Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper: Containing Five Hundred Receipes for Economical and Healthful Cooking; also, Many Directions for Securing Health and HappinessBeecher, Catharine Esther
General
Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper: Containing Five Hundred Receipes for Economical and Healthful Cooking; also, Many Directions for Securing Health and Happiness
Beecher, Catharine Esther
Cooking; Home economics
The flue-plate is placed obliquely, to accumulate heat by forcing
and compression; for the back space where the smoke enters from the
corner-flues is largest, and decreases toward the front, so that the
hot current is compressed in a narrow space, between the oven-bottom
and the flue-plate at the place where the bent arrows are seen. Here
again it enters a wider space, under the flue-plate, and proceeds to
another narrow one, between the flue-plate and the bottom of the stove,
and thus is compressed and retained longer than if not impeded by
these various contrivances. The heat and smoke also strike the plate
obliquely, and thus, by reflection from its surface, impart more heat
than if the passage was a horizontal one.
The external radiation is regulated by the use of non-conducting
plaster applied to the flue-plate and to the sides of the corner-flues,
so that the heat is prevented from radiating in any direction except
toward the oven. The doors, sides, and bottom of the stove are lined
with tin casings, which hold a stratum of air which is a non-conductor.
These casings are so arranged as to be removed whenever the weather
becomes cold, so that the heat may then radiate into the kitchen. The
outer edges of the oven are also similarly protected from loss of heat
by tin casings and air-spaces, and the oven doors opening at the front
of the stove are provided with the same economical savers of heat. High
tin covers placed on the top prevent the heat from radiating from the
top of the stove. These are exceedingly useful, as the space under them
is well heated and arranged for baking, for heating irons, and many
other incidental necessities. Cake and pies can be baked on the top,
while the oven is used for bread or for meats. When all the casings
and covers are on, almost all the heat is confined within the stove;
and whenever heat for the room is wanted, opening the front oven doors
turns it out into the kitchen.
Another contrivance is that of ventilating-holes in the front doors,
through which fresh air is brought into the oven. This secures several
purposes: it carries off the fumes of cooking meats, and prevents the
mixing of flavors when different articles are cooked in the oven; it
drives the heat that accumulates between the fire-box and front doors
down around the oven, and equalizes its heat, so that articles need not
be moved while baking; and lastly, as the air passes through the holes
of the fire-box, it causes the burning of gases in the smoke, and thus
increases heat. When wood or bituminous coal is used, perforated metal
linings are put in the fire-box, and the result is the burning of smoke
and gases that otherwise would pass into the chimney. This is a great
discovery in the economy of fuel, which can be applied in many ways.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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