Page:St. Nicholas, vol. 40.1 (1912-1913).djvu/417

1913.] neath them. Muffin-tins were propped up before the great fires so that their contents might get well browned, and, in the south, the old plantation negroes cooked their “hoe-cake” on the blades of their field hoes.

The great fireplaces, with their hanging pots and kettles, were used even after the first crude cook-stoves appeared, about the year 1850. After the iron cook-stove had been perfected, came the steel range, and, later, the gas-range, and the oil or gasolene stoves. One little novelty in gas-stoves is worthy of mention. It is the camping- or cooking-stove which pleased so well that he took it with him on his polar expedition. It makes its own gas by vaporizing kerosene. A small pump forces the oil by air pressure into the tubes of the stove, where it is vaporized and burned.

Cooking by steam was used on steamships and in large establishments for many years before a practical steam cooker was made for the home. The great advantage of these cookers is that nothing can burn in them. Food so cooked retains all its juices, and is made tender and appetizing. The cooking is done under steam pressure, as the doors are tightly closed. The one here illustrated is placed over a fire; water in the copper tank below is turned to steam, which circulates about the food and condenses on the conical top, from which it runs toward the sides of the cooker, instead of dripping into the food, and returns to the tank. When the water falls below a certain level, a whistle blows vigorously to call for “more water.”

About six years ago, the “fireless” cooker made