Did you Know that during the reign of Henry VIII regulations were passed for the household requiring that Master Cooks not employ scullions who go about naked, or lie all night on the ground in front of the fire. Also, there was to be no romping with the maids on the staircase lest some dishes may be broken.
from, "Things Not Generally Known, Familiarly Explained," by John Timbs, Kent and Co., London. 1859.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines kitchenas "that room or part of the house in which food is cooked; a place fitted with the apparatus for cooking."
By the sixteenth century, when the great prodigy houses were being built, classical influence from the continent had filtered into England. It was at this time that kitchens were incorporated into the main house. Tudor kitchens varied in size and complexity according to the wealth of the people who built them. The royalty and nobility had huge spaces in their castles and manors in order to feed a multitude of people.At
Whitehall Palace, a staff of 160 could be expected to feed as many as
1500 people every day, while a manor house might feed 20 to 30 people.
The status of the lord of the manor was determined by the size of his fireplace, its location, and the number of utensils hanging there. The fireplace was usually recessed into the walls, usually six feet wide and three feet deep, and contained within a broad arched stone surround .Ancillary rooms, such as a pantry, larder, dairy, and scullery, among other specific purpose rooms were also added to palaces and the larger manor houses. At the extreme other end of the social spectrum, houses would have no discernible kitchen at all, simply a fire built in the middle of the main room or a hearth, and the number of utensils would be smaller. In between the palaces and poor abodes, the kitchens of manor houses and yeoman farmers would have been similar to the Winkhurst kitchen at the Weald and Downland Museum in Sussex.
Rowley, Anthony. The Book of Kitchenstrans by Deke Dunsinberre. Paris: Flammarion. 2000
A taste of History 10,000 years of food in Britain, Peter Brears, Maggie Black, Gill Corbishley, Jane Renfrew and Jennifer Stead. Illustrated with line drawings by Peter Brears. Published by English Heritage in association with the British Museum, 1993
Want to visit some really great Tudor Kitchens? Try these websites:
