r necessary functions.

In the summer months, much of the cooking was done out-of-doors in huge
pots slung from a tripod. The food for the servants went into a single
pot, and their fare in "pap" was eaten in the open also, when the
weather permitted. In the winter and during the cooler months, cooking
was done on the hearth of an ample fireplace which customarily took up
the greater part of the end of a room. If the family was of modest
means, the kitchen area was the heart of the house. Here, in winter, was
warmth, food and companionship. As the planter acquired numerous
servants and preparation of food became an all-day matter, every day,
the kitchen with its companion room, the buttery, was divorced from the
house. Under this arrangement, the mistress of the household merely
directed the preparation of food, the care of the dairy products, the
salting of the meat, and the rendering of the lard.

Before the fire on the great hearth, meat on joints and fowl were
trussed on spits, and to some small boy fell the task of keeping the
spit turning. A drip-pan placed beneath caught the juices. Bakestones,
griddles and clay ovens were at hand to stand on the hot embers, and
later, ovens were built into the fireplaces. From cranes, simple at
first and later with convenient arrangements for tipping, hung the pots
for boiling. Bellows were at hand to enliven dying embers. On a rough
table stood the brass mortar and iron pestle for mixing, the flesh-hook
for handling meats, brass skimmer, rolling-pin, and other handy cooking
utensils. Besides, in an adjoining space, there were pans, butter-pots,
tubs and trays for the milk and milk products.

[Illustration: Courtesy of the artist, Sydney R. Jones from _Old English
Household Life_ by Jekyll and Jones, published by B. T. Batsford, Ltd.,
London.

Photo by Thomas L. Williams

Seventeenth-Century Kitchen and Cooking Utensils]

Water, which had to be drawn by hand from wells, except for an
occasional windmill, was not a plentiful commodity. Therefore, the
washing of clothes was not the semi-weekly operation carried on today
with labor-saving devices. For the most part, it was carried on
out-of-doors in clear weather, either at a nearby stream, or in the huge
pots or tubs possessed by every family. Soap was brought into the
Colony, and also was compounded from the animal fats available and the
soap-ashes, which were plentiful. After soaking, the clothes were laid
on boards and t