CORNISH-L Archives

From: "John Coles" <>
Subject: Re: Cooking in Iron Pots
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 84 22:36:47 PST

----------
>
> In a message dated 1/12/98 9:52:09PM, writes:
>
> << John there had to be a tea kettle, there just had to be!
> You can't make good tea in an iron pot. The acids in the tea will
> cause the porous (?) iron to give up the bits of past meals it has
> hidden there. That's >>
>
> Dear John, Linda and all
>
> I would think that a copper kettle would have been used primarily in the
> boiling of water for tea etc.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Liz Jenkin
> (whose husband Glyn is a fully apprenticed grade "A" coppersmith!! - although
> he left this behind when we left Cornwall to come and live here on the Isle of
> Wight 9 years ago)
>
----------------------------------

Hello Liz

We used to have a beautiful square copper kettle when I was a lad!

I only have iron kettles here in my 'collection'. I have only rarely seen a proper copper kettle in a farm auction here in Cornwall. By that I mean a proper kettle, formed by a coppersmith, with properly folded joints, and tinned inside (unlike those dreadful pressed out things in the tourist shops).

There are two explanations (and certainly the iron kettle was the generally used one amongst poorer households):

1) The proper copper kettles have been kept by descendants, and only the iron ones sold off at sales, or

2) The natural frugality of farmers and their wives meant that they bought the cheaper iron kettles, and got used to the taste.

Incidentally, around 10 years ago, I was able to buy a lot of this old cooking equipment, like pots and skillets, kettles and chimney jacks. Every farm sale had a few items of this sort. Now, they have become virtually unobtainable. (I also collect felling saws, and hay knives, but that is another story, for another day!)

John, (in 1998, waiting for a new computer battery)

John & Anna at Kernow Sound magazine
"The Sounds of Cornwall"

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• Re: Cooking in Iron Pots by "John Coles" <>