Working stew stoves in museums

Stew stoves (US), Stewing stoves (UK), Stew-hole stoves, Brick stove, Masonry stoves and Portagers are some of the modern terms. They are different shapes and height, and generally made from brick and clay. The following is a sampling of museums doing demos on their stew stoves.

Each old stew stove is delightfully different, but in general, a grate holds the charcoal, and allows the ash to fall through. The pot or pan must be raised off the surface to allow air flow and smoke to rise.

Kew Palace kitchen. Richmond UK. There was no cooking the day I went to check out the extremely rare octagonal cast iron wall oven (blog post HERE). Kew website HERE

Hampton Court. Richmond upon Thames UK. Roasting and hearth or oven the day I was there. Kitchen on website HERE

Governor’s Palace, Williamsburg VA. Generally doing some cooking, don't remember if SS was in use in this picture. HERE

Monticello. Charlottesville, VA Excavating Monticello's First Kitchen and South Wing. Article, short tape 2017 HERE. Picture of SS from Monticello website

Jefferson's Poplar Forest. Lynchburg, VA. Extensive work has been done to bring this lovely octagon home back to Jefferson's original design. Stew stove added about 20 years ago (after my visit), and is used on occasion. Picture from HERE

Hermann-Grima Historic House. New Orleans LA HERE. In April 2004, before Hurricane Katrina of 2005, I spent the day with their hearth cooks, using their stew stove.

La Purísima Mission. Lompac CA. Fire in the fireboxes. HERE

Tyron Palace. New Bern, NC has a repo stew stove, but not sure if it is used for demonstrations. Picture and info HERE


Does anyone know of any other locations with working stew stoves?

Although I will go anywhere to check out and document original "flue-zies" (stew stoves, set kettles, steam kitchens, wall ovens - metal or brick, etc) in museums or private homes, I am not as inclined to see the reproductions, so I may be forgetting some working reproduction stew stoves for this post.

MORE INFO

Cooking at Monticello live with Leni Sorensen. Monticello. Se 2020 TAPE HERE

Jefferson's cheeks and grates for his Monticello stew-holes. Blog post HERE

Stew stoves (or stewing stoves) in two Hamptons (Hampton Court UK and Hampton mansion in Maryland. blog post HERE

A Federal-era Kitchen: Hampton’s Stew Stove, Iron Oven, and Hearth my article in Food and Material Culture : proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2013 HERE. Hampton in Maryland

Stew Stove blog posts HERE

Sketch is a detail from The Duke of N[ewcast]le and his Cook. Satire by George Bickham the Elder in 1746 at The British Museum. Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle (1693–1768) was Prime Minister (1757-1762) and his cook was Pierre Clouet. William Verral mentions Clouet and his recipes many times in his 1759 cookbook. HERE

Support museums by visiting to watch a demo or see an original stew stove.

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©2023 Patricia Bixler Reber
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