Tools For The Job - Part 4 (Special "Time Travel" Post)

Myself in the "finishing kitchen" of a stately home

 No machine needed here, allow me to transport you. Let us go back in time a few decades to discover a few tools used in a stately home's kitchen of the past. 
 The year is 1911 and the picture to the left is of myself in what was known as the "occasional kitchen" or the "finishing kitchen". This was because the real kitchen where ninety percent of the work is done (now under a hotel) was on the other side of the house and so the finishing kitchen was where everything was plated up and the final touches were done to each dish before being transported to the dining room. However, the real kitchen is over a hundred yards away and, in order to keep the dishes hot as possible, they were transported by this post's first tool: a bicycle. I know Jamie Oliver has used a skateboard in a kitchen before but a bicycle is definitely a "Tools For The Job" first!

"Meals on wheels!"

A pat of butter!

 The second tool we shall look at is this huge cabinet. Do you notice anything strange about it? It is lined with metal. This was because finished plates could be placed in here and then the cabinet, which was on casters, would be rolled in front of the big, black ranges to keep the contents hot until need. That's your microwave of the 1900's I guess. For a fridge they used the expensive commodity of huge chunks of cut ice brought in by horse and cart from the mountains and buried them with whatever was needed to be kept cool.

The first prototype for a microwave-oven

 Thirdly, copper saucepans. Not necessarily unusual as such but these things get a mention simply because of the number that they are found in. In most every old kitchen you go to, you will see rows and rows of copper saucepans in a vast array of sizes. Copper is excellent for thermal conductivity (even heating) and is brilliant for meringues and other foams but can have the tendency to react with foods of an acidic nature resulting in toxicity so they were eventually lined with tin to stop this. These saucepans are also on the weighty side and can require high upkeep such re-tinning so nowadays they are "cladded".

 Now, knives back then were made to last! These knives
were hundreds of years old and were still in fantastic
condition.

 So, besides, ice-cream and jelly moulds,  butter pats, pots as heavy as a brontosaurus and meat cleavers large enough to carve one, this gave me an idea of what tools might have been used in a period kitchen of the 1900's.

I could shave in one of these!

 If you own or know of any other peculiar kitchen tools from the past then by all means leave some comments below or take some pictures and write in to onedeliciousman@gmail.com. I'd certainly love to hear from you guys.

Take note of the the size of the wooden board on the left...

Seasoned with Peculiarity,

Jacob

"To glorify my Savior, Jesus Christ, the Creator  

of the universe and spread further abroad His glorious gospel." - Yours Truly