What! Cook without fire ? Aye, an it can be done.

- Fables of a Rolling Pin.

AS time saver, fuel saver, and nutriment saver, the tireless cooker has proved itself to be one of the most useful of cooking devices, well worthy of the serious attention of the conservative housekeeper. The construction of the device is simple, being the same in principle as the thermos bottle. The outside box is lined with non-conducting materials, such as mineral wool and asbestos, with inside compartments or wells to hold the food containers. When the heated vessel is tightly enclosed, the heat is retained and continues the process of cooking. Usually the cooker is equipped with radiator disks of metal or stone, which, when fully heated on the stove and placed in the compartment with the food container, materially increase the rapidity of cooking. Many dishes may be cooked without the use of radiators; but no cooker is complete without them, since their intense heat makes possible the baking of bread, cakes, and pies, the roasting and stewing of meats, and in fact, the cooking of almost any dish that can be prepared on the modern cooking range.

Fireless Cooker And Dishes Prepared By Fireless Method

Courtesy of the Toledo Cooker Co.

Not only does the tireless cooker mean a tremendous saving of fuel, and of energy on the part of the housewife, but it produces better results with many dishes than are possible with coal or gas. Cereals, for instance, which require long heating and which it is almost impossible to cook properly on a gas stove, are delicious when prepared by the fireless method. The slow, even heat cooks beans, rice, macaroni, and similar dishes more thoroughly, and improves their digestibility and flavor. Meats retain all their nutriment and, being cooked in their own juices, are more savory. The recipes given in this chapter are arranged for the cooker with radiators; but all of them, with the exception of those for roasting and baking, can be used for any cooker. Where there are no radiators, and where you are cooking things which require a great length of time, it is a good plan to remove the container from the cooker when the time is half gone and reheat it over the fire. In doing so, as in preparing the dish for the cooker in the first place, the container must not be uncovered before returning it to the cooker, or steam will escape and the food cool.

In considering labor-saving and fuel-saving devices, the steam pressure cooker should be mentioned. While it requires fire for operation, the intense heat caused by steam under pressure so reduces the length of time required for cooking that there is great saving of fuel, and cheaper cuts of meat, dried beans and peas, and other foods which usually need long, slow cooking are much more quickly and thoroughly done.

Among the many inventions since the days of open-fireplace cookery the automatic electric oven cooker, which of itself turns the power off upon attaining a certain registered temperature, is a most desirable acquisition where electricity is not too costly for its operation. Aladdin and his lamp were not more wonderful!