Manual of military cooking / prepared at the Army School of Cookery.

Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Manual of military cooking / prepared at the Army School of Cookery. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    12/436 (page 4)
    General Instructions. 1. Avoid the use of the rake; it is only required for cleaning purposes. 2. To economise fuel and ensure the apparatus working satis- factorily it must be cleaned out every day when in use; also keep the space above the bridge clear, and the fire bars free from clinkers. 3. A good fire must be maintained while cooking the dinner; when it requires replenishing, ease the fire with a poker, pushing the live coal to the back, placing the fresh in front, adding not more than 5 lbs. of coal; if more than this quantity is added, it will invariably choke the fire and stop the draught. 4. The cooker in front is intended for soups, rice, vegetables, puddings, hams, porridge, &c., but should never be used for tea or coffee. It may be used for providing an extra supply of hot water. 5. Cinders must not be used till after dinner ; then suflficient should have been saved from the day's consumption of coal to prepare the tea. 6. All cookers when not in use should be clean, thoroughly dried, and kept in a dry place ready for use. 7. During the process of cooking stews by steam they should be frequently stirred ; the dishes in the oven moved about. When there are^ no potatoes to be cooked, the cookers can be used for steaming puddings. Care should also be taken that the water from the condensed steam is occasionally di'awn ofi. 8. Should the whistle on the feed pipe indicate that the boiler is empty, it must be refilled at once. If this should happen during the cooking of the dinners, the boiler must be filled with hot water, so as not to reduce the pressure of the steam. Dean's Iron Ovens. The oven is an iron box, which can be closely shut, with a furnace underneath, surrounded by patent fire lumps, and enclosed in a cast- iron frame. There are three sizes in use in the service, viz., the 2-dish, rated to cook for 25 men, the 4-dish to cook for 50 men, and the 8-dish to cook for 100 men. After being in use, the oven should be allowed to cool, and then thoroughly cleaned by opening the soot caps and oven dampers above the folding doors ; then insert the flue brush and clean the top of the oven. Close the soot caps and oven dampei-s, open the doors on top, and remove the back and side soot caps, insert the flue brush and sweep well down the back and sides of the oven, replace the soot caps and close the doors on top ; remove the soot caps above the furnace doors, and with a rake clear the soot from the back and sides of the oven, sweeping well out with a flue brush ; close the soot caps, open the furnace, sweeping on either side with a cinder brush ; empty the ashpit and fill it with water. If required the following morning, lay the fire with 1 lb. ot ■wood and 10 lbs. of coal; close the furnace and ashpit doors. In