To test the heat-retaining capacity of this outfit, two gallons of water was raised to the boiling point in the kettle. Closely covered, it was placed on one of the thicker cushions in the trunk and the others fitted in closely around and over the kettle. A blanket and some newspapers were spread over all, and the trunk locked. Twenty-four hours later the water was hot enough for dish-washing or bathing. TIRELESS COOKER 157 The statements made in the above report were fully verified by my own experience. This method of cooking is especially adapted to any article requir- ing long, gentle heat, such as the making of soup- stocks and broths and rendering tough meats tender. With very tough fowls, when the water cools down below 150-1600 F., the whole may again be raised to the boiling point and started again in the hay-box. It must not be expected to do everything, but every housekeeper who must depend upon a gas or kerosene stove should arrange a tireless cooker for economy of fuel and to increase her own comfort. Many an American housewife uses both coal and gas ranges in her winter home, and in the summer cottage must depend upon wood and kerosene stoves. Probably during the year she also uses a chafing-dish occasionally, and that may derive its heat from alco- hol or electricity. Wherever a house is supplied with electric lights there should be at least one elec- trical cooking appliance. Some excellent ones are already on the market, and the next generation, doubt- less, will use this force in housekeeping as freely as we use gas. Each of these methods of securing heat for cooking may be the best under certain conditions and have disadvantages under others. The housekeeper needs to be keen in judgment and quick to see in order to adapt her formulas of cookery successfully in turn to wood, coal, gas, kerosene, gasoline, alcohol or 158 PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY electricity. She must know how to tell when a thing is "done," and not trust wholly to the number of minutes prescribed in a recipe. Women who are called upon to make such rapid transitions become adaptable, inventive, and are less "set in their ways" in other directions. The study of processes of cookery may thus become a broadening influence and means of general education. CO-OPERATIVE COOKING But there are certain household traditions which hold many intelligent women in a firm grasp, and these traditions may be traced to the generations behind us, when no money value was placed upon woman's labor. It does not yet seem easy for women to count fairly the cost of foods cooked under their own roof. Until this can be done there is small, chance for co-operative industries, which might relieve the pressure of home cares where house- workers are not readily secured. Few families to-day find it wise to make butter for themselves, and many would do well to buy bread, also. When there is a demand for high-grade bread made outside the home, it will be supplied, as has been the case here with other commodities, and with bread in other countries. There are many small towns to-day to which bread is sent from first- class bakeries ioo to 200 miles away. With stronger laws, better enforced for the clean- liness and purity of food products; with greater HEAT CONSERVER Apparatus used in an attempt to deliver hot meals at a distance. KITCHEN FURNISHINGS 159

AI-modernized reading of the original text

To test the heat-retaining capacity of this outfit, two gallons of water was raised to the boiling point in the kettle. Closely covered, it was placed on one of the thicker cushions in the trunk and the others fitted in closely around and over the kettle. A blanket and some newspapers were spread over all, and the trunk locked. Twenty-four hours later the water was hot enough for dish-washing or bathing. [illustration: TIRELESS COOKER 157] The statements made in the above report were fully verified by my own experience. This method of cooking is especially adapted to any article requiring long, gentle heat, such as the making of soupstocks and broths and rendering tough meats tender. With very tough fowls, when the water cools down below 150-160° F., the whole may again be raised to the boiling point and started again in the hay-box. It must not be expected to do everything, but every housekeeper who must depend upon a gas or kerosene stove should arrange a tireless cooker for economy of fuel and to increase her own comfort. Many an American housewife uses both coal and gas ranges in her winter home, and in the summer cottage must depend upon wood and kerosene stoves. Probably during the year she also uses a chafing-dish occasionally, and that may derive its heat from alcohol or electricity. Wherever a house is supplied with electric lights there should be at least one electrical cooking appliance. Some excellent ones are already on the market, and the next generation, doubtless, will use this force in housekeeping as freely as we use gas. Each of these methods of securing heat for cooking may be the best under certain conditions and have disadvantages under others. The housekeeper needs to be keen in judgment and quick to see in order to adapt her formulas of cookery successfully in turn to wood, coal, gas, kerosene, gasoline, alcohol or electricity. She must know how to tell when a thing is "done," and not trust wholly to the number of minutes prescribed in a recipe. Women who are called upon to make such rapid transitions become adaptable, inventive, and are less "set in their ways" in other directions. The study of processes of cookery may thus become a broadening influence and means of general education. CO-OPERATIVE COOKING But there are certain household traditions which hold many intelligent women in a firm grasp, and these traditions may be traced to the generations behind us, when no money value was placed upon woman's labor. It does not yet seem easy for women to count fairly the cost of foods cooked under their own roof. Until this can be done there is small, chance for co-operative industries, which might relieve the pressure of home cares where houseworkers are not readily secured. Few families to-day find it wise to make butter for themselves, and many would do well to buy bread, also. When there is a demand for high-grade bread made outside the home, it will be supplied, as has been the case here with other commodities, and with bread in other countries. There are many small towns to-day to which bread is sent from firstclass bakeries ioo to 200 miles away. With stronger laws, better enforced for the cleanliness and purity of food products; with greater HEAT CONSERVER Apparatus used in an attempt to deliver hot meals at a distance.

Principles of cookery