1226 
The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
The  Fireless  Cooker  and  Its  Work 
How  It  Was  Made 
As  an  instrument  for  saving  fuel  and 
effort,  the  fireless  cooker  ranks  high. 
Q — Wood  top  of  cooker. 
1 —  Metal  sides  of  top  1  in.  wide,  •with  gal¬ 
vanized  bottom. 
2 —  Space  between  wood  top  and  metal  bottom, 
packed  with  asbestos. 
Round  hole  in  center  of  top  is  steam  vent. 
A — The  metal  top  of  cooker. 
B — Chamber  cut  in  two  vertically. 
S — The  wood  case. 
H — Three  inches  hay  or  excelsior  packing. 
K — One  and  one-lialf'  inches  mineral  wool 
packing. 
N — One-half  inch  dead  air  space  between  sides 
and  bottom  of  chamber. 
The  purchased  cookers  are  excellent,  but 
it  is  quite  possible  to  make  one  at  trifling 
expense.  The  homemade  cooker  illus¬ 
trated  is  reproduced  from  our  1921  volu- 
mne,  the  picture  and  the  following  de¬ 
scription  being  sent  us  by  E.  Williams. 
The  other  illustration  is  reproduced  from 
a  bulletin  issued  by  the  New  York  State 
A  Real  Help 
May  I  tell  you  about  my  fireless  cooker 
and  how  it  has  proved  a  real  help  to  me? 
First,  mine  is  one  of  the  boughten  ones, 
has  two  compartments,  one  large  and 
three  triangle-shaped  kettles.  I  have 
never  tried  baking  bread,  cake  or  pies  in 
mine,  believing  that  the  time  and  fuel  re¬ 
quired  to  heat  the  soapstone  would  bake 
the  article  in  question.  A  thermometer 
may  be  very  nesessary  for  that  kind  of 
cooking.  It  is  not  for  preparing  a  din¬ 
ner  ;  I  broke  mine  two  years  ago  and 
have  got  along  without  it  nicely.  The 
secret  of  success  is  to  have  your  soap¬ 
stone  hot  enough  to  cook  the  food  on  top 
of  the  burner  or  range,  whichever  you 
use,  and  the  food  cooking  before  it  is 
placed  in  the  fireless. 
If  I  am  cleaning  house  or  doing  any 
work  that  will  take  me  away  from  the 
kitchen,  I  prepare  my  dinner  in  the  fire¬ 
less,  while  doing  the  dishes  and  morning 
chores,  then  go  to  my  work,  knowing 
that  when  the  men  come  in  at  noon  the 
dinner  will  be  ready  and  piping  hot  with 
nothing  burned.  If  I  want  to  go  to  the 
city,  or  be  away  from  home  all  day, 
which  for  my  own  relaxation  I  try  to  do 
one  day  a  week,  I  know  my  faithful  fire¬ 
less  will  have  a  hot  dinner  for  the  men. 
All  they  have  to  do  is  to  place  it  on  the 
table. 
In  using  your  fireless  perhaps  you  will 
need  to  plan  your  dinner  a  little  different 
than  you  would  otherwise.  For  instance, 
I  have  never  cooked  potatoes,  either  plain 
boiled  or  baked,  successfully,  but  potatoes 
scalloped  are  delicious.  Try  a  pot  roast 
nicely  browned  in  the  skillet,  then 
cooked  in  the  fireless  without  water  four 
or  five  hours,  and  you  will  find  it  tender 
and  rich.  A  fat  old  hen,  browned  in  hot 
lard,  then  finished  in  the  fireless,  will 
rival  a  young  broiler,  while  the  broiler 
A  commercial  and  a  homemade  fireless  cooker.  These  are  slightly  more  than  one  foot 
high,  which  is  the  smallest  size  practicable 
Agricultural  College  in  1915.  Says  Mr. 
Williams : 
“I  have  built  several  cookers,  but  the 
last  one  is  far  superior  to  the  others ; 
we  have  been  using  this  one  about  eight 
years. 
