Some had small mobile bronze stoves, on which a fire might be lit for cooking. Wealthy Romans had fairly fully equipped kitchens. In a Roman villa, the kitchen was generally incorporated into the main structure as a separate room, distinguished for useful reasons of smoke and sociological reasons of the kitchen area being operated by slaves.
There were no chimneys. The roasting spit in this European Renaissance cooking area was driven instantly by a propellerthe black cloverleaf-like structure in the upper left Early middle ages European longhouses had an open fire under the greatest point of the building. The "kitchen location" was in between the entryway and the fireplace.

In some homes there were upwards of three cooking areas. The kitchens were divided based upon the types of food prepared in them. In location of a chimney, these early buildings had a hole in the roof through which some of the smoke might leave. Besides cooking, the fire likewise acted as a source of heat and light to the single-room structure.

In the larger homesteads of European nobles, the cooking area was sometimes in a separate sunken flooring structure to keep the main building, which served social and main purposes, complimentary from indoor smoke. The very first known stoves in Japan date from about the same time. The earliest findings are from the Kofun duration (3rd to sixth century).
This type of stove remained in use for centuries to come, with only small modifications. Like in Europe, the wealthier homes had a different building which served for cooking. A sort of open fire pit fired with charcoal, called irori, remained in usage as the secondary stove in most houses till the Edo period (17th to 19th century).
18th century cooks tended a fire and endured smoke in this Swiss farmhouse smoke kitchen area The cooking area remained mostly untouched by architectural advances throughout the Middle Ages; open fire remained the only method of heating food. European medieval cooking areas were dark, smoky, and sooty places, whence their name "smoke kitchen".

In wealthy homes, the ground floor was often used as a steady while the kitchen was located on the flooring above, like the bed room and the hall. In castles and abbeys, the living and workspace were separated; the cooking area was often relocated to a different structure, and hence might not serve any longer to heat up the living-room.