The cast bronze cooking pots made in England in the period c. 1500–1720 are of three main types. First, the cauldron – a three-legged vessel with lug handles that could be either suspended above the hearth or stood in the embers (Fig. 12.1). Cauldrons varied considerably in size from capacities of less than a gallon up to monsters with capacities between 30 and 60 gallons (136–272li). Of the cauldrons in the Butler collection, about 40 in number, two-thirds have capacities between 1.5 gal and 7.5 gal (6.8–34li). Mould fragments from foundries excavated at Exeter and York relate to the casting of vessels of similar size, with the most common dimensions indicating vessels with a capacity of around two gallons [9.1li]. A 2-gallon cauldron – the size of a modern preserving pan – appears to have been a fairly standard vessel for a small household. Such three-legged pots, albeit of cast-iron, were still in use in the mid-19th century, when Soyer referred to them specifically in his Shilling Cookery for the People and published recipes for a pot of 2 gallons capacity.

Second, the posnet – essentially a small cauldron with a horizontal handle like a modern saucepan, but with three legs, designed specifically to stand on the hearth among the embers (Fig. 12.2). The two posnets in the Butler collection have capacities of 3.5 and 9 pints (2–5.1li) – approximately equivalent to those of modern saucepans.

Third, the skillet is clearly recognizable as the direct forerunner of the modern saucepan, but like the cauldron and posnet is supported on three legs to allow it to stand on the hearth (Fig. 12.3). By 1600 the skillet had largely superseded the posnet as the preferred small to medium-sized cooking vessel.