So what is a butler’s pantry? What’s the difference between a pantry and a larder?

Here’s a pantry storage glossary that explains not only how a pantry is different than a larder, but what a scullery is, or a buttery, a butler’s pantry, a swinging shelf, and a still room.  This glossary has the food storage definitions for words and terms you come across, at least when it comes to the pantry and rooms where tableware and food are prepared and stored.

Butler’s Pantry

What is a Butler’s Pantry?  The Butler’s Pantry has become a very popular house amenity in houses (even houses without an actual butler).  It’s a great way to reduce clutter in the kitchen, add kitchen prep space and increase your storage capacity. Who could really say no to more counter space?

The Butler is (or once was) in charge of serving food and wine at meals. The Butler’s Pantry is usually within reach of the kitchen and used for storage of silver, glassware, plates, and wine.  The Butler’s pantry is not generally used for food storage (that would be in the Store Room, the Root Cellar, and the Pantry under the purview of the Housekeeper).

In old houses, the butler’s pantry would generally have a sink to wash the glassware and tableware.  Some dining room cabinets in older houses have an open back to pass dishes through to the Butler’s Pantry for washing and replacement in the cabinet when clean, saving staff footsteps in setting and clearing the table. Some Butler’s Pantries will have “plate safes” meant for silver.

Modern versions of the Butler’s Pantry may also have a wine rack and cooler, and a dishwasher as well as a sink for washing tableware. It’s luxurious to have additional space to wash, dry, and store dishes and get home tasks done, free up space to prep and store food and reduce clutter.

Many people store small appliances in the Butler’s Pantry to reduce kitchen counter and kitchen cabinet clutter. Consider the Butler’s Pantry for the coffee maker, coffee grinder, and coffee mugs to keep clutter off the kitchen counters.

The Butler’s Pantry is also perfect for a wrapping paper station, cookbook storage, a desk, storing candles, tablecloths and napkins, and other table decorations.

Interesting aside, the word “butler” may come from the word “bottler” as the butler of the house has long been in charge of wine and drink.

Pass pantry

The Pass Pantry usually connects the kitchen and the dining room.  You “pass through” the Pass Pantry on the way to either the kitchen or the dining room. The pass pantry holds tableware, glassware, napkins, tablecloths, and china, and is a service area to stage food and prepare to serve it, as well as remove dishes. The pass pantry also can insulate the dining room from kitchen noise, heat, and clatter.

Some pass pantries have pass through china cabinets that open both on the pantry side and on the dining room side to save steps in setting and clearing the table.

Cold pantry, or California Cooler or Dry Larder

While most pantries are already designed to store food away from the heat of the kitchen and the house, a cold pantry has additional ventilation to further chill the room.  In the days before refrigeration was commonplace, cold pantries kept things as cool as possible. Storing foods at cooler temperatures increases their shelf life. Temperature would be controlled with screened ventilation to the much cooler house cellar, or ventilation to the outside during warmer months to allow cool air in, and kept from freezing in colder months.  Cold pantries (also known as “California coolers’ or “dry larders”) are usually located on the north side of a house (the chilliest and shadiest side of a house).

So how does a cold pantry differ from a root cellar?  A cold pantry is kept dry and well ventilated with fresh air circulation.  A root cellar has far more humidity, and nowhere near the level of fresh air circulation.  Humidity in a root cellar keeps things like root vegetables fresh. Potatoes and carrots do best in a humid root cellar. Apples would do better in a cold pantry.

Pantry

The word pantry likely comes from panetiere, the french word for bread box, or “place to store the bread.”  “The panetrium or pantry (from French, pain), or sometimes the dispensarium, for keeping the bread, butter, cheese, and other eatables, under the care of the pannetier or panter, who received the bread from the baker, arranged it on the hall table, and assayed or tasted it to prove there was no poison in it ; and the botellariwn (French, boutellerie), the butlery or buttery, where the drink, chiefly beer, was brought from the cellar for immediate use, under the care of the butler or celarius.” Source

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, a pantry was a room separate from the kitchen. However, a pantry does not need to be a separate room. The word pantry is also used to refer to deep cupboards within a kitchen, typically with slide-out shelving for easy access.  Some clever pantry stores are on a narrow slide-out shelving unit in the narrow space such as between a refrigerator and counter.

