COOKING BY ELECTRICITY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 396, 16 September 1911, Page 3

COOKING BY ELECTRICITY.

Owing to the greater display of en- ! terprise that is now being evinced by | electricity generating corporations, in conjunction with invented effort the advantages of cooking by electricity are being brought more forcibly before the housewife. Certainly, it constitutes the most hygienic and simple form of preparing dishes for the table that has yet been devised, free from all danger and the risk of contamination from fumes of combustion s.ch as arise from the use of gas. The one great drawback to the system, however, has been the woeful lack of initiative on the part of the supply concerns. They have failed to profit from the experience of the gas companies. The electrical cooker is expensive in first cost, and there are very few people who are prepared to purchase a cooker.'whether it be operated by gas or electricity. On the other hand, if the stoves were hired out upon a quarterly rental, as is the practise among the gas companies, the resort to electricity for cooking purposes would advance by leaps and bounds. The electricity generating companies have shown more sympathy with the movement by supplying current at a low rate for cooking purposes, and this has enabled electricity to compete more favourably with its powerful rival. Moreover, inventive ingenuity has secured improvement on improvement to such an extent that the electric cooker is now highly economical, and the utmost service from the unit of current is secured. In the "'tricity cooker," which has been devised by

Mr A. F. Berry, the designer and builder of the special high-pressure transformer employed to transmit the first Marconigrams between Great Britain and America, economy has been brought to a high stage of perfection. For instance, with this cooker the loss by shrinkage during cooking has been reduced to (he minimum. Comparative tests have shown that where a ten-pound sirloin of beef lost nearly three pounds when prepared in the ordinary cookingrange, and where there was a still greater waste under gas-cooking, when submitted to the "'tricity" appliance, the loss was but one and a half pounds. Such a saving in cash alone is sufficient to pronounce the advantage of this method. Another point is lhat this stove occupies less space than its rival, and can be placed at any convenient point, inasmuch as it is unaffected by draughts, as no flames or products of combustion have to be studied or carried away. The temperature can be adjusted to a nicety by means of switches, which is impossible with either gas or coal. From the safety point of view the advantage is overwhelmingly in its favour. The conumption of fuel is also to the advantage of the new system, as less current is consumed to prepare dishes for table by this system than any other. For instance, whereas it was found to cost threepence in a working-class neighbourhood to cook two pounds of meat and cake respectively by gas on the penny-in-the-slot principle, a four-course dinner for six people was cooked for fourpence in the same neighbourhood by electricity. The more enterprising electricity supply companies are hiring out theae cookers, and in London the simplicity and perfection of the system has created such a favourable impression upon the housewife that they are coming rapidly into vogue.—Chamber's Journal.