360 On tJie Construction of Kitchen 



of what has been called a FAMILY BOILER : many of 

 them have already been sold, and have been found very 

 useful. Hints to Cooks concerning tlie Means that 

 may be used for improving some popular Dts/tes. 



AS the art of cooking with steam is well known, 

 and has long been successfully practised in this 

 country, it would be a waste of time to attempt to prove 

 what is universally acknowledged ; namely, that almost 

 every kind of food usually prepared for the table in 

 boiling water may be as well cooked, and in many 

 cases better, by means of boiling-hot steam. I shall 

 therefore confine my present inquiries to the investi- 

 gation of the best methods of confining and directing 

 steam, and employing it usefully with the most simple 

 and least expensive apparatus. 



Steam-kitchens, as they are called, consist of very 

 expensive machinery, and I have been informed, by 

 several persons who have used them, that they do not 

 produce any considerable saving of fuel. Bare inspec- 

 tion is, indeed, sufficient to show that they cannot be 

 economical in that respect ; for the surface of the tin 

 steam-vessel filled with hot steam that is exposed quite 

 naked to the cold air of the atmosphere is so great, that 

 it must necessarily occasion a very considerable loss of 

 heat. 



A primary object in contriving a steam apparatus for 

 cooking should be to prevent the loss of heat through 

 the sides of the containing vessels ; and this is to be 

 done, first, by exposing as small a surface as possible 

 to the atmosphere ; and, secondly, by covering up that 

 surface with the warmest covering that can conven- 

 iently be used, to defend it from the cold air. 



