Part 1
131
Transcriber’s Notes
Texts printed in italics have been transcribed between _underscores_, bold face texts are represented between =equal signs=. Small capitals have been transcribed as ALL CAPITALS.
More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text.
THE FIRELESS COOK BOOK
The Fireless Cook Book
A Manual of the Construction and Use of Appliances for Cooking by Retained Heat
WITH 250 RECIPES
By MARGARET J. MITCHELL
Author of “Cereal Foods and Their Preparation”; formerly Dietitian of Manhattan State Hospital, New York; Director of Domestic Science in Public Schools, Bradford, Pa.; Instructor in Domestic Science, Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, Pa.
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1913
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY PUBLISHED, MAY, 1909
Assistance is gratefully acknowledged from Mr. Abraham Henwood, Professor of Chemistry at Drexel Institute, who supplied valuable information and revised the chemistry in the Appendix.
Thanks are also due to Mrs. Runyon, manager of the lunch room in the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, and to Miss Armstrong, director of the Drexel Institute Lunch Room, for information furnished by them upon the subject of fireless cookery with large quantities; and to many others who have aided the author by advice, information, and encouragement.
PREFACE
The aim of this book is to present in a convenient form such directions for making and using fireless cookers and similar insulating boxes, that those who are not experienced, even in the ordinary methods of cookery, may be able to follow them easily and with success. The fact that their management has been so little understood has been the cause of failures among the adventurous women who, attracted by their novelty, have tried to experiment with them and have come to the mistaken conclusion that they are not practical, have limited scope, and are altogether a good deal of a disappointment. Such women have made the statement that they are not adapted to cooking starchy foods; that they will not do for most vegetables; that raised breads and puddings cannot be cooked in them, and that there is little economy in using them! It has invariably been found, however, that a better understanding of their management has resulted in complete success, followed inevitably by enthusiasm.
The first few chapters of the book give directions for making and using a cooker, methods of measuring, and some tables for quick reference, followed by a large number of frequently tested recipes, some of which are entirely original, but many of which are based on the well-tried recipes from such books as Miss Farmer’s “Boston Cooking School Cook Book,” Mrs. Lincoln’s “Boston Cook Book,” Miss Smedley’s “Institution Recipes,” and Miss Ronald’s “Century Cook Book,” somewhat modified and adapted to hay-box cookery. “The Fireless Cooker,” by Lovewell, Whittemore, and Lyon, has furnished some excellent ideas, such as the refrigerating box and home-made insulated oven and insulating pail, which have been elaborated in this book. Miss Huntington’s bulletin, “The Fireless Cooker,” has also been suggestive of a number of experiments which are to be found in the Appendix.
The chapter on “Institution Cookery” was introduced in the hope that many small institutions, boarding-house keepers, and those who are managing lunch-rooms, would be induced, by finding recipes arranged in suitable quantities for them, to introduce fireless cookers into their kitchens, and benefit by the great saving in labour and expense which is specially necessary to those who are dependent upon their kitchens for support. When a little experience is gained by using them, it will be found that all the other recipes in the book can be enlarged without minute directions.
It will be noticed that nearly every recipe in the book states how many persons it will serve, the idea being that, in spite of the variable quantities which different people use, this would act as a guide to those who wish to plan rather closely. Where two numbers are given the variation is in proportion to the difference between the amount eaten by men and by women.
The Appendix describes or suggests a series of experiments illustrating the scientific as well as the practical side of fireless cookery. Many of them would be easy for the average housekeeper to carry out, and would illuminate the subject to an extent which would repay her; but they are specially planned for students of household economics who have time and opportunity for such work, and who are supposed to know more than mere methods of housework, and to require an explanation of the principles involved.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE I. The Fireless Cooker 3 II. The Portable Insulating Pail 32 III. The Refrigerating Box 36 IV. Cooking for Two 40 V. Measuring 43 VI. Tables of Weights and Measures 45 VII. Table of Proportions 47 VIII. Seasoning and Flavouring Materials 49 IX. Breakfast Cereals 52 X. Soups 57 XI. Fish 81 XII. Beef 89 XIII. Lamb and Mutton 106 XIV. Veal 114 XV. Pork 120 XVI. Poultry 126 XVII. Vegetables 136 XVIII. Steamed Breads and Puddings 154 XIX. Fruits 168 XX. Miscellaneous Recipes 183 XXI. Recipes for the Sick 195 XXII. Recipes for Cooking in Large Quantities 202 XXIII. The Insulated Oven 221 XXIV. Menus 250 Appendix 257 Additional Recipes 277 Classified Index of Recipes. 297 Alphabetical Index of Recipes. 307
THE FIRELESS COOK BOOK
The Fireless Cook Book
I
THE FIRELESS COOKER
Does the idea appeal to you of putting your dinner on to cook and then going visiting, or to the theatre, or sitting down to read, write, or sew, with no further thought for your food until it is time to serve it? It sounds like a fairy-tale to say that you can bring food to the boiling point, put it into a box of hay, and leave it for a few hours, returning to find it cooked, and often better cooked than in any other way! Yet it is true. Norwegian housewives have known this for many years; and some other European nations have used the hay-box to a considerable extent, although it is only recently that its wonders have become rather widely known and talked about in America. The original box filled with hay has gone through a process of evolution, and become the fireless cooker of varied form and adaptability.
