Before the days of electricity, all cooking was done on one of the main heat sources in the home, the kitchen wood stove. Regardless of the temperature outside, the woman of the house was responsible for making three square meals a day for her family. This meant that even during the summer months a fire was on all day, in order to ensure that there was a hot meal on the table at supper time.

The women of the nineteenth century were limited in resources and would mostly use what they could raise, with the exception of sugar, salt, and other condiments. Women were responsible for planting and taking care of the family garden, as well as raising chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows for meat to last throughout the winter. The men of the family would go out to hunt during the winter months to supply another source of meat for the family. All of the food that the family had would be kept in the cellar in an attempt to preserve it.

At Sherbrooke Village, cooking and baking are done every day in the kitchen of the Jail, on a wood stove that is over 150 years old. On any given day visitors can sample cookies or bread fresh from the oven and watch as the guides cook such things as baked beans or fish cakes.

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