THE KITCHEN FIRE
Although Margaret had become pretty well acquainted with the kitchen
during the year she was learning to cook she had never quite understood
how to manage the kitchen range or the fire, because Bridget always
attended to that part for her. But at the very first lesson in the
Saturday Morning Class her mother, who was to be the teacher that day,
said the subject would be "Ranges and Fires," because it was the
beginning of all housekeeping.
Margaret put on her biggest, longest-sleeved gingham apron, got a hearth
brush, a dust-pan, the little dish which held the stove blacking, brush
and polisher, rolled up her sleeves and prepared to listen.
"The reason why so many women find cooking hard work," her mother
began, "is because they do not understand their range or stove. They
cannot make a fire grow hot quickly, or make it cooler if it is too hot;
they do not know how to get what the cook-books call a 'moderate oven.'
'We never could understand about drafts and things,' they say, but the
real truth of the matter is that they are too lazy to try and learn, I'm
afraid, because it is so very simple that even a little girl can learn
about it in ten minutes. The only way to be a good housekeeper is to
understand all about a fire and how to keep a kitchen range in a good
temper."
Margaret laughed at this, but her mother said stoves were just like
people, and sometimes would refuse to do as they were told, and were
cross and sulky; but they could be as pleasant and smiling and obliging
as a good little girl. Then she took off the covers and explained all
about the inside of the range. "You see," she began, "the fire is in a
sort of box lined with heavy brick. Now, if the coals come up to the
very top of this, or lie on its edges, they will crack the brick as they
get heated, and so spoil it, and fire-brick is very expensive and
troublesome to replace. You can heat the sides and bottom very hot, and
it will not hurt it, but not the top edges. So, in putting on coal you
must never let it quite fill the box, and after you set the scuttle down
on the floor you must take the long poker and feel all around on top of
the ovens and see if any bit has rolled there, and bring it back where
it belongs. If it should roll down the sides you could not get it out,
and it would spoil the draft and injure the stove. Now if you understand
all this we will shake out the coal and make a new fire."
"Oh, let me shake!" exclaimed Margaret, and before her mother could stop
her she had put in the shaker and moved it about so quickly that the
ashes came out of the open covers and drafts and filled the room, and
both she and her mother were coughing and choking.
Her mother stopped her. "That isn't the way to shake a fire," she said.
"The covers must all go on first, and everything be shut up tight." Then
she showed her the two slides over the oven doors, and the others in
front, and pushed them shut. The two in the stovepipe were opened, so
the ashes could go up that way, and the covers were tightly put in their
places. "Now," she said, "you may shake."
So Margaret shook and shook until her arms were tired, but though the
fine ashes all came out, there was a handful of large coals which would
not go through the grate. These, her mother explained, were partly good,
unburned coal, and partly poor, hard bits, called clinkers. Some people
just turned them all out with the ashes and threw them away, but this
was wasteful. They must be picked over and the good bits burned again.
Margaret hunted up a big pair of old gloves of her father's, and with
these on she picked out the good pieces of coal and laid them on one
side, and then she tipped the grate by turning the stove handle quite
around, and the clinkers all fell into the ash-pan and the grate was
left empty. A big newspaper was next spread on the floor and the ash-pan
carefully drawn out over it and emptied into a scuttle kept ready for
this, so it could be easily carried to the place where the ashes were
kept, and emptied into the can there. She put the empty pan on the
paper, and with her brush swept out all the cracks inside the stove, up
and down, here and there, till no ashes were to be seen anywhere. Then
the pan was put back. The ovens were opened next, and these, too, swept
out with a clean whisk-broom, and away back in the corners they found
several bits of toast and such things all dried to a crisp, which
Bridget had not seen at all. When all the ashes were taken up and those
on the newspaper cleared away, her mother said, "Now we are ready for
the fire."
"First we put a crumpled paper on the bottom; on this we lay crossed
sticks of kindling, a good many, because this is to be a coal fire; if
we were going to burn wood we would not need so many; we must shut the
little slide in the front of the stove directly before the fire, and
open the one at the bottom, so the smoke will go up. Look and see if the
two drafts in the pipe are open; if not, the room will be full of smoke
as soon as we start the kindling. The dampers into the ovens must be
shut, too, so the fire will have nothing to distract its attention; if
we left them open it would think it had not only to burn, but to get the
ovens hot, too. Now if you are ready you can light the paper."
In a moment Margaret heard the wood roaring well, then she took off a
cover and sprinkled on one shovel of coal and closed the top again; as
soon as she saw by peeping in that this was red, she put on another,
scattering it evenly all around, and presently she added a third
shovelful, and by this time the wood was well burned away and the coal
was hot, so she knew the fire was made.
The lesson then took up heating the ovens, which was still more
important. Her mother showed Margaret how to push in and out the
dampers over the oven doors, and explained the shutter inside which they
worked. "When we want the oven hot we pull the shutter open to let the
heat go all around the oven. When we want to cool it we shut the
shutter. The first thing to learn about a stove is this: find out
whether the damper is pushed in or pulled out to heat the ovens; you can
tell by taking off the top covers and watching, for you can see in that
way how the shutter works. Some push in and others pull out, and each
stove may be different. These push in when you want to get the oven hot.
Now, if you want to cook on top of the stove, and want all the heat up
there, of course you do not need the ovens heated, so you shut them
away. When you are all done with the fire never let it burn uselessly,
but close it up, and so keep it. The reason of the draft in the front of
the stove at the bottom, is this: the air rushes in up through the coal
and on into the chimney, and makes the fire go hard. If you want to
have it go slowly and not waste the coal, of course you must shut this
tight. The other draft, directly in front of the fire, lets the cool air
right in on the hot coals, and keeps them from burning up rapidly, so if
you want a hot fire you must shut this, and when you want the fire to go
down you must open it. Is that plain?"
