38 
House & Garden 
ANOTHER REVOLUTION — THE CULINARY 
Contact With the French Teaches Us the Proper Use of the Casserole and 
the Cooking Glass of American Manufacture 
“OINCE my daughter came back from driv- 
O ing an ambulance in France and from 
living in the various towns, she has not only 
brought back an international atmosphere with 
her but she is quite a Kitchen Red! She has 
revolutionized our whole culinary system.” 
“You strike terror to my soul,” gasped Mrs. 
Whitney. “What can you mean?” 
“Well, since she has returned she is keen 
for cutting down unnecessary effort and un¬ 
necessary processes and she thinks that the 
French have solved the simplifying of cookery 
by the use of the casserole or casserole system 
as I like to call it,” explained Margaret Ben¬ 
son’s proud parent. 
“Oh, dear,” sighed Mrs. Whitney, “these 
fads are so overdone, generally. 
“You are right, they are. But this is no fad, 
as it’s been popular for aeons, and if it had 
not been why should we not give it a trial? 
Because a thing can be used intemperately is 
no reason why it should not be attempted. We 
drink water, yet we don’t choke or drown our¬ 
selves very often!” 
“Joking aside, tell me just what is so revolu¬ 
tionary in Margaret’s dicta?” 
“She says that in these servant famine days 
where people either have none, one or a very 
depleted staff of them, processes must be cut 
down, handling of utensils must be decreased. 
Therefore cooking in dishes that can be used 
on the table, and coming directly from the 
stove, cuts the use of one set of dishes, of 
washing the extra dishes, and as these utensils 
are of pottery or glass the ease with which they 
can be washed cuts this process in half.” 
“You see, Mrs. Whitney,” she pursued, “these 
casserole dishes are made in glazed pottery 
white on the inside and one can buy them in 
pretty nearly every color, as far as the outside 
is concerned. Because of the heat-conducting 
attributes of pottery long and slow cooking is 
the result of their usage. This fact is, of 
course, their greatest asset, because slow cook¬ 
ing is necessary to bring out the best flavors 
and render food more digestible.” 
“But what is casserole cookery after all?” 
said Mrs. Whitney, a bit impatient. 
“With the French it means really a kind of 
dish. Adapted to our use as I mentioned be¬ 
fore, it is a system by which cooking is done 
(slowly in the casserole) in utensils usable on 
the table. Strictly speaking, casserole cookery 
is cooking done in the casserole. The French 
use the casserole for made-over dishes, and 
have given the world a fund of dishes and ideas 
which have saved much money and besides 
given much pleasure. This, of course, is a 
culinary as well as an economic feat. And 
probably one of the best uses of the casserole 
is the fact that tough cuts of meat and cheaper 
grades of vegetables which are just as nutritious 
as the expensive are rendered delicious and 
appetizing by this slow casserole cooking.” 
“The appearance of these dishes, too, are 
enough to stimulate the jaded palate. You 
know they come, too, with cases made in the 
different metals: copper, brass, iron and silver. 
The dish as it is taken from the stove is slipped 
into one of these open work cases and gives 
quite a finish to the table. These holders, be 
ETHEL R. PEYSER 
it remembered, are not necessary, but for that 
reason they are alluring!” 
“T)UT, Mrs. Benson, I hate to think of 
£> living on stews and cheap cuts all the 
time and that’s what casserole always means 
to me.” 
“Nonsense, dear, you can bake, roast, boil, 
and braise in these dishes. I have made ex¬ 
cellent cake and bread in them, and soup and 
fruits and all very deliciously.” 
“And yet I think scalloped dishes and mar- 
mites and things in ramekins are very good, 
too,” added Mrs. Whitney. 
“Well, they are casserole cookery, too, only 
those dishes are for the most part ‘individuals,’ 
and these individual dishes are often made in 
the more delicate pottery wares. Naturally, 
one doesn’t have to use the family size always.” 
“But don’t they break and crack too easily 
to be really practical?” 
“They do not break if one uses ordinary 
common sense with them. When they are new 
I set them in very cold water for a few hours, 
I tell the cook to apply gradual heat, never 
sudden heat, and that she must not put them 
on or in the stove without something in them, 
and that when she uses them on top of the 
stove that she must put an asbestos or metal 
tray under them to insulate them from too 
direct a heat.” 
“You know common sense has to be used 
with all cooking utensils to lengthen their lives. 
