Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/84

56 Oil Stoves.—A well-constructed, cleanly kept and well-managed oil stove will cook food as well as any other stove of corresponding capacity; and with proper care there should be neither smoke nor odour from the flame. These stoves are sometimes a great convenience in places not within reach of gas. No flue is required for their use; and being small they can be easily conveyed from place to place. Cooking on an oil stove may be done 20 per cent, cheaper than by any other means; but unless the wicks are kept well-trimmed and the stoves properly managed, they emit a disagreeable smell and smoke. In a properly constructed stove there is not much danger from explosion, unless a light is, through carelessness, brought in contact with the oil.

Cooking by Electricity is now quite practicable, though for the present decidedly expensive. The heat is obtained from the ordinary electric lighting mains, the current being made to pass through wires coiled on iron or steel plates, and embedded in enamel, having the same ratio of expansion and retraction as the metal. In this way the plates of ovens, sides of boilers, hot-plates and corrugated grills can be heated. Stewpans and kettles are heated separately, these having double bottoms with the wires coiled between, and the current conveyed by flexible silk covered wires connected with a special fitting at the end of the handles. There is practically no loss of heat, as the electrical connexion is only made when cooking is in actual progress. The system also of course ensures freedom from dust and dirt, or undue radiatior in the kitchen. It may be mentioned that the King's yacht (constructed for her late Majesty, Queen Victoria) is fitted up with a complete electric kitchen outfit, including soup and coffee boilers, hot-plates, ovens, grills and hot closets. As some municipalities are now supplying the electric current in the daytime at as low a rate as 2d. per Board of Trade unit, it is probable that cooking by electricity is destined to undergo a rapid development.

CULINARY UTENSILS.

Stewpans and Saucepans.—Stewpans and saucepans are usually, though not necessarily, circular in form, provided with a long handle, a lid or cover, and sometimes, in the smaller kinds, with a lip for the better and easier transference of its contents to another vessel. The term saucepan is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of saucepans and stewpans; but the name stewpan is generally used to denote the shallower pans with straight sides and flat long-handled covers; it should never be applied to an iron saucepan. Stewpans are made in copper; wrought steel; tin, enamelled inside and out; and iron. Saucepans are made in copper; brass; iron, tinned inside; iron, enamelled inside; block tin; tin, enamelled inside and outside. Stewpans generally have straight sides; but saucepans vary in