Colonial house with external kitchen on the right
The traditional Creole kitchen, where most of our traditional dishes were born, was usually situated in a separate little “cabin” several meters away from the main house. The kitchen had no link to the main house, which tended to create problems when it rained. It was usually thatched with coconut leaves or covered with corrugated iron sheets. It was either fully open with no walls, had half walls or fully enclosed. The walls were made from either coconut thatching, wooden planks or bricks depending on the owner’s wealth.
Worker’s kitchen showing the hearth inside and rat traps on the door
The main reasons for having the kitchen detached from the main house were firstly to prevent the smells and aromas of curries and grilled fish to invade the main house and secondly to minimise the possibility of burning the main house down. It has to be noted that the cook was dealing with open flames everyday ,on which he did not have total control, and which at times produced sparks depending on the firewood used as well as the material used to start the fire.
An old hearth
The kitchen would have a hearth or foye on one side and a table or tabli and a cupboard or bife on the other side, with a small space to move in the middle.
The cooking area was on the hearth which was an elevated section, about waste high, built of stones and cement or coral bricks and lime. On the hearth there were a few trivets or trwapye on which the cooking pots would sit. The firewood was placed through the legs of the trivet and lit when required. Sometimes the pot would only sit on three or four stones called a touk.
The pots used were mainly cast iron pots known as marmit. The cast iron pot is till used to-day, although not as much, has two “ears” and three legs. The advantage of cast iron is that it minimises the burning of food. The two “ears” are used to remove the hot pot from the fire. The Creole cook would insert two sticks of hard wood into the ears to lift the pot. Sometimes a hook-like handle is also used instead of wooden sticks. The three legs allow the pot, which has a rounded base, to stand on a flat surface without falling over.
Smoked Rabbit Fish or Kordonnyen above hearth
Above the hearth there was usually some chicken wire or small wooden beams from which salted fish or sausages were hanged for slow smoking.
On the table, the top of which was made of timber or chicken wire, you would see the basic utensils including pots and plates kept. The chicken wire allowed proper airing and drying of the utensils.
The bife would have a few shelves reserved for basic ingredients like rice, onions, and spices and the bottom shelf will be reserved for the storage of toddy or kalou, that was most of the time sold from the kitchen.
Outside and not far from the kitchen there was an area where the bay was located. This was where the food preparation took place including the cleaning of the fish as well as where all the washing up of plates and pots were carried out. The bay was in fact a very large water container made up of concrete or half of a wine barrel or half of a diesel drum.
Tabli with pots
The water, which was sourced from small streams up in the hills, was supplied by bamboo pipes or ladal . Next to the bay was a table or tabli, the top of which had chicken wire, on which all the kitchen utensils were left to dry after having been washed.
The new homes now have modern internal kitchens but some still have a makeshift external kitchen where one would cook pork crackling, a good curry, grill a fish on charcoal, cook salted fish, fry salted mutton-bird or cook black pudding – dishes that tend to produce pungent smells!
In a separate post I will cover some cooking equipment and utensils that were used in and around the traditional kitchen. Some of these equipment and utensils are still being used to this day.
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