Food Preparation

Trixie Pachy interviewed by Edna d'Lima

Trixie Pachy

Tell me about your memories of any utensils used in the kitchen that you prepared food in at that time?

Well, my Mother was sick of course and having operations. We lived in Cornwall in this crazy cottage. We had a kitchen range, you know, with brass knobs on. I didn't clean the brass knobs, my Mother used to clean them but I didn't take on that. So we had this great big fire we had to stack up, an oven next to it, hit and miss really. We only had one water tap and that was outside, a cold tap, I had to go out to get the water. We used to fill up all the saucepans and the kettles we could find and keep them on the range all day long, so if anybody wanted to wash or wash their hair we had warm water, warmed hot water.

I suppose it was a little limited because we had rationing then, were rationed. I could peel and cook potatoes second to none, hoped everybody liked mashed potatoes. I suppose everything was very basic there. We did have great big black saucepans, great big black kettles. We didn't have anything really that could be called modern even in those days. I think Mother had one of those old mincers that you clamped to the table, pushed meat madly in, the meat ration went in there, hoping it would make a stew for two or three days.

Images courtesy of The Design Collection at The Arts Institute, Bournemouth

Interviews Soundbites