Walk-in or multiple pantries were common when houses entertained large numbers of guests or in farm houses needing to feed the farm laborers or family members, and in areas when trips to the store were a lot less convenient than they are today.  In the 1940’s and 50’s, a pantry was part of being prepared, with either WWII or the Cold War within recent memory.

Larder and Dry Larder  

The Larder can get a little confusing.  I was sure the Larder was only for meat, but as it turns out, a dry larder, or pastry larder, are alternate words for pantry. A dry larder is a cold pantry.

Cooked meats are stored in the dry larder or cold pantry before refrigeration became so common. Uncooked meats on the other hand, are stored and prepared in a separate room: the Meat Larder.  An 1865 description of the dry larder: “The modern cook’s pantry or dry larder is a small apartment close to the Kitchen, in which are kept cold meats and whatever may accord therewith. In ordinary cases it serves for bread, pastry, milk, butter, and so on; but the rule is to exclude all uncooked meats, including poultry, game, and fish. “ source

Meat Larder and Wet Larder

A Meat Larder, also known as a Wet Larder, is for storage and preparation of uncooked meats in very large houses long ago.  Some houses also have a game larder and a fish larder as separate rooms. These are places to salt, or to hang and age, and to cut meat, fish, and game. A separate meat larder would be particularly useful when regularly entertaining large numbers of guests, or to “lay in” (store) large quantities of meat.

“The name is derived from the time when, the system of winter food for cattle not having been invented, they were slaughtered in the autumn, before they began to grow lean, and the meat salted down, or larded — that is, preserved in pots covered with lard — for use during winter. The larder in old houses was consequently a considerable apartment, large enough to contain the winter supply of meat for the family. It was in most cases the same as the salsarium, in which the salt meat was stored, with the stock of salt fish, for the observance of fast-days. The name is still applied to the store for meat, not now salted or larded, but hung till it is tender enough for use.” source

Pastry Larder

A pastry larder is a room specifically for pastry. “A pastry larder, pastry room, or pastry, is especially useful in any considerable establishment. It will open out of either the Kitchen or Still-room, or be conveniently at hand; so as to be used for making the pastry and storing it, the baking being done in the Kitchen oven, or in that of the Still-room preferably if there be one.

A dresser about 27 inches wide, of marble, or with at least 3 feet long of marble in the middle, is to be fixed under the light; and shelves all around the walls. The dresser being used for making the pastry, it may be filled underneath with deep drawers, for flour, sugar, and other materials. Sometimes a flour-box is formed at the one corner of the dresser (if long enough), with a hinged cover; and similarly a sink at the other. “ source

Still room

The Still Room dates back to the 16th century and is for distilling cordials and spirits (or alcohol, with a still).  The Still Room evolved from that into a room for the housekeeper to make and store coffee, tea, pastry, and preserves.  In large houses, the Still Room is in addition to the Housekeeper’s Room and the Store Room. Sometimes the Still Room is used for making pastry on a marble topped pastry table with bins for flour and other baking ingredients (see also Pastry Room).

“This room in the best cases is provided for the use of the housekeeper and her special assistant the still-room-maid, in preparing tea and cofl’ee, making preserves, cakes, and biscuits, and so on. (The name is derived from its uses in the sixteenth century for that distillation of household cordials which was then so highly prized amongst the arts of housewifery.) In establishments of less magnitude it relieves the Kitchen of all but luncheon and dinner cooking; and occasionally, as when the family are not at home, may serve for Kitchen altogether. The pastry-work may also be done in it, and various odds and ends, to the further relief of the Kitchen. “ source

Store Room

The Store Room predates the use of the word pantry, and dates from a time when large quantities or bulk stores of food and supplies were “laid in” for long intervals between trips to renew supplies, or when bulk quantities were needed for many guests. The Store Room holds groceries, china, glass, and linens (or napery).  The housekeeper kept charge of the Store Room. Some Store Rooms are divided in two, with the food under lock and key and the china, glass, and linens in an outer unlocked section, or in a separate china closet (another room). Silver and plate is usually kept locked in the Butler’s Pantry, or in the Store Room if no butler. The Store Room does not hold all of the stored food, some is also distributed among the cellar and the larders.

