K is for Kettle #AtoZChallenge
I’m doing the A to Z Challenge in April, using the theme of the UK & Ireland.
Today, I’m going to talk about our most-used appliance, unusual for an American household — our electric tea kettle.
You don’t have to watch British TV shows or movies for very long before you’ll hear someone say “I’ll put the kettle on.”
Up until the middle of the 20th century, that meant filling a metal kettle with water and setting it on a stove top burner (or “hob” as the British would say).
By P.wormer – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12306375
In more contemporary times, that means filling an electric kettle and pushing the on button. We bought our first electric kettle after our 2014 trip to England because we enjoyed using the kettles in our hotel rooms during our trip. The first, cheap, one only lasted a few months. We’re now on our second Cuisinart which lasts quite a bit longer, but not forever.
The joke on British sit-coms is that electric kettles are such a popular gift that it’s not unusual to receive more than one for a house-warming or wedding present. Now that we know that well-used kettles only last for a few years, that doesn’t seem like such a bad thing — if you’ve got room to store the extras while using up the first one.
I learned from a British cook that you want to put your kettle on when you’re making pasta or any other dish that requires a lot of hot water. If you guessed wrong and didn’t put enough water in the pot, there’s readily available hot water in the kettle. So, the kettle is useful for more than tea.
Do you use an electric tea kettle?
I hadn’t realised a kettle would be an unusual household item in America. I’ve also never known it to be called a tea kettle. Although domestic filter coffee machines have become more readily available and perhaps slightly popular over recent years I think most coffee drinkers over here still tend to use instant coffee granules so the kettle is generally favoured for all kinds of hot drinks. I hadn’t realised I’d got so behind with your A to Z posts but think I’ve caught up reading now and an enjoyable visit it was too, thanks
I couldn’t live without a kettle! Is it usual to just have a coffee machine in America then? And if so, how do you make tea? I am quite alarmed by this news.
Most Americans never drink tea. Or, they only drink iced tea in the summer.
It’s a whole different world! The phrase ‘put the kettle on’ has some emotional significance for me. It’s what my Dad always says when he phones, and I know it means he is popping round in a few minutes, it always makes me smile. It’s what we say at work when we’re having a rough day and we need a break-it represents a kind of camaraderie. It’s also one of the first things my mum says when there is a crisis or we have received bad news. It makes sense because the warmth and sweetness of a brew help you to recover if you are upset or have received a shock. So the humble kettle can be quite important in family life.
I think Americans can really learn something from that. It sounds like the British take a moment and have a chat when something isn’t going right. Americans pour another cup of coffee from the pot and go back to pounding away at the problem without stepping back to think about what the problem really is.
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