While the Fireless Cooker does many wonderful and unexpected things, it will not generate its own heat. That must be supplied in abundance from other sources. When steaming or boiling it is essential to have your cooker kettle and its contents very hot. Put it into the box as quickly as possible. Close the box immediately and do not open it again until the food has had time to cook. If for any reason you must open the box before the food is cooked, the kettle must be reheated or the cooking will not be done.

Time tables for cooking with the fireless cooker serve as an approximate guide only, for the time must depend upon both the cooker and the food. Meats may be tough or tender; fowls old or young; vegetables old and pithy, or fresh and succulent; fruits may be sweet or sour ; and, all these qualities affect the readiness with which they yield to the influence of heat. The variations are as great as when cooking on coal ranges. Then there is a difference in cookers. Some of them are so well packed as to conserve the heat better than others. The covers of kettles vary. If a kettle of water is scalding hot after standing in the cooker twelve or fifteen hours, you may have faith in your equipment. Generally speaking, the box will require twice or three times as long as a gas or coal range. But, undoubtedly, the longer cooking at the lower temperature is a gain in producing digestible food and in preserving its flavor.

Do not expect a very small quantity of water or food to keep hot ten hours. If you want to cook a small amount for a long time, put it into a small jar or can or pail, and set this into your large kettle of hot water. It will keep hot much longer. The larger the body of heat the longer it will stay hot. Press the cover down tight as you lift the kettle into the cooker. You can hear the boiling at the last instant as you close the lid.

When the homemade cooker is well constructed and packed and properly used, it is entirely efficient and sanitary. As the cooking vessels do not come in contact with the packing material, being effectively separated from it by the board cylinders, and are tightly closed with well fitting lids, the absorption of odors or grease by the packing and cushions is impossible. We find that the cooker made and planned for our own special needs is most satisfactory and often more effective and useful than some of the manufactured articles.

Do not wait to prepare an elaborate box. Select any box that you may find convenient and make a temporary cooker, following the directions given, and fitting it to any kettles that you may have. Be sure to pack the filling down hard and to cover closely when you put the food into the box. The experiment will be an interesting one and you will have the benefit of the plan at once. Then make the more complete and finished cooker as you find it convenient to do so.

When water is brought to the boiling point (212 degrees), additional fuel is used, not to increase the heat, but to keep the water boiling. When a high temperature can be maintained by other means, the time and attention of the cook is saved, as well as fuel, and there is no need to discuss the wisdom of a cooking box.

This magical box, unlike Pandora's, will solve the problem of domestic service in many homes. Trained servants will hail it with joy, and seeing its benefits, will reap the blessings; while untrained help can be taught to accomplish good results with few failures. It would help any maid to have a breakfast box packed with three compartments; one for a coffee pot, one for an oatmeal kettle, and one for a kettle of water fitted under a skillet for ham, breakfast bacon, or hash.

The cooker is a boon to a woman with guests, and especially to the hostess who "does her own work," or has incompetent help. It is invaluable to people who do light housekeeping and it will make housekeeping light to those who acquire the cooker habit. Women need no longer suffer from headaches and nervous exhaustion due to standing over heated stoves.

Water may be heated in the evening and be kept hot for the early morning riser. Hot water or ice may be enclosed in these boxes and will prove a blessing in the sick room. Baby's milk may be kept warm at night.

Yeast bread may be set in the cooker to rise over night. A uniform temperature is thereby assured.

With a two or three burner gas flat, an insulated oven and a good fireless cooker, the meals for a large family may be prepared and the black, unsightly, and expensive range may be dismissed from the kitchen.

This box is as useful in the winter as in the summer. It saves the time of the housewife on short days with their precious hours; for we use more of the foods requiring long cooking in winter than in summer.

