Victorian Kitchens

The kitchens used in the 1800s can look quite different from today’s kitchens. The following will give you an idea of what was needed in a functioning kitchen of the 1800s.

Instead of countertops with cabinets, any type of furniture piece might be used, such as dressers, china cabinets, or small tables. Plus there were no ice boxes or refrigerators, but instead a root cellar or other type of cold storage area where much of the food was kept to preserve it.

In a kitchen would be corner cabinets and pie safes for dry storage. But some food was also protected using a cloth cover or wooden cover.

Food was prepared on a table in the center of the room close to the fireplace. This cooking place would have a roasting rack, a spit and heavy cast iron cookware that hung over the fire and baking was with hot coast surrounding what was baked. During the late 1800s did cookstoves come into use. Some used coal or wood or gas to create the heat to cook with.

For water unless they had a hand pump in the kitchen, piles of water from an outside well or even a stream would be the water source.

Cooking gadgets in the 1800s included items to pit or chop and peel the food but all used by hand.

In the kitchens, was where family members might be treated for any cuts or burns. Also work on clothes, such as dyeing and mending would be done in the kitchen. Candles were also made in the kitchen.

Truly the kitchen was the heart of the home, no matter what size the house was.

Photo: 1880s Kitchen

Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:

What Our Recent Ancestors Had

Personal Hygiene of the 1800s

Victorian Homes