1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



81 



STSAMfi'TG APPARATUS 



When hay is S20 per ton, and iiU grains pro- 

 portionately high, it becomes the farmer to adopt 

 every measure to economize. We have ah'eady, 

 this winter, spoken of the importance of cutting 

 hay, straw, corn stalks, &c., before feeding it out, 

 and we have thought the subject of steaming of 

 sufBcient importance to justify the expense of an 

 engraving to illustrate the manner of doing it. The 

 description vre find in that excellent work, the 

 American Agriculturist, published by A. B. Allen, 

 N. Y. 



In some respects steaming is superior to boiling ; 

 it depends considerably upon the amount of food 

 to be cooked. 



In boiling, the blaze is outside of the kettle and 

 the food inside ; it is, therefore, in continual dan- 

 ger of being burned and much injured, unless some 

 one stands by constantly stirring it. This is not 

 only troublesome and inconvenient, but often adds 

 more to the expenses of cooking, in the time of the 

 person thus employed, than under ordinary circum- 

 stances can well be afforded. Nor do we see how 

 this is to be avoided, unless the kettle be made 

 with false sides and bottom, allowing several inch- 

 es space between them and the true, which space 

 must be kept constantly full of water. This would 

 nearly double the expense of the apparatus, require 

 its being closely watched during the boiling, in or- 

 der to fill the space between with water as fost as 

 it evaporated ; the process of cooking would also 

 be slower in this method, as it would require more 

 heat around a double than a single kettle to bring 

 the water within to a boiling point. 



If food is to be cooked, on a small scale, boiling 

 may be cheapest ; if on a large scale, steaming is 

 not only cheapest, but infinitely more compact ; 

 for the f)rmer would require a very large, or sev- 

 eral furnaces for diffirent sets of kettles, whereas, 

 the latter may be done with one small furnace, 

 steamer, and pipe, as shown in the cut, with any 

 reasona1>le number of vats or tubs surrounding, in 

 which to steam tlie food. In order to do this, the 



steam pipe must be made movable with a screw, 

 fliexible, or be composed of some material that 

 when the food is cooked in one tub, the pipe can 

 be turned and inserted into another. We have 

 seen no less than five tubs holding 150 gallons each, 

 surrounding a small steamer, all of which could be 

 filled with food and cooked within twenty-four 

 hours. Three tubs, however, are usually sufficient 

 for a large stock, in which the food of the first 

 may be cooking, that in the second cooling, while 

 that in the third is being fed out. A single per- 

 son may be able to oversee, and efficiently manage 

 all these operations. 



The furnace, steamer, and tub, are so plainly 

 delineated*in the above cut, that they need no ex- 

 planation. In cooking potatoes and other roots, 

 the tub should have a false bottom perforated with 

 numerous small holes, and set resting on blocks 

 from 3 to 4 inches above the true bottom. The 

 steampipe should enter the tub nearest to the true 

 bottom. The steam is thus introduced between 

 the two bottoms, quickly rises upward, and is even- 

 ly diffused through the whole of the food. While 

 the cooking process is going on, the top of the tub 

 should be kept dov,m as tight as possible, so as to 

 prevent the escape of any steam. In cooking grain 

 or meal, the false bottom must be taken out and 

 the tub filled with water, as the steam heats the 

 water and brings it to a builing point as readily as 

 a blaze or hot coals around a kettle. 



Steaming is said to do its work more thoroughly 

 than boiling, as it is so insinuating, it easily enters 

 and bursts all the minute globules in the grain and 

 vegetables. Be this as it may, certain it is, that 

 either process renders the food more digestible, 

 and easier assimilated by the absorbing vessels, 

 and therefore more economical. 



The following table in the Edinburgh Journal 

 of Agriculture, shows very nearly the increase of 

 bulk of different linds of grain boiled to bursting. 



