Metal coffee pots should be kept as bright as possible; for, when the external surface is kept clean and bright, the pot will be less cooled by the surrounding cold bodies than when its metallic splendour is impaired by neglecting to clean it; pots for making coffee in the manner stated in the preceding pages, may now be had in most of the tinmen’s shops of this metropolis.
Kitchen Fire-places,
AND
Cooking Utensils.
The judicious use and proper application of fuel are objects of particular moment in domestic economy, especially in the culinary art. Coal is an article of primary necessity among all ranks of people, and as it cannot be procured without great expense, the consumption of it in cookery with the smallest possible waste is an object deserving the attention of every family. So numerous are the varieties of kitchen fire-places which have been invented to save fuel, that there is hardly an ironmonger in this metropolis who does not claim the merit of possessing a patent for an apparatus of this description. The pretended improvements of a great many patent kitchen fire-places for cooking, unfortunately consist in increasing the quantity of iron work, to their evident defect. The bare inspection of others again, will at once convince the impartial observer, that they cannot answer the intended purpose; most of them are furnished with numerous doors and apertures, solely introduced to facilitate the cleaning of the flues; and the reader may rest assured, that whenever recourse is had to such expedients, it is a sure sign that the construction of the fire-place or apparatus is extremely defective. When the combustion of the fuel is perfect, there is little soot produced—for a rapid accumulation of it, indicates an imperfect combustion, and consequently a waste of fuel. The evil in the cases which we have observed, originates in the circuitous direction and awkward angular distortions of the flues for heating the baking closets, or the vessels for boiling. The fire grate is indeed comparatively small in all of them, and this their apparent recommendation is what misleads the purchaser, who on inspecting the apparatus is told, that he will be enabled to roast, bake, boil or stew, with a small quantity of fuel. But if we consider the mass of iron-work requiring to be heated by the small fire-place, the saving of coals will prove wholly imaginary, and the purchaser (we speak from experience) will soon become convinced that the simplest and most economical employment of fuel, for the purpose of cooking in a family not exceeding eight or ten persons, unquestionably consists of a common fire-grate fitted with a boiler placed either at the back or at one side of the grate, for supplying hot water, or for generating steam, having at the other side a hollow chest or oven, (forming the other hob of the grate,) to be heated by the ignited coals lying laterally against it, in the grate; such an apparatus appears to be one of the most eligible contrivances of a cooking grate for a moderate sized family, where economy of coal is an object. Kitchen ranges of this kind may be seen in most of the ironmongers shops of this metropolis.
The figure on the title page exhibits a kitchen grate of this kind. The fire-place for roasting is, as usual, in the middle of the grate. At the right side of it, is a boiler, furnished with a cock; on the left hand side, is the baking closet, as shewn in the design. The cast-iron hearth, upon which the stew-pans and kettles are put, is furnished with a moveable plate, directly over the fire-place. This contrivance is convenient for causing (when the plate is removed) the fire to act in a direct manner upon a vessel placed over the opening as occasion may require. The small door in front, above the fire bars, serves for throwing on the fuel. The door shown under the bars of the fire-place is furnished with a register, for regulating the heat. The door under the boiler, on the right hand side, and that under the baking closet, on the left hand, serve to keep in the heat. For cleaning the flues, a moveable cast iron slider is fitted in front, below the boiler, and another below the baking closet, as shown in the design.—The upper part of the flues are cleaned in the usual manner, above the iron hearth. where a small door is provided for that purpose to get admission to the flues.
For larger families, where the operations of cooking are multifarious, an horizontal iron plate or hearth, (See [fig. 2], plate facing the title page,) at one end heated by a fire-place, so that the flame may traverse in a serpentine direction underneath the hearth, before it reaches the throat of the chimney, is very convenient and economical. Upon this hearth or iron plate, which is provided with holes, fitted with stoppers, (and which in fact resembles the sand bath of the chemists), the cooking utensils for boiling and stewing are placed; and as the different parts of the plate become unequally heated, the hottest part being of course over the fire-grate, and the least heated at the farthest extremity of the flue, near its communication with the chimney, the cook has the advantage of placing the pans and kettles, which require a strong and lasting heat, at the precise spot where they will be soonest heated; and those farthest from the source of heat, which require only a moderate degree of warmth.
To economise the heat of the iron plate, a small oven is sometimes placed at the extremity of the flue of the fire-place, which heats the plate. It is convenient for a variety of culinary purposes requiring a very gentle heat, or if it be wanted for baking meat, or bread, a small fire-grate fixed underneath it, will render it extremely fit for those purposes.
The front wall which supports the iron plate or hearth, should be constructed of brick-work, not of iron, as the former retains the heat very effectually, whereas the latter enables it to pass into the kitchen, to the great annoyance of the cook.
The open fire-place, connected with this cooking hearth, is furnished at the left hand side with a baking closet, and at the right hand side is a steam boiler for heating the vessels a a. Underneath of these is another hot closet, likewise heated by steam.
Mr. Marriott, an ingenious ironmonger in Fleet-street, has greatly improved the construction of kitchen ranges; the design exhibited, on the title page of this Treatise, is copied from an apparatus of his construction.