Every cook worth her salt appreciates a well-stocked kitchen. The same was true for the 19th-century cook. Of course, budget and location had a lot to do with how many cooking utensils a woman would have access to. Pioneers managed with much less than women in larger cities and still churned out large, wholesome meals for their families and often for their farmer workers or ranch hands while cooking what we would consider primitive conditions.
Here is a list of items a 19th-century cook might have used:
Apple-corer
Baking-pans, four, of tin, and shallow
Baking-pans made of Russian iron, two sizes
Biscuit-cutter
Blacking-brush, for polishing stove
Block, or thick board, on which to break bones, open lobsters, etc.
Boards, two, on which to cut bread and cold meat
Boning-knife
Bowls, four, yellow earthenware various sizes
Bowls, four, white, and smooth-bottomed, holding one quart each
Boxes, of tin or wood, for rice, tapioca, crackers, bailey, soda, cream-of-tartar, etc
Braising-pan, say of granite-ware, round and deep, with cover
Bread-pans, two, holding six-eight quarts respectively
Brown-bread pans, two
Buckets or tin boxes for sugar, graham, Indian, and rye meal
Butcher's knife
Cake-box
Case knives and forks, two each
Chopping knife and tray
Coffee-biggin |
Coffee-pot
Colander
Covers for flour-barrels
Cups, six, holding half a pint each
Dipper with long handle
Dish-cloths
Dish-pan
Double-boiler holding three quarts
Double-broilers, three, — one each for toast, fish, and meat
Dredgers, one each for flour, powdered sugar, salt, and pepper, — the last two to be small
Dustpan and brush
Egg-beater, Dover |
Fish-kettle
Flour-sieve
Fork, large
French cook's knife
Frying-basket
Frying-kettle, Scotch, No. 4 (which is deep)
Frying-pans, French, polished, Nos. 3 and 6
Hand-basin
Larding-needles |
Lemon-squeezer
Meat-rack
Melon-mould
Milk-pans, two
Moulding-board, of hardwood
Muffin-pans, two, of stamped iron
Pail, for cleaning purposes
Pans, four, deep, for loaves of bread or cake
Pots, two, of cast-iron (they come with the stove)
Preserving-kettle, porcelain-lined
Pudding-dish, earthenware |
Pudding-mould, round
Rolling-pin
Roll-pan, French, made of Russian iron, and deep
Scoops, one each for flour and sugar
Scrubbing-brush
Skewers, of steel, one set
Spice-box |
Spoons, four, large, for mixing purposes
Squash-strainer
Steamer that will fit onto one of the cast-iron pots
Stew-pans, four, of stamped tin or granite-ware, holding from one pint to four quarts
Stew-pans, three, porcelain-lined, holding from one to six quarts
Stone pots, — one holding ten quarts, for bread; one holding six quarts, for butter; and one holding three quarts, for pork
Table-spoons, two
Tea-canister
Teapot
Teaspoons, six
Trussing-needle
Vegetable-cutters, two
Vegetable-knives, two
Vegetable-masher
Waffle-iron |
Whip-churn
Wire beater or whisk
Wooden bowl, for chopping purposes
A well stocked kitchen seems to have had just as many items in it as mine does! This was a fun post, Vickie.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post this morning! Wow, that's a well-stocked kitchen if it has all of those things! I love old kitchenware but I don't let myself buy it! I love the design of the coffee pot but if I had to wait more than 5 minutes for my first cup of coffee in the morning I wouldn't be happy so I'm glad I have an electric one!
ReplyDeletethis sounds like a well stocked kitchen. I have less than this in my own kitchen. Mom always taught us girls to only have what we used. LOL Although I have gotten other kitchen items and only used it once, so gave it away. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net
ReplyDeleteThat is a Crazy amount of stuff, but then households were larger then. For two or four, you certainly wouldn't need all that. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Vickie! I love your post and guess what? My mom actually had a wooden spice box almost like the one shown in your post. My brother has it now. It's a beautiful piece of kitchen ware. I just bought Outlaw Heart on Kindle! Have a happy Easter! Take care my dear friend!
ReplyDelete