In the 21st century, kitchens are often the hub of the family’s life. Among the earliest settlers in southwestern Michigan and among the Native American bands that preceded them, the cooking fire was also a place for gathering and socializing, as well as preparing food.
In early log cabins, cooking was done over an open fire in a one-room cabin, perhaps with a sleeping loft. Pots hung over the fire, sometimes in a fireplace with a chimney, sometimes with the smoke escaping through a hole in the roof. Water for washing and cooking came in buckets from a nearby stream or lake. Wood for the fire had to be cut and seasoned constantly.
In 1843, Catherine Beecher published a book on domestic life called “A Treatise on Domestic Economy.” Beecher revised the book with the help of her sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the bestselling anti-slavery novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and republished it in 1869 as “The American Woman’s Home.”
The sisters’ ideas standardized the arrangement of American kitchens. Stoves needed to have a flue pipe to draw smoke out of the kitchen. Pots, pans and utensils were to be stored on open shelves, food was to be stored in a separate part of the kitchen and cooks needed work space, in the form of large tables.
For many middle- and lower-class families, the kitchen remained the social center of the home, with the parlor and sitting room reserved for company and special occasions. In upper-class families, kitchens and the smell of cooking food were separated from the family living space, often relegated to a basement or a room at the rear, separated from the dining room by a pantry or two.
From an open fire to Viking ranges
Stoves evolved over time. Originally, stoves were made of cast iron and set on four legs. Fueled with wood or coal, often they had pots that were set down into the stove. Hot water tanks attached to the side or to the flue pipe heated water from the waste heat.
Piped gas arrived for lighting homes and cooking as early as 1875 in our part of Michigan, though many homes continued to use kerosene and later gasoline well into the 20th century.
The very first electric stove appeared in 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair. While electric stoves were far less likely to cause fires, they did not become popular until the 1930s.
By the 1890s, cabinets with doors began replacing open shelves. A call for better sanitation in kitchens resulted in the use of glazed tiles or linoleum on floors and walls.
Hoosier cabinets appeared in kitchens in the early 20th century. These popular fixtures stood about six feet tall, included a tin bin for flour with a built-in sifter, a sugar bin, spice racks and an enameled work surface. The Hoosiers fell out of fashion in the 1920s, as kitchens were designed with more built-in cabinets.
Sinks began as water tubs and became much more user friendly with the availability of running water. The earliest kitchens had water pumped by hand from a well or an underground cistern. In more upscale homes, water would be pumped up into a tank in the attic. This provided enough pressure to distribute water throughout the house to the kitchen as well as to indoor toilets.
Keeping food from spoiling was a challenge. Iceboxes helped, with a large cube of ice placed in a tin-lined box over a food-storage compartment. By World War I, the first refrigerators that used ammonia for cooling appeared. With the advent of easily available electricity, refrigerators became more common.
Today’s kitchens are a far cry from the open fire and hand-carried water, but they are still the heart of the home.