COOKING BY ELECTRICITY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1162, 8 June 1894, Page 16

COOKING BY ELECTRICITY.

ITS PRACTICABILITY DEMONSTRATED. SOME OF ITS ADVANTAGES, From Our Special Correspondent. London, April 6. In the Old Country we are, it must be confessed, prodigiously slow in adopting new aids to domestic comfort and economy. Cooking by gas is only just beginning to be general, and oil stoves, though increasing in favour with small householders, are still viewed with suspicion by the great mass of the artisan and labouring classes. The coal fire alone possesses virtue with these good folk, and though you may demonstrate the economy of gas and oil beyond cavil, the housewife will make evidence against both out of her own imagination. She will declare that food cooked by either " tastes queer." It is a foolish prejudice, of course, and is not warranted by fact any more than the old workhouse lady's complaint against the Australian mutton supplied by the guardians, namely, that u it tasted, quite strong of '* amonee," or the verdict of a labourer who once tried to convince me that frozen mutton was no good, " cos anyone wot knows any fink can tell yer that hif yer keeps meat in hice it destroys all its flavour." These foolish ideas are not confined to the lower classes, they exist amongst people whose position and education should denote superiority to prejudice arising from ignorance. To ask such people to adopt electricity in the household is of course useless. And yet at the Chicago Exhibition it was demonstrated conclusively that the householder, large and small, would find in electricity a comprehensive and economical friend. Its utility in cooking, heating and lighting can hardly be over estimated. Onehalf of the dirt in a house arises from the smoke and ashes of the tires, and the kitchen range probably provokes more bad language per annum than any other portion of the household. Oil stoves, though clean enough if properly attended to, are calculated to cause much misery if Jane happens to be a trifle careless ; and gas cookers, though a long way superior to either coal or oil [ranges, cannot compare with an electric oven. A correspondent of the Pall Mall details his (or her) experiences of the working of electric apparatuses for cooking exhibited in the Electricity Building at Chicago, the perusal of which will, 1 think, bring into the breasts of colonial housewives a great longing for tho time when by touching a knob they can commence culinary operations without handling matches, wood, or coal. The writer says :—On several occasions I saw a turkey or a joint in the electric oven, and it was remarkable that in this case no basting whatever was required, for the reason that the temperature in suchan oven is absolutely uniform at the top, beneath, and all around the food being cooked. Therefore, in addition to the advantages of perfect cleanliness and the complete absence of offensive odour, the electric oven enables the cooking to go on without even the presence of the cook ; indeed, a family possessing an electrical cooking apparatus may place the joint in the oven and, after adjusting tho temporaturo, go to church without a fear but that the meat will be ** done to a turn " upon their coming home again. Again, at Chicago, pancakes were cooked at the breakfast-table on a damask cloth without lard cr butter, and with no odour whatever, the use of all fat, with its inevitable odour, being obviated, as in the case of the oven, by the perfectly uniform distribution of the heat. The boiling of coffee, eggs, the tea-kettle, Ac, on the table, amid dainty china and flowers, was simplicity itself. Reverting to the electric oven, it may bo mentioned that the handsome-looking apparatus might be

in the parlour just as well as in the kitchen, for tho insulation at Chicago was so perfect that while tho inside registered a temperature of 380 degrees the outside was so cold that a jar of water could stand on the oven without heating. Similarly the frying-pan on which a pancake was cooked at table was quite cold below and could be carried about upon the hand, A further convenience was indicated by vegetables being boiled twenty or thirty yards away from the kitohen proper, showing that pots and pans in the way of the cook may be relegated to tho back court without the cooking process being stopped. An electric flat-iron was also •hown at work ; it had simply to be hitched on to a wire connected with the circuit, and the iron was hot in a fsw seconds, and could be used continuously for hours, there bein# no need to carry it away to a fire for re-heating. FIFTEEN ARGUMENTS.

The firm that made the exhibit at Chicago had as their motto the significant words, "You push the button ; we do the rest," and in a prospectus they summed up the advantages of the system under the following fifteen heads : The economy of tho electric current is found in the rule—turn it off when you cease to need it.

As this rule is observed, it is cheaper or dearer than coal.

Piling on fuel is the last act on leaving a coal stove, that there may be a fire when you return.

The electric current may be turned off —certain of immediate heat as soon as turned on.

The current, as fuel, requires no storage bin, no kindling, no delay in obtaining heat.

You buy current at a fixed rate, as needed. You pay for eoal in advance and at varying prices. No carrying of coal or ashes, no kindling of fires render miserable the lives of ihose who use the electric current for fuel. A range requires as much coal to boil a pot of tea as it does to cook a dinner. The electric current used is just sufficient to accomplish the purpose desired ; no more—hence the economy. In summer directly the meal is cooked the current may be turned off. Coal may take hours to burn itself out, roasting you while making you pay for what you do not need.

Meat roasted in an electric oven will retain to a much greater extent its juices, and will weigh 15 per cent, more than if cooked in a coal range. There is absolutely no odour or foreign taste in meats broiled or roasted by electric energy. As compared with coal, the current saves to the careful money, time, room, and labour, as well as much wear and tear of mind.

The electric ttove ia never late ; water boils in four minutes ; a cup of coffe* is quickly made ; economy takes the place of waste, and housekeeping becomes a luxury. If Bridget leaves, we still exist ! SAFE AND CHEAP. The all-importune questions of safety and cost remain to be dealt with. At Chicago I handled the wires In the electric kitchen again and again, and by taking pains to secure actual contact at two points, experienced the full shock of the current, which was nothing more serious than nrght have Keen caused by the slightest pressure of a jin point. The cooking apparatus can he brought into use wherever there is a circuit, arc or incandescent. The ordinary electric light fittings may be utilised ; thus when the flat iron was shown in operation at the World's Fair, tho globe of an iucandescent limp was simply screwed off, and the wire connected with the iron fixed in its place. Next, as to cost. I tried to get exact figures, and was assured by the representative of the firm exhibiting at Chicago that electiic heat for the cooking, washing, and ironing df a family of six persons can be supplied in most American towns for 5 dollars, or about £l, per month that is, £l2 per annum. If this estimate be correct, it is safe to predict that gnsatoves and coal-ovens will, at least in America, be knocked out of existence for domestic cooking in ten years' time. No coal, no wood, not even a match for kindling ; no ashes, no smoke, no dust, no labour, no odour, no danger ; no heat but what iB actually utilised, and, consequently, no waste. These form a category of negative points of advantage that cannot be approached by any other form of cooking apparatus.