Genealogy Chat

anyone know what a skewer Maker is? someone who makes metal skewers for meat????

Have checked several websites and can't find anything to suggest otherwise. Maz .XX

Don't suppose he makes skewers? those things you impale people or things with (i.e. kebab skewers - or is it only me that calls them that)

Found list on the dictionary online: Definition: [n] a long pin for holding meat in position while it is being roasted [v] drive a skewer through; "skewer the meat for the BBQ" Someone had to make them after all. Wonder if we'll soon be ancestors listed as paperclip maker and such?

Well why not? I have got one who is a WhaleBoner .. ? I suspect for corsets .. A

Seems to be a common occupation and often done at home. I found this description but with no scource: "Wooden and yes, probably used for meat cooking, where roasting in a single heat source oven needed all the help which could be got. Piercing with a skewer let the heat get to the middle of the joint better than leaving it in a solid block. And chickens had their bits anchored together with skewers (and string)"

Seems to be common to "Disley" as well Paul

Skewers were made from the stems of a shrub called dogwood or dagwood in the olden days. The latin name is Cornus sanginea and it grows wild in UK. Later skewers were made from twisted metal and were quite commonly used by butchers up to recently but now meat seems to be kept from falling apart in cooking by elesticated stocking. Ron Frith

Alas!, long gone are the days of the beef joint with a skewer going through it !! When you stop and REALLY think, you then realise how old fashioned the 60 and 70' were :-( We'll have our kin looking us up one day and asking what is an IT consultant!! Viv

Thanks everyone for your help, at least now i have an idea what it is. Occupations are what make your ancestors much more interesting.