Just what can we expect the fireless cooker to do? What foods will it cook to advantage?
Almost all such dishes as are usually prepared by boiling or steaming, as well as many that are baked--soups, boiled or braised meats, fish, sauces, fruits, vegetables, puddings, eggs, in fact, almost everything that does not need to be crisp can be cooked in a simple hay-box. If the composition of foods and the general principles of cookery are well understood, but little special instruction will be needed to enable one to prepare such dishes with success; though even a novice may use a fireless cooker if the general directions and explanations, as well as the individual recipes, are carefully read and followed. While such dishes as toast, pancakes, roast or broiled meats, baked bread and biscuits, are impossible to cook in the simpler form of hay-box, the insulated oven, the latest development of the fireless cooker, opens up possibilities that may lead to a much wider adaptation of home-made insulators to domestic purposes. Roast meats, however, may first be cooked in the oven and completed in the hay-box or cooker, or they may be cooked in the hay-box till nearly done and then roasted for a short time to obtain the crispness which can be given only by cooking with great heat.
During ordinary cooking there is a great loss of heat, due to radiation from the cooking utensil and escaping steam. If, however, this heat could be retained, the food would continue to cook in the absence of fire. This is what occurs in the hay-box. Hay, being a poor conductor of heat, will, if closely packed around a kettle of boiling food, maintain, for a number of hours, a sufficiently high temperature to continue the cooking process. The familiar practice of using newspapers or carpet in keeping ice from melting depends upon the same principle. In both cases a material which is a poor conductor of heat, when interposed between the surrounding air and articles which are either colder or hotter than the air, being found to preserve their temperature. Other materials than hay or papers will act in the same way; such, for instance, as excelsior, sawdust, wool, mineral wool, and others. A vacuum will have the same effect as insulating materials. The “Thermos Bottle” and similar inventions, which are glass bottles surrounded by a vacuum and contained in metal cases, will keep foods hot or cold for many hours. If heated with a little boiling water before boiling food is poured in they will even cook some foods satisfactorily. A vacuum is expensive, as it is difficult to obtain, and therefore the ordinary fireless cooker is better suited to every-day use; but if one of these bottles is at hand it may be utilized in cases of illness or on journeys or in other unusual circumstances, when a cooker is not available.
The general trend of recent scientific investigation seems to indicate more and more clearly that the prevalent idea that all food must be cooked at a high temperature, such as that of boiling water (212 degrees Fahrenheit), is a mistaken one. Experiments have shown that starches are made thoroughly digestible at temperatures varying from 149 degrees to 185 degrees Fahrenheit. Cellulose, the woody fibre of vegetable foods, becomes perfectly softened at a temperature considerably below 212 degrees, while albuminous materials, of which all animal and many vegetable foods are largely composed, are not only well-cooked at a low temperature, but are decidedly more easily digestible than when cooked at the higher temperatures of boiling or baking.
