GAS ECONOMY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1916, Page 11

GAS ECONOMY.

USING THE STOVE TO ADVANTAGE. As gas stoves are now generally «9ed for cooking, eTen in the humblest household, it is comforting to knov that with care gas may prove cheaper than either wood or coal. First keep your range and cooking utensils perfectly clean, and use, if possible, broad, fiat saucepans fer cooking. Always lower the gas directly the utensils beil. Take the gas fittings to pieces occasionally ; place them in an iron saucepan with a lump of soda, and boil thoroughly. Then carefully dry, and replace them. The result is better light and less gas used. A dirty stove burns double the gas. Test the heat of the oven by putting in white paper, which blackens if too hot. The gas is saved if the stove is not allowed to be overheated. . Conserve heat by letting no draughts get to the stove. Put a piece of tin or sheet iron on top of the stove. This concentrates the heat and allows a larger surface for pots and pans. Screw the gas off immediately it is not required. Keep i a box of matches handy, for matches are cheaper than gas. After much cooking stand a bowl of water in the oven. The heat of the stove of the stove will suffice to heat this, which will serve for washing up, and save lighting a burner for that purpose. Have pots and pans used only for gas cooking. If they become sooty, they will take longer to boil, and, moreover, run the risk of choking the burners. Place an enamelled basin of water on the top of the pot that is boiling. Thi3 makes the water hot and it may be required for various purposes. Keep a saucepan of water on the stove whenever cooking is on. for, though it may not be over a burner, the combined heat from the oven and burners will alike raise the temperature of the water sufficiently for washing up purposes, and thus the use of a burner is saved. If the gas handle at the meter is kept turned only half on, it will be founed sufficient for ordinary purposes. One woman sometimes saves using the gas stove by arranging a square of bricks around her gas ring. She has a piece of sheet iron on top, with some holes drilled through it. In this way, three saucepans are kept boiling. Of course, each one is first brought to a boil over the top of the ring. Arrange to cook all either inside or outside the gas stove. For instance, if you are roasting, have roast potatoes and baked puddings. It is possible cook several articles in the oven at the same time. For instance,potatoes miy be cooked under the meat,, and there is also room for a pudding or a tan,. When frying, steam potatoes and puddings. More gas than is wasted is used if both oven and rings are in use at tfte same time.