One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money

by Harold Morse Dunphy

PLAN No. 812. THE FIRELESS COOKER

Fireless cookers are now being made and used in hundreds of country homes. What is more pleasing to the farm woman than to put her dinner in the fireless cooker before she drives to town to market her products, and upon returning find it ready for serving?

The fireless cooker offers several advantages. The first economy of time, as the housekeeper may leave the food cooking without worrying about the results while she is engaged in other household duties or visiting her friends.

Some foods are improved by long cooking at relatively low temperature. The texture and flavor of tougher cuts of meat, old, tough fowl, and ham are improved by slow cooking. Cereals, dried legumes, and dried fruits are more palatable and wholesome when cooked for a long time. Soups and stews are delicious when cooked in the cooker. Baking, however, can not be done very conveniently nor satisfactorily in the ordinary homemade fireless cooker.

Fig. 2.—Materials assembled for making a fireless cooker.

In some sections of the country economy of fuel must be an important consideration. The food for the cooker may be started on the wood or coal range when the morning meal is being prepared. In warm weather the use of the fireless cooker and a kerosene stove means not only economy of fuel, but also comfort.

The food to be cooked is first heated to boiling point on the stove in the cooking vessel and then this vessel, covered with a tight lid, is quickly placed in the cooker, where the cooking continues. The cooker is so constructed that the heat does not escape. For long cooking it is necessary to place in the cooker under the vessel a hot radiator. A soapstone is the best radiator and can be purchased at most hardware stores for 50 cents. A stove lid, a brick or disc made of concrete, heated and placed in the cooker, may serve as the radiator.

Directions: A tightly built box, an old trunk, a galvanized-iron ash can, a candy bucket, a tin lard can, and a butter firkin are among the containers that have been successfully used in the construction of fireless cookers.

The inside container or nest which holds the vessel of hot food may be a bucket of agate, galvanized iron, or tin. This nest must be deep enough to hold the radiator and the vessel of food but not large enough to leave much space, as the air space will cool the food. The inside container must have a tight-fitting cover, and straight sides are desirable.