We have found that some starchy foods need rapid cooking in boiling water, directly over the fire. The danger of burning them is avoided by using plenty of water.

Sometimes it is desirable to cook more slowly than we can in boiling water, and some foods require only a limited amount of water; or it may be they are sticky and glutinous, and it would be inconvenient to be constantly stirring them to prevent burning. It is then better to cook either over boiling water or by steam.

Puddings, brown bread, mushes, custards, and other soft, sticky, glutinous mixtures are often cooked in a covered pail or mould, which is placed in a kettle of boiling water. There should be a trivet or muffin-ring under the pail to keep it from the bottom of the kettle, and allow the water to be under as well as around it, The kettle should be closely covered to keep in the steam, and the water kept boiling steadily the required time. The heat in the inner pail is less than that of boiling water, but it is sufficient to cook the mixture. It takes a longer time than some other ways of cooking, but if the fire be rightly prepared, and the supply of water sufficient, it needs less attention. It is an economical and satisfactory method, answering well the first great purpose in cooking, - that of developing flavor with little loss of substance.

A double boiler is a utensil made for cooking on this principle. It has two boilers; the upper one, holding the food, fits tightly half way down into the lower one, which contains the boiling water. The steam is partially confined, and as it changes from the gaseous to the liquid form, or condenses on the inner boiler, it gives up its heat sufficiently to cook the food.1

These modes of cooking are often called steaming, but they are only other forms of boiling; the cooking by real steam is a very different process. Sometimes superheated steam is forced through pipes into a receptacle containing the food, and in this way a greater degree of heat is obtained.

But cooking by steam is commonly done in a steamer or covered pan with perforations in the bottom. This is placed over boiling water, and the food is kept entirely out of the water, but in direct contact with the steam, which, coming through the perforations, condenses, gives up its heat, and cooks the food. Some vegetables, fruits, meats, and other foods or mixtures which have sufficient moisture in themselves are cooked in this way. Watery vegetables are made drier; tough, dry meats are softened, and made tender; and flour mixtures have a different flavor from that obtained by dry heat or cook1 It has been supposed that adding salt to the water in the lower boiler would increase the temperature of the boiling-point from 212° to 224° ; but it would take one pound of salt to a quart of water to raise it to that point, and this quantity would soon corrode the boiler. Two ounces of salt to a quart of water would raise the boiling-point two degrees.' But by using the same amount of chloride of calcium, - not chloride of lime, - the temperature could be raised to 240°; and if a pound to a quart were used it would reach 350°.