Evening star., 1907-06-24
H0! F|RELESS COOKING
The Lady of the House Can
Have a Laugh on Her Spouse
AND BE so COOL LOOKING
She Just Must Pack a Box With
Hay,
HEAT FOOD AND LET IT STAY
It Takes About Half Day, But the
Lack of Bother Makes
It Pay.
AND BE so COOL LOOKING
EAT FOOD AND LET IT STAY

! If there is anything that the housewife
| dreams about in the summer time it is
| ffreless cooker, and that is just what the
| Department of Agriculture is Introducing to
| the farming community in one of its bull
| letins Of course 1t sounds almost too good
| to be true, but the department says that
| experiments have been made, and the fire
! less cooker has delivered the goods.
The theory is that many eatibles, espe
| cially those that are boiled, are better when
| cooked for long time at a low tempera-
| ture than they cooked for short time
| at high temperature. Vegetables keep
| more their flavor and nutriment by the slow
| method, and meats Of all kinds are more
| tender and palatable. And another JOY
| is that mere fraction of the fuel is used in
| the process.
The contrivance that the department has
! been experimenting with comes from Nor
| way, and is known as the hay box cook
I er. Any man can make one for himself.
| Nothing New About It.
The cooker has been in use in Norway
for long time and was part Of the
Norwegian exhibit at the Paris exposi-
| tion in 1867 1t is simply a box, lined
thickly with straw or hay or newspapers,
with close-fitting nest that will mold a
tightly covered bucket. The bucket con-
tains a chicken or piece of meat or
anything else that is to De cooked. Inc
bucket is placed on a fire, it's contents
brought to boil, and then the bucket
Is tightly covered, dropped into Its nest
in the hay cooker and covered up. 1t is
allowed to stay there without any other
source of heat two three times long
as would be ordinarily required. The heat
of the boiling water Is retained py the hay
filled box. and the cooking Is done at a
minimum expenditure of fuel and labor
The bulletin says that the scheme of slow
cooking is an old one. Count Rumford hav
Ing devised a cooking box of much tie
same sort many years ago. 1t has also
been found that eggs placed in .u-.ing wa
ter covered and allowed to stand. were
perfectly cooked by the time they were
cool enough to eat.
The practical application of the cooker to
family economy is in the preparation of
meats, vegetables, macarOni and cereals
that are the better for long slow cooking.
The water may be brought to boil at
night and the food placed in the hay-cook-
er, where it will be hot and ready for break
fast in the morning. Soup made in the
same way in the early morning is in prime
condition for dinner. In fac. almost any
thing that is wanted for dinner can be
cooked in the morning and will be ready
by the time dinner is wanted. without keep
ing up the fire at all A single burner of an
oil gas stove that will boil the water will
suffice for preparing whole meal and II
can be set away in the hay box and allowed
to cook itself without heating up the dining
room or kitchen.
A Course Diner Possible.
If several receptacles are to be used at
the same time for meat and different sorts
of vegetables more than one bucket needs
to be used In fact an old fashioned ice
chest that will hold three or four buckets
in a row can be divided off into nests, tight
ly packed with felt or paper, and with a
thick felt covering inside the lid The
buckets must have tight-fitting tin covers
With such an arrangement it is said that
whole meal can be easily and economical
ly prepared with one boiling Of water and
without any smell or heat.
The German government has been eX-
perimenting with similar cookers for the
benefit of poor families having to economiZe
| in their fuel bills. The American army has
also been trying them, not from motives
of economy, but for convenience. 1t has
| been found that beans, vegetables and any
thing else that the army wants to cook
can be loaded into the freless cookers
when camp is broken in the morning and
these cookers be hauled by the trans
port wagons all day and hot. well-cooked
dinner produced, ready to serve, when
campis made in the evening. The comis
sary general says he has found that the
fireless cookers work excellently for army
purposes and there seems no particular
I reason why they should not work even bet
ter in civil life.
Something of the same plan was advo-
Gated number of years ago by Edward
Atkinson. of anti-imperial fame. who pro-
duced the Aladdin cooker, that he said at
the time was destined to revolutioniZe
housekeeping all over the world His cook
er worked on the same Slow-cooking prin-
ciple, but instead of depending on boiling
water for its heat, it was placed over an
ordinary lamp. The cooker was the same
sort of an insulated box with an inner COM
partment OF thin sheet metal and an air
space between.
There was hole in the bottom for the
top of the lamp chimney and an
other opening at the top for the draft
Cooking was carried in the box as in
an ordinary oven. and all sorts of things
from boiled onions to rice puddings could
be cooked in the oven at the same time
without any mingling Of fiavors.
The Atkinson Lamp.
Mr.. Atkinson gave many demonstrations
of his cooker in the larger cities and achiev-
ed some remarkable results. He required
two or three times as long to cook any
thing in his insulated box as one required
on stove, but he would start 1t going in
the afternoon in large hall, and after
Iecturing would open the oven and serve
supper to his audience. all sorts of meats,
veget; les and puddngs. and even bread
being cooked simply by the heat of an
ordinary reading lamp.
The cooking box rested on thin iron legs
over the top of the lamp, and Mr.. Atkinson
pointed out that it did not interfere with
the use of the lamp for Illuminating pur-
poses, and that there was no smell. The
wife could put on the breakfast in the
evening and the family could sit around
and read and then go to bed, Leaving the
lamp burning all night. awakening in the
morning to find their meal ready cooked.
1t was a beautiful scheme, and a good
many of the cookers were sold and some
of them at least did all that was claimed
for them. But for some reason lney never
secured any vogue and the slow-cooking
scheme languished. Whether the Agricul-
tural Departments fireless cooker will have
any better luck is question. But there
il uueStjou at all that will xunrL