Cooking Utensils.
The judicious use and proper application of fuel are objects of
particular moment in domestic economy, especially in the culinary art.
Coal is an article of primary necessity among all ranks of people, and
as it cannot be procured without great expense, the consumption of it in
cookery with the smallest possible waste is an object deserving the
attention of every family. So numerous are the varieties of kitchen
fire-places which have been invented to save fuel, that there is hardly
an ironmonger in this metropolis who does not claim the merit of
possessing a patent for an apparatus of this description. The pretended
improvements of a great many patent kitchen fire-places for cooking,
unfortunately consist in increasing the quantity of iron work, to their
evident defect. The bare inspection of others again, will at once
convince the impartial observer, that they cannot answer the intended
purpose; most of them are furnished with numerous doors and apertures,
solely introduced to facilitate the cleaning of the flues; and the
reader may rest assured, that whenever recourse is had to such
expedients, it is a sure sign that the construction of the fire-place or
apparatus is extremely defective. When the combustion of the fuel is
perfect, there is little soot produced--for a rapid accumulation of it,
indicates an imperfect combustion, and consequently a waste of fuel. The
evil in the cases which we have observed, originates in the circuitous
direction and awkward angular distortions of the flues for heating the
baking closets, or the vessels for boiling. The fire grate is indeed
comparatively small in all of them, and this their apparent
recommendation is what misleads the purchaser, who on inspecting the
apparatus is told, that he will be enabled to roast, bake, boil or stew,
with a small quantity of fuel. But if we consider the mass of iron-work
requiring to be heated by the small fire-place, the saving of coals will
prove wholly imaginary, and the purchaser (we speak from experience)
will soon become convinced that the simplest and most economical
employment of fuel, for the purpose of cooking in a family not exceeding
eight or ten persons, unquestionably consists of a common fire-grate
fitted with a boiler placed either at the back or at one side of the
grate, for supplying hot water, or for generating steam, having at the
other side a hollow chest or oven, (forming the other hob of the grate,)
to be heated by the ignited coals lying laterally against it, in the
grate; such an apparatus appears to be one of the most eligible
contrivances of a cooking grate for a moderate sized family, where
economy of coal is an object. Kitchen ranges of this kind may be seen in
most of the ironmongers shops of this metropolis.
The figure on the title page exhibits a kitchen grate of this kind. The
fire-place for roasting is, as usual, in the middle of the grate. At the
right side of it, is a boiler, furnished with a cock; on the left hand
side, is the baking closet, as shewn in the design. The cast-iron
hearth, upon which the stew-pans and kettles are put, is furnished with
a moveable plate, directly over the fire-place. This contrivance is
convenient for causing (when the plate is removed) the fire to act in a
direct manner upon a vessel placed over the opening as occasion may
require. The small door in front, above the fire bars, serves for
throwing on the fuel. The door shown under the bars of the fire-place is
furnished with a register, for regulating the heat. The door under the
boiler, on the right hand side, and that under the baking closet, on the
left hand, serve to keep in the heat. For cleaning the flues, a moveable
cast iron slider is fitted in front, below the boiler, and another below
the baking closet, as shown in the design.--The upper part of the flues
are cleaned in the usual manner, above the iron hearth. where a small
door is provided for that purpose to get admission to the flues.
For larger families, where the operations of cooking are multifarious,
an horizontal iron plate or hearth, (See fig. 2, plate facing the title
page,) at one end heated by a fire-place, so that the flame may traverse
in a serpentine direction underneath the hearth, before it reaches the
throat of the chimney, is very convenient and economical. Upon this
hearth or iron plate, which is provided with holes, fitted with
stoppers, (and which in fact resembles the sand bath of the chemists),
the cooking utensils for boiling and stewing are placed; and as the
different parts of the plate become unequally heated, the hottest part
being of course over the fire-grate, and the least heated at the
farthest extremity of the flue, near its communication with the chimney,
the cook has the advantage of placing the pans and kettles, which
require a strong and lasting heat, at the precise spot where they will
be soonest heated; and those farthest from the source of heat, which
require only a moderate degree of warmth.
To economise the heat of the iron plate, a small oven is sometimes
placed at the extremity of the flue of the fire-place, which heats the
plate. It is convenient for a variety of culinary purposes requiring a
very gentle heat, or if it be wanted for baking meat, or bread, a small
fire-grate fixed underneath it, will render it extremely fit for those
purposes.
The front wall which supports the iron plate or hearth, should be
constructed of brick-work, not of iron, as the former retains the heat
very effectually, whereas the latter enables it to pass into the
kitchen, to the great annoyance of the cook.
The open fire-place, connected with this cooking hearth, is furnished at
the left hand side with a baking closet, and at the right hand side is a
steam boiler for heating the vessels _a a_. Underneath of these is
another hot closet, likewise heated by steam.
Mr. Marriott, an ingenious ironmonger in Fleet-street, has greatly
improved the construction of kitchen ranges; the design exhibited, on
the title page of this Treatise, is copied from an apparatus of his
construction.
Fig. 1, is a Dutch oven; a description of it has been given, page 88.