The kerosene stove may be used instead of a gas stove in houses which are not piped for a gas supply. If wicks are used they must be carefully trimmed, so that they will be clean and even. A kerosene stove needs frequent cleaning. It should be kept free from dust and from drippings of oil.
The Fireless Cooker
When a Girl Scout gets to thinking about all the work to be done in a kitchen she will ask some very important questions. How much work is to be done? How long does it take to do it? Can time be saved by doing it in a better way? How can I save labor? Save time? Save money?
The Girl Scout will find the answers one at a time, if she does her own work. And if you do your own work you will at once call for a fireless cooker. The name sounds impossible, for you have always cooked with a stove, and, of course, a fire. How can you cook without a fire?
The women of Norway taught us how. When they went out to work in the fields or on the farm they took the hot kettle of soup off the stove and hid it away in a hay box. The hay kept the heat in the kettle instead of letting it escape; so the soup kept on cooking, and when the women came home from their work in the fields there it was, all steaming hot and ready for dinner.
Everyone has noticed how some things carry or conduct heat and other things don't. That's why we use a "holder," when handling a hot dish or stove lifter or tea-pot. The "holder" does not carry the heat to the hand; it keeps it away. So the hay packed around the hot kettle kept the heat in the kettle, refusing to "conduct" it away. Therefore the soup went on cooking.
Your English cousins use a "cosy" to cover the hot teapot or coffee pot. This "cosy" is made of quilted cotton; and looks like the quilted hood that your great-grandmother used to have. This keeps the heat in the tea or coffee, so that you can have a second cup for the asking.
America was slow to learn from her thrifty cousins, but at last she adopted the fireless cooker; and this is what it does:
The fireless cooker, a case packed with some material which refuses to conduct heat, is used to continue the cooking of foods after they have been made hot on the stove. When securely covered in the cooker they will go on cooking for several hours because the heat is retained by the protecting case. A Girl Scout may buy a fireless cooker, paying from $5 to $25 for it, or she may make one, which will cost less than one dollar. Of course this is a challenge to make one. You may be very sure that if you make a fireless cooker you will understand all about it. To make a fireless cooker you will need:
(1) A cooker or container, which should be an agate pail with a close fitting cover. The sides should be straight up and down, the bottom just as big as the top. You can choose a small one holding two quarts, or a gallon pail which would be large enough for anything an ordinary family would be likely to cook.