"Yes," said Margaret, thoughtfully. "When I bake I make the ovens hot by
pushing in the dampers, and opening the slide at the bottom and shutting
it at the top. When I want to make something on top, I pull out the
dampers to get the ovens cool, and I open the one at the bottom and shut
the one at the top. When I'm all done I leave the oven dampers out, shut
the bottom draft in front and open the top one. Then the fire gets cool.
But what do I do to the chimney dampers?"
"Sure enough," said her mother, "we almost forgot those. You see the
queer handles on them--thin and straight; those are like the flat plates
inside the pipe that turn just as they do. When you want the fire to
burn hard you turn the handle along the pipe, and that turns the plate
the same way, and the heat can get out and make a good draft. But if you
are shutting up the fire you turn the handle across the pipe, and that
makes the plate turn straight across, too, and stops the heat from
getting out, and so the fire dies down."
"Oh, yes," said Margaret, "that's easy to understand. But what do people
do who don't have coal fires? Sometimes they have wood to burn."
"But the dampers and drafts all work the same way," said her mother.
"Wood is nice and clean to burn, and makes a quick, hot fire, but it has
to be watched all the time or it will go out. Coal makes a steady heat,
and so for most things it is better to use. Now look in and see how
things are going."
Margaret raised the covers and found a bed of bright red coals. Her
mother told her to put on coal at once; if she waited the fire would
grow still hotter,--what was called white hot,--and then it would be
spoiled. Coal must always go on before this point, but not too much,
which would be wasteful. A bright, low fire was always best.
"Now leave the drafts all open just a moment," said her mother, "to let
the coal gas burn away, and then you can shut the fire up and it will
keep just right for hours. And one thing more--never let the coal come
up near the covers of the stove, or the great heat will warp these and
spoil them; they will always have cracks around their edges, and the
heat will be wasted."
"Bridget never lets her fire go out at night," said Margaret, as she
shut the fire all up. "She likes to keep it a whole week and then let
the stove get cold and make it all over again on Saturdays."
"Yes," said her mother, "that is a very good way to do, for it does not
use up the kindling, and it takes no more coal to keep the fire all
night than to start a new one every morning. But if you ever notice how
she manages you will see that she shakes out the ashes at night, puts on
coal, and lets the gas burn off, just as we have done. Then she shuts up
the oven drafts, and the one at the bottom, and opens the one in front
of the fire as we did; in the morning she finds her fire exactly right;
all she has to do is to make it a little brighter and hotter, so she
shuts the draft in front of the coal and opens the one at the bottom, to
get the air to rush up through the coal, and sets the drafts in the pipe
open, too, so the hot air can get out; then when the fire burns up red
she shakes out the ashes a little and puts on fresh coal, and it is
ready for the day, and as hot as she wants it."
"I don't see why she ever lets it go out at all," said Margaret. "Why
does it burn worse on Fridays, and have to be built all over on
Saturdays?"
Her mother laughed. "Why, you see," she said, "the ashes will get into
the corners and the clinkers into the grate in spite of all the care
one can take, so once a week she takes everything out as we have done
and makes a nice, clean, new fire. But now we are all done except
blacking the stove. Generally that ought to be done when the fire is not
hot, but we were talking and I did not have you do it then; next time we
will manage better."
Margaret wet the blacking a little, dipped in her brush, and scrubbed
the stove well all over, especially in the corners. Then she polished it
with the dry side of the brush till it shone like a mirror. The little
knobs on the doors she rubbed with a bit of nickel polish she found in
another box, and used a dry flannel cloth on them last. Her mother
explained that it was necessary to keep a stove very bright and shining,
or it would wear out, and, besides that, a bright one made the kitchen
look tidy and attractive. "Some people just paint the whole stove over
once or twice a year with a black enamel, and never polish it at all,
and perhaps that is a good way for very busy people to do, but I like
the old-fashioned way better myself. Shine it a little every day in the
week, and once in every few days give it a good thorough blacking and
polishing when the fire is out, and you will make the stove wear a long
time and keep it in good working order as well. A clean range, one that
is really clean and well cared for inside and out, is always
good-natured and happy, and does the very best it knows how for you when
you try and cook, but one that is full of ashes and clinkers, with a
face all grimy and dusty and gray, gets sullen and cross, and will not
try and please anybody. You must keep it good-natured. Just see how
proud and happy it looks now."
Margaret smiled admiringly at the shiny range and bright fire.
"Sometimes Bridget puts things in her stove that make all the house
smell," she said. "I am never going to put anything into mine but nice,
clean wood and coal."
"The reason Bridget puts them in," her mother replied, "is a good one. I
often burn up small quantities of garbage myself, but I never have a
bit of odor, for all I have to do is to open the drafts in the chimney
and at the bottom, and shut those going into the ovens and the one in
front of the fire, and then all the smell goes straight up the chimney.
If you are careful you can often get rid of little things in the kitchen
by burning them, but you should be sure and never let the odor get out
into the room."
Just then Bridget came into the kitchen and said it was time for her to
get lunch.
"See, Bridget," Margaret exclaimed, proudly, "we blacked the range and
made it smile all over. It just loves to be clean and shiny!"
"It does that," said Bridget. "I guess it'll bake sponge cakes for lunch
to say it feels glad."
"Oh, goody!" said Margaret, as she ran to take off her big apron and
wash her hands.