The Press., 1892-09-08
AN ITALIAN OVEN.
Contrivanccs That Prevent Dust, Smoke
 and Other AnnOyances.

Contrivanccs That Prevent Dust, Smoke
 and Other AnnOyances.
 When the Italian cooking apparatus is used, neither dust, dirt, gas, smoke, heavy cake, soggy potatoes nor explo- sions ruffles tempers. It is neither range nor simply stove It looks like 8 tub covered with shining tiles of blue and white porcelain. It is a trifie high, and in order to operate it to the best advan- tage it is best to stand on little foot stool or platform. Under the stove is a semicircular closet reaching up to about half it's height and holding from one to three sacks (about four bushels) of char coal. On the top are one, two or three openings-little square, boxlike grates, sinking perhaps four or five inches and about eight inches square. Under the grates are receptacles with doors for ashes, and in the center is larger re- ceptacle for heating dishes.
 Over the stove and about half way up the wall is canopy, shaped like the stove at the bottom, but gradually mar rowing to the top at the front and side until it is almost tunnel shaped, where it joins the chimney, is an opening into the chimney, about the size of very small stovepipe. There is always 8 good draft without Hampers.
 For boiling, few bits of cane are put in the square or grate over which the kettle or the saucepan is to be placed; then a shovelful of charcoal is put over the canes, light is applied and, if you are in hurry, over the hole is put cu- rious contrivance very like stovepipe, perhaps two feet high, with funnel at the top, contrivance that is expressively known in Italian as ''il diavolo!' possibly because it starts the fire in such mar velously short time.
 If the articles to be boiled are vegeta- bles, the kettle is placed directly over the grate, and ''il diavolo" is laid upon the shelf above. If, however, some thing more delicate is to be cooked, a tripod about three inches high is put over the grate and the boiler is placed on that, so that there is not even possi- bility of burning or scorching; then a circle of coals is put on the outside of the stove about the boiler, which is tightly covered. It takes from twenty minutes to half an hour to cook this way, and everything cooked is cooked all over.
 For baking, the preliminary prepara- tions are the same, but the dish hold ing the mixture is placed in an outer dish of block tin, and over it is put that wonderful magician, the ''forno di campagna," that locks like peck or half bushel measure, according to it's size, made of sheet iron and inverted. There is an opening at one side, up which slips the handle of the baking tin or the saucepan, and over which the form slips, settling firmly down on the stove.
 Under the dish that contains the ma terial to be baked is the charcoal fire in the grate; about it glowing coals are put and replenished before the glow dies out, and on top of the ''forno" more glowing coals are placed and treated in the same way. Everywhere there is an equal diff fusion of heat. Mince pies, sponge cake, custards, bread and turkeys are Drowned perfectly. The ''forno" wasn't invented by an Italian, but by Frenchman, and it would be quite possible to use it with our charcoal stoves.-New York Sun.