Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1901 — COOKING IN STONEWARE. [ARTICLE]

COOKING IN STONEWARE.

A Demon.tra.tlon of the Merit, of Kitehen Pottery. A “bachelor housekeeper” who Is endeavoring to bring about the renaissance of kitchen pottery presents its claims after the following convincing fashion In Table Talk: A kitchen in which pottery appears in plenitude for the various kinds of its capable service wafts an odor of purity and fascinates with a sense of cleanliness. In numerous kinds of cookery it has no equal and in some there are dishes one might better abandon than attempt to prepare and serve without its aid. Many who are using iron, tin and copper to the exclusion of earthenware do so in ignorance of the perfect adaptability and service of the stone pot. For the simple forms of boiling, broiling and frying the metals are more convenient, but for baking, pot roasting, braising, stewing and fricasseeing it is far superior to all its rivals. Cooking in the stone pot simplifies the preparation of all the dishes that come under these heads, relieves the cook from close attention and constant stirring to defeat the Imperfect action of applied heat and performs its work with unfailing accuracy and without accident. It gives its best and almost exclusive service in the baking oven and under close cover. Few avail themselves of its reliable and easy use, and being, as I declare inyself, an experimenting and progressive housekeeper, I wish to recommend it to othere who are anxious to learn and know for themselves of Its unequaled merits. Any cook will with one demonstration understand perfectly its superior action under the influence of heat, and for such the details of preparation will be necessary in but one case. I shall therefore confine myself to a single recipe and formula. Procure a large earthen pot with a closely fitting cover of the same material. This may be found in almost any house furnishing store. Make the first attempt with the ordinary and familiar fricassee of disjointed chicken. After preparing, sprinkle each piece with salt and pepper and dredge with a little flour. Lay the pieces snugly in the pot, which has been rubbed with a little butter or melted suet. Pour in a pint or more of hot water, just enough to appear toward the surface of the chicken. Dredge the top again with flour, put on the cover and set in the oven. The oven should be very hot for the first 15 minutes, after which the heat should be reduced to the lowest degree that will keep the pot gently simmering. At the outset it may be necessary to examine the pot occasionally to acquaint oneself with the action of the oven’s heat, but when this is once ascertained the pot may be left undisturbed from the beginning till the dish is about done. Young chickens will require only two hours; older ones, three to four, more water and the slowest possible heat to bring them out tender. The chicken will be cooked to a point that the meat will easily come from the bone and yet may be served in as perfect form as when laid in the pot. It will have all the richness of a roast without the dryness that quite forbids the open oven baking of a chicken. It will have all the juiciness of the fricassee without any of the wateriness which one wishes to avoid. People say they do not like the preacher, when it is the truth he preaches which they dislike.—Ram’s Horn.