I mention these facts in conformation of what I said above concerning his practical character. Economical cookery was at the root of his success in this maintenance of a workhouse without any poor-rates.
After doing all this he came to England, visited many of our public institutions, reconstructed their fireplaces, and then cooked dinners in presence of distinguished witnesses, in order to show how little need be expended on fuel, when it is properly used.
At the Foundling Institution in London he roasted 112 lbs. of beef with 22 lbs. of coal, or at a cost of less than threepence. The following copy of certificate, signed by the Councillor of War, etc., shows what he did at Munich: “We whose names are underwritten certify that we have been present frequently when experiments have been made to determine the expense of fuel in cooking for the poor in the public kitchen of the military workhouse at Munich, and that when the ordinary dinner has been prepared for 1000 persons, the expense for fuel has not amounted to quite 12 kreutzers.” Twelve kreutzers is about 4½d. of our money. Thus only 1-50th of a farthing was expended on cooking each person’s dinner, although the peas which formed the substantial part of the soup required five hours, boiling. The whole average daily fuel expenses of the kitchen of the establishment amounted to 1-20th of a farthing for each person, using wood, which is much dearer than coal. At this rate, one ton of wood should do the cooking for ten persons during two years and six days, or one ton of coal would supply the kitchen of such a family three and a half years.
The following is an abstract of the general principles which he expounds for the guidance of all concerned in the construction of cooking stoves.
1. All cooking fires should be enclosed.
2. Air only to be admitted from below and under complete control. All air beyond what is required for the supply of oxygen “is a thief.”
3. All fireplaces to be surrounded by non-conductors, brickwork, not iron.
4. The residual heat from the fireplace to be utilized by long journeys in returning flues, and by doing the hottest work first.
5. Different fires should be used for different work.
The first of these requirements encounters one of our dogged insular prejudices. The slaves to these firmly believe that meat can only be roasted by hanging it up to dry in front of an open fire; their savage ancestors having held their meat on a skewer or spit over or before an open fire, modern science must not dare to demonstrate the wasteful folly of the holy sacrifice. Their grandmothers having sent joints to a bakehouse, where other people did the same, and having found that by thus cooking beef, mutton, pork, geese, etc., some fresh, and some stale, in the same oven, the flavors became somewhat mixed, and all influenced by sage and onions, these people persist in believing that meat cannot be roasted in any kind of closed chamber.