Does anyone have info on different types of pots, skillets, kettles, etc used by Scotsmen in the early to mid 18th cent.? I've seen pictures of cast iron round bellied pots and of course meat hung to roast but I was looking for something when I'm by myself at an event or on the trail. Most of the stuff I have now is American Frontier/ Longhunter oriented.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Daniel

Well, I.F. Grants Highland Folk Ways has some line drawings, but mostly of the usual pots and girdles (no skillets or spyders, though). Cooking utensils were mostly associated with the home and didn't tend to travel much because they were so costly. I've read a couple of accounts of the Highlanders making their meals by just mixing cold water into their oats and eating that plain (have tried this, and I suggest a good dollop of whisky to make it more palatable  ).

Grant refers to the practice of boiling water by suspending it over the fire in the paunch or skin of an animal, and notes that this method was used in the Islands into the 18th century. Stiff dough can be browned on hot rocks, root vegetables roast well in the coals, and meat/fish can be browned and roasted on a stick or rock, so it's really possible to do a whole meal with little more than a small pot for heating water (and you can even do without that if you have a fresh animal paunch about  ), a flat rock, and a stick.

Failing that, there are a couple of companies that sell small cast iron pots...Lehman's, in Kidron Ohio, sells a miniature cast-iron three legged kettle (no lid, looks like something between a round pot and a dutch oven) that holds about a pint, as well as a 3/4 gallon round-bellied pot (of the usual South African design, though they're now being made in China)...so if you're looking for a way to heat a bit of water in the morning, or to wet your oats, those might be useful. A spit is fairly easy to improvise, add a couple of S-hooks, and you're cooking.

But as for cooking on campaign, I'd say there was a lot of cold food and good old-fashioned sticks and stones and maybe even skins, with some communal cooking in pots...but I'll wager that no wife was about to let her husband go off to battle with her only cooking pot, so any cooking vessels of any size would have been shared.

I'm sitting here thinking of the cast iron burners from a wood cookstove...awfully heavy (especially when you drop it on your foot at 4AM), but if you happen to come across that reference again and there's a description, I am thinking that it shouldn't be too hard to reproduce a small round of thin plate if one knows a blacksmith with spare time. (oxymoron: "blacksmith with spare time.")

I'm thinking of a round with a raised edge or lip and a detachable wire bail. Light, and compact enough to carry easily (or you could live that old Rob Roy legend and keep it in your bonnet to protect your head). Does this sound along the right lines? I know that bannock spades didn't come into use until later, and I'm skeptical about the usefulness/practicality of a straight handle. Also, to minimize weight, you could make it as a barred girdle (some examples are pictured in Grant) instead of as a solid round.

Just thinking out loud...

Edited to add: If you go to http://www.scran.com/and search on "griddle," about halfway down page 2 of the results, there is a photo of a barred girdle.

Sorry, I have BWD (Blacksmith's Wife Disease)...

Tell me circular iron sheet and I will come up with something that looks like the Rose window at Chartres!

This is the real reason why blacksmiths have no spare time  Carry on....

Check out the "dish irons" at this site:

www.warehamforge.ca/norse.html

It's a Viking-period item that would be perfect for a Highlander in the field, methinks (though I would perhaps shorten the handle a bit)....

Ok, I'm biased, but I'm a little leery of the fact that it's mild steel  (as a rule, I hate mild steel, just out of principle), but other than that, it looks pretty much like what I was envisioning (looks a bit like one of those covers you put over the flue hole in a chimney). If reproducing the original isn't a concern, it would be possible to make the plate with a piece of flat bar riveted to it that comes out to form a stationary socket that you can put a stick in as a temporary handle (at least that's what I'd do). A hole would make it pretty hard to cook anything runny, and a wire bail might make it a bit tippy.

Food for thought, though.........

Just found something great at a local thrift store(God's gift to poor reenactors, these thrift stores!). I tend to stop in and look at what's available such as wool blankets, wooden bowls, iron cookware, and such. Sometimes with a little imagination you can modify things to fit your period impression. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. While looking through a box in the cookware area that had recenly come in, I found an old steel/iron disc. It is slightly concave, smooth on the inside and rough/fire blackened on the outside. It has no handle and when I asked the owner if she had any idea what it is, she said, "Don't know exactly. Maybe a lid for a pot or something?" To shorten the story, she let me take it for $.25!!! It didn't fit anything else in the box! If anybody has an idea what it is, please let me know. I'm already thinking it would be a great cooking device/bowl to use, either in my haversack or tucked in the folds of my kilt.

Daniel

Only caught up with this thread recently.
The griddle which you are talking about is what is usually described in Scotland as a girdle. I think this is what the reference is talking about.
It was/is a simple flat metal plate similar to a pancake pan with no lip and a overhanging handle to allow it to be suspended above a fire which can also clip in at the side and so fold it flat for storage. I don't know if there are any pictures in Grant but my grandmother from the Highlands had a least 4 or 5 of differing sizes. They could be used either as a frying pan or as a baking tool for bannocks, oatcakes or girdle scones (which I believe are also known as drop scones)
I have also added the link below which is a picture of a girdle in use.
http://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-467-096-C&PHPSESSID=rrsnp6rubf1d2c6rcuk2tht1g6
Hope that is useful
Cheers
Neil