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A look at the history of the kitchen

Well, after a beautiful weekend, it looks like an iffy week ahead, but there is more chance of sun than rain

Rumsey Record

Well, after a beautiful weekend, it looks like an iffy week ahead, but there is more chance of sun than rain so here is hoping that the weather stays good enough to keep farming. Because everyone continues to be busy in the field, there hasn’t been much for news in the community, so I decided to fill my space with interesting trivia from the kitchen.

If you have ever heard the expression “everything but the kitchen sink”, you may have wondered why. It originated from the logic that the first sinks were heavy cast iron basins used for washing up anything from the dirtiest of pots, clothes and babies. Later with the installation of running water, there may have been a drain put in as well attaching it to a pipe leading out of the house, further complicating the matter if you have to get out in a hurry.

The term “smoke kitchen” or “smoke house” came from the fact that kitchens in the medieval times and earlier were often in separate buildings or sub-basements where open fires were cooked on with only a hole in the roof as ventilation. The “kitchen” was kept separate to keep the smoke from entering the general areas where people would sit and enjoy their meal and visit; the common room or Great Hall. Of course, now, the smokehouse is a little shack out back where you might be inventive enough to smoke wild game or pork.

The first iron stoves invented around 1740 were intended as heating units more so than cooking. The first cooking stove was called the Rumford Stove and came into use around 1800 and was too big for domestic use. It took another 30 some years before the first home model was produced and some 90,000 units were sold over the next 30 years. We are talking about an enclosed fire, proper chimney to remove the smoke and a definite way to control the temperature so your 10 loaves of bread for the week would turn light and fluffy. When you consider that everything you made from the butter to the bread had to be made from scratch; milk the cow, separate the cream, shake until butter is formed; grow the wheat, grind the flour, feed your yeast pot to keep that supply growing; it was not a light thing that you wanted something so reliable as a steady heat source to bake the goods. Oh, and don’t forget, chop the wood for the fire!

The other most essential part of the kitchen was its water source, of course. Up until the 1800s, water was brought into the kitchen with a bucket or should I say, many, many buckets so there was typically a kitchen well close by if a water source could be found. The growth of the cities by the mid-1800s forced the urban planners to begin planning and building water distribution and sewer disposal to deal with the waste water. What people did with it before that, I won’t upset you with, just know that that was the cause of many great (and small) plagues. The most common invention into the farm kitchen was the hand pump or gravity pump which allowed water into the home for a cleaner, more efficient work area. Water wasn’t pumped into the home until electricity became common place so for some rural homes that wasn’t until the 1900’s. My mother-in-law said that electricity didn’t come up to our farm until 1956.

I hope I haven’t bored you with my love of trivia. I will close with a joke that maybe only the old-timers like myself will truly understand as it has to do with the old party-line (community telephone system)

“It was so cold last winter; we had to wait for the phone lines to thaw just to find out what folks had been talking about!”

The city slicker asked, “Can you make a mule laugh if you tickle him?”

The farmer replied, “Maybe, but you’ll get a bigger kick out of it than he will.”

Have a good week, everyone.