SENSIBLE COOKING.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 66, 15 May 1869, Page 5

SENSIBLE COOKING.

(From " Macmillan's Magazine.")

The Norwegian felted boxes now on sale in Duke-street, Grosvenor-square, deserve notice. When a leg of mutton is to be boiled, instead of its being kept on the fire for three or four hours (on the good old English method, which wastes fuel and hardens the meat), it is sufficient to keep it boiling for. only ten minutes ; and when it has been boiled for that time, the fire is no longer needed, but the saucepan containing the meat is to be enclosed in the felted box till three or four hours later when dinner time arrives. The heat in the saucepan is prevented from escaping, as it cannot pass through the non-conducting felt, and the process of cooking therefore goes on. gently for hours with no new application of heat. A leg of mutton eaten by the Food Committee is stated to have been quite hot three hours and a half after it was taken from the fire and enclosed in the box, and something was said of another leg which was taken from Paris to London in a Norwegian box without getting cold, on the journey. Such boxes are coming into use for the luncheons of shooting parties and picnics, and of persons engaged in« business. A gentleman takes with him to his office a small box, which he opens at the time of his meal, and finds it contains hot food. This ingenious contrivance is admirably suited to the wants of the poor. Every poor woman makes a fire in the morning to boil the water for breakfast. The same fire may suffice to commence the cooking of the good man's dinner, and it may be kept hot for him, in one of these boxes under the hedges, while he attends to his work, till the hour for his meal arrives. Hot food is not only more palatable but far more strengthening than cold food. Captain Warren's "Cooker," which is patented by Messrs. Adams, of the Haymarket, is an admirable contrivance. The food in the patent saucepan, or "cooker," is cooked by the heat of steam, but without any contact with it. There is no dilution whatever, nor any waste. " When the meatuis done, the meat and the gravy together are the exact weight of the raw joint. It is cooked in its own juices, so that its full flavour is retained, as the temperature does not rise quite to the boiling point, the fibre is not rendered hard and indigestible by excessive heat.