The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Fireless cooker

FIRELESS COOKER, an appliance by means of which foods that have been heated or partially cooked are kept hot until the cooking process is completed. The usual design is a box lined with insulating material in which the pot containing partially cooked foods is placed. There are many designs on the market but all are on the same principle, differing only in details of construction, and the kind of insulating material used. Some types are provided with soapstone or iron plates which are heated during the preliminary cooking on the stove and then placed in the fireless cooker either over or under the cooking pot. In these types a non-inflammable insulating material is used. Fireless cookers have successfully been made at home by taking a box so large that the cooking pot when placed in it may be surrounded by a thick layer of non-conducting material, such as hay, excelsior or crumpled paper. A cushion is placed over the pot and a tight-fitting lid is placed over all. The advantages claimed for the fireless cooker are economy of fuel, convenience and economy of time. Consult Davis and Wood, ‘Illustrated Lecture on the Home-made Fireless Cooker’ (United States Department of Agriculture, Syllabus 15, Washington 1914); Huntington, E. H., ‘Fireless Cooker’ (University of Wisconsin Bulletin 217, Madison 1908); Lovewell, Whittemore and Lyon, ‘The Fireless Cooker’ (Topeka 1908); Mitchell, M. J., ‘The Fireless Cook Book’ (New York 1909).