1002 Revolving Oven

These ovens may be easily made by any tin-man. They are not now manufactured for sale, which is to be regretted, on account of their obvious utility. When suspended in front of any ordinary fire by means of a bottle-jack or a common worsted string, the Revolving Oven will bake bread, cakes, pies, &c., in a much more equal and perfect manner than either a side oven or an American oven, without depriving the room of the heat and comfort of the fire. Before an ordinary fire, in any room in any house, it will bake a four-pound loaf in an hour and twenty minutes. It also bakes pastry remarkably well, and all the care that it requires is merely to give it a look now and then to see that it keeps turning.The bottom of this oven* is made in the form of two saucers, the lower one of which is inverted, while the other stands on it in the ordinary position. A rim, from 1in. to 2in. in height, is fixed round the edge of the upper saucer, but a little within it, and over this rim fits a cylinder with a top, slightly domed, which also resembles a saucer turned upside down. In the centre of the top is a circular ventilator, through which steam, generated in baking, can escape, and the ventilator is covered by a domed plate, as large as the top of the oven. This acts as a radiator to reflect heat on top of the oven, and is furnished with a knob, by which the cylinder that covers the article to be baked may be removed, in order to view the progress of the baking. Two strong wires project from the bottom on either side, terminating in loops or eyes for the reception of the hhoksof a handle by which the entire apparatus may be suspended in front of the fire.

Enquire Within upon Everything, Houlston and Sons (1885) p.158

This entry shows and examples the problem with considering Victorian recipes. We have to understand the differences in technology that these recipes were designed for. Open fires are the basis of cooking, coal fires at that, and the construct of a 'cooker' as we know it today is not only technologically different but of a different culture of cooking. Where today, for example, would we find a recipie to boil a pie for five hours? This seems a dreadful amount of overcooking to us but once you begin to comprehend the fundamental differences in the chemical procedure and how that impacts on the culture of cooking, then suddenly, your window is open onto a past and a moment in time which otherwise is lost.



More about this book Victorian Recipes



More about this book Victorian recipe book.


These books are really zaqqard.