More to the Story

How We Cooked:

outdoors open wood fire, rocks

Adobe ovens

Hearth cooking—a large fireplace, wood burning, heated the house as well

Outside fire cooking (BBQ)

1735 Franklin Stove, metal stove that covered the hearth of a large fireplace to heat the room, not intended for cooking designed by Benjamin Franklin
1826 gas stove
1834 the Overland stove
1850 cast iron stove for heating and cooking
1890s the kitchen became a small room
1899 Hoosier, kitchen cabinet (standalone) storage next to stove and sink making kitchen work more pleasurable
1910-1915 for middle class the “cooking room” developed
1920’s the kitchen continued to evolve with linoleum flooring, a kitchen table and chairs in the room
1930s improved flow, heat in the room, more comfortable and attractive (curtains), the gas stove is smaller and makes room for a refrigerator
1931 Irma Rombauer wrote Joy of Cooking and published it privately, In 1936, it was published commercially, has sold over 20 million copies and is still considered the most popular American cookbook.

BBQ The term ‘barbecue’ has its roots in the word “barbacoa,” a method of cooking meat that originated with the Taíno people of the Caribbean. The Spanish were primarily responsible for its spread to other cultures as they encountered this new way of cooking and brought their interpretations to the other regions they colonized.  It evolved over time into various methods ranging from slow-cooking over indirect heat to grilling over a direct flame. contemporary grill emerged in the 1952 with the invention of the kettle grill by George Stephen, a welder at Weber Metal Works in Illinois. His design, a hemispherical shape with a lid, changed public perception of grilling from a basic campfire method to a backyard staple, the “Weber.”

 

How We Preserved:

Smoking—beef, chicken, pork

curing—meat

salting—deer, rabbit, wild fowl

pickling— vegetables, eggs

drying—meat, fish, fruit

Canning—fruit, vegetables

milk yielding butter and cheese

root cellars, ice house, spring house?

Bread, porridge, baked goods from wheat, oats, barley