This is a picture of the Cook House at the Whim Great House Museum located in Estate Whim on St. Croix. The museum is one of the best examples of what life was like on the island during Colonial times. The Virgin Islands is unique in the Caribbean in that it was the only set of islands owned by Denmark. Many of our street names are still written in Danish!
While walking around the Estate, I had the opportunity to imagine and peek with my mind’s eye into what life must have been like for the men and women who were enslaved on this plantation. An unforgiving island sun coupled with the heat of charcoal fueled ovens must have been beyond unbearable for plantation cooks.
I thought about my love and passion for cooking, and wondered how quickly that passion would literally evaporate, if I had to create in the confines of a typical plantation kitchen. The photo below is a glimpse of what the kitchen looked like. Brick, Charcoal, and Sun– an unholy union for early Crucian cooks.
The image below is of a traditional coal pot. Charcoal, or coal as it is more simply called, was put into the bottom layer of the pot and then the cooking pot was suspended above the coal on the iron grills.
I remember journeys to visit my grandmother on St. Lucia, another island in the Caribbean. I watched her work an alchemical food magic with the most basic and simplest of ingredients that all took on the scent and flavor of that local charred wood. The smell is so very ingrained in my memory that to eat foods prepared on a coal pot instantly transports me to my grandmother’s kitchen!
One of my favorite people on the island Thomas Jackson. Grew up on St. Croix in the 1940’s, and he recalled the local bakeries using ovens like these to make bread and pastries daily for 3 cents! He said that there was a certain smell from those breads that he has never been able to find in today’s local breads. It is the smell of clay earth and tree coal that fueled those ovens and our collective memories.
Visit the Whim Great House on your next visit to the Territory! An amazing experience of a not so long ago time.
Thank you for inviting us in. One of my favorite spots in St Croix. I took several friends and family there. You see I love the island St Croix and always call it home. God bless our islands
It is a very wonderful place! They need much financial support and donations to help keep sharing the incredible resource they are! 🙂
Are you interested in any kind of coal pots
I love coal pots! I haven’t been able to find the old clay style. Just the steel versions.
Hello,
I am writing a book about growing up on Virgin Gorda in the 1950’s.
May I use your picture of the coal-pot in my book?
I would give you the credit.
Thank you.
I am interested in the history of the coal pots you mentioned. Were they common throughout the Caribbean islands? And how far back does this style of cooking equipment go? I am not familiar with the cooking history of the islands. Any books or references would be greatly appreciate. Thank you
I shared most of what I know about them. But UVI put out some wonderful cookbooks that you can check out. Give Undercover Books in Gallowsbay a call and inquire there! <3