Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/741

 KITCHENS OF COLNTIIY INNS. 7iy inches long by one inch deep, for conveying away the smoke, in two liorizontal tunnels or flues, to the vertical chimney which forms a common flue to the whole. l.'nder each furnace there is a separate horizontal tunnel for the admission of air to supply comhus- tion ; and this tiuinel is furnished with a register in front of the hearth, or, sometimes, with a block or stopper of fire-brick or fire-stone fitted to the opening; which stopper, by being inserted partially or wholly, regulates the admission of air. With four such furnaces, of six, eight, ten, and twelve inches in diameter, a very extensive confectionery business may be carried on ; and it must be recollected that the business of a confectioner in London includes the cooking of dinners and suppers for large parties, with the excep- tion, in general, of roasting joints of meat. When the cast-iron pots wear out (which they do, even if the sides are an incli in thickness, in two or three years, where there is a full business), they are taken out and replaced by new ones. It will be observed that, in this arrangement of a cooking-hearth, there is no exterior surface of cast iron ; and, in consequence, very little heat is radiated into the kitchen : indeed, we have been in some confectioners' kitchens when the cooking of a large supper was going forward, and found the temperature not exceeding that of a common room. If we were asked how we would fit up a kitchen either in an inn, or in a private house, so as to perform every description of cookery, French, German, Italian, and English, in the most perfect and in the most economical manner, we should say, take your hints for a stewing-hearth from the hearths of confectioners ; and, for roasting, construct one of Strutt's roasters, or an improved baker's oven. We shall hereafter show that, for a country inn, bv far the cheapest mode of roasting meat is in a baker's oven ; and that, however contrary may be the common opinion, when the meat and the oven are both properly attended to, the former is, in all respects, as good as that roasted before an open fire. 150S. An Oven for Roasting Meat, so as to make it equal in flavour to that roasted before an open fire, was, we believe, first brought into notice in this country by Count Rumford ; though this mode of roasting had been long before practised by the French. The art of roasting in an oven meat, which shall have the same flavour as that roasted before an open fire, consists simply in producing a continual current of hot air around it. How this is to be done in an oven of sheet iron, heated by a furnace below, has been shown by Count Rumford, in the Second Part of his Tenth Essay, published in 1799; but the same thing was invented by, and used in, the family of M'illiam Strutt, Esq., of Derby, in 1797. Mr. Strutt's roaster has been used in his own family, and in the families of his relations and some of his friends, from that time to the present, for roastin"- mp.1t of every description, and for general baking. We examined, in 1810, a roasting- oven, and very complete an-angements for cooking in ovens and closed vessels, without any other open fire than a very small one, which had been just erected in the house of IIr. Joseph Strutt, at Derby, on IIr. William Strutt's principles ; and, in common with most strangers who visit that town, we have seen the roaster in the Derbyshire General Infirmary. We have also seen one in jIr. Sylvester's house in Great Russell Street, and others at several ironmongers' in London, where they have been set up, by way of experi- ment. Among these, we may particularly refer to 'Sir. Stephens, ironmonger, in Great lUissell Street, who has long been in the habit of fitting up kitchens with all the im- provements introduced by IIr. Strutt, and recommended by the late ~Slr. Sylvester, at one time a partner in the house, and by his son, the present eminent domestic engineer. 'The construction of IMr. Strutt's roaster, and also of that of Count Rumford, is such, that an equal degree of heat is communicated to the bottom and to the four sides ; and that a current of heated air is constantly passing through it. Roasting-ovens of iron, how- ever, belong more to ironmongery than to Architecture, and therefore we shall not enter into details. Count Rumford's will be foimd minutely described in the Second Part of his Tenth Essay ; and that of Mr. Strutt in Sylvester's Philosophy of Domestic Economi/, p. 33. The principle common to both is, first, the placing of an oven, or box, within a box, and the circulation of the heat from the fire equally, in every part of the vacuity between the two boxes ; and, secondly, the introduction of a tube between the two boxes, which shall heat a current of the external air, and introduce it into the inner box at or near the bottom, on the one side; with another tube, having its orifice near the bottom of the opi^osite side, to carry it off. This tube, as well as the fire flue, has a register for regulating the current of heat ; so that the proper temperature and current of air can, at all times, be maintained in the oven. 1504. The Union of Boasting and Baking Ovens with Kitchen Banges has been attempted, and with considerable success, by a great number of ironmongers, since the publication of Count Rumford's Essays. The first effort consisted in piercing one open- ing in the cast-iron door of the oven, near its bottom, for the introduction of fresh air, and another near its top, for the exit of air, in order to occasion circulation within. But this was found to chill the meat, and prevent its being sufficiently roasted. These ovens had no double sides, Iwttoms, or tops ; and, without very careful management, meat