Fig. 25. Steam cooker.
It is profitable to cook foods requiring more than forty minutes' heating in a fireless cooker. The heating unit is a part of some cookers.
Electric cookers, instead of being furnished with stones to be put inside the nest, have a heating unit and plate for holding heat in the cooker. Cold food may be put into this cooker, the current turned on, and the heating and cooking all be done inside the cooker. The electric oven which is well insulated answers the purpose of a fireless cooker when the current is disconnected. Either a thermometer, which the housewife may watch, or thermostat, which controls the current, must be attached to electric cookers to prevent burning the food or injuring the cooker with too much heat.
54. Gas Cookers. Since heated air rises, special cookers in the form of insulated caps are made to put over dishes of food heated on gas burners (Fig. 24).
The inside of the cap must be kept clean. Get the dishes hot with the cap suspended over the food, but leaving about an inch space for the escape of gases from the heating unit. As soon as the food and cap have been sufficiently heated over the fire, turn off the gas and lower the cap so that it will retain the heat. After the cooker has been used, it should be wiped out clean; otherwise it will retain some of the odors of the cooked food.
55. Steam Cookers. There are several steam cookers in use in homes. The simplest of these is a covered pan which has a perforated bottom, which is set over another pan (A, Fig. 25), in which water is placed for forming steam. One of the difficulties of this cooker is that the water in the lower pan cannot be watched and may boil dry. On the more improved cookers a whistling device (B, Fig. 25) is attached to the pan, and when the water becomes low and steam ceases to flow through it, air begins to come in, and the device makes a whistling noise.
Questions for Part I
1. What is smoke? Under what conditions is the greatest amount of heat for cooking or other household purposes produced from fuel?
2. How is an oven made to heat evenly?