[Fig. 1], is a Dutch oven; a description of it has been given, [page 88].
STEWPANS AND SAUCEPANS
Should not be made with flat bottoms, but rounded a little at the edges—they must by no means be made with corners that are square like tin vessels, for such can never be completely cleaned, and do not wear near so long—that is the sides should not be soldered to the bottom with a square joint, as sand and grease that lodge there can never be completely got out.
These utensils should be scoured on the outside round the rim, and a little way down the sides, but not low on the sides or on the bottom, as that only wears them without any sort of advantage. For small families, we recommend tin saucepans, as being lightest and safest; and if proper care is taken of them, and they are well dried after they are cleaned, are by far the cheapest, for the cost of a new tin saucepan is little more than the expense of tinning a copper one. The covers of the boiling pots should fit close, not only to prevent unnecessary evaporation of the water, but to guard against the smoke of the fire insinuating itself under the edge of the lid.
PRESERVING PANS.
The best sort are those which are heated by means of steam, the temperature of which can never be such as to burn, or cause adherence to the bottom of the pan.—[Fig. 3], exhibits a steam preserving-pan; the steam enters from a common steam-boiler, at the extremity a, and passes between the pan, which is double, as shown in the design. The condensed water may, from time to time, be drawn off by the cock and pipe b.
COPPER COOKING UTENSILS.
Copper cooking utensils are attended with so much danger, that the use of them ought to be laid entirely aside. They have not only occasioned many fatal accidents, (which have been made public), but they have injured the health of great numbers, where the slower, but not less dangerous effect has not been observed. If not kept very clean and bright, they become covered with verdigris, for all fat, oily, or buttery substances corrode copper; and if they are kept clean and bright, the rubbing or scraping that takes place when making stews, or cooking dishes that require stirring, and remaining a considerable time on the fire, always wears off some of the metal which impregnates the food, and has a deleterious effect.
The inexcusable negligence of persons who make use of copper vessels has been productive of mortality, so much more terrible, as they have exerted their action on a great number of persons at once.
Though, after all, a single dose be not mortal, yet a quantity of poison, however small, when taken at every meal, must produce more fatal effects than are generally apprehended; and different constitutions are differently affected by minute quantities of substances that act powerfully on the system.