Kitchen Ranges. — There is no item in the household equal in importance to the kitchen range. A good one means comfort and economy ; a bad one discomfort, waste, and the endless troubles and difficulties which bad cooking and unreliability as regards time cannot fail to produce. When we bear in mind the cost of the extra quantity of coals an imperfect range will burn in the course of 12 months, the folly of tolerating such an appliance is recognised at once, without strengthening the case by referring to any of the other points already- mentioned. Never come to terms with a bad range on any ground. KITCHEN AND DOMESTIC REQUISITES. 131 Before proceeding to consider in detail the features of a good range, a word in passing on the important matter of setting, and if you and your stove fall out, do not condemn it off-hand, but first make certain it is properly set. It frequently happens, too, in new houses, that the flues have been left partly blocked with cement or other rubbish. All these points should be carefully seen to before condemnation. It is taken for granted that the old-fashioned open range is a thing of the past. Shooting a whole scuttleful of coal into its capacious maw, balancing saucepans on the ‘ knobbley bits,’ and imparting a fine smoky flavour all round, would not be suffered nowadays ; the wonder is they were ever meekly borne. And it is therefore superfluous to dilate on the superi- ority of the close range, as is generally done in all seriousness by books on cookery. There was, perhaps, on the first introduction of the close range, a well-grounded belief that joints baked in the oven were inferior to those roasted before the fire, but the defect was soon dis- covered and made good. Of course the boiler should be self-filling, if possible. The danger attending any neglect to keep a boiler properly full is well-known, and, moreover, it is seldom the water remains clean when an opening into the boiler exists on the top of the range. The duties a range has to perform are briefly, to bake, to heat saucepans, fryingpans, etc., and to furnish a constant supply of hot water. To bake efficiently, i.e., to roast a joint in the oven, or to bake bread, a pie or a pudding, the flues from the fire require to be so regulated that the flames may be directed over or under the oven at will. Meat requires heat to be underneath and around the joint, bread and pastry must be heated from above. Then, again, the oven should be capable of com- plete ventilation. It was from the want of proper ventilation that, formerly, joints baked in the oven had the peculiar flavour so rightly objected to. Bread and pastry do not need the same attention. A good range will, in addition, permit the cook to regulate the degree of heat almost to a nicety. When not circulating round the oven, the flames are directed along the boiler, and thus, as it were, are always kept profitably employed. A consideration which qualifies all is the con- sumption of fuel. Of late years improvements have been introduced which have brought down the amount of coal required to a mere fraction of that burnt in the good old times. The open fire, with a large area in front and underneath constantly receiving a fresh accession of cold air, spent a considerable portion of its heating energy in raising the temperature of this chill draught, and despatched the greater part of what remained straight up the

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Kitchen Ranges. — There is no item in the household equal in importance to the kitchen range. A good one means comfort and economy ; a bad one discomfort, waste, and the endless troubles and difficulties which bad cooking and unreliability as regards time cannot fail to produce. When we bear in mind the cost of the extra quantity of coals an imperfect range will burn in the course of 12 months, the folly of tolerating such an appliance is recognised at once, without strengthening the case by referring to any of the other points already mentioned. Never come to terms with a bad range on any ground. Before proceeding to consider in detail the features of a good range, a word in passing on the important matter of setting, and if you and your stove fall out, do not condemn it off-hand, but first make certain it is properly set. It frequently happens, too, in new houses, that the flues have been left partly blocked with cement or other rubbish. All these points should be carefully seen to before condemnation. It is taken for granted that the old-fashioned open range is a thing of the past. Shooting a whole scuttleful of coal into its capacious maw, balancing saucepans on the ‘ knobbley bits,’ and imparting a fine smoky flavour all round, would not be suffered nowadays ; the wonder is they were ever meekly borne. And it is therefore superfluous to dilate on the superiority of the close range, as is generally done in all seriousness by books on cookery. There was, perhaps, on the first introduction of the close range, a well-grounded belief that joints baked in the oven were inferior to those roasted before the fire, but the defect was soon discovered and made good. Of course the boiler should be self-filling, if possible. The danger attending any neglect to keep a boiler properly full is well-known, and, moreover, it is seldom the water remains clean when an opening into the boiler exists on the top of the range. The duties a range has to perform are briefly, to bake, to heat saucepans, fryingpans, etc., and to furnish a constant supply of hot water. To bake efficiently, i.e., to roast a joint in the oven, or to bake bread, a pie or a pudding, the flues from the fire require to be so regulated that the flames may be directed over or under the oven at will. Meat requires heat to be underneath and around the joint, bread and pastry must be heated from above. Then, again, the oven should be capable of complete ventilation. It was from the want of proper ventilation that, formerly, joints baked in the oven had the peculiar flavour so rightly objected to. Bread and pastry do not need the same attention. A good range will, in addition, permit the cook to regulate the degree of heat almost to a nicety. When not circulating round the oven, the flames are directed along the boiler, and thus, as it were, are always kept profitably employed. A consideration which qualifies all is the consumption of fuel. Of late years improvements have been introduced which have brought down the amount of coal required to a mere fraction of that burnt in the good old times. The open fire, with a large area in front and underneath constantly receiving a fresh accession of cold air, spent a considerable portion of its heating energy in raising the temperature of this chill draught, and despatched the greater part of what remained straight up the

English and French cookery