At first Mrs. Stark was disappointed because the food came from the oven a pale rather than a rich brown.1 She found that, like all other conveniences, the cooker did not do all the work. But Mr. Stark declared that he should never know the old fowl cooked this way from a spring chicken, for it was so tender; and that the brown bread, beans, and Indian pudding tasted more like the old-fashioned kind than any he had eaten for years. Slow cooking is the secret, or charm, in many dishes, developing a richness of flavor that intense heat does not. Mollie became very expert in using this cooker, and could get a whole dinner with it, starting the cooking early in the morning, or boiling or browning one or two things on the other oil stove. This gave time for work in the garden, or for sewing and reading under the trees.

1 The ready-made oven has a hole in the top with a cover, and the cover can be taken out when you want to brown something over. A hole can be put in the homemade cooker.

They were not afraid of leaving, the lamp burning all night; and it was comfortable on a winter morning to take from the oven, "piping" hot and ready to eat, the cereal, and scalloped potato, and fish started the night before. If you could visit the Stark family, they would advise you to have such a cooker, too.

Fireless cookers. One day at school the Pleasant Valley pupils made a fireless cooker. This kind of cooker has another way of keeping heat in a box, and it was used many years ago in Sweden. Some traveler in Sweden describes the way he saw a fowl cooked. The dressed fowl was put in a kettle of water, the water was brought to the boiling point on the stove or fire, and then the kettle itself was covered and placed in a box, and the box was covered with some nonconducting material. Where is the heat? In the kettle of water; and, as it cannot escape, it cooks the fowl ! Here is a picture (Fig. 111) of a fireless cooker that can be made at home.

A fireless cooker made at school. The pupils of the Pleasant Valley School made one from two wooden boxes, one three or four inches smaller than the other.

They filled in the space between with sawdust below and around the sides. The inner box was lined with white table oilcloth. They were careful to take a box of the size and shape to hold two pails. They could not put sawdust over the pails, and so they made a cover from an old clean blanket, and covered it with the table oilcloth, too. When the hot kettles were placed in the inner box, the woolen cover was laid over them, and the larger box cover fastened down. The outer box was painted white.

Some of the ready-made cookers have a place to slip in a hot iron or soapstone, and hot bricks can be put underneath the kettle in the homemade.

Other ways to make a fireless cooker. There are other things of which the home cooker can be made. Agnes Groves used an old trunk for the outer box, and painted it, as it looked rather shabby. The space between the trunk and the inner box was filled with paper, pressed in firmly. She pleased her mother by having a stew for dinner one day. First she browned the meat and vegetables in a frying pan on the kerosene stove, put them in a hot earthenware jar with the seasonings, covered them with boiling hot water, covered the jar closely, set it in the cooker on a brick heated on the other burner of the oil stove, and closed the cooker. This was done by half past seven, and at twelve o'clock the stew was ready.

Fig. 111. - A fireless cooker made at home.

There was room for another kettle in the cooker, and in that Agnes put peas shelled the evening before.

Agnes also tried cooking cereal overnight, but she was careful to let the cereal boil on the oil stove long enough to thicken before it went into the cooker, and then the kettle of cereal was placed in a larger kettle of hot water, like a double boiler. She thought the cereal was better when the hot brick was used.

Agnes and Marjorie used to compare the "fireless" and the Atkinson cooker, and they decided that the Atkinson can do more kinds of work than the fireless, although the Atkinson uses more fuel. The Atkinson cooker is sometimes called the Aladdin oven. Can you tell why? Did you ever hear of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp?

Fig. 112. - One fireless cooker on the market.

Steam cookers. Barbara Oakes reported at school that her mother has no patience with either of those contrivances, but that she likes a steam cooker in hot weather, and can get a whole dinner over one burner of the kerosene stove. On page 98 is a picture (Fig. 48) of a steam cooker like Mrs. Oakes'.

Some people like one kind of machine and some another; but we may all help ourselves greatly if we try some experiments, and do not expect too much from any one contrivance.

Exercises And Problems

1. Can you explain why the fireless cooker will not "brown" food? Can you ever "brown" anything in water?

2. Why does a hole in the Atkinson cooker at the top help the browning process?

3. Make a sketch showing a cross section of the cooker made at the Pleasant Valley School.

4. Make a list of nonconducting materials; of good conductors.

5. Which is a better conductor of heat, air or water?

6. Will a kettle of hot food cool faster in the air or in running cold water? Why?

7. Bake one potato, and boil another of the same size. Which cooks faster? Why?

8. How much oil does your illuminating lamp hold? How long will it burn? Find the cost of kerosene, and then you can tell how much it costs to run the Atkinson cooker per hour.

9. How much does it cost per hour to run a blue-flame oil stove?

10. Can you find out how much it costs per hour for coal or wood?