But here are some of the good points in cas¬ 
serole cookery:—Less liquid need be added 
when using them as the food in long cooking 
cooks its own juices; Left-over foods become 
delicious in them; Freshly cooked foods be¬ 
come most appetizing; the tight covers keep in 
all the aroma and flavor (if the cover doesn’t 
fit tight enough a little flour paste around the 
top of the casserole will seal it completely); 
There is no burn to remove when washing 
these dishes and food cannot adhere obstinately 
to cause a loss of time and patience; anything 
that is to be removed is very evident and 
rubbing it off the smooth sides is very rapidly 
accomplished. And,” she added, delightedly, 
“they do look so well after they are cleaned!” 
“TN buying casserole dishes you should be 
X sure that they are smooth on the inside 
and outside with no little blisters or cracks. 
The best casseroles are not expensive and it is 
very encouraging today to get anything with 
epicurean attributes at proletarian prices.” 
“Yes, I guess you are right and I do think,” 
said Mrs. Whitney, waxing interested, “that 
women should try things as business men try 
things when they are cutting down expenses 
and operations. And it doesn’t matter how 
wealthy a firm is either when cost reduction 
can be made. Isn’t it queer that our wealthy 
women never think of cutting costs in their 
kitchens? You know this is the first time it 
has ever occurred to me . . . this com¬ 
parison of the wealthy firm with the wealthy 
home keeper.” 
“This is true,” answered the practical Mrs. 
Benson, “and after we women realize that slow 
cookery is healthiest and is most economical 
why do we persist in being so conservative?” 
"I really don’t know, unless we unconscious¬ 
ly feel that when we do change we swing to 
the other extreme and that, if we, for example, 
would start on slow cookery, we would never 
cook anything by ‘rapid fire.’ Don’t you re¬ 
member how they even wanted to boil coffee 
in Paper Bags?” 
“Not in my case, however,” answered Mrs. 
Benson, “because I have in my kitchen some 
glass utensils whose greatest attributes are 
rapidity in cooking. By this rapidity in cook¬ 
ing there is a saving of fuel, and as the uten¬ 
sils are taken directly from the stove, as are 
the casseroles, and used on the table, there 
is the same saving of service time. These glass 
utensils bring out the flavors in all kinds of 
foods, they do not absorb odors or grease, they 
are very easy to keep clean, there is never any 
bum to remove and one can always see inside 
the utensil to find out how the food is faring!” 
“But think of the breakage,” again put in 
Mrs. Whitney as she did in the case of the 
casserole dishes. 
“They don’t break—they are strongly guar¬ 
anteed against breakage in the oven. They are 
annealed so perfectly that they can stand in¬ 
tense and sudden heat and not break. Mar¬ 
garet came back with great tales of safety glass 
which is used on motors. This glass rarely 
breaks even if hit by shrapnel, it simply cracks 
and crazes. I tell you this to give you con¬ 
fidence in what the scientific manufacturers 
of glass are doing today.” 
I 'HIS cooking glass,” she went on, "is 
X also made in engraved patterns which 
make it suitable for the most exacting table 
use.” 
“But why is it that cooking can be done so 
much more rapidly in the glass ware?” 
“Because the glass utensil utilizes by the 
nature of glass composition ever}' bit of heat 
in the oven and the metal utensil does not. I 
proved this by putting a metal and a glass pot 
in the oven equally full of water and the glass 
pot boiled very soon while the . . . well 
I’d hate to tell you what did happen.” 
“Of course,” continued Mrs. Benson, “this 
glass is only usable in the oven. It is really 
miracle stuff because even boiling water poured 
into one of the utensils won’t break it.” 
“Can everything be cooked in this ware?” 
“Well, this is what I have cooked and ’it 
covers a pretty good range: light omelets, dried 
fruit, cake, bread, meat and re-chauffees. The 
glass casserole is very much in vogue at pres-' 
ent because the glass ware is adaptable to 
slow cooking, too.” 
“Well, I certainly like the type of revolution 
that Margaret has imported,” said Mrs. Whit¬ 
ney enthusiastically. “It’s amazing, isnj it, 
to think what can be done with glass and 
china fire-proof as they have become!” 
“No, not when you think of crossing the 
ocean in sixteen hours,” flashed Mrs. Benson. 
“But what is amazing is that women are so 
slow to investigate and are willing to live in 
their unexplored mediaeval culinary ruts, while 
in every other line they seem to be so up and 
coming.” 
