In today modern society kitchens are built within the structure of the dwelling. In our time kitchens, built of residual pieces of lumber and tin, were always detached from the main dwelling for a simple reason. When cooking, a huge amount of soot and smoke were emitted from the wood burning or charcoal stone stoves, imagine the scenario if the kitchen was built within the house.
Many kitchens of our time would look like this
Electric or gas range was non-existent during our childhood in Mauritius. Every household was quite content with their stone stove which was simply made up of three equal height boulders, placed in a triangular shape, on which would sit our frying pan, kettle or cooking pot. The stove normally sat on the floor, but for a bit of luxury it would be built on an elevated slab of concrete or stone. It was on a likewise stone stove that my sister-in-law taught me how to cook the Mauritian classic “Rougaille”, an equivalent of Chutney, a dish that I often make till now to go with fried fish, chicken or beef. Within the confine of the three boulders dry wood or twigs or charcoal were placed and lighted with our indispensable match. On wet weather starting a fire was no easy matter, as the firewood or charcoal would have gotten damp with dripping water from the leaking tin roof, and the matches loosing its effectiveness in the damp air. This primitive stove has a long history, costs nothing and is still widely used in many places around the world, in Africa, India and Asia. Firewood sometimes might be picked up free in our neighbourhood bush areas but was also available commercially supplied by farmers from the country side. Our boutique bought firewood by cart load, which came in about three foot long sugar cane size sticks split from branches of filao tree. We in turn sold them by bundle of three or four sticks tied together with straw string. Charcoal was also produced by farmers and came in gunny bags similar to the rice gunny bags. Our shop in turn sold the charcoal by small tin load
Filao trees beautify Mauritius beaches, once a source of fuel for cooking.
Rougaille Mauricien, a tomato base chutney cooked with ginger, garlic, onion, thyme, chili, salt and pepper
Firewood is still an important source of fuel in the countryside of many countries.
We did not have the luxury of a lighter or automatic electric switch. Matches were part and parcel of our lives
Apart from the stone stove, there was the “bucket stove” which was made from old bucket. A small opening was made in the lower part of the bucket and the inside was plastered with a layer of concrete an inch or so thick. Around the rim of the bucket sat three or four small mounds of concrete, on which the cooking utensils would sit. To start a fire for the stove required certain skill and experience. Small dry twigs would be first lit with a match and slowly the flame would be fanned until it caught up with the bigger chunks of wood or charcoal. Often we had to use our mouth to blow air through a short tube, producing a sweet musical sound, into the firewood to help combustion, resulting often in soot stained faces. Sometimes what we got was a full eruption of black smoke that filled the small kitchen room. And mom would be screaming. Sawdust was also used in neighbourhood that had a sawmill. I used to go to the sawmill, where huge heavy trunks of trees were sawn into flat planks for house building. Sawdust would accumulate around the gigantic metal circular saw and we just have to scoop and take them home. The sawdust was compacted in the bucket stove leaving room for a tunnel for air circulation from the small side opening though to the rim.
Charcoal in gunny bags still widely used in many less developed countries
We were grown up with the bucket stove.
Gradually life improved and the “Primus” brand of kerosene pressure stove made its pompous debut. Less wood, less charcoal, soot free. Kerosene or paraffin as it is known in some parts of the world, or “petrole” as we, Mauritians, like to call it, became the fuel of choice for cooking. The pressure stove was made of brass and it produced no soot, which kept the cooking area clean. It was, however, not affordable to all and was liable to explosion if not properly handled. As a ten year old kid, I had grasped the technique of operating the primus stove which required filling the tank with kerosene, pouring alcohol in the small “spirit cup” sitting just below the burner, applying a match to the alcohol to pre-heat the burner, then pumping the kerosene tank to produce pressure. Boom the fire spread and burned with a hissing and roaring sound. Sometimes the burner got clogged and we used a small needle to poke through the holes of the burner to clear the passage. We used the kerosene stove for making tea, cooking rice but it was not ideal to place our oversized Chinese wok over it. We used the bucket stove for our wok. The “Primus” stove was the most popular brand in our time and it was so efficient and reliable that it was the stove of choice for Admiral Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole, as well as various expeditions to Mount Everest. The Primus is still used widely in Africa and India.
Primus stove made it debut in 1950s in Mauritius
The needle was essential if we were to have food on the table by dinner time.
Then came the Rope Wick Kerosene Stove, which used a series of rope wicks, typically 10 wicks, arranged in a circle that feed into a centre burner. One end of the wick is immersed in the kerosene tank and the wick draws kerosene and keeps the fire going. The burning ends of the wicks sometimes burnt out and we had to manually pull the wicks a centimetre out for efficiency. Again fire and kerosene were a dangerous combination and extreme care was necessary in its usage. Accidents did occur time and time again, resulting in burned hands and faces. When I arrived in Hong Kong in 1966 many households were still using this type of kerosene stove. Gradually LPG (liquefied Petroleum Gas) overtook kerosene.
Kerosene wick stove, a huge improvement over the stone stove or primus.
The LPG gas initially was delivered in self contained metal cylinders and in Hong Kong my in laws would order the gas cylinders from the corner stores. The delivery men had to be tough as they had to carry these heavy cylinders on bike, sometimes four at a time, dwingling from the handle bar or back wheel of the bicycle. The climax of this delivery exercise was when the skinny sweaty man had to climb five or six storey to make the delivery. On the way down he carried the empty cylinders. A very small area of Hong Kong still has gas cylinders delivered on bicycle but the main supply is now through gas pipes direct to the flats. Many countries still, however, deliver gas cylinders on bicycle.
LPG gas cylinders still being delivered on bicycle in some parts of Hong Kong
LPG gas delivery in India