“The  materials  used  for  this  cooker 
were :  A  good  quality  of  galvanized 
sheet  iron  for  the  three  compartments, 
the  top,  and  the  covers ;  mineral  wool 
— asbestos — was  used  for  the  first  pack¬ 
ing  layer  around  the  metal  chambers ; 
hay  and  excelsior  were  used  to  com¬ 
plete  the  packing.  Mineral  wool  might 
have  been  used  exclusively,  but  the 
hay  and  excelsior  were  used  because 
otherwise  they  would  have  been  thrown 
away. 
“This  cooker  was  built  with  three 
chambers  of  uniform  size  of  10%.  diam¬ 
eter  and  13*4  in.  deep.  It  was  built  so 
that  large  aluminum  kettles  might  be 
used  ;  the  largest  kettle  is  10x11,  and  will 
take  care  of  a  very  large  roast.  I  first 
bought  the  kettles  and  then  built  the 
cooker  to  fit. 
“The  galvanized  walls  of  the  chambers 
are  double  with  a  %-in.  dead  air  space 
between  the  walls  and  bottoms.  There 
are  two  layers  of  packing  around  these 
chambers — first  1%  in.  of  mineral  wool, 
packed  as  firmly  as  possible,  and  an  outer 
layer  of  3  in.  of  hay  and  excelsior,  and 
lastly  the  wood  case. 
“The  compartment  lids  are  packed  with 
about  1  in.  of  the  mineral  wool  packed 
firmly  between  the  wood  top  and  the  gal¬ 
vanized  base.  The  covers  should  be  a 
tight  fit  when  fastened  down  to  close  the 
chamber. 
“We  use  soapstone  radiators ;  one  is 
put  in  the  bottom  of  the  chamber,  under¬ 
neath  the  kettle  containing  the  food  to  be 
cooked ;  one  is  put  on  top  of  the  kettle 
cover.  It  takes  but  little  more  fire  to 
begin  when  the  radiators  are  used,  but 
with  them  a  much  more  successful  result 
is  obtained. 
“The  rough  sketch  showing  the  com¬ 
partment  cut  in  two  vertically  indicates 
the  parts  in  the  construction. 
“A  small  cooker  may  be  made  with  a 
large  galvanized  pail — straight  sides— in¬ 
side  of  which  is  placed  another  similar 
pail,  3  in.  smaller  in  diameter.  Pack 
mineral  wool  firmly  between  the  two 
pads,  see  that  both  covers  fit  snugly.” 
itself  is  more  palatable  if,  after  browning, 
it  is  allowed  to  finish  cooking  in  the  fire¬ 
less. 
It  in  no  way  hurts  the  food  to  remain 
in  the  fireless  after  it  is  cooked  through 
but  for  those  who  wish  to  know  the  length 
of  time  necessary  for  fireless  cooking, 
would  advise  a  half  hour  longer  on 
quick-cooking  foods,  and  from  one  to  two 
hours  for  meats. 
Use  two  stones,  one  above  and  one  be¬ 
low,  for  baked  dishes  like  corn,  macaroni 
and  cheese,  scalloped  tomatoes,  etc'. 
Try  pouring  all  water  off  your  dinner, 
and  placing  it  in  the  fireless  when  the 
men  are.  late  about  coming  in,  thereby 
keeping  the  dinner  warm  and  your  pa¬ 
tience  cool. 
When  we  want  an  extra  nice  picnic 
dinner,  I  use  one  side  of  my  fireless  for 
frying  chicken ;  in  one  triangle  kettle 
place  ice  and  a  bottle  of  salad  dressing, 
my  salad  material  in  the  second,  and  tea 
or  lemonade  syrup  in  the  third,  closing 
covers  tightly.  The  cooker  is  then  strap¬ 
ped  on  to  the  “flivver’s”  running  board, 
and  off  we  go.  knowing  that  with  the  rest 
of  the  “fixin’s”  packed  we  will  have  a 
hot  meat  and  an  ice  cold  salad  and 
drink  at  our  journey’s  end. 
