Technology: Cooking with Coal
In the 1890s cooking was done on coal or
wood burning stoves. Keeping the stove alight
was a time-consuming process. Coal or wood
had to be obtained and constantly supplied
to the stove. The heat the stove gave off
was a bonus in wintertime but a nuisance
to housewives working in overheated kitchens
during the summer months. It was also a
battle to keep the family stove clean.
However, from the 1930s, gas and electric
stoves began to revolutionise life in the
kitchen. Ovens and elements became hot on
demand and, together with other appliances
such as refrigerators and cake mixers, allowed
women to cook a wider range of dishes for
their families. Recipe books, and later,
radio broadcasts, provided new culinary
ideas.
Hot water heating cylinders also provided
the family with the ability to wash clothes,
cutlery and crockery and themselves easily,
quickly and more often than the limited
supply of heated water from 'wet-back' on
the stove could provide.
In
1873 Henry Shacklock built the first of
the many thousands of coal ranges his company
would go on to produce. Later named Orion,
Shacklock's cast iron coal ranges with their
grates and flues designed to suit New Zealand
coals would be built in much the same way
until the 1930s. Thousands of households
cooked food, heated water and kept warm
using a coal range such as this 1920's No.
1 Orion. In addition, wet clothes were strung
across the coal range to dry on indoor washing
lines or skillfully hung on a wooden fold-away
'clothes horse' which stood directly in
front of the range. The clothes horse was
often put up at night and with the coal
range providing the heat, clothes for all
the family would be dry by morning and ready
to be worn to school or work. Some kitchens
had large wooden drying lines that were
lowered to hang clothes then raised via
a pulley system to the ceiling to dry. (Otago
Settlers Museum Collection)
An
early newspaper advertisement for the 'Orion'.
Shacklock's Orion range grew to include
many variants including models with double
ovens and a 'destructor' - a firebox that
was touted as a safe and hygienic way of
disposing of kitchen wastes. (Otago Settlers
Museum Collection)
The
Dunedin Gas and Coke Company's plant in
Anderson's Bay Road has been a prominent
landmark on 'the Flat' since the 1860s.
Although gas appliances, like this 'Eureka'
stove, began to take their place in kitchens
around southern Dunedin in the early 20th
century, by the 1930s their place was being
challenged by electricity. Electricity,
more so than gas, would prove to be the
way of the future. (Otago Settlers Museum
Collection)
The
benefits of the gas stove are extolled in
this advertisement for the 'Eureka'. The
model pictured not only had top hot-plates
for boiling and frying and an adequately
sized oven for roasting and baking but also
a small grill unit underneath the left-hand
top hot-plate. (Otago Settlers Museum Collection)
In
1925 H.E. Shacklock Ltd. produced the first
range in New Zealand to run on electricity
(or 'white coal' as it was described in
early catalogues). Electric ranges were
often promoted by manufacturers as being
cleaner and safer than the gas models of
their competitors. (Otago Settlers Museum
Collection)
The
biggest selling electric cooker in New Zealand
between the wars was the Moffat, manufactured
in Canada. However, ownership of electric
ranges was low and even by 1956 still only
36.7% of Dunedin households owned an electric
range. (Otago Settlers Museum Collection)
In
the modern kitchen spring action scales
began to replace the balance scales of older
Victorian kitchens. New recipes required
precision in measuring and busy Dunedin
housewives found scales like this Salter
No. 46 much easier and quicker to use. In
the early 20th century G. Salter's spring
balance with a pan on top and a dial on
front was the most popular type of kitchen
scale in use in New Zealand kitchens. (Otago
Settlers Museum Collection)
T.J.
Edmonds arrived in Christchurch in 1879 and, after
initially setting up as a grocer, became a manufacturer
of a baking powder. Edmonds 'Sure to Rise' baking
powder would become the dominant brand of baking
powder in New Zealand and the Edmonds 'Sure to
Rise' Cookery book, first published in 1908, would
become New Zealand's all time best selling cookery
book. (Otago Settlers Museum Collection)
[Next:
Ironing Progress]
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