Does the idea appeal to you of putting your dinner on to cook and then going visiting, or to the theatre, or sitting down to read, write, or sew, with no further thought for your food until it is time to serve it? It sounds like a fairy tale to say that you can bring food to the boiling point, put it into a box of hay, and leave it for a few hours, returning to find it cooked, and often better cooked than in any other way! Yet it is true. Norwegian housewives have known this for many years; and some other European nations have used the hay-box to a considerable extent, although it is only recently that its wonders have become rather widely known and talked about in America. The original box filled with hay has gone through a process of evolution, and become the fireless cooker of varied form and adaptability. Just what can we expect the fireless cooker to do? What foods will it cook to advantage? Almost all such dishes as are usually prepared by boiling or steaming, as well as many that are baked-soups, boiled or braised meats, fish, sauces, fruits, vegetables, puddings, eggs, in fact, almost everything that does not need to be crisp can be cooked in a simple hay-box. If the composition of foods and the general principles of cookery are well understood, but little special instruction will be needed to enable one to prepare such dishes with success; though even a novice may use a fireless cooker if the general directions and explanations, as well as the individual recipes, are carefully read and followed. While such dishes as toast, pancakes, roast or broiled meats, baked bread and biscuits, are impossible to cook in the simpler form of hay-box, the insulated oven, the latest development of the fireless cooker, opens up possibilities that may lead to a much wider adaptation of home-made insulators to domestic purposes. Roast meats, however, may first be cooked in the oven and completed in the hay-box or cooker, or they may be cooked in the hay-box till nearly done and then roasted for a short time to obtain the crispness which can be given only by cooking with great heat.
The aim of this book is to present in a convenient form such directions for making and using fireless cookers and similar insulating boxes, that those who are not experienced, even in the ordinary methods of cookery, may be able to follow them easily and with success. The fact that their management has been so little understood has been the cause of failures among the adventurous women who, attracted by their novelty, have tried to experiment with them and have come to the mistaken conclusion that they are not practical, have limited scope and are altogether a good deal of disappointment. Such women have made the statement that they are not adapted to cooking starchy foods; that they will not do for most vegetables; that raise breads and puddings cannot be cooked in them, and that there is little economy in using them! It has invariably been found, however, that a better understanding of their management has resulted in complete success, followed inevitably by enthusiasm.
The first few chapters of the book give directions for making and using a cooker, methods of measuring, and some tables for quick reference, followed by a large number of frequently tested recipes, some of which are entirely original, but many of which are base on the well-tried recipes from such book as Miss Farmer’s "Boston Cooking School Cook Book," Mrs. Lincoln’s "Boston Cook Book," Miss Smedley’s "Institution Recipes," and Miss Ronald’s "Century Cook Book," somewhat modified and adapted to hay-box cookery. "The Fireless Cooker," by Lovewell, Whittemore, and Lyon, has furnished some excellent ideas, such as the refrigerating box and homemade insulated oven and insulating pail, which have been elaborated in this book. Miss Huntington’s bulletin "The Fireless Cooker," has also been suggestive of a number of experiments which are to be found in the Appendix.
The chapter on "Institution Cookery" was introduced in the hope that many small institutions, boarding-house keepers, and those who are managing lunch-rooms, would be induced, by finding recipes arranged in suitable quantities for them, to introduce fireless cookers into their kitchens, and benefit by the great saving in labour and expense which is especially necessary to those who are dependent upon their kitchens for support. When a little experience is gained by using them, it will be found that all the other recipes in the book can be enlarged without minute directions.
It will be notices that nearly every recipe in the book states how many persons it will serve, the idea being that, in spite of the variable quantities which different people use, this would act as a guide to those who wish to plan rather closely. Where two numbers are given the variation is in proportion to the difference between the amount eaten by men and women.
The Appendix describes or suggests a series of experiments illustrating the scientific as well as the practical side of fireless cookery. Many of them would be easy for the average housekeeper to carry out, and would illuminate the subject to an extent which would repay her; but they are specially planned for students of household economics who have time and opportunity for such work, and who are supposed to know more than mere methods of housework, and to require an explanation of the principles involved.