Did you ever have the rice or tapioca or macaroni that you were preparing for dinner, rise up and refuse to stay in the kettle? And if, by constant watching, you succeeded in keeping it in subjection, did it not take revenge by sticking to the pot? It is well known to the experienced cook that all foods containing a large percentage of starch have a seeming ambition to rise in the cooking and must be carefully watched that they may not boil over. Although as a rule these articles do not require long cooking, wouldn't it be a relief to place them over the fire only long enough to bring them to the boiling point, and then shut them up in a box where they will not need watching but will continue to cook?

While reapers, listers, gangplows, potato diggers, separators, and countless other mechanical devices have mitigated the drudgery of farm labor, the question of feeding the laborer must be answered, and here the burden falls upon the housewife, and machinery has not as yet brought much respite to her never ending toil. We believe that the fireless cooker will be a boon to these toilers, in giving hours of rest and respite when preparing the regular meals for the "men folks." It saves much anxiety in watching the cooking of food. At the same time the meals will be better served and always on time. Hot appetizing lunches may be served in the field and in many cases long journeys can be saved for the men, who will thus accomplish more work.

Planning for these things will be in itself an education and will raise kitchen work to the plane of skilled labor. It is not so much the work which crushes life out of our women as the monotony of tasks that never end and that never stimulate thought. There must be periods of rest, such as the fireless cooker will bring when doing its work, when the mistress can rest her weary hands and at the proper time be fresh to complete the preparation for the coming meal.

In your initial experiments in this method of cooking remember hot food, tight lids, and tight coverings as the most essential points. Then don't distrub the food until the given time. Remember that half-heated and carelessly packed kettles and pails will result in failure of some sort. Give the plan a good honest chance to win and it will do so every time.

Considerable self-control may be required during your first experiment to resist the temptation to open the cooker and lift the lids "just to see if it is cooking." But this, like all temptations, should be firmly put aside. However, if the temptation proves too strong and a peep is not to be resisted, the kettle must be returned to the fire and brought again to the boiling point, then placed in the cooker, tightly covered, to remain its allotted time.

The use of a cooking box on Sunday makes possible a day of genuine rest. A good dinner left in the box will be found ready for the table on returning from church, with the desirable flavors all retained and no steaming odors permeating the parlor nor even the pantry. Even the water used in steaming is ready for the dish washing.

An overheated or disorderly kitchen full of steam, smoke, and vegetable odors, may be transformed into a room perpetually attractive and neat.

How to Cook in a Refrigerator

I hear you exclaim, "What next? Are we to be treated to a new Wonder-book? To boil, steam, stew, and even bake! - in a refrigerator!

Cooker For Boiling And Baking.

This surely is a paradox, a dream of an enthusiast carried beyond the bounds of possibility."

But no, it is entirely possible, and is being accomplished every day in our kitchens. We wish it were possible to share with you some of the products of our experiments. We can do so only by presenting to you our plans and methods, trusting that you will be inspired to adopt these methods and to reap their benefits without delay.

The discarded ice box with its insulating lining will make a satisfactory and complete cooker. The part prepared to preserve ice provides space for two large kettles to be used for all moist heat. The heavy lid which excluded heat will now retain it. Only a little additional packing is necessary to fit around the curved kettle forms. Packing material may be wool, cotton, crumpled newspaper, sawdust, ground cork, excelsior, or asbestos.

The lower part makes a fine oven. Remove the shelves and slip in a gasoline oven. Insulate the space between the oven and the lining of the refrigerator with asbestos wool, making it very tight. Supply heat by a very hot soapstone or fire brick slabs, heated over a flame while you are preparing the food for the oven. Place meat, potatoes, pies, etc., in ordinary baking pans, heating as much as seems wise over the flame. Then put the hot fire brick or stone and the food into the oven just as quickly as possible. Tightly close doors of both oven and refrigerator and do not open them until the allotted time. We found it best to have two more buttons put on the oven door to hold it more tightly closed. We fitted in an asbestos slab from the secondhand store for a floor, filling the space below it with asbestos wool. After that was in there was no space to be heated that was not needed in baking.