282 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



It is a condition of things unattainable in all the family of cooking- 

 stoves and ranges, unless one lately invented obviates, in some measure, 

 as I believe it will, this great difficulty, which makes us so long after the 

 good old times of two strings, spits, wood fires, and deliciously good, 

 Vv^holesome roast meat. Ah ! how different from the empyreumatic masses 

 of stuff called " roast meat," cooked in the almost air-tight oven of a 

 stove. And it is just as impossible to make good bread in one of these 

 cast-iron monsters as it is to roast meat. Both meat and bread, it is true, 

 may be cooked so as to be eaten, and a person who does not know any 

 better, will suppose it is as good as it is possible to make it. It is not so. 

 No man or woman ever ate stove-cooked corn-bread that was so good as 

 an old-fashioned johnny-cake, baked upon a board set up between the fire- 

 dogs. And who that ever tasted them can forget the Yankee "short- 

 cakes," or raised biscuit, baked in the old Dutch oven, where the lid was 

 only half on, or was often taken off to see that the baking did not burn, 

 letting in every time a full charge of oxygen to be absorbed by the baking 

 dough. There was in those days no danger of dyspepsia from eating hot 

 bread. Depend upon it, this whole subject of food and its preparation 

 needs ventilation. It can not be too much thought of and talked of, in 

 public or in the family circle, which, alas, no longer sits around the hearth- 

 stone of the great stone fireplace. I will answer the question as to the 

 stove alluded to, that I hope will obviate some of the difficulties of cook- 

 ing that I have mentioned. It is called " Pearson's Respiratory Cooking 

 Stove," and was patented a year ago only, and of course has not yet got 

 into general use. The principle developed is the true one, and it should 

 be at once applied to all stoves and ranges. A current of air is drawn in 

 and heated by the fire and conveyed into the oven, thus supplying oxygen 

 that in a close oven is consumed and soon exhausted. It appears to be 

 one of the greatest improvements in the cooking apparatus of the age ever 

 invented. From my own experience, I must say that it appears likely to 

 obviate my greatest objections to food cooked in an ordinary stove-oven. 

 It is certainly very difficult to produce that empyreuniatical condition of 

 meat in the oven of this respiring stove that always attends the cooking in 

 an ordinary one. The same smell attends the cooking in this that we have 

 from a joint hung up before an open fire-place. That is, it is pleasant, 

 instead of being very disagreeable, and often sickening, as it always is 

 from a common cooking-stove. The new principle developed in this stove 

 is cooking in currents of fresh air, by which meat is really roasted, instead 

 of being baked ; and all who have tried it appear to be unanimous in its 

 approval. The principle is what I wish people to think of, and not any 

 particular form of stove. I want those who have never eaten food cooked 

 in any other manner than in a close oven-stove, to reason upon the subject 

 with an inquiring mind, whether there is not some better way. I want 

 them to know that meat cooked in a currant of fresh air is not only more 

 palatable, but more nutritious. For instance — this breathing-stove of 

 Pearson's was tested about a month ago by a very respectable committee 



