With modern cooking appliances such as air fryers, one-pot-does-it-all, coffee pots that not only make the coffee but also grind the coffee beans, and blenders and processors that shred, mulch, chop, mash and grate, let’s take a look back in time. Let’s see how cooks did their work 50 to 150 years ago.

Humans have been using kitchen tools for three million years, evolving from the Stone Age’s mortar and pestles, to the Bronze Age where bronze and copper utensils were introduced, to the Iron Age when kitchen tools of metallurgy were created.

The Romans really gave the kitchen utensil market a big boost. They had meat hooks, meat mincers, spatulas, colanders/strainers, and ladles.

The Middle Ages and the Renaissance that followed brought about a pretty bright time in terms of kitchen paraphernalia. Frying pans were popular as were slotted spoons, pepper mills and the waffle iron. With the start of the early modern period, kitchens saw more specialties such as the apple corer...