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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
March, 1906 
The Kitchen 
111.—The Range and Cooking Apparatus 
By Sarah Adams Keller 
Wi HE kitchen is built, planned and arranged 
for the cooking apparatus which forms its 
most important contents. Its position will 
determine the position of most of the other 
permanent fixtures, most of which are placed 
to have a direct relationship with it. ‘The 
range tor burning hard coal is the typical modern cooking 
apparatus; but gas ranges are now very much used whenever 
this fuel can be obtained; oil stoves are also sometimes used, 
and other fuels; electric cooking has hardly made headway 
as yet, either in private homes or in the hotels. 
Cooking ranges are manufactured in endless form, almost 
any one of which is entirely suited for the work to be done 
with it. Special range devices are also numerous, but these 
seldom long remain the exclusive property of one manufac- 
turer, his rivals in the trade quickly supplementing their own 
ranges with corresponding features, or offering other de- 
vices for which greater efficiency is claimed. It is quite 
outside the scope of these articles to enter into a description 
of the various sorts of ranges which can be had for their 
price, but some general remarks may be in order. 
Ranges are brick set or portable. ‘The name indicates the 
difference between them, which is chiefly a matter of construc- 
tion; in cooking utility there is little choice. The brick set 
range is likely to be a larger one than the portable aftair, 
although not necessarily so. The iron or steel range, as the 
case may be, is partly set within a brick niche; at least half 
the total depth of the range should project beyond this in 
order that the tullest amount of cooking space can be readily 
reached. ‘The boiler for generating hot water immediately 
adjoins one wall of the niche, and in any range is close to it, 
both being, in fact, the separate parts of a single apparatus. 
The form of the range, and the various appurtenances 
attached to it will depend to a considerable extent on its 
size, which in its turn, is fixed by the work it has to do. A 
large range necessitates a large kitchen, and there should 
always be a direct relationship between the size of the range 
and the size of the room. While a large range should only 
be placed in a large kitchen it is quite true that a small 
range, if of sufficient size, can be placed in a large room 
without any detriment to its cooking utility. Ranges are 
made in many styles. ‘Thus a large range will have a cen- 
tral fire space, with ovens on each side; others will have the 
fire space at one end and a single oven; ranges of unusual 
size will have two separate fireplaces with two or three 
ovens; it is a mere matter of the demands which will be made. 
Many ranges can be obtained with hoods or canopies, for 
catching the smoke and steam and carrying them out of the 
house by means of a ventilating flue, a device that forms an 
essential part of all large ranges, and which will be found 
useful for most small ones. Another useful feature is the 
warming shelf, placed at the back of the range and far 
enough above it not to interfere with the cooking utensils. 
In very large ranges this is supplemented with a steam 
table, a square or angular apparatus of some size, which im- 
mediately adjoins one end of the range with which it is con- 
nected with pipes. It has a warming surface above, and a 
closet with doors below. It is an aid of great value in pre- 
paring large dinners. As to the merits of the water backs, 
of the ovens, grates, covers, lids, roasting and broiling ap- 
paratus, they are completely set forth in the manufacturers’ 
catalogues, where the respective merits of each are zealously 
depicted. 
The portable range offers no less efficiency as a cooking 
apparatus; as a rule it is smaller than the brick set range, 
although it also is made in ample sizes. It is rarely trans- 
ported from place to place unless one is moving rapidly from 
a rangeless house to a rangeless house. A style convenient 
for restricted quarters has a horizontal boiler as the crown- 
ing feature. 
In choosing a range it is essential that due regard be given 
to the available cooking surface. A large range will, of 
course, consume a great deal of coal; on the other hand a 
range whose cooking surface—the space actually avail- 
able for rapid cooking—is too small, will be a source of con- 
stant annoyance and difhculty. ‘The problem is a difficult 
one and must be solved in an individual way, but the point 
should not be overlooked. 
Cooking stoves differ from ranges chiefly in size; they are 
generally smaller and are sometimes better adapted to smaller 
houses. They are without some of the conveniences of the 
range, but are quite sufiicient for ordinary cooking purposes. 
They should be stood upon a floor of brick or on a mat of 
zinc. If the latter it should be wiped off with a cloth wet 
with kerosene every other day; any water that falls on it 
should be immediately wiped up with a dry cloth. As with 
ranges, the purchaser of a stove has a choice of makes that 
is almost bewildering. Whatever the size of the stove it 
should be set at a height sufhcient for easy use. Stooping 
over a stove is exceedingly tiresome and wholly unnecessary 
when it can be placed at any height by means of blocks under 
its feet. [he same care should be taken with ranges set on 
brick foundations. 
Gas and oil ranges or stoves have almost revolutionized 
the cooking problems of to-day, by the economy they permit 
in fuel, the ease with which they may be managed and their 
general convenience. This latter quality, together with 
their other merits, is so universally recognized that coal 
ranges are now often supplemented with gas ranges, both 
classes of apparatus being placed in well equipped kitchens. 
Their value in apartments and for summer cooking is too 
well known to be mentioned. One cannot cook everything 
by gas or oil as one would with coal, nor cook in the same 
way; but the results in both instances are likely to be sufhi- 
ciently satisfactory. Oil is, of course, less satisfactory than 
gas, and is only used in country regions where gas can not be 
had. 
There is one imperative rule to be observed in using gas 
and oil and that is the necessity for utter cleanliness. Oil is 
more difficult in this respect than gas, but both make more 
rigid requirements on the temper of the cook than coal, and 
most of the dissatisfaction which has been aroused concern- 
ing them has been caused by carelessness in cleaning the 
stoves. And this battle with soot must be kept up constantly, 
from the very first day in which the stove is used and while 
it is used. Every month or two a thorough overhauling and 
cleaning should be given, but the daily examination, wiping, 
rubbing and cleaning must not be forgotten. All of these 
apparatus accumulate dirt very easily and become difficult 
to handle. 
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