An enormous amount of work was involved in feeding the Victorian family, which usually had a large number of children. Well off families would employ at least one servant. In poorer families the children would help. All the cutting, chopping, mincing, grating, beating and mixing of food had to be done by hand. By Victorian times a wide range of hand operated implements had been made especially for use in the kitchen. Remember there was no electricity, no refrigerators or frozen foods. Tinned foods did not appear until the end of the 19th century and were expensive. Food was sold "loose" and stored at home in tins and jars. Until the first kitchen range was designed by Thomas Robinson in 1780, cooking was done over an open wood fire, which covered the pots and kettles with soot. An open fire could be kept going for weeks at a time by putting on huge logs last thing at night. The fire in the kitchen range went out each night so every morning it had to be cleaned, black-leaded, polished and re-lit before there was any heat in the kitchen. |
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