Читать книгу The Fireless Cook Book - Margaret Johnes Mitchell - Страница 8

Table of Contents

While success in using a cooker is reasonably sure if directions are clear and detailed, and can be followed exactly, yet it is well to understand, in a general way, the conditions of success in order that a deviation from directions, if such should ever be found necessary, will not mean failure.

As the cooking depends upon the retention of heat, it stands to reason that there must be heat to retain. A pint of food does not contain as much heat as a quart, even though both be of the same temperature to begin with. This can be demonstrated by setting a pint and a quart of boiling water side by side. The pint will lose its small amount of heat and grow cold much sooner than the quart, with its larger amount. After an equal time eight quarts of food in the cooker have been found to register 15 degrees Fahrenheit higher than one and one-half quarts, other conditions being the same. This explains the failures of some beginners which are due to the fact that such a small quantity of food was taken that there was not sufficient heat to begin with. Obviously this danger is less with foods requiring only a slight cooking, since, even with small quantities, some time elapses before the food grows too cold to cook at all.

The total quantity of food is, therefore, seen to be an important factor in success. The larger the amount of food, the higher the temperature will be at the end of a given length of time. Where the amount is very large, as in the case of hotel and institution cookery, this gain is so great that the time required for cooking is materially reduced.

The proportion between the amount of food and the size of the utensil in which it is cooked is equally important. Experiments have shown that one and one-half quarts of water, in a pail just large enough to hold it, will register 15 degrees Fahrenheit more than the same measure of water in a nine-quart pail at the end of an hour; while at the end of twelve hours there is 28 degrees of difference. It is thus seen that a well-filled kettle is more likely to cook successfully than one partially filled. When it is impossible to cook in a smaller pail, and thus avoid vacant space in the kettle, the difficulty may, to some extent, be offset by using a pan for the food with sloping sides and broad rim, such as a “pudding pan,” which may be set into the cooker-pail and, by resting upon its rim, will be suspended in it. This arrangement admits of filling the lower part of the pail with boiling water or with boiling food, in case a second kind of food is to be cooked for the same length of time.

Space between the pail and packing material is also likely to be disastrous, so that it is not advisable to try to use a small pail in a “nest” made for a large one without the “space adjuster” described on page 22. Even the space which results after a short use of a newly packed box will be sufficient for the escape of some heat and should always be filled in.

Place the cooker near the stove, since it is important to transfer the food very quickly from one to the other. The cooker should be open, the cushion removed and everything in readiness before the food is taken from the fire; then, before it has time to stop boiling, it should be in place in the box. Loss of time at this juncture owing to uncertain movements is a fruitful source of failure among beginners.

Keep the box tightly closed from the moment the food is put into it until it is entirely done, as if for any reason the box is opened before the appointed time, the contents must be reheated to boiling point before being replaced.

The time for cooking foods on the stove, previous to putting them into the cooker, is usually very short. Food in large, solid masses, as ham, pot roasts, moulds of bread, etc., must be boiled until thoroughly heated to the centre, obviously requiring longer boiling the larger and denser the pieces are. Food that is broken and less compact will be readily penetrated by heat and will be boiling hot nearly or quite as soon as the surrounding water. Such foods need only a moment’s brisk boiling before being put into the cooker. Cereals, although in fine particles, easily settle into a dense, impenetrable mass during the long period of undisturbed cooking, unless boiled until they are slightly thickened.

The length of time for cooking in the cooker depends upon several factors: (1) the kind of cooker, whether well or ill packed, and whether good or poor insulating material is used; (2) the skill of the cook in getting the kettle into the box quickly; (3) the amount, toughness, density, and size of the pieces; (4) whether hard or soft water is used. If hard water is used foods require more cooking to become tender than with soft water. Hard water may be softened, however, by the addition of a little baking soda. The time given in this book is adapted to a home-made cooker, well packed with any of the materials suggested in the section giving directions for packing the cookers. With some commercial cookers a shorter time may be sufficient.

It is frequently stated that few foods are injured by overcooking, but while this is true of a great many foods, it has not proved to be the case with all. Potatoes, rice, custards, raised mixtures, such as dumplings, suet pudding, and brown bread, as well as many other foods, are decidedly injured by overcooking. The recipes generally state the minimum and maximum time which each food should have. This information will also be found easily accessible in the classified index. There is danger in leaving meats or soup stock or even cereals in the cooker long after they have cooled down, as they will be likely to spoil.

Needless to say, careful reading of all the directions given, and following them in every particular, will be necessary until one becomes well acquainted with this novel method of cookery. Mistakes in temperature tests, in measuring, in time, and in other conditions, may result in failures, which must not be imputed to the cooker, but to the cook.

It will probably not be long, after the first experiment with a cooker, before several compartments are fitted up; in which case it is difficult to remember what food is in each and at what time it is to be removed, since it is left for so many hours. To meet this difficulty a slate, hung in the kitchen near the box, will be found a great convenience. It may be permanently ruled and arranged in the form of a table, to be filled out with pencil. A good form to use is the one given below. The compartments may be numbered or described.

Compartment	Food	Time put in	Time for removal