Cooking Equipment, Social Aspects of: Economics

A family’s economic place within a community may be analyzed according to their possessions. Seventeenth and eighteenth century American estate inventories—the required listing of each taxable object owned by a newly deceased head of household—offer a way to visualize economic levels. Their analyses have led to the suggestion that a hearth qualified as a kitchen when it contained a minimum number of cooking utensils—perhaps a hot water kettle, a stew pot and a frying pan. Then, with increased means, the presence of additional gridirons (broilers) or toasters may have indicated an average kitchen (depending on ethnicity), while chafing dishes, sugar nippers, and spice grinders were associated with those few who could afford the regularly acquisition of costly sugars and spices.