Sometimes in large houses a Housekeeper’s Room  serves as a store room. “The Fittings, besides the ordinary furniture of a plain Sitting room, will consist of spacious presses, from 18 to 24 inches deep, filled with drawers and shelving, for ‘the accommodation of preserves, pickles, fancy groceries of all kinds, cakes, china, glass, linen, and so forth. It may be worthwhile to note that sugar is kept in drawers or canisters; tea in canisters; spiceries and light groceries in small drawers; cakes and biscuits in canisters; glass and china in drawers or on shelves; and linen in drawers; at least this arrangement is one that may be called the standard. Certain of these articles, however, will obviously be transferred to the Store-room if there be a complete one: and in cases where no housekeeper is kept, the Store-room may take the place of the Housekeeper’s-room altogether.” source

“The Housekeeper’s Room should have a series of closets 2 ft. deep ; some with shelves for linen; others for pickles and preserves ; and, again, others with drawers for stores of various kinds. It is also customary to have in the housekeeper’s room, or in a room adjoining, a stove or hot hearth for making preserves, &c. and a marble slab or solid smooth table for making pastry.” source

“ It is a great convenience (in the country particularly) to have two store-rooms; one of them not far from the kitchen; the other in the vicinity of the dining-room. In one, you can keep tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar, flour, rice, soap, candles, &c. all which articles, there is great economy, as well as convenience, in buying by the quantity, particularly if the family is large.

In this storeroom should be kept scales, weights, and measures; the scales fixed permanently to a beam. Smoked tongues, hams, and dried beef may be kept here, sewed up in white-washed cloths, and suspended on hooks to the ceiling. Hanging shelves are very useful in a store-room. Great care should be taken to keep out rats, mice, and cockroaches.

The other store-room maybe smaller, and appropriated to the pickles, sweetmeats, cakes, &c., that may be used in the family; also sweet wines, cordials, syrups, and other articles – of like description. Here may be kept the utensils for making blancmange, ice-cream, and confectionary of various descriptions. It is well to have all the jars labelled with the names of the things contained in them, that wrong ones may not be opened by mistake. Here should be kept a large spoon and a fork for lifting out the pickles, and another spoon and fork for the preserves. Also a towel, for wiping up any juice or vinegar that may chance to drop. This storeroom must be well furnished with shelves. And it is very convenient to have a small table in the centre, to set things on when you take them down.”   source

Root cellar

A root cellar is a frost-free underground (or partially underground) room to store root vegetables through the winter such as potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, artichokes, rutabagas and apples.  The root cellar is humid enough and cool enough (but not subject to freezing) and that coolness and humidity extends the life of root vegetables (much like a vegetable crisper in the fridge). A drier less humid location would result in shriveled produce.

Temperature and humidity underground remain relatively stable, and can preserve produce without added electricity to heat or cool. Earthen pits and trenches covered with straw and boards are other crop storage techniques.

Cellar

The word “cella” is an ancient word, defined as a “cellar or place to keep meat in, a buttery, a secret chamber.” 1600 source.  Cellae are the holes in honeycomb according to the same source.

The use of the word and room cellar as food storage dates back to at least the Saxons in the 11th century, storing food (and beer) in the cellar under a great hall or common room.  This common room or great hall was used for sleeping, eating, and preparing food. In the 12th century, monasteries and priories and castles and manors developed with separate rooms including kitchens, store rooms, butteries, and cellars, as well as separate sleeping and dining rooms, libraries.  The 13th century saw the use of cellar rooms specific to wine and beer storage.

Cellars are a great place to store food in a low-light, cool and temperature stable area for long term storage as long as the containers are airtight and rodent and insect proof.

