The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

The old home place in Texas had a summer kitchen.

When they lived in a log house, they cooked outside over an open fire if the weather was nice, or inside if that weather was bad.

When they built the "nice" house, after it was finally finished (it was built in stages) they built a one room, separate outbuilding as a summer kitchen, and then had a smaller kitchen inside the house too.

The second house that they built (for son number 2) right after the war (that horrid one before WW1), I don't think they had a summer kitchen.... unless maybe it was in the milk house......

However, even though they did most of their cooking inside they still had an outside setup for big slaughtering days. My father's mom still had the giant iron kettle hanging in the back yard where you could use it to cook up the pig's head.

 

[perchie.girl]

My Aunt Helen had one of those big pots she cooked her dog food in it....

Here is an article on kitchens in Colonial times

http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Summer07/kitchens.cfm

deb

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Thanks for the article. My mom is a hearth cook for a historical society in mid-Virginia. I sewed her costume! She's always complaining about the heat in her kitchen, except in winter.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: No nothing like that it was just storage. There is still stuff in this shed that was there from the person that had this house before my husbands brother bought it. I am still amazed at some of the stuff I see when I go out there. lol

 

[chickadoodles]

My Aunt Helen had one of those big pots she cooked her dog food in it....

Here is an article on kitchens in Colonial times

http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Summer07/kitchens.cfm

deb

Thanks for the article Deb. I knew there had to be in the upper class homes. I had family in VA. and SC. in the 1700's. lol
I want one of those big pots to cook in for when we go out on weekend trips to cook over open fires in.

 

[vehve]

Summer kitchens are pretty popular around here too, or at least they're gaining popularity. Before, people just settled for a grill, but more and more people are expanding on that making food prep possible close to the grill as well. At a very basic level, it's just some sort of grill and some counter space, but some people install electric and water to theirs too. Water can be a bit tricky through the winter though. I would probably put in a sink, and have some sort of foot pump or gravity fed container for water if I were to build something like that. Actually, building an outdoor kitchen on our terrace might not be such a bad idea. I could use it for processing as well. At first I was planning on just putting in some counter space that can be folded together. But I do have an extra sink I could incorporate too. I'll have to look into those foot pumps and see what I could come up with. Or then I could just put a regular faucet in and hook up a garden hose to the thing when needed. I don't think I would need hot water anyway. Hmm... now my mind is racing.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I like to put rhubarb slop on icecream, mmm.

That sounds like a great use for vanilla ice cream.
My dad would cook up rhubarb for breakfast about once a week when I was a kid. A bit of an acquired taste.

I totally understand a new modern out door kitchen for bbq's and family gatherings! Love them!

But my DH and I don't know anyone that had two kitchens in the house. Back in the Antebellum house days they had an out door kitchen and an indoor kitchen. But DH is 60 and his mother and grandmother only had one kitchen and my grandparents only had one kitchen. Maybe some did, I just never heard of them unless they were very rich I guess.

Sometimes the second kitchen was in the slave quarters.

A friend of mine has a small city farm in South St. Louis where the house had been torn down but the slave quarters are still there and he uses that kitchen for preparing food from the farm. One of the rooms of the building is now his chicken coop. Here's one of the hens I sold him standing on the window sill. This is the old building with pics one BYC friend took on one of our coop tours last week.













Quote:

Farmers actually, not rich, didn't take much to live back then, food was the only important thing. Our hundred+ yr old farmhouse only has a small 'galley' kitchen, and according to a old guy that stopped at our house last yr it didn't have a bathroom until 1962 when his parent's bought the place and put it in when he was a kid. He said there was just a outhouse.

Quote:

The old home place in Texas had a summer kitchen.

When they lived in a log house, they cooked outside over an open fire if the weather was nice, or inside if that weather was bad.

When they built the "nice" house, after it was finally finished (it was built in stages) they built a one room, separate outbuilding as a summer kitchen, and then had a smaller kitchen inside the house too.

The second house that they built (for son number 2) right after the war (that horrid one before WW1), I don't think they had a summer kitchen.... unless maybe it was in the milk house......

However, even though they did most of their cooking inside they still had an outside setup for big slaughtering days. My father's mom still had the giant iron kettle hanging in the back yard where you could use it to cook up the pig's head.

Sounds familiar.
The old homestead (about a mile from here) had a summer kitchen with a wood stove and big harvest table. It was primarily used for canning and making sausage.
The original log home was built in the 1830s. Its kitchen was right inside the front door. Originally the house just had 2 fireplaces. Those were closed in and replaced by a wood stove in every room of the house.
The summer kitchen was part of a big separate building adjacent to the house. The dug well was right between the 2 building's doors. Pretty convenient since there was no running water and pulling a bucket of water, you were just steps from either kitchen.
In addition to the summer kitchen, there was a fruit cellar below and below that was an ice cellar. Ice for the summer was cut out of the pond. In fact, my grandfather's pond provided many of the families with ice.
At the other end of the building was a carriage house for wagons and later cars and trucks.
We had a big copper kettle for making apple butter and other large cooking projects. It would hang over an open fire in the yard. I think I still have the stirring paddle.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: Sounds wonderful CC. Here in AL. most of the old Antebellum homes had wells. I don't think any homes here in AL. have cellars the water table is so high. Some built some cellars into the hills and still do for bad storms.

 

[chickadoodles]

CC I had two non-fertile eggs in my incubator from my hen that lost her tom. I had to pull them as they were not fertile.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I was wondering about that.