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Show Advantages of Firsl ess Cooker- Hdti) to make a veiy satisfactory device at home at low cost :: Directions for its use rt VERY satisfactory Cre- less cooker may be made at relatively slight expense, according accord-ing to specialists of the office of home econo-'mics econo-'mics of the department Q of agriculture. The outside of the cooker may be a tightly built wooden box, an old trunk, a small barrel, a large butter or lard firkin or tin, or a large galvanized-iron galvanized-iron bucket with close-fitting cover. In general, a well-built, conveniently sized box is perhaps most satisfactory, though the cookers entirely encased in metal have the advantage of being fireproof. fire-proof. If a box is to be used, Its size will depend on the size of the cooking kettle ket-tle to be used in it and on whether there are to be one or two compartments. compart-ments. It must be large enough to allow for at least 4 inches of packing material all around the "nest" in which the cooking kettle is to be placed. For the sake of cleanliness and convenience the nest should be lined with metal and should be a trifle larger than the' cooking utensil. If an extra source of heat, such as a hot brick or plate, is to be used, a metallic me-tallic lining for the nest is imperative. For this purpose a galvanized iron or other metal bucket may be used or, better still, a tinsmith can make a lining lin-ing of galvanized iron or zinc which can be provided with a rim to cover the packing material. In case no hot stone or plate is to be used in the cooker, cook-er, the lining can be made of strong cardboard. For the packing and Insulating material ma-terial a variety of substances may be used. Asbestos and mineral wool are good and have- the additional advantage advan-tage that tey do not burn. Ground cork (such as is used In packing Ma- Longitudinal Section Through Fireless Cooker. Showing details of construction: A, Outside Out-side container (wooden box, old trunk, etc.) B, Packing or insulating material (crumpled paper, cinders, etc.). C. Metal lining in nest. D, Cooking kettle. E, Soapstone plate, or other source of heat. F, Pad of excelsior for covering top. G, Hinged cover of outside container. laga grapes), hay, excelsior, Spanish moss, wool, and crumpled paper may also be used satisfactorily. Of the Inexpensive materials that can be obtained ob-tained easily, Crumpled paper is probably prob-ably the most satisfactory, since it is clean and odorless and, if properly packed, will hold the heat better than some of the others. To ilnck- the rnn- talner with paper, crush single sheets of newspaper between the hands. Pack a layer at least 4 inches deep over the bottom of the outside container, tramping It In or"pounding it in with a heavy stick of wood. Stand the container con-tainer for the cooking vessel, or the lining for the nest in the center of this layer and pack more crushed papers pa-pers about It as solidly as possible. If other packing, such as excelsior, hay, . or cork dust, is used, It should be packed pack-ed In a similar way. Where an extra source of heat is to be used, It is much safer to pack the tireless cooker with some non-inflammable material, such as asbestos xr mineral wool. A cheap and easily obtained substitute Is the small cinders sifted from coal ashos, preferably those from soft coal, which may be obtained at the boiler house of any mill. The cinders from hard coal burned in the kitchen range will do, however. Experiments with this material made by home-economics specialists of the department of agriculture agri-culture showed that It is very nearly as satisfactory as crumpled paper as a packing material. If a fireproof packing material is not used a heavy pad of asbestos paper should be put-at the bottom of the metal nest and. a sheet or two of asbestos paper should be placed between the lining of the nest and the packing material. Whatever What-ever packing material is used, it should come to the top of the contain- er for the kettle, and the box should lack about 4 Inches of being full. A cushion or pad must be provided to fill completely the space between the top of the packing and 'the cover of the box after the hot kettles are put in place. This should be made of some heavy goods, such as denim, and stuffed with cotton crumpled paper, or excelsior. Hay inay be used, but will be found more or less odorous. The kettles used for cooking should be durable and free from seams or crevices, which are hard rto clean. They should have perpendicular sides and the covers should be as tint as possible and provided with a deep rim shutting well down Into the kettle to retain the steam. It is possible to buy kettles made especially for use iu fire-less fire-less cookers ; these are provided with covers which can be clamped on tightly. tight-ly. The size of the kettle should be determined by the quantity of food to be cooked. Small amounts of food cannot be cooked satisfactorily in large kettles, and It Is therefore an advantage to have a cooker with compartments com-partments of two or more different sizes. Kettles holding