Food Safes: Notice that the small kitchen contains two food safes. The dining room also contains a pie safe. When dinner was over in the early afternoon, leftovers were put into food safes and little cooking was done the rest of the day. In the late afternoon, the cooks made candles, soap, churned cream into butter, and preserved foods by drying or salt preservation. Sugar was expensive, so making jams and jellies was very limited. Preserved foods such as dill pickles, sauerkraut, honey, syrup, and dried foods were stored in crockery jars on open shelves. Salt, black pepper, and coffee were purchased products used rather freely. (Kibler, 1988)

Photo courtesy of Lexington County Museum