Cooking stove

“ Before stoves for cooking came into use in the home, food was cooked in open fireplaces. Even when wood was the only fuel known, a stove for burning it, called the Franklin stove, was invented by Benjamin Franklin, but not until coal came into use as fuel were iron stoves made. For a long time stoves were used mainly for heating purposes, as many housewives preferred to cook at the open fireplace. However, this method of cooking has practically disappeared and a stove of some kind is in use for cooking in every home. ”

“ In the stove which has the oven heat-regulating device, there are many of the fireless cooker features with some of its drawbacks eliminated. For example, it has no thick walls which eventually become impregnated with odors of past meals; the time in pot watching is eliminated; you can do other work and yet be sure that your cooking is being done well. So much of the cooking can be done in the oven that fewer burners are necessary. ”

“ To his already extensive list of gas cooking apparatus, Mr Fletcher, Warrington, has just added what he calls his ‘Large Cottage Cooker,’ which is simply a Gas cooking-stove in the cheapest and simplest form to be effective. For two pounds may be had a good roasting, and a fairly good pastry and bread oven, with a reversible boiler and grillers on the top. The body of the stove is made of galvanised iron, and the shelves are wrought iron. ”

“ The Kitchen Stove. The chief business of the kitchen stove is to provide heat for cooking. It must hold a fire, and so must be made of something which will not burn. Stoves are usually made of iron. Fire will not burn without air, so a place must be arranged to let air into the stove, and just enough to make the fire burn clearly and furnish the right amount of heat. That is what the front dampers or slides are for. The fuel, wood or coal, is held in the fire-box. The heated air makes the top of the stove hot for frying, broiling or boiling, and the oven hot for baking. ”

“ Construction of a Good Stove.—Both cooking-ranges and cooking-stoves are constructed of steel, malleable iron, wrought-iron and cast-iron. Of these, the cast-iron stoves are the least expensive; but they cannot be recommended, because they are liable to crack; they usually waste fuel, owing to imperfect construction, frequently smoke, and are frequently out of order. ”

“ On the stove that was heated with straw or with stubble the victuals may be left; on a stove that was heated with pressed poppy seed or with wood, the victuals may be left only if the live coals were taken out or covered with ashes. What kind of victuals may be left there? According to Beth Shamai such as are to be kept warm, but not such as improve by cooking. ”

“ There is no one convenience on which so large a part of house comfort depends as on a good cooking-apparatus, whether in the form of stove or range; and however perfect the patent, nothing can so easily be put out of working order by careless management. Before starting a new fire, examine if the stove has been thoroughly cleaned from the last one; then open the dampers; roll up and put into the grate a few pieces of paper,—or some shavings, if you can have them, are still better; lay lightly on this some splinters or small bits of kindling wood. ”

“ The good points of the stove are that it can be made by anybody in a half day's time; it does not smoke the camp, does not black the cooking utensils, gives the maximum amount of heat from the minimum quantity of fuel, and will not give out or go bad unexpectedly in the middle of the winter. If you leave it to me our camp will be equipped with a sheet iron stove. While the stove itself is not now to be considered, we must know before we commence to build what form of heating and cooking apparatus will be installed. ”

“ The next important thing is the stove. The top of a common cooking-stove with covers and stove-pipe to fit, which can be bought at any junk-shop for a trifle, serves very well in dry weather. Dig out a place in the side of a bank the size and shape of the stove-top, about two feet deep, and line three sides with brick or stones, with the front open. ”

“ For this reason, a gas or oil stove, in the absence of a charcoal fire, is the best means of cooking it, as, under such conditions, the heat can be more easily adjusted for the purpose in view than in the case of the ordinary coal fire. Indeed, in England all Oriental cookery is much more easily and conveniently prepared with the aid of such stoves. ”

“ With the particular stove in question, the novice soon becomes an expert. As much of the cooking can be done in the oven, not so large a surface stove need be bought; a small family can actually use a two-burner surface. ”

“ With the ordinary kitchen range this is accomplished by cooking on the cooler part of the stove rather than on the hottest part, directly over the fire. Experience with a gas stove, particularly if it has a small burner known as a "simmerer," usually enables the cook to maintain temperatures which are high enough to sterilize the meat if it has become accidentally contaminated in any way and to make it tender without hardening the fibers. ”

“ There are a great many manufacturers of oil stoves, and as a natural consequence, where there is so much competition, the stoves are nearly all good. One would not think of doing the cooking for a large family with one or, indeed, two of them; but the amount of work that can be accomplished with a single stove is remarkable. They are a great comfort in hot weather, many small families doing their entire cooking with them. ”

“ Proper cooking by this method depends greatly upon the facility with which the heat of the oven can be regulated. When oil or gas is the fuel used, it is an easy matter to secure and maintain almost any degree of heat desirable, but with a wood or coal stove, especial care and painstaking are necessary. ”

“ A cheap and very satisfactory drier for use over the kitchen stove can be made by any handy man of small-mesh galvanized-wire netting and laths or strips of wood about 1/2 inch thick and 2 inches wide. By using two laths nailed together the framework can be stiffened and larger trays made if desirable. This form can be suspended from the ceiling over the kitchen range or over a clear burning oil, gasoline, or gas stove, and it will utilize the hot air which rises during the cooking hour. It can be raised out of the way or swung to one side by a pulley or by a crane made of lath. ”

“ But open fireplaces, while pleasant to look at, are not efficient for either heating or cooking. The possibilities for the latter are especially limited, and the invention of stoves was a great advance in efficiency, economy, and comfort. A stove is a receptacle for fire, provided with a definite inlet for air and a definite outlet for smoke, and able to radiate into the room most of the heat produced from the fire which burns within. ”

