Larder

A larder is a cool area for storing food prior to use. Originally, it was where raw meat was larded—covered in fat—to be preserved. By the 18th century, the term had expanded: at that point, a dry larder was where bread, pastry, milk, butter, or cooked meats were stored. Larders were commonplace in houses before the widespread use of the refrigerator. Stone larders were designed to keep cold in the hottest weather. They had slate or marble shelves two or three inches thick. These shelves were wedged into thick stone walls. Fish or vegetables were laid directly onto the shelves and covered with muslin or handfuls of wet rushes were sprinkled under and around. Cool, dry, and well-ventilated. Usually on the shady side of the house. No fireplaces or hot flues in any of the adjoining walls. Might have a door to an outside yard. Had windows with wire gauze in them instead of glass. In the northern hemisphere, most houses would be arranged to have their larders and kitchens on the north or west side of the house where they received the least amount of sun. In Australia and New Zealand, larders were placed on the south or east sides of the house for the same reason. Many larders have small, unglazed windows with window openings covered in fine mesh. This allows free circulation of air without allowing flies to enter. Many larders also have tiled or painted walls to simplify cleaning. Older larders, and especially those in larger houses, have hooks in the ceiling to hang joints of meat. A pantry may contain a thrawl, a term used in Derbyshire and Yorkshire to denote a stone slab or shelf used to keep food cool in the days before refrigeration was domestically available. In a late medieval hall, a thrawl would have been equivalent to a larder. In a large or moderately large 19th-century house, all these rooms would have been placed in the lowest, and/or as convenient, coolest possible location in the building to use the mass of the ground to retain a low summer temperature. For this reason, a buttery was usually called the cellar by this stage.