KITCHEN
The original kitchen at Fairfax House was demolished in 1919-20 when the house was converted to a dance hall and cinema. The kitchen you can see today has been re-created in a room which may originally have been a small rear parlour, using evidence from the household accounts and family papers.
The housekeeper's book and invoices from local suppliers provide valuable information about the day-to-day living and eating arrangements of the Fairfaxes, and the food on display here in the kitchen reflects the varied diet of Lord Fairfax and his daughter Anne. Pies and meat dishes can be seen ready on the kitchen table, along with gamebirds and side dishes such as jellied eels. A range of sweetmeats and desserts are also being prepared for serving, and on the kitchen dresser is a mobile beer trolley with horn beakers and a leather 'beer-jack'. You can also see a pair of glass smoothing irons, which were used to put a shine on linen damask napkins and tablecloths.
Between the windows, on the oval tray, is an eighteenth-century Georgian coffee mill and pots for hot chocolate.
The 'smoak jack spit' above the kitchen fire is driven by hot air rising from the fire and turning a fan in the chimney. The household records show that the Fairfaxes had a spit of a similar design in 1762. It seems that it was always breaking down, and the blacksmith had to be called out on a weekly basis to carry out repairs.
MORE ABOUT THE KITCHEN
Georgian Coffee Mill
Before about 1780 it was necessary when making coffee to roast your own coffee beans in front of the fire in a rotating cylinder and then mill them in grinders like this one.
Category: Miscellaneous
Kitchen Dresser
Laden with chargers, dishes and plates used to serve food.
Category: Furniture
Linen Press
A linen press, walnut and oak, English, circa 1690
Category: Miscellaneous
Peacock Pie
These birds were reared on the country estate at Gilling Castle, 20 miles north of York and the 'odd man', Mathew Robinson, came over from Gilling twice a month 'with the basket', laden with produce from the park and garden for consumption at Fairfax House.
Category: Miscellaneous