“Here may stand the barrels of apples and potatoes, boxes of other vegetables, and the refrigerator or icebox in summer. In winter this may be moved to the pantry, if wished, although most housekeepers prefer to have it in the cellar all the year. The ice keeps better when the receptacle is in a cool, dark place. Have the cellar store-room provided with swinging-shelves on which may stand the pans of milk. One of these shelves may be enclosed with wire netting, and, on this can go the remainders of a cold roast or other large pieces of cooked meat in cold weather.”  source

“No matter how cool the cellar is, fruit and vegetables kept there in barrels or boxes will require watching. As often as every week they should be picked over as has been already described. All apples containing specks should be used as soon as possible for cooking purposes, care being taken to cut away all affected parts. Such fruits as apples, oranges, pears, etc., will last longer and keep firmer if each piece is wrapped in tissue paper. This is a rather tedious process, but, if one has choice fruit, it is worth the effort. In the store-room in the cellar it is well to keep all preserves, jellies, and vegetables put up in glass cans. These articles should be kept away from a strong light and from a warm atmosphere. So the cellar is an excellent place for them. One of the swinging shelves may be utilized for these glasses and jars. But do not have the shelf so high that you cannot easily reach anything at the back of it. Or, if you wish, have a couple of steps that can be moved about at your will.” source

Swinging shelf

The swinging shelf hangs from the ceiling, typically in a cellar. Swinging shelves are referenced in the Little House on the Prairie series of books and are mentioned here and there in magazines and books at the turn of the 20th century. The purpose of a swinging shelf or swing shelf is to keep foods like cheese and butter out of reach of rodents.  While shelves attached to the floor or wall might be within reach of climbing mice (scampering up shelves), but a shelf suspended from the ceiling is probably out of reach of all but the most acrobatic mice.

Scullery

The Scullery is a part of the kitchen, or just off the kitchen, set aside for washing dishes, pots and pans, and to clean and prepare vegetables, fruits, and meats, game, and poultry for cooking in the kitchen.

At one time, around the 14th century or even earlier, the scullery was for storing dishes, and tableware and linens. “But properly the sewery was the scutellery, or scullery, the place where the dishes were kept, as the sewer, who arranged them on the table, was in old French the esculier, scutellarius.“ source

Buttery

The buttery is an ancient word for a room to store tableware, bread, and drink as well as cheese and butter. “BUTTERY, in the Houses of Noblemen and Gentlemen, is the Room belonging to the Butler ; where he deposits the utensils belonging to his office; as table- linen, napkins, pots, tankards, glasses, cruets, salvers, spoons, knives, forks, pepper, mustard, & etc.“ 1734 source

Sewery

A sewery is an ancient word that dates to the 12th century and is a combined buttery and pantry.  The sewery is for bread, butter and cheese, wine and beer, and tableware and table linens.

The word is quite close to “server” and sewery and servery have similar meanings: a room to store tableware and napery related to serving at the table.  Wine, beer and drinks were under the car of the bottler or butler, who would later take over as the server.  The sewery or servery room has fallen out of use, its role having been folded into the pantry.

Promptorium

Promptorium is the Latin word for storehouse.  Note that “promptu” is ready, or readily at hand, which is what a pantry is really all about. 1677 source

Panetarium

From the Middle Ages, panetarium is a Latin word for pantry, deriving from the French word for bread (pain).

Celarium

Celarium is a Middle Ages 14th century word for buttery.  A person known as the celarius would be in charge of the celarium.

Pie Safe or Food Safe

The pie safe and food safe have screened or pierced tin openings to let food cool and keep out flies and rodents.

“A safe is a movable closet, standing on feet; the doors and sides being made of wire net, or of perforated tin. It has shelves inside, and is used for keeping cold meat, pies, and other articles left from the table. The safe should stand in the pantry or in the kitchen entry; the kitchen itself will be too warm for it. They have the advantage of being inaccessible to mice. If your house is infested with ants, it will be well not to place the safe near the wall, and to stand all its feet in tin cups of salt and water. The safe should be scrubbed out frequently, and then carried into the area or the yard, and exposed a while to the fresh air, with its doors open. In setting away cold meat, &e., always put a cover on the dish. Pitchers used for milk and cream should have covers belonging to them. They can be fitted with tin covers at a tin store; which are better than any others, as there is no danger of their breaking. Covered pitchers are also very convenient for keeping water warm, and for herb teas, barley-water, gruel, &c., in sick-rooms.” source