A thousand feet of gas a week is a generous allow-
ance for kitchen use in an average family. Accord-
ing to one report, gas at $1.50 a thousand feet has
proved cheaper than coal at $5.00 a ton.
One cannot use a gas range in the same fashion as
the wood or coal stove, but must adapt herself to its
150 PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY
plan and the nature of the fuel. A steam cooker
makes it possible to cook enough food for two days
over one burner at one time. Today's dinner, a
cereal for tomorrow's breakfast, some cup custards
for supper, a stuffed fowl to be browned over in the
oven for tomorrow's dinner, all may be cooking at
once.
Then, with the ovens as commonly arranged, we
may broil or roast beneath the flame which is heating
the other oven to bake potatoes, bread or cake.
One pupil reports that she boils potatoes in the
lower part of the double boiler while cooking cereal
for the next day, and above that sets a basin of milk
to heat for a pudding or sauce or soup. By such
forethought the expense of gas is no greater than
any other fuel, and the labor of housework is much
reduced.
The removal of the tax on fuel alcohol, January,
1907, may mean much to the housekeeper as well as
to the manufacturer. Every one who has used a
chafing dish or alcohol lamp has wished that alcohol
was as cheap as kerosene. Under the new law it
may reach that point.
Since it may be made of many coarse and inferior
vegetable products now unused, there need be no
lack of this fuel, which is practically without odor or
smoke.
Thus the housekeeper must be ready to adapt her-
FUELS 151
self to another change in fuels and apparatus for its
use.
With the alcohol lamp and the hay-box much of
the discomfort and dirt now associated with kitchen
processes will be banished, never to return, and the
kitchen itself well may be dignified with the name of
"laboratory."
KEROSENE
The small oil and gasoline stoves are not used as
much as they deserve. With intelligent care and
high-grade oil, a well-made oil stove is safe. Fire in
any form is not a plaything.
Every household without gas or electricity should
be supplied with a good three-burner lamp stove and
small oven to fit it. These will cost about $3 .00. If
this lamp is given the same care that is given lamps
for evening use, results will be satisfactory. But
one must not expect a small stove to work as rapidly
or accomplish as much as a larger one. Have the
lamp full of oil to do good work. Do not let it burn
many hours in succession, but give it a chance to
cool off. Keep the wicks even and clean, and have
new ones when they become discolored, or too short
to reach the bottom of the lamp.
Oil stoves are liable to smoke if they stand in a
draft, and therefore should be protected. Choose
utensils to fit the stove and oven, and never fill them
so full that there is danger of boiling over into the
lamp. Since the heat is greatest in the lower part of
152 PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY
the oven, cook on the upper shelf as much as possible,
or exchange when possible. Asbestos mats may be
used on the lower shelves. With two three-burner
lamp stoves, and an oven to fit one, it has been easy
several times, in my own experience, to do all the
cooking for a family of six or eight persons.
FIRELESS COOKERS
Page 58
Presented as published in 1910. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
A thousand feet of gas a week is a generous allowance for kitchen use in an average family. According to one report, gas at $1.50 a thousand feet has proved cheaper than coal at $5.00 a ton.
One cannot use a gas range in the same fashion as the wood or coal stove, but must adapt herself to its
plan and the nature of the fuel. A steam cooker makes it possible to cook enough food for two days over one burner at one time. Today's dinner, a cereal for tomorrow's breakfast, some cup custards for supper, a stuffed fowl to be browned over in the oven for tomorrow's dinner, all may be cooking at once.
Then, with the ovens as commonly arranged, we may broil or roast beneath the flame which is heating the other oven to bake potatoes, bread or cake.
One pupil reports that she boils potatoes in the lower part of the double boiler while cooking cereal for the next day, and above that sets a basin of milk to heat for a pudding or sauce or soup. By such forethought the expense of gas is no greater than any other fuel, and the labor of housework is much reduced.
The removal of the tax on fuel alcohol, January, 1907, may mean much to the housekeeper as well as to the manufacturer. Every one who has used a chafing dish or alcohol lamp has wished that alcohol was as cheap as kerosene. Under the new law it may reach that point.
Since it may be made of many coarse and inferior vegetable products now unused, there need be no lack of this fuel, which is practically without odor or smoke.
Thus the housekeeper must be ready to adapt her-
FUELS 151
self to another change in fuels and apparatus for its use.
With the alcohol lamp and the hay-box much of the discomfort and dirt now associated with kitchen processes will be banished, never to return, and the kitchen itself well may be dignified with the name of "laboratory."
KEROSENE
The small oil and gasoline stoves are not used as much as they deserve. With intelligent care and high-grade oil, a well-made oil stove is safe. Fire in any form is not a plaything.
Every household without gas or electricity should be supplied with a good three-burner lamp stove and small oven to fit it. These will cost about $3 .00. If this lamp is given the same care that is given lamps for evening use, results will be satisfactory. But one must not expect a small stove to work as rapidly or accomplish as much as a larger one. Have the lamp full of oil to do good work. Do not let it burn many hours in succession, but give it a chance to cool off. Keep the wicks even and clean, and have new ones when they become discolored, or too short to reach the bottom of the lamp.
Oil stoves are liable to smoke if they stand in a draft, and therefore should be protected. Choose utensils to fit the stove and oven, and never fill them so full that there is danger of boiling over into the lamp. Since the heat is greatest in the lower part of
the oven, cook on the upper shelf as much as possible, or exchange when possible. Asbestos mats may be used on the lower shelves. With two three-burner lamp stoves, and an oven to fit one, it has been easy several times, in my own experience, to do all the cooking for a family of six or eight persons.
FIRELESS COOKERS