about 6 quarts are of convenient size for general use. Tinned-iron kettles should not be used, in a fireless cooker, for, although cheap, they are very apt to rust from the confined moisture. Enameled-Ware Enameled-Ware kettles are satisfactory, especially especial-ly if the covers are of the same material; ma-terial; Aluminum vessels may be purchased pur-chased in shapes which make them especially es-pecially well adapted for use in fireless fire-less cookers-nnd, like enameled ware, they do not rust. . How to Use the Fireless Cooker. Obviously the fireless cooker must be used with intelligence to obtain the best results. It is best suited to those foods which require boiling, steaming, or long, slow cooking in a moist heat. Foods cannot be fried in it, pies cannot be baked successfully in the ordinary fireless cooker, nor can any cooking be done which requires re-quires a high, dry heat for browning. Meats, however, may be partially roasted in the oven and finished in the cooker, or may be begun in the cooker and finished in the oven with much the same results as If they were rcjisted in the oven entirely. The classes of food best adapted to the cooker are cereals, soups, meats, vegetables, vege-tables, dried fruits, steamed breads, and puddings. When different foods are cooked together to-gether in the fireless cooker they must be such as require the same amount of cooking, since the cooker cannot be opened to take out food without allowing the escape of a large amount of heat and making It necessary to reheat Oe contents. It would not do to put foods which need about one and one-half hours to cook into the cooker with a piece of meat which would stay several hours. The size of the container used in cooking with the fireless cooker should be governed according to the amount of food to be cooked. Small quantities of food cannot be cooked satisfactorily in a large kettle In the fireless cooker. If a large kettle must be used, better results wilt be obtained if some other material which holds heat fairly well is used to fill up the empty space. This may be accomplished in several ways. One Is to put the small quantity quan-tity of food to be cooked into a smaller, small-er, tightly closed kettle, fill the large kettle with boiling water and put. the small kettle into it, standing it on an Inverted bowl or some other suitable support. This boiling water will take up and hold the heat better than air. would. Several smaller dishes (if tightly covered) may be placed in the kettle surrounded by boiling water. Baking powder or other tins often are found useful for this purpose. Another Anoth-er way is to place one food in a basin which just fits into the top of a large kettle and to let some other material, some vegetable perhaps, cook in the water lu the bottom of the kettle. Two or more flat, shallow kettles placed one on top of the other so as to fill the cooker, . enable one to cook small amounts of different foods successfully. suc-cessfully. Such kettles,- made especially espe-cially for use in fireless cookers, may be purchased. ' Time Required for Cooking. The time which each kind of food should stay in the cooker depends both on the nature of the food and on the temperature at which it remains inside the cooker, and before recipes for use with the fireless cooker can be prepared one must have some means of knowing how temperatures are preserved pre-served in it. In experiments made in Metal Lining for Nest for Fireless ' Cooker. A, Rim to cover packing material; B, Container for cooking kettle and hot stone. the office of home economics a 6-quart kettle was filled with boiling water and put into the cooker, the packing of which happened to be newspaper. The temperature of the water, which was 212 degrees F. when put into the cooker, was found to be 172 degrees F. after four hours had elapsed and 155 degrees F. after eight hours had elapsed. This shows the advisability of the common custom of allowing food to remain undisturbed In the cooker for at least six or eight hours, or in some cases overnight. If a soap-stone, soap-stone, hot brick, or other extra source of heat is used, less time will be required. re-quired. Materials which are denser than water (sugar sirup as used in cooking dried fruit), and therefore can be heated to a higher degree, will keep up the temperature longer when put Into the cooker. Thus the density of the food material, as well as the amount and the length of time that the apparatus retains the heat, must be taken into consideration in determining deter-mining how long different materials must be cooked in the cooker. The recipes for dishes to be prepared pre-pared In the fireless cooker differ somewhat from those for foods cooked in the 'ordinary way, chiefly In the amount of water or other liquids called call-ed for. Less liquid should be put into the food to be prepared in an ordinary ordi-nary fireless cooker, since there Is no chance for water to evaporate. The cook must be guided largely by experience expe-rience in deciding how long the food should be heated before being put Into the cooker and how long It should be allowed to remain there. |