What happened to pipkins?

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

daveO

Native
Jun 22, 2009
1,453
513
South Wales
I was reading a book that discussed the historical popularity of pipkins. For those who don't know a pipkin is a glazed earthenware cooking pot with a lid, hollow handle and three little legs. Very similar to some of the smaller cast iron dutch ovens that are popular now but more designed to be heated in the coals of a fire than suspended over one. I liked the idea of trying one out but it seems they've died a death and hardly anyone makes them anymore. It looks like some re-enactment people still use them though so I wondered if anyone here had tried one and could offer any insight or anything that might explain why they went out of favour? I imagine cast iron is much more durable but it has its own drawbacks too. I'm really fancying making a pipkin curry now but I'll have to find one first.

Pipkin in use here http://briwaf.blogspot.com/2013/02/second-open-fire-cooking-day-recap.html

This video also explains pipkins if you're interested.

 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,938
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
I've used one, well, two.
They're very good, a little fragile, but they're very good for sitting and slow cooking in the heat from the embers, or at the side of the fire and soaking up the radiant heat.
You have to be careful not to 'thermal shock' them. No hot pot onto something cold, or pour cold stuff into a hot pot, or vice versa.
They're used to make possets and to warm ale, etc.,
The ones I had didn't have lids and they were small, so not really for making stews or soups for a family. Think of them like a small milkpan, a saucepan, kind of thing, rather than a bean pot/ marmite/ casserole.

They simply became a victim of the changes in domesticity. We no longer routinely cook on open fires, and metal pots mostly superceded them and the legs which keep the pot in the heat but not in the cinders, etc., are a pest on a modern stove.

The original pots were hearth fired. This leaves them porous since the ceramicisation isn't as hot, or as long as a kiln fired, but if you soak the freshly fired pot in warmed milk then the lipids in the milk seal the pot. Very effective.

If you can find one with a hollow handle it makes it easier to lift away from the embers. You slip a dowel into the handle and it lets you move it without trying to find a pad or oven glove. Some of the old ones had a hooked handle, again just to let you use a stick to pull it away from the heat, but not so easy to lift it to pour.
 

daveO

Native
Jun 22, 2009
1,453
513
South Wales
When you say fragile do you just mean from thermal shock or do you think they would have broken in use a lot? I assume more modern firing techniques would increase their robustness a bit though. How did the weight compare to a similar sized cast iron pot out of interest?
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,938
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
The fragility is a bit like clay plantpots. If you're clumsy with them they can chip and crack. One of mine was cracked when someone shoved it hard against the edge of the stones of the fire. It drained dry before it was noticed. The other one the whole top 'ring' of the rim came off.

To be honest, they originally were made and fired by so many different potters, from so many different clays, that there is no 'standard' per se.
Usually locally produced I was told, so some might be better made than others, harder or more brittle than others. Folks get used to what they have.

Weight wise they're lighter.

I don't know about modern firing techniques making them any more robust....think Denby pottery, much though I like mine it's not lightweight, and I don't use it on an open fire. It's horses for courses I reckon.

The Indian ladies who do cook in their beautifully made 'mud pots' say that the older softer fired clay ones are less likely to break with thermal shock. Like an old teapot they end up with a layer inside that they say makes all food good. African ladies who cook using their own version of the pots say the same thing.

I know that my fire pots (I used to demonstrate natural dyeing in heritage centres, etc.,) become very marked with the heat, they, even with care, do crack. I have made some of them myself and even knowing the effort involved, and being especially careful with them, they end up damaged.
I heard a quote once that went along the lines of that a pot has a life, and like us eventually it dies and is buried.

Oldtimer might be the fellow to talk about on the pottery though; he offered a set of notes that he'd written and used for many years, iirc.

M
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tsantsa and daveO

daveO

Native
Jun 22, 2009
1,453
513
South Wales
Thanks, Toddy, that's all really useful information.
I've been looking around for something similar and came across this American infomercial style microwave cooker that seems to be a legless pipkin/tagine hybrid. I think if I want the authentic experience though I might have to get something custom made.
71-BBOLYH5-QL-AC-SX466.jpg
 

Bishop

Full Member
Jan 25, 2014
1,716
691
Pencader
any insight or anything that might explain why they went out of favour?
Would imagine it's to do with the move towards communal ovens/bake-houses as feudal lords organised the workforce to be more efficient. As a result cookpots no longer needed feet or long handles allowing a better fit into the oven space.
 

henchy3rd

Settler
Apr 16, 2012
611
423
Derby
The tripod Cookware went out when they designed the AGA type of oven around the early 1800s, they had been around for longer but weren’t of much use?
No longer were open fired used for cooking, to sit the round bottom pots with legs over the fire so the flame licked around it.cast iron lasted hundreds of years & was handed down including the earthenware ones.
So in came the flat bottom pans which were much inferior & wore out quicker.
Probably the first throw away society?
 

henchy3rd

Settler
Apr 16, 2012
611
423
Derby
I know Denby pottery of Derby was making medieval cookware as I bought a Tuscan clay oven & chicken pot for my stove. Not sure if they still make them?
 

bopdude

Full Member
Feb 19, 2013
3,000
215
58
Stockton on Tees
Not a Pipkin's but if you search for Afghan pressure cooker, basically an aluminium construction pressure cooker that goes on or in a fire, thinking of getting one myself.
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE