Visitors Center so that admission is not required to buy bread from Pilgrim Bread Co., Macdonald said.
Festivities were scheduled to kick off last Thursday, but things really get cooking Saturday and Sunday. To celebrate the grand reopening of the Craft Center, Plimoth Plantation is opening its doors on both weekend days to Plymouth residents for free and is cutting its prices in half for Massachusetts residents, Macdonald said.
Outside, crafters, musicians and lecturers will be at the Plantation for those two days and there will be specialty exhibits tied to the #i(Craft) History event at both the Mayflower II and Plimoth Grist Mill.
Back at the Plantation, crafters are now located in two spots - inside the refurbished Craft Center, which has an additional 1,200 square feet of space - as well as in a remodeled portion of the Visitors Center.
Pilgrim Bread is sure to be a draw inside the Craft Center as visitors who have long been able to get a glimpse into 17th-century living can now sink their teeth into it.
Eventually, Mauriello hopes to have a recipe book that visitors can bring home to bake their own versions of the old recipes. For now, she’s just happy to be sharing her craft and some knowledge about the origin of the bread she bakes.
“I just don’t want this history to be lost,” she said.
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