My granddad had a smoke house, really a shed, for smoking meat (ham). They'd wrap the hams in a burlap kind of white cloth and hang them and smoke the place up. He also salt cured hams as well, sometimes doing both, the result was delicious.
Back in the day, the kitchen was often a separate building because of the danger of fire, at least for larger houses. Of course the poor lived in a one or two room "shack" and were glad to have it.
Those folks lived lives full of work.