Foganya (hearth) and fire tools

What is

The wood fire of Mallorcan cuisine and its tools. The foganya (also fogaina) is a work hole open at the top, with a side opening at ground level, where a fire is made to boil the kettle, heat up or cook (DCVB, also Bal.). In Mallorca, foganya also names the hole behind the stove where the ash and leftover embers are poured (DCVB, Mall.).

How is

• Foganya: work prism with cavity and lateral mouth; often under a large chimney hood. The DCVB quotes Galmés: the foganya was "under a large bell ab pinte."
• Fogons / fogonets: built-in kitchen stoves; in Mallorca, next to the gerrer (poyo de las gerres) and the sink (quote from Rosselló in the DCVB, sv gerrer).
• Cendrer: lower part of the hearth where the fire is made and the ash remains (DCVB, also bal.).
• Fornal: in Mallorca, also the burner that heats the boiler, for example in the tafona.
• Clay stove / stove: portable, with a lower body for the embers and an upper mouth for the pot; side handles (Coll Conesa 2020).
• Tools: molls (ember tongs, two iron sheets joined by a nail), trespeus (iron hoop with three legs for the pot), graelles (grill), palm- vendor (for fanning).

How is fa

• Foganya and stoves: work of a stonecutter (masonry, brick, marès).
• Molls, trespeus, graelles: work of Ferrer (see enclusa-i-manxa ); Eines Mallorquines (Sineu) still forge stoves and cauldrons.
• Anafre: turning in the olleries (see torn-de-gerrer ).
• Ventador: self-consumption palm.

Com s'usa

• Light with small wood or charcoal (see esca-i-encenall ), fan with the fan.
• Pot or greixonera on the trespeus or the anafre; cauldron over the campfire.
• Move the embers with the molls; collect the ash in the foganya or the cinderr. The ash was later used for the bugada .
• The fire was also heating: winter life was lived around the fire.

Vocabulary

• foganya / fogaina: brick hearth for wood fire; in Mallorca, also the ash hole.
• fogó / fogonet: stove.
• anafre: portable clay stove.
• cendrer: part of the stove where the ashes remain.
• fornal: in Mallorca, also boiler burner.
• molls: ember tongs.
• trespeus: trivets.
• graelles: grill.
• llar: portion of ground where the fire is made; also the house.
• menjar-se els ferros dels fogons: be very hungry (Mall.; DCVB, sv fogó).

History

• 1410: "unes graelles" in an inventory cited by the DCVB.
• 19th-20th centuries: Mallorcan kitchens with stoves, gerrer and foganya under a hood (literary descriptions by Galmés and Rosselló, cited in the DCVB).
• 20th century: the portable stove and the portable clay oven (forn, attributed to the Palma potter M. Valens) coexist with the built-in stoves (Coll Conesa 2020).
• Second half of the 20th century: butane and electric stove; the foganya falls into disuse.

On veure'n

• Museum of Mallorca, Etnològica Section (Wall) : recreated kitchen.
• Kitchens from the possessió house and village house preserved.
• Fang Museum (Sa Cabaneta) : clay burners.

Why is it design

• Architecture of the fire: lateral mouth for air, bell for smoke, hole for ash.
• Closed cycle: firewood from the mountain, ashes for the laundry, embers for the brazier.
• Minimum iron kit: molls, trespeus and graelles; repairable by the ferrer.
• Portable and fixed: the stove carries the fire wherever it is needed.

For the project

• Atlas: draw up plans for a foganya kitchen in a possessió and record its vocabulary with an older person.
• Piece: set of stris del foc (molls, trespeus, vendedor) for fireplace or barbecue with a ferrer and palm crafts.
• Trades: ferro-forjat · ceramics-i-gerreria · coalers-i-sitges . Files: greixonera , olla-cassola-i-perol , pastera-i-pala-de-forn , ressol-i-cresol .

Sources

• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=fogaina
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=fornal
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=gerrer
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=cendrer
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=molls
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=trespeus
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=graella
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=llar
• contents.idi.es/images/documents/Catalogo_XII_Jornadas_Baleares_20.pdf

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

Open it in the atlas →