The Boiling House

From the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, boiling houses or seething-places were being built close to major kitchens. Their function was to boil meat, fish and simple pottages for the bulk of the household servants who dined in the hall. In 1455, for example, Henry VI’s master-cook for the hall, William Hekeling, had a yeoman, a groom and a page to cook the basic boiled meats, fish and pottages in the palace seething-place.¹ As this was a very simple task, there was no need to write down any recipes, but fortunately a number of accounts and regulations, along with boiling pots and their furnaces, still survive and are available for study.