Kitchen

Todo lo miraba Sancho Panza, y de todo se aficionaba. Primero lo cautivaron y rindieron el deseo las ollas, de quien él tomara de bonísima gana un mediano puchero; luego le aficionaron la voluntad los zaques, y últimamente las frutas de sartén, si es que podían llamarse sartenes tan orondas calderas. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha, Parte II-Cap. 20.

La cocina fue instalada con chimenea y bancos laterales, como en otros museos creados por el marqués de la Vega Inclán. No corresponde verdaderamente a la estructura de la casa pero es un tipo de chimenea que se representa en la pintura de la época, aunque es propia de cocinas más grandes o de casas de campo. En pisos pequeños como era este caso se utilizaron simples braseros o anafres para cocinar.

“Sancho Panza looked, gazed and fell in love. What first won his heart were the cooking pots, from which he would have been more than willing to take a decent-sized bowlful; then the wineskins took his fancy; and what finally captivated him was all that fruit of the frying pan, if such rotund cauldrons can be given such a humble name”. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, Part II-Chapter 20.

The kitchen was designed with a hearth and chimney corner benches, just as in the other museums created by the Marquis de la Vega Inclán; it does not really correspond to the structure of the house, but this type of hearth is represented in the paintings of the time, although perhaps more appropriately in larger kitchens or rustic dwellings. In small apartment houses like this one probably simple braziers or portable stoves were used for cooking, like the one which can be seen in the painting of the Old woman cooking eggs by Velázquez.

In any case, the perennial difficulty of heating the houses meant that the kitchen was the most popular place, and in it much more went on than just cooking, with the servants often sleeping there. The window which lets light into the kitchen gives onto the courtyard which originally housed the livestock coops and pens and was probably where the laundry was washed and hung up to dry.

The kitchen is furnished with a rustic dresser and chairs, large earthenware jars which were normally used to store water, wine or oil and typical traditional kitchen utensils of earthenware and copper, as well as the gilded bronze andirons to support the logs in the hearth.Salto de línea