OLD KITCHEN UTENSILS WERE MADE OF COPPER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 21, 5 August 1949, Page 3

OLD KITCHEN UTENSILS WERE MADE OF COPPER

Compared with her grandmother the modern Bay of Plenty housewife has many aids which science and industry combined have designed to ease her duties around the home. Many of the previously odious duties have been simplified by modern machinery while the development in cooking utensils and kitchen equipment is seldom considered, although the changes in type and style are nevertheless interesting. Even in some homes today some of the older kitchen utensils are still in use although fast being replaced by their modern equivalent. Many of those old articles have been displayed in a recent exhibition of old kitchen utensils of hand beaten copper in Wellington. Gleaming Pieces There are gleaming pieces of copperware, some whose use is obvious and others which have become obsolete. Each bears the mark of the maker, and from these it is possible to date the period of manufacture. . 1 The ‘grandfather"’ of the kettle bears little resemblance to the present day kettle. One is made in the shape of a tall jug with a bent spout and a substantial handle at right angles to the body of the kettle. This enabled the user to take firm hold of the kettle with both hands before lifting it from the fire.. The majority of the articles, saucepans and frying pans are heavy. Preserving pans of copper eliminated the fear of byrned jams. The stock pot, a utensil of large dimensions, owed its existence to the fact that food cooked in the other heavy containers steamed rather than boiled, and what juices were extracted were put into the stock pot for soups and broths. Jellies in 16th Century

It is interesting to know that the people of the 16th and 17th centuries ate jellies. Copper jelly moulds, in conventional designs, had their place in the kitchen of 200 or 300 years ago.

Miniature moulds, no more than two inches in diameter, were used to set coloured jellies, and were placed as decoration for the family’s mould.

A Queen Anne tray, delicately patterned, and glowing with co-< pery lights, would be the envy of any home-lover. Warming pans, coal scuttles and buckets, beer mullers and hot water cans, all had a place in the kitchen of three centuries ago.