Victorian Kitchen

Explore the Magic of Victorian Era

To appreciate the sensuous beauty of a Victorian Kitchen, you must have an insight of the Victorian era, starting from the late 1830s to the 1930s.

The modern kitchens vary from the Victorian ones in more ways than one. Today electric appliances replace the traditional cooking ranges, and all the architectural designs of the era have been conquered by modern splashes.

But nothing beats the cozy, peaceful yet powerful and classy look of a Kitchen from the Victorian era. To rekindle the same magic, you need to know about the features the Victorian kitchen.

Here I share with you some of the features that made kitchens of the Victorian era look exotic.

Journey into a Victorian Kitchen

I am taking you on an exciting journey to a kitchen of the by gone era. Hold tight and stay awake for absorbing the captivating beauty.

Diverse Cooking ranges

The cooking ranges in the Victorian era were available in both open and closed designs. Usually they were big and heavy, and had a cast iron body. Wooden cooking ranges were also used later on that added to the countryside house charm.

The cooking ranges were available in a wide variety of colors and finish, like ethnic black, rose tinted, blue, cream, speckled white etc. Don’t you find a clean polished look of a cooking range pleasant to see?

Striking Silverware

Silver is an expensive affair nowadays. However, the Industrial Revolution during the Victorian era made silver easily available for daily purposes.

Silver was mainly used for making utensils. You would always find silver serving pieces, jugs and jars made out of silver. Bottle stands, cup and saucer stands, wine chiller, pickle containers, exquisite dinner sets, spices holders, and a lot more articles can be added to the list of silverware used in the Victorian age.

At times, copper and nickel were used with a silver coating, to give the silver touch. However, the silver coating was neither long lasting nor flexible.

Magical Moulds

Food moulds were an important aspect of the Victorian kitchen. The moulds were mainly used for making delicacies like pudding, gelatin desserts, jellies, ice-creams.

A variety of shapes were used for the food moulds. Fascinating intricate designs and fine details were an important part of the day’s culture. All moulds had a handle that aided it to be turned upside down. The material abundantly used for the food moulds were Copper and Tin.

Convincing Crockery

Porcelain and clay were mainly used for manufacturing crockery. Sometimes glazed materials with vivid colors as lush green, mulberry red were seen.

Victorian kitchens are famous for their exclusive collection of porcelain pottery and items like cups. Collection could never be complete without the intricate fine designs and soothing blue-white combination of crockery. The fine scenic designs and detailed designs were a status symbol in the Victorian era.

A Little About Their Eating Habits

Food was usually cooked in Copper utensils. Copper was preferred for pots, pans, moulds etc owing to its conductivity feature. The utensils needed to be cleaned rigorously with vinegar and lemon. Other major aspects of cooking were boiling, steaming, baking and roasting. Coal and wood were the preferred fuels those days.

The food was preserved using techniques like pickling, salting, caning, bottling, smoking etc. This also kept the ladies busy, as they used to spend time preparing jams, jellies, chutneys, dried soups etc.

Tips for You to Own a Victorian Kitchen

• Silverware was an important aspect of a Victorian kitchen. So, if you think using silver extensively would be too expensive, you can always have a few silver items that are used by your guests and easily seen to the eye.

  For example, an exotic silver spoon standing on the table, silver knives in a holder, tongs, wine chiller are a few items which are appreciated and never go unnoticed.

• Porcelain crockery is as classy today as it used to be way back in the Victorian era. Make sure you have a porcelain crockery collection.

  Here, I would like to add, if you are not comfortable using porcelain crockery, you can always have some porcelain pots and pottery containing dried flowers to bring that ancient look to our kitchen. This would be effective and less expensive at the same time.

• See to it that you have some architectural designs on the walls and stained tinted glass work on the window panes. The walls should essentially wear a light shade. The window curtain can be of lace or crape.
• The flooring should be essentially wooden, sometimes marble or ceramic tiles are also used. Since today’s kitchen is a place for more activity, I would suggest you to put rugs on the floor, than leaving it bare.

Victorian Look and Feel

More than just the kitchen decoration try and set the Victorian style in everything else related to the kitchen. For example, have some additional space as the pantry area. Set the tableware at little distance away from the cooking arena. And if you know the right way of a serving a Victorian meal, you can leave a mark in all those hearts that visit your kitchen.

A perfect Victorian meal includes five courses. The soups and starters, followed with main items in three phases, and sweets and desserts to end, make the perfect Victorian meal.

Making your own kitchen a reflection of the Victorian era is not difficult either. It’s important to keep in mind all the features of the Victorian Kitchen and try to inculcate the same.




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