Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-12
KITCHENS IN PORTO RICO.
A Woman's Account of the Housewives
Outfit in the Island.

From the American Missionary.
The Porto Rican stove is especially in
teresting. In shape it is something like a
carpenters bench. about feet wide, . feet
long and as high as an ordinary table. The
outside frame is of wood, and when the
kitchen is being freshly painted the stove
must not be neglected The top and inside
are made of bricks and cement so arranged
as to leave an opening running from end to
end below the fireplaces for draught-
Along the top and at regular intervals are
four iron fireplaces, five inches square and
four inches deep, so set into the stove that
the tops level with the top or the
stove. A maid who often neglects one fire
would feel overburdened with the care OF
these four separate fires at the same time,
as is necessary with these stoves. The
American housewife who prefers to have
her food baked, can use a gasoline oven
over of these fires, and the result is
quite sa tisfa Glory.
But even this oven, however crude and
inconvenient, is seen only in the better
homes of Porto Rico After good-natured
Candida, our negro cook, has finished her
days work and has found her way down
the hill along the steep, narrow path that
leads to "Sha cktown," where she lives, If
she wishes to prepare an evening meal for
hungry children she will bring out from the
corner of the room empty oil can, which
has been given her by the missionary, and
with a CRATE near the top and an opening
below for a draught.
The making of the stove has cost her
twenty cents and she possesses a better
outfit for housekeeping than many of her
neighbors. The writer had one of these
stoves made for her own use, and, as 1t can
be easily carried about, it is very con-
venient Many times has she sat on a low
bench and popped corn over the Goals in the
oil-can stove, while one or more wondering
natives stood around seeing the operation
for the first time, and afterward some of
them would try to pop their own corn.
Charcoal is the fuel used in these stoves,
but many of the poor people too poor to buy
charcoal make their fire with bits of WOOD
and sticks which can be picked up.
Small, green bananas are the most COM
mon food of the poor people. Cooked with a
little Goldfish. they are considered a great
treat. II l want to give especial pleasure
to my cook 1 furnish the bananas and cod
fish and she will prepare her favorite dish.
We have been called the pioneers in Porto
Rico, and many times what We do and see
reminds us of some of the stories we have
heard our grandfather tell of the pioneer
days out west, when many of the needs OF
the family were supplied by labor within
the household. Many times have difficulty
in buying cornmeal, which is a favorite
article of food in the family. One day, after
an unsuccessful search for the meal. Can
dida helped me out of my difficulty by offer
ing to have the corn ground for me in her
| own MILL and 1 gladly accepted the offer.
| Candida's MILL like those seen throughout
| the interior of the island. differs little from
| the mills used in Bible times
1t consists of two stones, resembling
| grlndstones, each a foot or more in diameter
| and from three to five inches in thickness,
| the upper and neither milstones of the
| Scriptures. The lower stone, which rests on
! the floor has Its upper surface slightly hol-
| lowed, and into this concavity fits the con-
| vexity Of the supper stone. Through the
| center of the upper stone is a hole, through
| which the corn passes down to the grind ms
| surface between the stones. Near the outer
| rim is another hole for the end of the han
| dle-a pole seven or eight feet long, with its
| upper end slipped into a loop fastened to a
beam above Occasionally this hole is re.
1 placed by short handle only six or eight
/ inches long, in the mill used two or three
thousand years ago.