Wetaskiwin District Heritage Museum Centre & City of Wetaskiwin Archives

Cooking technology has come a long way since humans first began cooking with fire hundreds of thousands of years ago. This Britannia cook stove, donated by Harold Blanch and located on the second floor of the Heritage Museum, was often the center of the pioneer household. Unlike most modern kitchen appliances, cook stoves are heated by burning wood, charcoal, crop waste, or even animal dung. In addition to cooking family meals, the stove provided heat to combat the presence of a chill and created a cozy atmosphere for friends and family to gather. Saturday night baths usually took place around the stove, beginning with the children and ending with the parents, and families often huddled near it for warmth in the winter months. The earliest type of cook stoves come in the form of the three-stone fire, requiring only three same-sized stones on which cookware can be balanced over a burning fire. Although the three-stone stove is still widely employed in areas around the world, efforts have been made to improve stove design to make them more efficient and environmentally friendly! Do you happen to remember having a stove like this in your home?