SPECIAL ADVANTAGES OF THE FIRELESS COOKER
First, its _economy_, not only of fuel and of space on the stove, but of effort, of utensils, and also of food materials and flavour. It has been stated that 90 per cent. of the fuel used in ordinary cooking will be saved by the hay-box. This percentage will vary with different housekeepers, as some understand the economy of fuel much better than others, but there is no doubt that it is very great when the cooker is used. This is especially true when the fuel is gas, kerosene, gasolene, or denatured alcohol (possibly the coming fuel for common use). Where a wood fire or, particularly, where a coal fire must be maintained, the fuel saved by the cooker will manifestly be less than with such fuels as can be readily extinguished when their use is over, but even in such cases there is some economy of fuel. One must use the cooker to realize the saving in work that it means. Think what it is to have a method of cooking involving no necessity for remaining in the kitchen to keep up a fire or watch the food! As most hay-box cooking takes a considerable length of time, and many articles are not specially injured by overcooking, this means that foods can often be placed in the box and left for hours, while the housekeeper is enabled to go out for a day’s work, or to occupy her time in other ways, with a mind free from all care of the meal that is cooking. The user of a hay-box will soon find, too, that utensils are not so hard to wash after lying in hay as when food has been dried or burned on, and as the scraping and scouring given to ordinary utensils wears them out very fast, there is here also a considerable economy of utensils. There is found to be a very great saving of food materials on account of “left-over” foods and others that might be utilized, if the long cooking which they require to make them palatable did not involve such expense in the way of fuel as to offset the advantage of using them, such as in the case of soup stock, tougher cuts of meat, etc. Special attention is paid in this book to the preparation of a variety of cheap foods and “left-overs.”
The _absence of heat and odours_ in the kitchen is another of the advantages of this cookery. On the hottest summer days a cooker will not increase the heat of the room, while even in a living-room, onions, turnips, cabbage, and such ill-smelling foods could be cooked with no suspicion of the fact on the part of the family or visitors. The fact that a cooker can also be made attractive in appearance, and used in rooms not ordinarily used for cooking, is of interest to some people who are not able to command even the ordinary amenities of housekeeping life.
In the matter of _flavour_ there is a distinct gain in fireless cookery. Many are familiar, by experience or hearsay, with the specially delicious flavour of food cooked in primitive ways, such as burying the saucepan in a hole in the ground, of clambakes, or of cooking food by dropping heated stones into the mixture, in which cases the closely covered food is slowly cooked at a low temperature. The praises given to such cookery are often ascribed to the “hunger-sauce” that usually accompanies outdoor cookery, but not with entire justice, for there is a real difference in flavour.
As it has been well proved that _tasteless food is less easily or thoroughly digested_ than food which has a good flavour, owing, probably, to the fact that high-flavoured food stimulates the flow of digestive juices, the advantage lies in this respect also with hay-box food over much of the ordinary food served.
The bearing of fireless cookery upon the _servant-problem_ might well fill a chapter by itself. Any woman who uses this device for a year can become eloquent upon this subject. When cooking no longer ties one to the kitchen, is no longer a labour that monopolizes one’s time, dishevels one’s person, and exasperates the temper, the cook may go. We shall save her wages, her food, her room, and her waste, and have more to spend in ways that bring a more satisfactory return.
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING A HAY-BOX OR FIRELESS COOKER
_The box_ may be an unpainted one such as can be obtained for a few cents from any store where one of suitable size and shape is used, or it may be a handsome hardwood chest, or even an old trunk. In selecting it, choose one made of sufficiently heavy boards to admit of having hinges and a hasp put on it. If it is to be used in a dining-room, or where attractive appearance is to be desired, it may be covered with chintz or denim, or a coat of paint, if not made of finished hard wood. An old ice-box, one that has a hinged lid at the top, has been utilized for this purpose with success. A barrel makes an excellent hay-box, especially for very large kettles, but the cover cannot easily be hinged and must, therefore, be weighted to hold it down tight. In size the box should be from two to five inches larger in every dimension than the kettle it contains. The kettle is, therefore, the first thing to be secured, and full directions for choosing it are given on page 13. The next point to consider is the packing material. When this has been chosen, the directions for packing the box, given on page 15, will tell how much space must be allowed for insulation and, consequently, of what size the box must be. If it is so large as to admit of more insulation than that absolutely required, there is no objection, only a possible gain. If it is intended to pack the box with more than one utensil this will also have a bearing upon its size. Allow nearly, or quite, double the insulation between the utensils that is provided on the other sides, otherwise there may be difficulty in removing one utensil while the other is still cooking.
_Hinges_ and a _hasp_, or some device to hold the cover of the box shut, will be necessary, as the packing should be such that there is a little upward pressure on the cover.
A _cushion_ is desirable to cover each kettle used, one which is thick enough to fill the hay-box after the kettle is in place. For making these cushions use muslin, denim, or any thing of the kind that is at hand, filling them, generally, with the same material as that used in packing the box. Shape them like a miniature mattress, joining two pieces which are the dimensions of the top of the box with a strip which is from two and one-half inches to four or five inches wide, the width depending upon the material with which the cushion is stuffed, some materials requiring thicker insulation than others.
