There were no such things as ready frozen, freeze-dried or tinned food. Since animals could not be fed over winter, most were slaughtered in autumn, and had to be stored by either salting, drying, smoking or pickling. Some meats could be preserved by potting in huge barrels covered with lard, but most were salted or smoked.

To salt meat, it would be rubbed with salt crystals or soaked in brine (salt water plus sugar for softening and saltpetre for colouring). After being in brine for a week or more, the joints were smoked. This was done by hanging them from the kitchen chimney, or in a separate smokehouse if a coal range had been introduced.

Some houses used a separate hanging safe to store meat, which was pulled up and down by pulleys. Game larders were also built, usually far from the house because of the smell, and so the gamekeepers did not disturb the kitchen staff. These were covered with fine mesh to keep out insects, and contained marble slabs that were kept cool by ice.

Elizabethan spits were improved with the addition of a pulley wheel to turn them, which could be powered by water, a kitchen boy or even a dog in a cage. Other advancements included the attachment of spit hooks, which could be turned by a set of vanes, like a windmill, in the chimney, and were powered by the heat rising from the fire.

The use of cast iron cradle grates increased in the early Eighteenth century, but at Burghley House the traditional spit was still used. Clockwork mechanisms, which came into general use in the late Eighteenth century, were acquired by Burghley.

French chefs became all the rage, although their food could be criticised for the ‘super adding’ of garlic, vinegar, cheese or salt. Fashionable French maids and dressmakers soon followed as indispensable accessories.