Fire with Peats-A Taste of Hearth Cooking


Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | January 25, 2025

Fire with Peats-A Taste of Hearth Cooking

As it was not possible to create the blackhouse earthen floor hearth with a few slab stones set in the middle of the living room to cook the oat bannocks, brick was laid outside on the ground to safely burn the smokey peat fire with its definite aroma.  Historiaclly, the most frequent smoke escape in Scottish blackhouses  was a hole in the roof not even placed directly over the hearth.  Thus much of the smoke rose and settled in the top of the family area and the air would stay relatively clear near the floor.  This writer has first hand experience as I started a peat fire in a recreated blackhouse at The Highland Folk Museum near Kingussie, Scotland.

As it was not possible to create the blackhouse earthen floor hearth with a few slab stones set in the middle of the living room to cook the oat bannocks, brick was laid outside on the ground to safely burn the smokey peat fire with its definite aroma.  Historiaclly, the most frequent smoke escape in Scottish blackhouses  was a hole in the roof not even placed directly over the hearth.  Thus much of the smoke rose and settled in the top of the family area and the air would stay relatively clear near the floor.  This writer has first hand experience as I started a peat fire in a recreated blackhouse at The Highland Folk Museum near Kingussie, Scotland.

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