Pennsylvania Dutch Kitchen, History

These communities were largely farmers, with seasonality and self-sufficiency at the crux of their day to day life. 

The kitchen was not simply where the meals were cooked, but a working space equal to the land. Here, butter would be churned by hand, vegetables harvested and prepped for drying, salting, smoking, and pickling (whereas today we can), as well as dough kneaded in great bulk to supply the large families typically associated with farming communities.

Mrs. Fisher’s research into the history is catalogued in her scrapbook, where in a Life article she clipped, the author explains:

“In the main fireplace (above) the wife did her cooking, using a built-in oven and a variety of utensils. At first she hung pots in the fire from a green wood lug pole running crosswise above the hearth. Such poles often charred through and spilled the soup, so trammel rods and swinging iron cranes were substituted. In the 1740s Benjamin Franklin invented a new apparatus (opposite page) which was to end the need for fireplaces and led eventually to the American kitchen stove. This, in turn, changed American diet: biscuits, muffins, corn pone and flapjacks all came in when the stove's quick heat replaced slow-baking masonry” (Life, pp. 123, 1955 April 18). 

The hearth was the focal point of these spaces, as it is in Mrs. Fisher’s model. Her recreation would show the modality of the research she compiled, as Fisher included a work bench with various pots boiling in the hearth, just like the images of others she collected who often contained iron racks on which they suspended their pots over a flame. 

Yet, it would also showcase another aspect of the period she was capturing: the homested. Alongside sufficiency and trade, the Pennsylvania Dutch held shared values of a close-knit family structure, with shared responsibilities to one another. Their kitchens were more than workspaces, but were also where the family was gathered in work or brought back together before a large, warm, open hearth.

These spaces very much served as workspaces, playing a key role in their survival through the harsher seasons. Thus, they were functional first, with every corner of the room being given purpose in the work: from wide work tables to storage.