MRS.  W.  A.  W. 
Fireless  Cake  Baking 
Mine  is  a  homemade  cooker  and  certainly 
does  fine  work.  I  heat  my  two  soapstones 
very  hot.  I  do  not  use  a  thermometer. 
One  fireless  cook  book  says  to  drop  a 
pinch  of  flour  on  stones,  and  when  it 
browns  at  once  it  is  all  right.  I  place  a 
round  asbestos  mat  on  the  bottom  of  my 
fireless,  then  take  one  stone  and  turn  the 
side  that  laid  on  the  stone,  up,  place  an¬ 
other  asbestos  mat  on  the  stone,  put  my 
pan  on  this  and  then  as  I  don’t  have  a 
rack  use  two  blocks  of  wood  a  little 
higher  than  my  pan  when  it  is  in  the  fire¬ 
less,  and  place  the  other  stone  on  these 
with  the  side  that  was  laid  on  the  stove 
down.  I  lay  a  double  piece  of  muslin 
over  the  top  of  well  and  shut  my  cover ; 
this  absorbs  the  steam.  I  use  any  recipe 
I  ever  used  in  the  cook  stove,  and  by 
trying  them  find  out  just  how  long  to 
bake  and  then  mark  that  recipe. 
Almost  every  recipe  in  the  fireless 
recipes  are  too  long  to  bake  by.  Almost 
any  cake  will  bake  in  40  minutes.  Here 
is  a  sour  milk  cake  that  is  fine,  we  think. 
Sour  Milk  Cake. — One  cup  brown 
sugar,  2  eggs,  %  cup  shortening,  %  cup 
sour  milk,  1  cup  raisins,  1%  cup  flour, 
1  teaspoon  cinnamon,  %  teaspoon  clover, 
1  teaspoon  soda,  1  teaspoon  baking 
powder.  These  are  all  level  measure¬ 
ments.  Bake  40  minutes  by  above  test. 
Molasses  Cake. — %  cup  sugar,  %  cup 
molasses,  2/3  cup  cold  water,  1  2/3  cups 
flour,  1  egg,  butter  size  of  an  egg,  1  tea¬ 
spoon  soda,  1  teaspoon  cinnamon.  Bake 
40  minutes.  This  is  very  good. 
Don’t  be  afraid  to  open  the  cooker.  I 
don’t  open  for  the  first  20  or  30  minutes. 
Meat  put  in  a  crock  and  brought  to  a  boil 
and  then  put  in  with  the  two  stones  and 
left  over  night  is  fine. 
Oatmeal. — One  cup  oats,  4  cups  water 
and  salt ;  bring  to  boil  and  leave  in  all 
night.  It  is  all  ready  to  serve  hot  for 
breakfast. 
Rice  pudding  is  made  the  same  as 
usual.  Cook  rice  first,  then  add  the  rest 
and  bake,  I  almost  always  bake  a  cake 
and  have  the  rice  pudding  ready,  and  put 
this  right  in,  without  heating  the  stones 
over.  The  slow  baking  makes  it  just 
great. 
The  oven  in  our  eookstove  is  not  good 
for  anything,  and  I  do  all  my  baking  in 
my  homemade  fireless.  My  husband  and 
I  made  it,  and  it  cost  less  than  $4.  I  cer¬ 
tainly  would  not  part  with  it  for  several 
times  that,  if  I  could  not  have  another 
one.  MRS.  e.  G.  w. 
Meats  and  Vegetables 
I  have  been  using  a  fireless  cooker  for 
over  seven  years,  and  I  thought  I  would 
send  some  of  my  tried  recipes.  In  the 
first  place  the  radiators  must  be  heated 
to  a  certain  degree.  It  takes  from  10  to 
15  minutes  for  the  radiator  to  heat  and 
I  cover  it  while  heating  to  conserve  heat. 
