The Country House Kitchen 1650-1900: Skills and Equipment for Food Provisioning (Food and Society, 8)

Country houses were formerly self-sufficient to a degree not easy for us to understand today, requiring a considerable range of purpose-built accommodation for food provision and a hierarchy of servants with particular skills. This book, compiled by experts on the history of food and domestic skills and techniques, offers a comprehensive, fully illustrated survey of how country houses were provided for.All the varied activities associated with food provision are considered in detail, including brewing, baking, dairy-work, distilling and ice-storage. Also discussed are the evolution of the cooking fire and the kitchen range, cooking vessels and gadgets and the kitchen staff who used them, the layout of the areas behind the green baize door, and the relationship between kitchen, serving room and dining-room.Most of the houses mentioned in the book still exist and are open to the public. Many are under the care of the National Trust which has been busy restoring their 'domestic offices' over recent years.