Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1912-02-07
PAPER BAG
COOKING
Great System Perfected by M.
SOyer, Famous London Chef.
INsUREs ECONOMY OF FUEL.
BY Martha MccuIoch Williams.

BY Martha McCulloch Williams.
Paper bag cooking economies
fuel-the fact is damonstrable, be-
yond a doubt. Particularly if the
fuel is gas. The figures to follow are
given for gas, but are easy Of trans
lation into coal heat or even oil.
The oven of a gas range turned on
full, burns twenty feet of gas an
hour for each fame-bar. Commonly
there are two bars-thus, the hourly
consumption at full head is forty feet.
The giant burner on top likewise,
at full head, consumes twenty feet an
hour, the small burners, each ten
feet Thus a stove in full commits
sion for pot and pan cooking consumes
ninety feet an hour.
Now, for paper bag cooking the
oven must be lighted and turned on
full for eight minutes before any
thing goes into it; it must also burn
full strength forseve minutes longer.
Thus, it consumes ten feet of gas at
the outset. Turning out one burner to
reduce the heat one-half at the end
of the seven minute period reduces
consumption to fifteen feet for the
rest of the hour, making total of
twenty-five feet against forty. But
roasting does not demand that a bur-
ner goes fuR-turning it down might
save five feet in the hour. Thus the
net hour-saving of gas on the oven
account is ten feet.
But there are other accounts. By
help of paper bags, you can not mere
ly roast in the oven, but cook at the
same time couple Of vegetables and
bake a pie or pudding. With a small
roast you may even cook three veg
etables, thereby leaving unlighted
three upper jets, which would mean
saving Of thirty feet of gas an hour.
Cooking thus solely in the oven
means a saving of fifty feet Of gas
an hour.
Nor is this even all the story. Mys-
teriously, things cook more quickly
in bags than out of them. The saw
ing in time is one-ffth to one-sixth.
Putting this at the lowest, and esti-
mating the whole range consumption
of gas at ninety feet, there is a saw
ing of fifteen feet. Add them to the
City feet already in credit, and the
sum is fattering, indeed, to the paper
bag.
A Little Story of Pie Baking.
I had baked a pie a la Soyer and
found it good. Notwithstanding, I re-
solved to show myself exactly the
worth of the bag-cooking.
I made up puff paste enough for
three pies, rolled out the crusts and
filled a pan, using cooked fresh
peaches for a filling. I put it on to
cook, in it's naked majesty, noting the
time accurately. 1t took ten min
utes to roll crusts, fill, and put in
creased bag the second pie. The
oven was SO hot by that time that l
Stacked the heat minute after put
ting in pie number two. After twenty
minUtes-thirty minutes from putting
in the first pie-I looked in the oven.
The naked pie was cooking creditably
enough, yet was pale-faced, and the
crust still dentable to the touch. Fur
Their, there were bubbles of syrup
along sundry spaces Of the edge.
I turned on a little more heat and
left the two pies to cook fifteen min
utes longer. The naked one was then
pale, delicate brown on top, with
rather hard undercrust. The bag
was brown all over and so crisp the
corners crumbled at the touch. But
from it came a pie beautiful to be-
hold-light, not pale brown, crisp and
flaky as to crust, ready to leave the
pan at the first tilt, for plate.
Copyright, 1911, by the Associated
Literary Press.)