For  pot  roast,  put  a  piece  of  suet  in 
vessel  and  brown.  When  thoroughly 
browned  put  in  meat.  Flour  roast  meat, 
turning  until  browned.  Then  put  in 
cooker,  leaving  cover  on  for  five  hours. 
If  the  roast  weighs  over  three  pounds  use 
two  radiators,  but  be  sure  to  leave  cover 
on.  Lay  the  radiator  on  top  of  cover. 
Heat  radiator  to  400  degrees. 
Chicken  en  Casserole.— Prepare  fowl 
and  separate  at  joints.  _  Sprinkle  with 
salt  and  pepper  and  roll  in  flour.  Brown 
pieces  in  melted  butter.  When  browned 
remove  to  casserole.  Then  in  the  butter 
brown  one  onion,  one  green  pepper.  Add 
one  cup  boiling  water  and  one  cup  stewed 
tomatoes.  Pour  over  chicken.  Place  in 
cooker,  using  two  radiators  heated  to  400 
degrees.  Do  not  use  cover ;  place  in  rack. 
Boiled  Carrots. — Wash  and  scrape  car¬ 
rots.  Cut  in  cubes,  place  in  kettle,  add 
salt  and  cover  with  boiling  water.  Let 
stand  five  minutes.  Drain  and  add  one 
cup  water.  Place  in  cooker  two  or  three 
hours.  One  radiator  450  degrees. 
Baked  Indian  Pudding.— One  quart 
milk,  %  cup  cornmeal,  14  cup  molasses, 
%  teaspoon  salt.  Put  1  pint  milk  into 
baking  dish,  the  other  pint  scald,  then 
stir  meal  into  hot  milk  a  little  at  a  time 
until  it  thickens.  Remove  from  stove, 
add  molasses  and  salt.  Pour  this  mix¬ 
ture  into  cold  milk.  Place  in  fireless 
using  two  radiators  heated  to  400  de¬ 
grees. 
Veal  Loaf.  Three  pounds  veal  chopped 
fine,  four  crackers  rolled,  butter  size  of 
egg,  three  eggs,  two  tablespoons  sweet 
milk,  one  teaspoon  salt,  %  teaspoon  pep¬ 
per.  Mix  together  and  form  into  loaf. 
Bake  three  hours  in  fireless  using  two 
radiators  heated  to  475  degrees. 
All  these  recipes  have  been  tried  sev¬ 
eral  times,  and  have  given  satisfaction. 
If  any  of  the  readers  wish  to  ask  any 
questions  I  will  be  glad  to  answer  them, 
or  will  give  other  recipes  that  I  have 
tried.  MRS.  T.  J.  M. 
Florida  Experience 
My  friend  Mrs.  D.  'll  ad  one  of  the  first 
commercial  cookers.  She  bought  it  15 
years  ago.  At  that  time  it  cost  about  $20 
delivered  at  the  house :  she  thinks  the 
same  make  retails  at  $23  now.  It  had 
three  compartments,  one  larger  and  two 
smaller  in  diameter.  This  cooker  proved 
satisfactory  in  every  way,  but  was  sold 
when  the  family  moved  to  Florida  last 
year. 
Now  Mrs.  D.  owns  a  2-compartment 
cooker  from  a  mail-order  house.  It  cost 
about  $16  not  including  the  freight.  It 
has  two  compartments  both  the  same  size. 
