"There was only a coal stove in the kitchen and one in the living
room. And you couldn't keep that going all night long. Lots of
times you'd get up in the morning the water be frozen on the stove
in the kettle."
(Olive Pope, Grand Bank, Fortune Bay)
"You had your dinners, it was ritual like... Saturdays it was pea soup
and ginger snaps and then for supper it was potato pork cake. And then
Fridays was fish and potatoes and Thursdays was cabbage, potato, and
turnip and so on, and perhaps a peas pudding or a pudding. Then
Wednesdays was fish day again... I know Monday nights, we always had,
up to Mother's, potatoes and turnip and dumplings... [Sundays] Perhaps
you'd have potatoes, turnip, salt pork, salt meat. Not like it used to
be... used to be that it wouldn't be Saturday night unless you had your
pork cake."
(Mrs. Alice Forsey, Grand Bank, Fortune Bay)
 nlike the parlour, which was
used only for special or formal occasions, and the bedroom, which was
the most private room of the house, the kitchen was a very busy and public
room. In fact, community members would enter one another's kitchens
without even knocking. The kitchen was considered to be the women's
domain because they spent a great deal of time there cooking, washing,
spinning wool, doing needlework and performing a variety of other
essential tasks. Between fishing seasons, during periods of cold weather
or during long dark evenings, the men would sometimes bring their
fishing nets into the kitchen to mend.
Comfort was important, and by the late nineteenth century, a stove was
the most important item in the kitchen of most fishing families.
Floorboards of kitchens, as well as hallways, bedrooms, and parlours
were covered with hooked mats. Normally, women hooked the mats using
mat frames and mat hooks made by the men. Animal feed bags or hard
bread sacks were saved and used as backing.
Houses and outbuildings were usually constructed by the fishers
themselves, often with the help of friends and neighbours. By the late
nineteenth century, the majority of houses were two storeys in height.
The first level most often had a back porch, kitchen and parlor or
front room, while the second level had several bedrooms. The back porch
led directly to the kitchen and provided the every day entrance.
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