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Cooking with the spit

Cooking with the spit.jpg York in the 15th CenturyThumbnailsDividerYork in the 15th CenturyThumbnailsDividerYork in the 15th CenturyThumbnailsDividerYork in the 15th CenturyThumbnailsDividerYork in the 15th CenturyThumbnailsDividerYork in the 15th CenturyThumbnailsDivider

Rooms were furnished with chairs, tables, benches, chests, bedsteads, and, in some cases, tub-shaped baths. Carpets were to be found only in the houses of the very wealthy. The floors of ordinary houses, like those of churches, were covered with rushes and straw, among which it was the useful custom to scatter fragrant herbs. This rough carpet was pressed by the clogs of working people and the shoes of the fashionable. The spit was a much used cooking utensil. Table-cloths, knives, and spoons were in general use, but not the fork before the fifteenth century. At one time food was manipulated by the fingers. York was advanced in table manners, for it is known that a fork was used in the house of a citizen family here in 1443. The richer members of the middle class owned a large number of silver tankards, goblets, mazer-bowls, salt-cellars and similar utensils and ornaments of silver, for this was a common form in which they held their wealth.