1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
389 
pieces of four-inch oak plank or flatted timber 
made somewhat like railroad ties. These lie on the 
wall for the length of half a brick, so that a course 
of half bricks or whole bricks laid lengthwise may 
be built to enclose them. At the front an iron bar 
may be built into the wall and the front courbe of 
bricks laid upon it. The spaces between the tim- 
bers are filled with mortar and a layer of mortar at 
Fig. 5.— RAKE FOR CLEANING OVEN. 
least an inch thick is laid upon them. Dry sand is 
thrown upon the mortar, and the whole bed is 
beaten with a mallet until it>is made hard and com- 
pact. Dry sifted coal or wood ashes or sand is then 
laid upon this bed to a depth of six inches and 
smoothed down. Upon this non-conducting floor 
the OTcn hearth is laid down. The best, smoothest, 
and hardest bricks are chosen for tliis. The bricks 
are laid very evenly and closely together, with mor- 
tar, in which a good proportion of wood ashes is 
mingled. When the floor is laid, the walls are 
built in the same manner with bricks placed end- 
wise from the inside to the outside, and the oven 
is shaped as in fig. 1. When the walls are about a 
foot high, the frames for the center are laid in 
their proper places. These are cut out of common 
inch boards of the shape to fit the arched roof. 
Fig. 2 represents the usual form of the cross-sec-. 
tion of the oven in tlie center, or from a to b in fig. 
1, and these center boards should be of the same 
shape. The rise of the arch is about 8 inches, giv- 
ing a total hight in the middle of the oven of 20 
inches, and 13 inches at the sides. The boards 
should be cut in two through the middle, and 
lightly tacked together, so that they cau be easily 
HOOK. 
Fig.6.— PEEL, OR SHOVEL FOR OVEN. 
knocked apart when the arch is dry, and removed 
from the door. There will be four of these boards 
needed, two for the middle and one for each end. 
The end ones should be a little narrower than the 
others, so as to form the arch lengthwise, as seen 
in fig. 3, which is the section through tlie oven 
from end to end, as from c to d in flg. 1. Lath are 
tacked lightly on to the upper edges of these boards 
to sustain the roof of the oven, and this is laid as 
carefully as possible, taking pains to fill the spaces 
between the bricks caused by the curving of the 
arch, with solid material, as slivers of brick clipped 
off for the purpose. The wall around the oven and 
the arched roof should be well bonded together, 
and brick-work should be laid around the outside 
of the top of the arch, so as to make the connection 
between the walls and arch firm and solid. The 
inside of the oven will then consist of a solid nine- 
inch wall of brick laid with the ends toward the 
middle of the oven, or nearly so. This will serve 
to retain the heat a long time, and will make a very 
serviceable oven. The outside wall should be car- 
ried a few inches above the line of the top of the 
oven, and dry sand should be thrown in the space 
to level it off. A plank floor may then be laid 
across the top, which may serve for the floor of 
part of the smoke-house above. If no smoke-house 
is desired an open roof may bo placed over the oven 
which should project a few feet in front so as to 
give ample protection. Fig. 4 shows the oven 
when complete. The rear of the open space below 
should be built up with .brick or closed with boards. 
The form of the door of the oven is seen in this 
illustration, and ." square opening above (shown at 
a in fig. 3) is for the escape of the smoke. This may 
be made to communicate with a piece of stove-pipe 
to carry the smoke off above the roof, or a chimney 
may be built for this purpose. The doors to these 
openings may beof wood lined with sheet-iron ortin. 
The rake by which the oven is cleared of embers 
and ashes, is shown at flg. 5. The bead of this rake 
is made of strong iron as it needs to be used some- 
times to stir up the fire. The shovel by which the 
bread is put into the oven and withdrawn when 
done, is shown at fig. 6. It is made of light wood 
as it is not exposed to any destructive heat. For 
those who do not know the manner 
of using these ovens, we would 
explain that they are heated by 
means of finely split dry wood, 
which makes little smoke in burn- 
ing and no soot, but much heat. 
White birch, soft maple, hard 
maple, hickory, and willow are the 
woods preferred. The fuel is kin- 
dled on the hearth and allowed to burn down to clear 
coals. When the oven is hot enough, which may 
be in half an hour to an hour, the floor is cleared 
out to receive the bread. After the bread is baked, 
the oven is just right for pies, and after them for 
drying fruit. If a smoke-house is wanted, this may 
be built as shown in fig. 8. It should be somewhat 
larger than the oven to give room for the steps to 
reach the upper floor. The floor is of earth, and 
the fire may be made upon one or both sides of the 
steps. The bars upon which the hams and other 
meats are hung, lie upon the plates which support 
the roof. They may be round or square, and it 
will be found very convenient it the hooks are 
made so as to slide upon these bars. The hooks 
may be made of common nail-rod, which is easily 
bent in the shape seen in fig. 7. The hams are 
readily hung <ipon these or hooks, or taken down 
by having a looped string tied around the hook. 
