Posted by Ed Kiser on December 04, 2006 at 21:53:40 from 152.163.101.7 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: cooking in Mrs. Dixon's kitchen posted by PeterH on December 04, 2006 at 20:28:51:
My concept of cooking facilities is definitely flavored with my memory of the kitchen stove my mother used back in the 30's. There was a firebox at one end, where the stove-wood was burned. Next to that firebox was an oven. The frying pan went on top of the stove, directly over the firebox. The top of the firebox was a pair of circular sections that could be hooked and lifted up to get to the interior of the firebox to drop another chunk of wood down into the fire, then this circular plate would be replaced over the fire. It was on this circular plate was placed the frying pan.
There was no Gas, No electricity. Light by kerosene lantern. Water came from a well by working the lever of a hand pump into a tub to hold the water. The drain? Carry the tub to the back door and toss the water out into the yard. And there were those times I would then be sent out into that yard to recover a spoon that had accidentally been left in the dishwater in that tub, and had gotten tossed out with the water by accident.
This was a lonely farmhouse, too far from the existing powerlines to have electricity. Eventually, those lines did get extended to such remote houses, but by then, we were no longer living out there on that farm.
Bathing was done right there in the kitchen, near that stove as it was the warmest place in the house. Seems like the whole family took turns in bathing in that washtub on the floor. Hot water came from a kettle, heated on top of the firebox, then poured into the washtub. And after that last bath, out the back door onto the yard went the gray bath water.
Now, whether to call the device in the kitchen a STOVE or RANGE, not sure I understand the difference. It is where the fire was, and Mom cooked ON its top, and baked in the side chamber. Even in the hottest time of the Summer, there was still a fire in that stove/range for the cooking. No air conditioning of course, just prop the back door open, and raise the window over the tub by the pump, and let the breeze do its thing.
In the front room was a large fireplace, but not for cooking, only for heat. That fireplace, and the kitchen stove, was all there was to get through the cold of the Winter.
So whatever Mrs. Dixon had in her kitchen, I just do not understand why that frying pan was not ON top of it to do the cooking.
Ed Kiser, Kentucky