326 On the Construction of Kitchen 



ascribed to this boiled beef, had not an uncommon 

 appearance in the water in which it had been boiled 

 attracted my attention. This water, after the meat had 

 been boiled in it, appeared to be nearly as transparent, 

 and as colourless as when it was brought from the 

 pump. It immediately occurred to me that this effect 

 could be owing to nothing else but to the state of per- 

 fect quiet in which the water must necessarily have 

 been during the greater part of the time it remained in 

 the oven ; and, to determine whether this was really the 

 case or not, I made the following decisive experiment. 



Having provided two equal pieces of beef from the 

 same carcass, I put them into two stewpans of nearly 

 the same form and dimensions ; one of them, which had 

 a cover, being constructed of earthen-ware, while the 

 other, which had no cover, was made of copper. 



Into these stewpans I now put equal quantities of 

 water, with this difference, however, that while the 

 water put into the copper stewpan was cold, that put 

 into the other was boiling hot. A small fire being now 

 made in the fire-place, these two stewpans, with their 

 contents, were introduced into the two lower ovens. 

 The earthen stewpan was set down upon a ten-inch 

 tile, which had previously been placed in the oven to 

 serve as a support for it, in order to prevent the bottom 

 of the stewpan from coming into immediate contact 

 with the bottom of the oven, and the door of that oven 

 was shut ; but the copper stewpan was set down imme- 

 diately on the bottom of its oven, and the door of that 

 oven was left open during the whole time the experi- 

 ment lasted. 



At the end of three hours the stewpans were taken 

 out of the ovens, and their contents were examined. 



