Kitchen stove

“ Now, a kitchen can be so constructed that even with the largest size family-stove or range in use, it will be as comfortable as any other room in the house, and at an expense not to exceed the cost of the stove or range used. To do this, build of brick a large open fire-place, say from three to twelve inches broader than the length of the stove or range to be used, and from front to rear deep enough to receive the same. It is best to set an ordinary cook-stove with the side to the front, so that the oven door can be convenient. ”

“ Burgular:
Please do not steal my kitchen stove. If you need a stove steal something else like the telephone book or that empty [Pg 51] bottle of Woostershire Sauce standing on the parlor mantel-piece with the daisy in it, and sell them to buy a new stove with the money. I've had that stove for ten years and it has only just learned how to cook and it would be very annoying to me to have to get a new one and have to teach it how I like my potatoes done. You know the one I mean. It's the only stove in the house, so you can't get it mixed up with any other. ”

“ The stove was close to the door, but of course, no one who lives in a caravan ever uses the stove except when it is raining. You make the fire out of doors at all other times, and swing the pot from three sticks. (Hedgehog stew! Can't you smell it?) There were kitchen utensils on hooks and racks on each side of the stove which was covered in with shining brass, and rows of enameled cups and saucers, and plates, and knives and forks. ”

“ Attention has already been drawn to the importance of thorough ventilation of the kitchens. A cooking stove is much to be preferred to a kitchen range or ordinary kitchener, and may be obtained of any size required, the prices ranging from about £5 upwards. The kitchen should contain either two ‘coppers’ or a gas stove with two boilers, one for boiling water, and the other for making soup. The latter is a convenient arrangement especially where tea and coffee are required at an early hour in the morning. ”

“ The most common modes of cooking, where open fires are relinquished, are by the range and the cooking-stove. The range is inferior to the stove in these respects: it is less economical, demanding much more fuel; it endangers the dress of the cook while standing near for various operations; it requires more stooping than the stove while cooking; it will not keep a fire all night, as do the best stoves; it will not burn wood and coal equally well; and lastly, if it warms the kitchen sufficiently in winter, it is too warm for summer. Some prefer it because the fumes of cooking can be carried off ”

“ When the stove is required for cook- ing purposes, the drier can be swung back out of the way by means of the wooden bracket made of lath and attached to the wall by a bent nail and piece of fence wire. An electric fan can be trained on the drier to hasten the drying process. It can be kept running at night when the kitchen stove is cold. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The little knobs on the doors she rubbed with a bit of nickel polish she found in another box, and used a dry flannel cloth on them last. Her mother explained that it was necessary to keep a stove very bright and shining, or it would wear out, and, besides that, a bright one made the kitchen look tidy and attractive. "Some people just paint the whole stove over once or twice a year with a black enamel, and never polish it at all, and perhaps that is a good way for very busy people to do, but I like the [Pg 31] old-fashioned way better myself. ”

“ 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. ”

“ You should never hang anything over the stove. Tell your mother to take down those clothes-bars this very afternoon, and put them on the other side of the kitchen; and remember never to go out of the room again when you have started up the fire. A red-hot stove will sometimes set wood-work [Pg 28] on fire, even if there isn't a cotton dress near by to help it along. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Now construct a sliding sash with double strength glass, and balanced with weights, with the upper end of sash inside the draught flue, and the lower end to reach within a foot of the floor, and about four inches from the side of stove. You will readily perceive that the heat from the stove inside the flue will constantly cause a strong draught between the bottom of the sash and the floor, which will prevent heat from escaping into the kitchen, keeping it as cool as any room in the house. ”

“ A stove or range of plain finish is to be preferred, because it is much easier to keep clean, and will be likely to present a better appearance after a few months' wear than one of more elaborate pattern. But whatever stove or range is selected, its mechanism should be thoroughly understood in every particular, and it should be tested with dampers open, with dampers closed, and in every possible way, until one is perfectly sure she understands its action under all conditions. ”

“ Replace the covers, and if the stove needs blacking, mix the polish, and apply it, rubbing with a dry brush until nearly dry, then light the fuel, as a little heat will facilitate the polishing. When the wood is burning briskly, place a shovelful or two of rather small pieces of coal upon the wood, and, as they ignite, gradually add more, until there is a clear, bright body of fire, remembering, however, never to fill the stove above the fire bricks ”

“ There is always some soot formed, even in the best-managed stoves, and the flame often carries ashes with it. These in time fill the narrow space about the oven and cut off or check the passage of the hot gases about the oven. When this happens and the oven damper is closed, the stove will smoke and not bake well. No stove should be allowed to get in this condition. The housewife can watch the accumulation of ashes in the stove and remove them before they become one-fourth inch thick. If this is not done, the oven will not heat well and some parts may be considerably cooler than others. ”

“ It is free from impurities which invite corrosion and rust and has proved a valuable material out of which to make a good stove body. On some stoves the tops are made of gray iron castings which, with the black body and its polished iron trimmings, make a very stately and harmonious article without sacrificing anything of practical utility.
The top of any stove is the place upon which are placed the utensils for frying, boiling, etc. This is true whether the fuel be coal, gas, electricity or what-not. ”

“ By a distribution so easy to be established, a single stove may supply the place of all the chimnies of a house. Every where inflammable air is ready to diffuse immediately heat and light of the most glowing or most mild nature, simultaneously or separately, according to your wishes. In the twinkling of an eye, you may conduct the flame from one room to another; an advantage equally convenient and economical, and which can never be obtained with our common stoves and chimnies. No sparks, no charcoal, no soot, to trouble you; no ashes, no wood, to soil your apartments. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Owing largely to the strides made in the cycle trade enamelling is stoved by means of gas, and of this a plentiful supply is necessary. Enamelling stoves may really be described as hot-air cupboards or ovens, and for a stove which will answer most requirements—say one of 6 feet by 6 feet by 31/2 feet—six rows of atmospheric burners will be necessary to heat it, while it will be also advisable to fix pipes of 11/4 inch internal diameter from the gas meter to the 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. ”

“ The best kind of stove is mounted as high as possible so that it may be cleaned underneath. Also it should be set high to avoid fatigue in bending and lifting when using the oven, but not so high that the cook cannot use the hot plate comfortably.
Be sure that no taps are clogged with grease, and remember that when a gas stove smells it is because it is dirty or because the gas is turned on too full and is not being properly consumed, or gas is escaping. Well-managed gas cookers do not smell. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Something, no doubt, has been done in the direction of economy by the invention of new and improved forms of stoves, but a great preponderance of the heat generated in the fire of even the best stove goes up the chimney. The electric oven, as already invented, is perhaps the nearest approach to a really economical "cooker" that has yet been proposed; but even before the general adoption of such an apparatus there will be ample room for improvement in the cooking stove, first as regards insulation, and secondly in the distribution of the fuel around the objects to be heated. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”