The _packing material_ may be either hay, straw, paper, wool, mineral wool, excelsior, ground cork, Southern moss, sawdust, or any other non-conducting material that is adapted to filling the space between the kettle and the box. If hay is used, choose soft hay. Wool is, perhaps, the best heat retainer of those mentioned, and it is easy and pleasant to handle. Clean, soft wool may be purchased at woollen mills and elsewhere. It should cost about thirty-five cents a pound, but as it is very light it requires much less, by weight, than of some other cheaper materials. Mineral wool can be purchased at large hardware stores. It costs about five cents a pound, but about five times as many pounds are required as an equivalent for wool. Cheap cotton batting can be obtained at dry-goods stores; ground cork from large grocers. This is used by them as packing for grapes or other fancy fruits. Sawdust, obtainable at sawmills, and perhaps elsewhere, must be well dried before using. Excelsior is used by many kinds of merchants, and can be bought for about two cents a pound. Hay is plentiful in country places and can also be purchased at feed-stores in the cities. Southern moss, easily procurable in the Southern States, can be found at many upholsterers’ in the North as well. Newspapers and hair, such as is used by plasterers, are available in city and country.
_The utensils._ Perhaps the best _shape_ for the cooking utensil, that is, one which will have the least possible radiating surface, is a pail about the depth of its own diameter. The sides should be straight and perpendicular to the bottom. The cover should fit securely into place. If a smaller utensil is to be used inside the large one, which is often a great convenience, it must not be so high that the cover of the larger pail will not go on. A “pudding pan” may be used for the inside utensil, resting on the rim of the pail; but care must be taken, with this arrangement, that a cover is secured that will fit the pan closely.
To select the _material_ best adapted for cooker utensils one must consider its wearing quality, its heat-absorbing power, to some extent, and also the action upon it of the water, acids, salts, etc., which are found in the foods. For instance, iron utensils, as well as most tinware that has been used for any length of time, will rust with the long subjection to heat and moisture; acids will make a disagreeable taste with iron or old tin utensils; while acids in such long contact, with even new tin might also form poisonous tin salts in sufficient quantity to be decidedly injurious. Earthenware would seem ideal except that it is likely to break when over the flame. It is desirable that the covers be of the same material as the utensil, or of some other rust-proof material. It will pay to get the best, when buying these kettles, for they will last well, with reasonable care, and a poor utensil will soon be of no use whatever. Well-enameled iron, except for its weight, is good; also the best quality of agate ware, ordinary aluminum, or, perhaps best of all, for very large utensils at least, cast aluminum. Aluminum is expensive, but its light weight, excellently fitting parts, and lasting qualities commend it above other materials, and it will be found to pay in the end.
The _size_ of the pails will depend to some extent upon the number of people to be served, although there is a minimum size, below which there is not a sufficient bulk of food to cook well. Under the heading “Practical Suggestions on the Use of the Fireless Cooker,” this matter of quantity is more fully discussed. For a family of five or six persons a six-quart pail with a pan to fit inside of it has been found satisfactory. It will be convenient to have also a larger pail for large pieces of meat, such as hams.
_Method of packing the box._ This will vary somewhat with the different insulating materials used. These may be classified as:
Those into which the cooking utensil may be set without any intervening covering, among which are hay, excelsior, and paper.
Those requiring a covering material to keep them in place and to protect them from contact with the utensil, among which are wool, mineral wool, cork, sawdust, and cotton.
Boxes to be filled with the first class of insulating materials are packed in the following manner:
Line the box and cover, smoothly, with one thickness of heavy paper, or several thicknesses of newspaper. This will prevent cold air from finding its way through the cracks, and dust and pieces from sifting out. Asbestos sheeting also makes a good lining. Pack in the bottom of the box a firm layer of insulating material not less than three or four inches in depth. This must raise the cooking pail to within from three to five inches of the top of the box. Set the utensil in the middle of the space allowed for it on this layer, and pack around it, very tightly, until level with the top of the kettle. When this is removed it will be found to have left a hole just large enough for it to slip into again. A little manipulation will make the rim of this pocket less ragged than at first. The cushion for boxes packed with excelsior or hay should be at least four inches thick. In packing with paper, lay first an even layer three or more inches thick of folded papers, filling the space around the kettle with soft, crumpled papers. In place of the top cushion, make a bundle of papers folded to just the right size. This can only be done when perfectly flat pail covers are used, unless a supplementary soft cushion be first laid over the pail.