“ When we consider their convenience to housekeepers and the time which they save, we do not wonder that the use of such stoves is rapidly extending. The equable nature of the heat insures good cookery; a pot or kettle may be boiled on the burner in a few minutes, and the housewife may be kept quite easy as to the state of her kitchen fire for cooking purposes. In fact, in summer the kitchen fire may be dispensed with altogether. There is no smoke or ashes; pans and kettles are easier kept clean, and all this is done at but a trifling expense for gas—say one penny per hour for a medium stove. ”

“ Cooking by gas is less heating, and consequently less tiring to the person employed, than cooking by a coal-range. Construction of Gas Stoves.—The oven of a well-constructed gas stove is made either entirely of cellular cast iron and jacketed all over with slag wool, or it is made with a double casing with an intermediate hot-air jacket. This is necessary to prevent heat being conducted from the oven to the surrounding air. The gas-burners are not always inside the oven ”

“ The flues of wood and coal stoves should be thoroughly cleansed out once a week, and the oven cleansed with soap and soda; this is very necessary work, for if the ovens are not clean whatever is cooked in them will be spoilt. A little thoughtful care in these matters will often prevent much trouble when cooking. Let a housekeeper, therefore, thoroughly master her stove first, and understand the flues and dampers, for only in this way will she be able to successfully cook the dishes she has skilfully prepared. ”

“ It will be seen, when we say that the entire cooking for a small family having late dinners, bread baked, and much water heated, is done for something under £2 a quarter, that gas as a fuel is not so great an extravagance after all. The stove used has the oven lined with a non-conducting substance, which has the advantage of keeping the heat within instead of sending it into the kitchen, as stoves made only of iron plates are apt to do. ”

“ A coal stove is an enormous consumer of time and energy. An alcohol stove furnishes the cleanest method of cooking, quite practicable, with a fireless cooker and steam cooker, for a small family. Next in convenience, and more economical, are the gas or oil vapor stoves. A good fireless cooker vastly reduces the time required in the kitchen, and cuts the fuel bill in half.
In serving meals, labor is saved by using a tray, or better still a wheeled tray with several shelves, which may be drawn up to the table to hold the additional courses and the soiled dishes as removed. ”

“ In using a fireless cooker, the food is first heated on the stove until the cooking has begun, and then it is placed in the fireless cooker—a tight receptacle in which the food is completely surrounded by some insulating substance to prevent the rapid escape of the heat, which in this way is retained in the food in sufficient quantity to complete the cooking. Sometimes, when a higher cooking temperature is desired, an additional source of heat, in the form of a hot soapstone or brick or an iron plate such as a stove lid, is put into the cooker with the food. ”

“ These stoves are sometimes a great convenience in places not within reach of gas. No flue is required for their use; and being small they can be easily conveyed from place to place. Cooking on an oil stove may be done 20 per cent, cheaper than by any other means; but unless the wicks are kept well-trimmed and the stoves properly managed, they emit a disagreeable smell and smoke. In a properly constructed stove there is not much danger from explosion, unless a light is, through carelessness, brought in contact with the oil. ”

“ Such poor men's cooking-stoves exist, on a large scale, in all modern-built lodging-houses. Also, a three-gallon iron pot with a lid to it, a one-gallon saucepan, a two-quart ditto, a frying-pan, a gridiron, and a strong tin baking-dish. ”

“ If it be objected that they require much fuel to secure the prolonged cooking necessary, we would say that a few cents' worth of oil a week and a small lamp stove will accomplish the cooking in a most efficient manner. For a hot-weather food there are few articles which give greater satisfaction and require less time and labor on the part of the housewife than grains, cooked by the aid of a small lamp stove. ”

“ While frying or cooking on a gas stove the grease will spatter over the top and make the cleaning rather difficult, especially where there are many crevices. A simple method of avoiding this trouble is to place a paper over the top of the stove, with round holes cut out for each burner a little larger than the pots and pans used in the cooking. ”

“ For Coal Oil or Gasoline.
Code Word “Simplicity.”
A complete family cook stove having five burners, which can be used for cooking, singly or all at the same time. The burners are 31⁄2 inches in diameter and give a powerful blue flame. When used at their full capacity each burner is sufficient for heating two or more cooking vessels. The two step burners are 31⁄2 inches in diameter and can also be used separately for cooking. Together, they give requisite heat for baking in our New Process oven, with which this stove is provided. The oven can be pushed back when not in use. ”

“ Ranges set in a solid brick-work are considered the best form of cooking-apparatus; but there are some serious objections to their use, the first being the large amount of fuel required, and then the intense heat thrown out. Even with water in the house, they are not a necessity. A water-back, fully as effectual as the range water-back, can be set in any good stove, and connected with a boiler, large or small, according to the size of the stove; and for such stove, if properly managed, only about half the amount of coal will be needed. ”

“ Oil and Gas Stoves.—In many households, oil, gas, and gasoline stoves have largely taken the place of the kitchen range, especially during the hot weather of summer. They can be used for nearly every purpose for which a wood or a coal range is used; they require much less labor and litter, and can be instantly started into full force and as quickly turned out when no longer required, while the fact that the heat can be regulated with exactness, makes them superior for certain processes of cooking to any other stove. ”

“ Experience has proved that the best results are secured if the fire is built only 4 inches high. When hot coals come near the top of the stove, the lids are likely to warp and crack from the heat and the cooking will not be done any more effectively. ”