Children made cornbread muffins and homemade butter as if it were the colonial era during a cooking class at C.H. Booth Library on Tuesday, July 14.

The class, titled "Colonial Cooking," was taught by Sheila May along with her grandson, Aaron McConnon. Together, they taught children ages 7-11 how to make common dishes the way colonial families did over 250 years ago.

Before everyone started cooking, May beckoned everyone to sit on the floor for a short history lesson. She said that pilgrims did not know what to expect when coming to America and had to bring food just in case. May asked everyone what food the pilgrims might have brought with them, to which the children guessed ground beef, berries, and biscuits.

"So here from England, they brought livestock, sheep, cattle, chickens, pigs, and horses, and then they brought tons of seeds for peas, wheat, barley, apples, rye, herbs, and oats," May explained.

The animals provided meat, milk, cheese, butter, wool, and even transportation. May said there were also contributions from the indigenous people, such as corn, maple syrup, ginger, beans, parsnips, wild rice, squash, onions, pumpkins, cranberries, and beets.

May said people back then did not have microwaves or ovens, and handed out a few pictures of what a kitchen looked like back in the colonial era.

She continued by saying people in the colonial era ate a lot of corn, cornbread, and cornmeal. This is why she wanted everyone to make cornbread muffins as part of her first Colonial Cooking class.

Then it was time for everyone to get cooking. May had the class of 11 students split into groups of two, with each group making their own batch of cornbread muffins. Everyone got to whisk cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.

Meanwhile, they whisked other ingredients — butter, oil, brown sugar, and honey — together in another bowl. They then whisked eggs and buttermilk into the wet mixture.

Afterwards, the kids added the dry mixture into the wet one, mixing everything together until it was smooth. For many of the children, it was far from their first time baking, but that did not stop them from laughing about the "oopy goopy" texture of the batter as they poured it into the muffin tin.

While their muffins baked in the meeting room's oven, the children got started on making their butter. May called everyone to sit on the floor and watch as she poured heavy cream into a jar, filling it halfway. She then added a few marbles into the jar, a technique people used during the colonial era to agitate the heavy cream and speed up the churning process.

After May screwed the lid on tightly, she had everyone take turns shaking the jar. It went around the circle several times, with each person trying their best to shake the jar and get butter to put on top of their muffins. Even May and McConnon stepped in to help the kids out.

By the end of their efforts, the ingredients formed into a whipped cream-like mixture; it was not fully churned yet. May, knowing that class only lasted an hour and the kids would have to leave soon, decided to use her backup plan. She pulled out her mixer and had everyone watch as it finished blending the ingredients into butter. May put small scoops of the butter into to-go tins for the kids to take home.

Right as she finished with that, the oven beeped. She and McConnon carefully took the cornbread muffins out of the oven and brought them out into the room, much to the excitement of everyone in the class.

The kids were all smiles as they showed their parents what they baked. May even prepared a separate batch of muffins before class for the parents; this way, they could have a treat to take home, too.

This was not May's first time hosting a cooking class; she held one last summer at the library for preschool-aged children.

"I was a preschool director, and I used to teach a cooking class. I did enrichment classes after school, and I always did cooking with the kids," May explained. "I like to cook, and [McConnon] likes to help me, so it just worked out."

May held another Colonial Cooking class in the library on Tuesday, July 21, in which kids learned how to make ginger molasses cookies and baked apples.

There will be a final Colonial Cooking class on Tuesday, July 28, at 2 pm, when kids will make Johnny Cakes with mac and cheese; the class is currently full, but a waiting list is available.

Registration for the last Colonial Cooking class, along with other events at C.H. Booth Library, is available on the library's event calendar page at chboothlibrary.org/events-calendar.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.