Cooking Some Things we Like. 
During these many years past we have published 
several thousand suggestions, recipes, etc., about 
preparing food. A large number of 
these have been tried at home, with the 
objeot of testing them for the benefit of 
our great 4"!(ric'an Agriculturist Family, 
and in this respect the home kitchen has 
often been a sort of culinary "Experi- 
ment Station. " From this mass of ex- 
periments, we have some articles of 
food and modes of cooking that have become 
standard, because they are generally liked, and 
frequently prepared, as for example : 
Pressed Beef Improved.— This may 
be made of fresh beef, or corned beef well soaked 
to free it of all excess of salt not needed for season- 
ing. The coarser, cheap- 
er portions of fresh 
beef may be used to ad- 
vantage. Put the meat 
in the pot or kettle with 
water enough to cover 
it. Set over the kettle 
a milk-pan, or other 
close fitting tin dish, 
containing water. The 
steam will condense on 
the underside of the 
pan, and drip back into 
the kettle, carrying with 
it the aioma and flavor 
of the meat, which 
would otherwise escape 
in the steam. The 
water will not boil away 
it the heat be only suf- 
ficient (312°), to simply 
boil the water gently. 
J^~ Jeep the meat cook- 
ing until it is so tetulcr 
that it will fall to pieces, 
and the boiie3 drop out. 
Some tough pieces may 
require many hours, 
but cook it tender. — Then 
take out the meat, remove the bones, and mix it, 
fat and lean, in a deep basin, pan, or other dish. 
Skim the remaining liquor of any floating fat, and 
simmer it down to a gravy consistency, not very 
thick, being careful not to scorch it. Pour this 
among the meat, put over it a plate or round pie 
tin that will fit the dish, and put on 1,5 or 20 lbs. 
weight of stones, flat-irons, or other articles, and 
set aside to cool. The gelatine in the gravy will 
harden, and you will have a solid mass, marbled in 
appearance if there is a mixture of meat, fat and 
lean, or of different colors. This can then be cut 
in thin slices, is delicious to eat, and easy to digest 
if there be not. too much fat meat. In cool weather, 
or in a cool place, it will keep several days, and is 
a very handy resort. Now for the IMPROVE- 
MENT. For each 3 or 4 lbs. of meat, take a table- 
spoonful of " Cooper's Gelatine," (or other good 
prepared gelatine), dissolve it in a little hot water, 
and stir it into the liquid just before pouring it 
over the boiled meat. This will give increased 
firmness to the cold mass, and make up for defec- 
tive boiling down of the liquid. The meat when 
inverted upon the serving platter for the table, has 
a smooth exterior of the exact form of the press- 
ing dish. It may be garnished by placing in the 
bottom of the dish before putting in the meat, 
some hard-boiled eggs cut in halves and set yolk up. 
Cliiolceii, Xurlicy, and other meats, to be 
cooked and pressed similarly to the above, will be 
much improved by the addition of gelatine. 
Corii-Starcli Cake. — This is a simple and 
digestible cake, easily and quickly made, and gen- 
erally liked. Rub well together 1 cup of butter 
and 2 cups of sugar. Add the white of six eggs 
beaten to a froth. Stir in 1 cup of sweet milk, 3 
cups of flour, in which have been thoroughly 
mixed 3 teaspoonf uls of baking powder or 2 of 
cream of tartar and 1 of soda, and flavor with 1 
teaspoonful of extract of bitter almonds (or other 
flavor desired). Lastly, stir in 1 cup of corn-starch, 
which acts both as food and shortening. Immedi- 
ately bake in a moderately quick oven. 
<liieen of Piiddinsrs. — A simple, easily 
digestible, and (to our taste) a very palatable des- 
sert. Beat the yolks of three to five eggs, and mix 
in a quart of milk with sugar to the taste (about 
a teacuoful). Flavor with vanilla or otherwise, 
and pour this over a pint of fine bread-crumbs in 
the pudding-dish. Bake to a light brown ; remove 
from the oven, and while hot pour over it the 
whites of the eggs beaten to a froth, with i to 1 
cup of sugar. Replace in the oven leaving the 
door open, and bake to a delicate brown. Some 
like jelly spread over the pudding before adding 
the frosting. 
Com Fritters. — Grate a dozen ears of 
Fig. 8. — REAR VIEW OF COMBINED OVEN AND SMOKE-nOFSE. 
sweet green corn, (uncooked), add 1 teaspoonful of 
salt, i teaspoonful of fine ground black pepper, 
1 egg beaten with 3 tablespoonfuls of flonr. Make 
into small cakes and fry in hot butter or lard. 
