Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-04-15
Automatic Cooking.

In the Paris exhibition is shown, in actual
operation, an invention OF particular interest
Just now. La caliSihS dut0Daatique NOrreglenne
is an apparatus composed of a wooden box,
lined and stuffed with nOn-conducting mater
ial, and containing a tin cooking vessel, which
exactly fits into the stuffed aperture of the
box. The principle of the invention lies in
the power of the stuffed lining to act as a non
conductor of heat or cold, so that the tempera-
ture at which substances are placed in the
box shall be retained for a long time. Thus
if the vessel be filed with water at the
boiling point (lS00 Cent? and shut up in
the box, it is found by experiment that in
seventeen hours the temperature of the water
viii be reduced only to about 1902 Cent.
How long block ice might thus be conserv-
ed has not yet been ascertained. One who
has had an opportunity of * assisting - at
trial of this automatic cookery thus describes
the nlodus Operdndi
A piece of beef, weighing about / lbs,
was put into the cooking vessel with the nee
essary quantity of cold water ; the vessel was
then set ordinary open fire until the
water boiled and continued boiling for FIVE
minutes after these had expired the vessel
was removed from the fire, and quickly placed
in the isolating box, where it was closely shut
down. The box then removed as far
from the fire possible and left alone for
about three hours. 1t was then opened and
the beef was found to be thoroughly cooked
with a flavor superior TO what is secured by
the common process of cooking. DR.. Parkes
in his work on Hygiene, says that to retain
/ the maximum nutritive qualities of meat it
should be first subjected To an intense heat SO
as to retain the juices, and afterwards cooked
slowly at a low temperature; then, whether
in boiling, stewing, or roasting, the loss of
weight in cooking will consist of little more
than water. But keep the pot-as III Soyer
/ found was the case among the poor boil
ing very quickly all the time or let
the roasting be done at white heat (as it too
commonly is) and the result is that the mus
cular tissues Of the meat shrink and become
hard and indigestiole, while a large proper
ton of its nutritive products are volatilized
and escape into the kitchen or up the chin
ney, the fat and gelatine being melted out to
the deterioration of the meat.
1t appears, then, that by employing this
apparatus the essentials of good boiling and
stewing are secured, and the wastefulness
and ignorance of incompetent cooks counter
acted.
! In using the apparatus care mil st be taken
that after the contents of the cooking vessel
have been brought to the boiling point and
shut up in the box, it he not opened during
the time required for cooking the food. The
length of time which different meats or veg
etables should remain in the apparatus varies
according to their nature, from one to three,
I four or five hours but after they have been
in long enough to be thoroughly cooked they
may be left shut up 1--WE are told) u or Is
hours without losing heat, flavor, or quality.
Then the economy in fuel appears to beNery
considerable and also the economy in labor.
The food has to boil on the fire no longer
than five minutes, when it is placed in the
isolating apparatus, the cooking will COM
plete itself; SO materiamiias, meditating a
savory stew of 60uiHt for dinner, may employ
the same fire used for breakfast to prepare
the next meal, and may then be at liberty to
attend to other domestic affairs, leaving the
cooking to take care of itself. The appara-
tus is very simple, and the smaller ones may
be carried from place to place like hat
box or portmanteau. They made of DIFF
ferent dimensions to suit various purposes :;
the one seen by our correspondent was about
| Is inches square, the tin cooking case being
about the size Of an ordinary hat. The pa
tentee had all the materials for pot ar fen
prepared and shut up in the apparatus at
Paris at 5 o'clock p. NJ, and he brought 1t
with him, via Dover, to London, where 1t
was opened. and furnished smoking hot
breakfast at 9 o clock on the following morn
| ing-PdU Mail Gazette.