Each  cooker  came  with  equipment  for 
roasting  and  boiling.  My  friend  has  never 
baked  cake  or  pies  in  her  cooker  because 
she  lacks  the  equipment.  The  present 
cooker  has  soapstone  radiators  and  claw¬ 
like  racks  to  hold  these.  Mrs.  D‘.  does 
not  like  the  new  one  nearly  so  well  as  the 
old  one.  For  instance,  when  she  wants 
to  cook  a  little  of  anything  the  small 
amount  seems  lost  in  the  broad,  shallow 
utensil  that  fills  the  “large  bore”  com¬ 
partments  in  the  present  cooker.  In  the 
smaller  compartment,  a  small  quan¬ 
tity  fitted  more  neafily  into  a  small 
utensil.  She  dislikes  the  folding  “claw” 
racks  that  she  finds  it  hard  to  “twist” 
the  hot  stones  into,  and  they  do  not  hold 
the  radiators  close  enough  to  the  articles 
to  brown  things  well.  Puddings  will  cook 
in  the  cooker  but  she  feels  obliged  to 
brown  them  in  the  oven.  Meats  will  cook 
deliciously  tender  but  they  do  not  brown 
to  suit  her. 
Mrs.  D.  has  roasted  and  boiled  meats 
of  all  sorts,  baked  beans  and  brown 
bread,  cooked  vegetables  and  puddings  in 
September  29,  1923 
the  old  cooker.  She  has  done  the  same  in 
the  new,  all  but  the  brown  bread,  which 
she  will  try  when  the  weather  is  cooler. 
She  uses  her  ordinary  recipes,  only  cooks 
things  longer.  A  book  of  recipes  comes 
with  every  cooker. 
Some  things  will  cook  without  any 
radiator,  potatoes  for  instance,  if  you 
get  them  to  boiling  well.  Brown  bread 
will  if  its  tin  is  put  in  another  of  wa¬ 
ter,  and  the  water  is  boiling  hard  when 
the  outfit  is  put  into  the  cooker. 
We  have  had  two  visitors,  both  born 
overseas,  who  had  never  seen  a  cooker. 
One  asked  where  you  built  the  fire !  Both 
were  interested  to  know  what  it  would 
do.  My  friend  showed  the  new  brown 
bread  tin  from  Boston,  and  told  how 
she  would  cook  brown  bread  without  a 
radiator,  how  long  it  must  cook  and  how 
she  finally  dried  it  off  in  the  oven. 
Mrs.  D.  declares  that  every  house¬ 
keeper  who  cares  anything  about  her 
health  should  have  a  cooker.  Often  in 
a  New  England  Winter  when  she  kept  a 
steady  kitchen  fire,  she  used  the  cooker 
to  boil  ham  or  corned  beef.  The  steady, 
even  heat  cooked  the  meat  better,  and  the 
cooker  kept  to  itself  the  odor  of  cooking. 
It  might  take  longer,  but  the  meat  tasted 
better  and  was  more  tender.  If  the 
farmer’s  wife  is  going  out  the  cooker  is 
a  convenience,  or  if  she  never  knows 
when  her  husband  will  be  home  to  a  meal. 
EDNA  S.  KNAPP. 
Using  the  Fireless  Cooker 
I  have  a  homemade  tireless  cooker  and 
am  using  it  quite  often  ;  am  having  good 
results.  I  use  no  disks,  but  everything  I 
cook  must  be  brought  to  the  boiling  point 
before  placing  in  cooker.  Different  things 
take  longer  to  cook,  but  one  finds  out 
soon,  just  as  there  is  a  difference  in  using 
wood,  coal,  gas  or  coal-oil  stoves  ;  not  so 
much  difference,  but  yet  it  is  noticed.  I 
intend  making  myself  another  fireless 
cooker,  and  will  line  it  with  some  kind 
of  metal,  so  I  can  use  the  soapstones  in 
it,  as  I  have  some  that  came  with  my 
built-in  oil  stove  bake  6ven.  By  using 
them  in  my  cooker  I  would  save  fuel  to 
heat  bake  oven.  The  food  tastes  much 
better  when  cooked  in  fireless  cooker  than 
on  the  stove,  and  we  have  had  piping  hot 
meals  all  Summer  when  we  would  have 
had  just  a  cold  lunch,  when  we  were  busy 
out  in  the  field.  My  cooker  cost  me  about 
$3.  I  made  it  out  of  a  lard  tub.  Almost 
any  boy  or  girl  could  make  one  if  they 
followed  instructions.  We  get  our  in¬ 
structions  from  our  Home  Bureau  lead¬ 
ers.  Information  could  be  had  by  send¬ 
ing  to  your  State  agricultural  college. 
