ANTI-PAPER BAG.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 401, 4 October 1911, Page 6

ANTI-PAPER BAG.

NEW METHOD NOT WHAT IT SEEMS. So much has been said about the advantages of paper basr cookery of late that something is clue to those who have not found it a complete success. The following opinions upon the art are by a busy housewife who declares that she has given it a fair trial.

Cooking in paper bags may answer well enough for an accomplished chef who wishes to prepare some special dainty dish, and who has everything to hand with which to arrange an elaborate dinner, but for the poor man's wife paper bag cookery is out of the question. To begin with the bags are far too expensive. The woman who has to cook and provide meals upon a very small weekly allowance stock's her little kitchen with a few pots and pans, say, two saucepans and a frying pan, a couple of baking dishes and cake tins. These if carefully selected, will not cost very much. A frying pan can be bought for r» fair sized saucepan for Is, and a smaller one for 9d or lOd. These should last for quite a long time. Paper bags, on the other hand, cost from Is 4?sd to 4s 3d for 50, and the cheaper sizes are far too small to be of much use when one is cooking for more than one person, and as a bag can only be used once, it will be found in the long run far more expensive to cook in bags than in the usual saucepans.

Secondly, there is the danger of the bag catching fire, burning up the food, and perhaps catching the sleeves or apron of the cook while she is endeavouring to put out the blaze and so save the joint or other dish which is being cooked. It is acknowledged even by those who advocate paper cookery, that the bag may catch fire, and instructions are given as to how the food may be placed into a second bag to finish cooking. Opening the oven may cause a slight draught which, in the case of a gas oven, will result in the bag catching fire —a most undesirable state of things, especially when there is no time to waste on preparing the dinner. Then it is necessary to grease ali the bags used with butter or dripping, except when water is to be placed in them. This in itself is an extravagance for the would-be economical cook, and one which is not necessary for ordinary cooking. Another point to be remembered is that all foods cannot be cooked in paper bags, and that, therefore, a few pans must be provided for use as wel! as bags.

It has been argued that by cooking in a paper a great deal of trouble, dirt and grease will be saved to the woman who does her own housework and cooking. This is rather an exaggerated view to take, I am afraid. The idea of saving cf trouble is a mistaken one. So much care is required in getting the cooked article out of the oven or oft the grill, so much in removing it properly from its paper case or bag, that it is far more trouble to cook in this way than, in the ordinary manner, and as the bag has to be greased before the food is placed in it, it will naturally be greasy when taken from the oven, and, personally, I cannot ceo that there i?> any gain in the direction of saving trouble, grease, or dirt. Then again, most of the foods which can be cooked in paper bags take longer to cook in this way than in the ordinary pan, therefore requiring more fuel, and the food when cooked does not look nice and brown as it would were it cooked in the saucepan. Whether it is as wholesome yet, remains to be proved, but that it does not look as "tasty" is already established fact which even its most enthusiastic supporters cannot deny. Another great disadvantage to this way of cooking is that most of the ordinary foods which are cheap and nutritious cannot be cooked by this system of paper bags. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, scrambled eggs, and omelettes are all outside the reach of those who adopt paper bag cookery. Soup is also quite impossible,and often a bag will be found to leak. This may be discovered by the "cook" immediately, but oftener not until after a great portion of the food has found its way to the bottom of the oven or dripped all over the gas stove from the grill. One never knows when this is going to happen, and a watch should be kept upon the bag and its contents. It is not possible to "put the dinner on" and attend to something else while it cooks. One eye must always be upon the contents of the paper bag, or it may catch fire, lealc, or meet with some disaster; so for this reason, if for no other, it is not exactly the best way of preparing food for the poor man' 3 wife, who must divide her time among3t many things.

I question, too. whether the paper bag does not keep in a few injurious gases that should escape from the food; take, for instance, pork, rabbit, and veal and ham pies, though on this point l am not a scientist. —Sydney Sun.