COOKING IN AN ELECTRIC OVEN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue II, 11 January 1896, Page 35

COOKING IN AN ELECTRIC OVEN.

English electricians deserve much credit for the practical way in which they have solved many of the problems arising out of developments in electrical cookery. A well-known writer on the chemistry of cookery has given it as his opinion that the perfect arrangement for an oven would be the radiation of its heat from all sides. This is now done in an electric oven which is having a large sale in London. The process is said to produce a cooked meat absolutely wholesome and extremely appetising. There is no combustion whatever in the oven, and the food, being cooked in a pure atmosphere, cannot possibly be tainted. The heat is turned on at any part merely by the movement of a switch. It is produced inside the oven, and it is so conserved that, after the oven is once made hot, what is required to' carry on the process is little more than sufficient to make up for slight leakages. The electric oven can be put on the kitchen dresser when needed, and it throws practically neither heat nor smell. Tabulated lists are provided, from which, the weight and description of the joint being given, full instructions are derived as to the time and temperature of the required cooking. Roast mutton takes a temperature of 330 degrees Fahrenheit, beef 340 degrees, and veal 350 degrees ; and a heat of 370 degrees is needed to give puff pastry its desirable tint and consistency. The comparative coolness of the outside of the oven is a singular feature. As the chef remarked at a recent dinner, ‘ You could sit dowu on the oven while you roast inside.’