The use of the solid or browning shelf is to cut the oven in two, giving the greatest heat just under the browning shelf, and a cool oven above, so that in every stove one can have two ovens, one very hot and one cooler. For Boiling, — Turn the gas full on but do not allow the PREFACE. 7 flames to come up the sides of the saucepan, concentrate the heat underneath as much as possible. As soon as the con- tents of the saucepan come to boiling point, turn the gas nearly out, and it will keep gently simmering. To Bake Pastry. — Let the oven get thoroughly hot, the temperature should be about 240. Place the pastry on baking sheets, immediately under the solid or browning shelf and turn the gas down to half, diminishing the heat from time to time, and placing the pastry on the top of the browning shelf to finish off. Pastry requires a sharp quick oven to set it, and to keep the butter in ; as soon as the pastry is set aud beginning to brown, the heat must be reduced. For Cakes. — A moderate oven is required, not so hot as for pastry, but when the cake is rising and browning, say in 5 to xo minutes, lower the gas considerably, and when nearly done, turn the gas quite out in the oven to let the cake soak well. If a large cake taking 2 hours to bake, lower the flames to half-an-inch on putting it in the oven, and after 10 minutes lower the gas and reduce the heat every half-hour, turning the gas quite out for the last half-hour. If the cake takes only an hour to bake, reduce the heat every quarter of an hour and turn it quite off the last quarter of an hour, and so on in proportion for either large or small cakes, placing them always upon an open grid shelf and underneath the solid or browning shelf till risen and brown. Small cakes such as Rock Cakes, require a sharper oven to set them into shape, but the heat must be reduced after 2 or 3 minutes. Any Cake burnt underneath is due to too much gas being used. 8 PREFACE. To Bake Bread. — A half quartern loaf will take 40 minutes exactly, both the grid shelves may be filled with as many loaves as they will hold with the browning shelf over them. Reduce the gas for bread every ten minutes, and quite out for the last ten minutes. As regards Grilling. — The grills of different stoves vary somewhat in construction, but the method of grilling is very similar. Always light the gas and let the griller get red hot, and the gridiron underneath in the pan must be hot too. Then grease the bars and place the steak on the gridiron. Be careful not to allow the flames to touch the meat. Give the steak a fierce heat for one minute to seal up the outside and form a casing to keep in the red juices, then lower the flame a little and let it cook gently for about five minutes ; then turn the steak with a spoon or blunt knife or the steak tongs, turn up the gas to give the raw side of the steak a fierce heat for one minute, and then lower the flames to one half for the remaining five minutes. Chops will take about seven minutes (the same method as above being observed), and Cutlets five minutes. Meat cooked by the gas griller as above is very tender and juicy, and extremely nourishing, palatable and digestible. The grill is also very nice for grilling bacon and fish, and making toast, and cannot be equalled for Omelettes.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The use of the solid or browning shelf is to cut the oven in two, giving the greatest heat just under the browning shelf, and a cool oven above, so that in every stove one can have two ovens, one very hot and one cooler. For Boiling, — Turn the gas full on but do not allow the flames to come up the sides of the saucepan, concentrate the heat underneath as much as possible. As soon as the contents of the saucepan come to boiling point, turn the gas nearly out, and it will keep gently simmering. To Bake Pastry. — Let the oven get thoroughly hot, the temperature should be about 240. Place the pastry on baking sheets, immediately under the solid or browning shelf and turn the gas down to half, diminishing the heat from time to time, and placing the pastry on the top of the browning shelf to finish off. Pastry requires a sharp quick oven to set it, and to keep the butter in ; as soon as the pastry is set aud beginning to brown, the heat must be reduced. For Cakes. — A moderate oven is required, not so hot as for pastry, but when the cake is rising and browning, say in 5 to 10 minutes, lower the gas considerably, and when nearly done, turn the gas quite out in the oven to let the cake soak well. If a large cake taking 2 hours to bake, lower the flames to half-an-inch on putting it in the oven, and after 10 minutes lower the gas and reduce the heat every half-hour, turning the gas quite out for the last half-hour. If the cake takes only an hour to bake, reduce the heat every quarter of an hour and turn it quite off the last quarter of an hour, and so on in proportion for either large or small cakes, placing them always upon an open grid shelf and underneath the solid or browning shelf till risen and brown. Small cakes such as Rock Cakes, require a sharper oven to set them into shape, but the heat must be reduced after 2 or 3 minutes. Any Cake burnt underneath is due to too much gas being used. To Bake Bread. — A half quartern loaf will take 40 minutes exactly, both the grid shelves may be filled with as many loaves as they will hold with the browning shelf over them. Reduce the gas for bread every ten minutes, and quite out for the last ten minutes. As regards Grilling. — The grills of different stoves vary somewhat in construction, but the method of grilling is very similar. Always light the gas and let the griller get red hot, and the gridiron underneath in the pan must be hot too. Then grease the bars and place the steak on the gridiron. Be careful not to allow the flames to touch the meat. Give the steak a fierce heat for one minute to seal up the outside and form a casing to keep in the red juices, then lower the flame a little and let it cook gently for about five minutes ; then turn the steak with a spoon or blunt knife or the steak tongs, turn up the gas to give the raw side of the steak a fierce heat for one minute, and then lower the flames to one half for the remaining five minutes. Chops will take about seven minutes (the same method as above being observed), and Cutlets five minutes. Meat cooked by the gas griller as above is very tender and juicy, and extremely nourishing, palatable and digestible. The grill is also very nice for grilling bacon and fish, and making toast, and cannot be equalled for Omelettes.

Gas cookery