Life in the Victorian Kitchen by Karen Foy

Author:Karen Foy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS015000; HBTB; HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain
ISBN: 9781473841161
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2014-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

The Scullery

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The Victorian attitude to hygiene is thought to have been ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’, and certainly servants used whatever facilities available to keep their surroundings spotless at all times. They worked hard to reduce the smell of bad odours, keep vermin, beetles and bugs away, and, in turn, deter the spread of disease. Coal fires and kitchen ranges created steam and dirt and required intensive labour to keep them clean.

Maids cared for the fires and lighting within the house. The kitchen range was completely cleaned out every day, with damp tea leaves often scattered over the fuel to reduce the amount of dust when raking out the ashes and cinders. The cinders were sieved from the ashes, to be reused later in the kitchen. The oven was swept out, grease was removed and the cast-iron parts of the range were black leaded and polished ready for the cook’s inspection.

Large houses used the kitchen solely for cooking and had a room set aside for washing-up, known as the scullery. It was lined with plate racks and dominated by a wooden or stone sink, where the washing of crockery and scrubbing of pots and pans took place. In the late 1880s, young Emily Harris worked as a kitchen maid at Warwickshire’s Weddington Castle. A dinner party for 18 people could generate up to 500 separate items of china, glassware, kitchenware and cutlery, which all needed to be cleaned, and one of Emily’s jobs would be to ensure that every piece was washed, dried and spotless, and ready for the cook the next time she required them.

In most sculleries, a large table provided the perfect work surface where vegetables could be peeled and chopped, and fish and game plucked, gutted and prepared. Steam from boiling coppers filled the air, providing water for both cooking and cleaning purposes but requiring constant mopping and tidying to keep the area safe to work in.

A mixture of soda and soft soap was used for washing up, which made a creamy cleaner able to remove grease, whilst polishing compounds were used to scour brass and tin utensils, and pots. Manufacturers soon began to see the benefits of creating household products that made the job that little bit easier. Blacking and black lead were available to polish cast-iron kitchen ranges; knife powder sold in packets helped to give cutlery that extra gleam; beeswax, purchased per pound, gave new life to wooden objects; and a whole range of soaps, pastes and polishing powders removed tarnish and deterred corrosion.

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