Pottery and porcelain in Mexican kitchens

Kitchens of this type used to be equipped with cupboards, wooden storage rooms and hooks for hanging various utensils that allowed friars and nuns to cook the food, according to the recipes in use.

A kitchen would usually have: pots, saucepans, strainers, spoons, ladles, bowls, knives, crockery, jars, bottles and barrels.

These utensils were enriched with indigenous utensils, such as the metates (mealing stones) or the molcajetes (mortars), as well as other objects equivalent to the Europeans, but made locally.

From the second half of the 16th century the white earthenware and tiles of Puebla were used and covered the convent and civil kitchens.

These were made up of dishes, platters, salad bowls, salsa dishes, tureens, salt cellars, sugar bowls, bowls and jars.

Containers such as bottles, earthenware jars and bowls were also used.

The commercial and cultural exchanges that took place along the route of the Manila Galleons, although enriched with other utensils already used in pre-Hispanic Mexico, brought with it the modification of habits, tastes and gastronomic customs.

Among the objects that were part of these global exchanges and that occupied the dining rooms of New Spain are the Chinese and Japanese porcelain crockery, among them the so-called Porcelain of the Indies.

It was a type of custom-made porcelain that embellished the meals of personalities from the aristocracy, the clergy, city councils and civil institutions.