FIRELESS COOKER
There are many advantages in having a fireless cooker in the home. It not only saves time and fuel but keeps the woman from standing over the hot fire, and there are many foods that are better when cooked at a lower temperature. The principle of the fireless cooker is to retain the heat by boiling the food in a vessel with a tight cover and placing it in the cooker in the same vessel, thus keeping the heat from escaping. An outside container may be made to accommodate one or more cooking vessels. A cheap but efficient fireless cooker may be made of a tightly built wooden box, a barrel, or a tin lard can as shown in the illustration. If the outside container is of wood it must be lined on the inside with asbestos or heavy paper to keep out the air.
The nest may be a galvanized or tin bucket of a size which will admit of three inches of packing between the outside container and the nest. The sides and bottom of the nest are covered with asbestos to prevent the scorching or the burning of the packing.
The packing must be of some material through which the heat cannot easily escape. Cork, sawdust, excelsior, hay, or shredded newspaper may be used to an advantage. Three inches of this packing is put tightly in the bottom of the outside container and around the sides to fill in the space between the outside container and the nest.
A four-inch space is left at the top of the fireless cooker in which a cushion made of unbleached cotton or some other material is stuffed with the packing and placed to make the cooker air-tight. Cut two circles out of the unbleached cotton and a three-inch straight piece to join the circles together. A hot soapstone, stove plate or brick is placed in the bottom of the nest before the food vessel is placed in the fireless cooker. The food vessel may be any cooking utensil with a top that will fit in the nest after the soapstone has been put in. Cut a circle of tin or cardboard to fit top of inside of cooker with an opening the size of the nest. This gives a good finish to the top of the fireless cooker and preserves the packing.