MRS.  M.  C.  B. 
Homemade  Yeast 
Could  you  secure  the  recipe  for  home¬ 
made  yeast?  mrs.  j.  j.  l. 
Save  water  from  boiled  potatoes,  or 
boil  and  mash  one  small  potato.  Dis¬ 
solve  two  dry  yeast  cakes  and  place  in 
a  1-qt.  jar,  with  one-half  cup  sugar,  and 
fill  jar  to  within  1  in.  of  top  with  luke¬ 
warm  potato  water  containing  only 
enough  potato  to  color  it  somewhat 
mildly.  (More  potato  can  be  added  in 
mixing  the  bread.)  Place  bottom  of  can 
in  warm  water  and  stand  in  a  warm 
place,  stove  shelf  preferred,  for  hours, 
until  it  ceases  to  boil  up  from  the  bottom. 
When  making  the  yeast  for  the  first  time, 
begin  in  the  morning,  and  it  will  be  ready 
for  use  by  bedtime.  Afterward,  in  making 
it,  begin  at  noon,  or  not  later  than  3  p.m. 
In  mixing  bread,  use  all  except  that  left 
for  a  starter,  about  2  in.  in  depth  in  the 
bottom  of  the  can.  Add  warm  water,  as 
desired,  with  or  without  more  potato  (I 
use  a  little),  and  flour  in  the  proportion 
of  one  level  quart  to  each  pint  of  liquid. 
Add  salt  to  bread  (never  to  yeast  in  can). 
Lard  can  be  used  if  desired,  but  is  not 
needed.  Mix  either  at  night  or  in  the 
morning,  but  if  the  yeast  is  not  used  till 
morning,  see  that  it  is  kept  cool,  but  not 
chilled,  from  the  time  it  ceases  to  boil  up. 
If  the  bakings  are  not  more  than  a  week 
apart,  the  yeast  will  keep  in  good  condi¬ 
tion  with  the  addition  of  a  half  yeast 
cake  once  a  month,  or  whenever  it  seems 
a  little  slow.  Keep  the  starter  cool  be¬ 
tween  bakings,  and  each  time  used  add 
one-lialf  cup  sugar,  or  a  little  less,  filling 
the  can  with  lukewarm  potato  water,  as 
at  first. 
Prune  Jelly 
Soak  one-half  box  of  gelatine  in  one- 
half  cup  cold  water.  Cook  %  lb.  prunes 
until  soft,  in  water  enough  just  to  cover 
(or  little  more)  ;  take  out  prunes,  and 
to  the  liquid  add  the  gelatine,  juice  of 
half  a  lemon  and  hot  water  enough  to 
make  one  quart  of  liquid.  Let  it  boil, 
after  which  strain,  remove  stones  from 
prunes,  cut  fruit  in  small  pieces,  put  in 
liquid,  just  boil,  turn  in  mold,  cool ; 
serve  with  whipped  cream.  h.  b. 
Canon  Ctjreton  was  to  preach  at  the 
Abbey  on  a  certain  saint’s  day  when  the 
boys  of  Westminster  School  attended  ser¬ 
vice  and  afterward  had  the  rest  of  the 
day  as  a  holiday.  Mr.  Cureton  was  look¬ 
ing  over  his  sermon  'when  his  son  asked 
anxiously,  “Father,  is  your  sermon  long?” 
“No,  Jimmy,  not  very.”  “But  how  long?” 
“Well,  about  20  minutes,  I  should  say. 
But.  why?”  “Because  the  boys  said  they 
would  thrash  me  if  you  are  more  than 
half  an  hour.” — Public  Ledger. 
