THE ADVANTAGES OF THE FIRELESS COOKER.
One of the advantages of the fireless cooker has been mentioned—the small amount of cooking over a fire, which means a great saving of fuel and attention. The housekeeper may put the food into the cooker and forget about it until meal time comes, busying herself in the meantime with other things, or perhaps leaving home. She knows that the food is not being ruined by burning, and that it will come to the table with its full flavor unimpaired.
The pails used in a fireless cooker are easier to clean than pans which have had the food burned into them, and the kitchen is never made a degree warmer by use of the cooker, which is certainly agreeable during the hot summer weather, and even onions may be cooked without the odor pervading the house.
Nearly all foods may be cooked in the fireless cooker except those which have to be crisp or brown, though roast meat may be browned either before placing in the cooker or when the process of cooking is nearly finished. Cereals, one of the most wholesome foods known, are greatly improved by use of the fireless cooker. The long cooking makes them more digestible and gives them a flavor which they lack when cooked only fifteen or twenty minutes.
Any person having a fair idea of the general principles of cooking will need very little instruction for the successful use of the fireless cooker. The following recipes do not pretend to cover the wide variety of food possible to fireless cookery, but only give an idea in the preparation of a few simple dishes that might be used for most any meal.