With these, every kitchen should be well supplied, otherwise the cook
must not be expected to "perform her office" in a satisfactory manner.
Of the culinary utensils of the ancients, our knowledge is very limited;
but as the art of living, in every civilized country, is pretty much the
same, the instruments for cooking must, in a great degree, bear a
striking resemblance to each other. On referring to classical
antiquities, we find mentioned, among household utensils, leather bags,
baskets constructed of twigs, reeds, and rushes; boxes, basins, and
bellows; bread-moulds, brooms, and brushes; caldrons, colanders,
cisterns, and chafing-dishes; cheese-rasps, knives, and ovens of the
Dutch kind; funnels and frying-pans; handmills, soup-ladles, milk-pails,
and oil-jars; presses, scales, and sieves; spits of different sizes, but
some of them large enough to roast an ox; spoons, fire-tongs, trays,
trenchers, and drinking-vessels; with others for carrying food,
preserving milk, and holding cheese. This enumeration, if it does
nothing else, will, to some extent, indicate the state of the simpler
kinds of mechanical arts among the ancients.
[Illustration: _Fig_. 6.]
[Illustration: _Fig_. 7.]
[Illustration: _Fig_. 8.]
In so far as regards the shape and construction of many of the
kitchen utensils enumerated above, they bore a great resemblance
to our own. This will be seen by the accompanying cuts. Fig. 6
is an ancient stock-pot in bronze, which seems to have been made
to hang over the fire, and was found in the buried city of
Pompeii. Fig. 7 is one of modern make, and may be obtained
either of copper or wrought iron, tinned inside. Fig. 8 is
another of antiquity, with a large ladle and colander, with
holes attached. It is taken from the column of Trajan. The
modern ones can be obtained at all prices, according to size,
from 13s. 6d. up to £1. 1s.