Comments:In the 19th century, many kitchen utensils, especially cooking vessels, were made of heavy iron. Of course, they were frequently coated in soot and were cumbersome to handle and difficult to keep clean. "Down at the hearth cooking", that is, preparing meals at the fireplace, was heavy and hot work. The well-supplied kitchen hearth included a variety of cast-iron pots, with or without lids. Fireplace cooking depended extensively on pots hung over the fire, usually suspended from an iron bar. Some of the pots were shallow with flat bottoms and were used for stewing and frying. Others like the one shown here were deeper with round bottoms and were fitted with three short legs. This design proved popular, for the rounded pots were easier to clean and the legs kept them out of the ashes. They could also be set on the table or the floor. The footed pot was usually situated on the coals, where it enjoyed a steady, controllable heat. Lidded iron kettles (an example can be seen above) were also indispensable for fireplace cooking. These too were suspended on devices which could be raised or lowered, or moved forward or backward to regulate the temperature. The kettle in the Antigonish Museum was manufactured at a foundery in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Ironware was also used for such major activities as butchering, maple sugaring and soapmaking. Notwithstanding its unwieldy nature, this material was virtually indestructable. As one historian has noted, "seldom was a piece so badly broken that it needed to be replaced."

Comments: Most rural 19th-century Canadian households were self-sufficient in providing their own dairy needs. Milking and churning butter were part of the daily routine, especially for women in the household. In fact, according to Charles W. Dunn, author of Highland Settler, "no self-respecting Highland man would, until recently, be seen milking." Butter- and cheese-making frequently brought in additional income, but household needs were the priority. The process was time-consuming and strenuous, and involved a relentless routine of straining and scalding milk, washing the milk pans and straining cloths, setting milk for butter or cheese, skimming cream, churning, working butter, etc. Like most work-related activities, there was a rich repertoire of work songs among the Scots that accompanied such tasks as butter churning.

After milking, fresh milk was usually cooled in a root cellar. It was then poured into shallow pans of tin or crockery and kept at cool temperatures. The cream was later skimmed off, allowed to sour and then dashed in a churn. Early churns were wooden and keg-shaped, but by the 19th century dash churns were available in crockery. This particular crockery model (capacity 5 Imperial Gallons) with its wooden handles was made by Alberta's Medalta Potteries Ltd. from 1924 to 1954. The overall shape is highly traditional and, like earlier churns, it consists of a dasher, which was a round stick with a flat wooden cross nailed on its lower end. These models had pottery covers with a centre hole for the dasher. (Often the lid was wood, for the pottery covers usually ended up broken.) In the early 20th century, other butter churn variants were available to the housewife, including this American-made Dazey Hand-Churn with its beater-like mechanism and closable glass container designed to prevent splattering. With this model, the ratchet-driven handle turned the wooden slats inside the jar.

The task of churning was often assigned to children. One had to resist the temptation to fill the crock too full, for the cream as it was churned became frothy. The agitation produced lumps of solid butter which were then "worked" or "kneaded" in a large wooden butter bowl with a large spoon-shaped or flat butter paddle (see above). Usually, the woman of the household used two paddles (or butter pats) to work in the salt and to stamp out the water, as she patted the lumps with one paddle and squared them with the other. Handmade wooden butter prints or moulds were usually made from maple, pine or poplar. The butter was packed into the moistened mould, then pushed out, shaped and stamped with a butter print, incised with a stylized design. The decorative imprint gave the food a more aesthetic appearance.

The variety of household gadgets in North America during the 19th century is particularly striking. Some historians attribute this singular expression of human innovation to the shortage of a reliable supply of domestic servants at this time.

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