Experiments in fireless cookery

Abstract

Introduction: The art of fireless cookery seems to have originated in Germany, where the housewives are noted for their many domestic virtues and especially for the economy of their cooking arrangements. The idea is not new. A fireless stove was exhibited in Paris as early as 1867 under the name of the Norwegian automatic cooker. No notice was taken of it however and the next heard of such an arrangement was from a German housewife who constructed one with a packing of hay for the purpose of keeping food, which had been already cooked, warm for some time. She soon found that the cooking temperature was maintained for several hours and that food which was only partially cooked could be completed in the box. Upon further experimentation it was discovered that for many articles of food from three to five minutes actual boiling on the stove was all that was required as the process would be completed in the box. Other foods, such as cracked wheat, navy beans, and meats require at least one-half hour at the boiling temperature. Many foods are warm enough to serve after ten hours in the box but others require heating through. Some foods, as baked beans, meat and so forth may be partially prepared in the box and then browned in the oven. Of course, the box cannot be used for broiling, frying, baking nor for preparing any food that requires crispness, as the heat necessary to cook the food must be supplied in the food itself or in water surrounding it. Foods cooked in water, as cereals, fruits and vegetables, or those set into a can of water, as custards and brown bread, are most successful in this method of cooking. All that is required in the construction of a fireless stove is a tight box packed well with some non-conducting material.