We have many, many items in our kitchen here at Charlecote. It is jam packed with interesting and mundane pieces of crockery, plates, pots and pans. Some of their functions are very obvious – others make us think a bit harder. Such as this one!
When asked what it was for, we were stumped! It is about 4 inches long in total and looks as if it could have created
ridges or lines in something, or been used to break up something solid. Not convinced we had the answer, we posted a photo of the mystery item on twitter and invited suggestions.
Our followers certainly are a clever bunch and we were soon in receipt of various ideas.
@JamesThorne2 @CharlecoteNT @NTmidlands It certainly looks like a meat tenderizer. Blunt edged to crush the fibers and flatten thick chunks.
— Connie (@ConnieNeelSmith) May 15, 2013
@charlecotemill @CharlecoteNT @NTmidlands I’d say definitely not for tenderising, wrong shape
— Tudor Cook (@tudorcook) May 16, 2013
@tudorcook@CharlecoteNT Er….hmmm. I would hazard a guess it’s for cutting pastry strips, but I may be entirely wrong.
— Annie Gray (@dranniegray) May 16, 2013
It just so happens we found an answer – but a little closer to home! One of our own volunteers has helped us and identified that it is for softening butter! The metal parts are warmed up, probably in hot water, and then rolled or pressed over the butter to soften it for spreading, baking and so on.
