Sink Room or Scullery

Grant remember our conversation with Lola from Madison Wisconsin who had just bought a 1900s era home that had an interesting layout. It had the kitchen but it had a side room that contained a sink and a larder and we weren’t quite sure what to call it.

Yeah, we had a lot of suggestions for her, but our listeners all seem to come to an agreement that we should have come up with another word.

That’s right, the word scullery. We heard from Christine in Texas who said, what’s really interesting is that the scullery is making a comeback in modern kitchen designs as a cleaner way to host dinner parties.

With all of the open concept kitchens is becoming more popular as a means to keep the prep dishes and dirty dishes out of sight. It sounds like a return to.

Form rather than a new idea. Yes, someone else who took us to task was Eddie Muhlenberg, who said in South Africa, where I’m from, it’s called the scullery, but it can hardly be regarded as delightful or quaint because as a result of apartheid, it was historically the area in white families’ kitchens for black domestic workers.

So it’s a very small area, functional with sink and cabinets, but quite separate from the main part of the kitchen where food prep and cooking take place.

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