7 Things Kitchen Witches Can Learn from Hilda Spellman
Sabrina's aunt takes kitchen witchery to the next level.
Hello, wonderful witches!
Today is National Chili Day! The other day I made a beautiful batch of vegan chili in my slow cooker, stuffed full of bright veggies and my new obsession, Impossible “meat.” And because I don’t know how to cook an amount small enough for just the two people in my house, I was able to stash four extra containers in my freezer for later. Chili is the perfect dish (I think) for kitchen witches to make in the dead of winter. The ingredients all bring a spiciness to perk us up (especially that chili powder!) after dreary weather, and the beans (yes, I include beans) have a grounding effect to get us mentally ready for the rest of the slog toward spring. Plus, it’s so cozy to cuddle up under a blanket with a bowl of chili. Sidenote, I’m pescatarian but hesitant to make a fish chili. If you’ve tried one, let me know how you liked it!
Keeping with the theme of words that start with “chil,” today one of my favorite witchy writers is here to tackle one of my favorite witchy shows: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Aunt Hilda is the ultimate kitchen witch—and she can teach us so much. **ALERT** Mild spoilers ahead! All the episodes are available to stream if you want to catch up before reading.
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7 Things Kitchen Witches Can Learn from Hilda Spellman
By Peg Aloi
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina manages somehow to be both deliciously dark and whimsically silly, with depictions of witchcraft ranging from bloodthirsty to empowering. But since it’s a comedy at heart, the witches tend to be good people under the veneer of spells and magics. One of the show’s most delightful characters is Hilda Spellman, played by Lucy Davis (The Office UK). With her colorful, eclectic outfits, her obsession with goofy horror TV shows like The Munsters, and her caring, maternal manner, she is the earthy matriarch of the family.
But Hilda is also uniquely her own woman, with a complex personality: sensual, naughty, smart, practical, compassionate, and sometimes impulsive. She is also one hell of a kitchen witch. For Hilda, food is a way to conjure desired outcomes: love, happiness, truth, togetherness, and sometimes more nefarious purposes.
Here, we present some excellent lessons in kitchen witchery from this icon of hearth, home, and hygge.
Make breakfast every day.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but for Hilda it’s more like a religious devotion. An average day at the Spellman house finds Hilda whipping up a feast featuring plenty of eggs, bacon, pastries, and fresh fruit. Season 3 shows Hilda whipping up full English-style breakfasts for the displaced students from the witchcraft academy. Breakfast is a key component of Hilda’s kitchen witchery.
Dress deliciously.
Hilda’s fashion sense is eclectic, romantic, colorful, and fun. She favors bright colors, plenty of embroidery, and lots of patterns and textures. Even in the kitchen she always shows a sense of her unique style. Her wedding gown was a drapey silk ivory gown covered in colorful flowers, but her “dream” wedding costume was inspired by her love of horror movies. It transformed her into the Bride of Frankenstein, dressed all in black next to her handsome Dracula groom.
Know your potions.
Hilda’s way with a recipe extends beyond cakes and muffins. She’s also skilled with herbal concoctions and magical potions. She mixed up the celestial oils used for anointing the coven during the Hare Moon ritual, so they could absorb the power of moonlight.
Don’t play nice all the time.
All kitchen witches know that nature seeks to achieve balance. Hilda can be sweet as cherry pie, but she can also be cruel when it’s called for. As a surrogate mother to Sabrina, she has to be stern when her niece is acting too impulsive or willful. In addition to Hilda’s useful knowledge of herbs for poisoning, she’s also skilled at making poppets for magic, as we saw when she got revenge on Ariadne for turning her into a spider.
Make yourself indispensable.
It’s an understatement to say that Hilda keeps the household running smoothly. In Season 4, her sister Zelda (Miranda Otto) finds herself unable to even pull breakfast together without Hilda’s kitchen witchery close at hand (she claims she can’t find the coffee even though the pot is right under her nose). In truth, Zelda misses the calm capability radiated by her sister at all times of stress or peace.
Keep the family together.
The Spellmans are anything but a typical family, proving the adage that family is not necessarily where we’re born, but who we choose. Even though the show’s pilot episode shows Zelda killing Hilda, who is then immediately resurrected (in a sort of foreshadowing of her later, far more dangerous resurrection), it’s clear that the two sisters, despite driving each other crazy at times, are inseparable. Even after Hilda’s marriage to Dr. Cee, she moves back in to prevent Zelda from being lonely after two disastrous relationships. Hilda is also a mother figure for Ambrose, whose experience in matters of the heart is more of a mystery to him than the magical lore he studies in books.
When in doubt, bake a cake.
Hilda creates gorgeous cakes for nearly every occasion: ordinary cakes for birthdays, of course, but also magical cakes. The multi-layered grey and gold cake she makes in Season 2 is an homage to the leaning blue layer cake in Sleeping Beauty. There was the honey “truth” cake fed to officials of the Church of Night to gather important information. Then there was the huge Moon Pie baked for the Hare Moon ritual. The nice thing about the longevity of the Spellmans is that there’s now the possibility Hilda will keep baking cakes for at least another century.
Peg Aloi is a film and TV critic who's been writing about witchcraft in popular culture for many years (a book is on the way!). She's also a poet, traditional singer, baker, gardener, animal lover, and unrepentant hedgewitch who relishes any chance to get closer to nature. Her blog The Witching Hour has been around under various guises for more than a decade. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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Coming Up Next Week…
Next week’s issue is an important one. We’re going to dive deep into the colonialism and white supremacy inherent in today’s favorite ancient magical beverages: beer and mead.
See you then!