Consuming Interest

The Kitchen Stove

By LESLIE ADRIAN rrntz. old-fashioned kitchen stove, the kind that 1 bakes bread, heats the kitchen and provides hot water, is coming back into fashion.

The revival is probably due primarily to economics, for these stoves, which burn solid fuel, are still the cheapest to run. But they are also gaining popularity because people living in average-sized homes are tired of the clumsy arrangement of coke boiler and separate cooker. Why, many householders are asking, cannot cooking and heating be combined satisfactorily in the same unit? The old, free-standing, stove is the answer.

One of the difficulties in shopping for these solid-fuel installations, I discover, is that it has often to be done by catalogue. Local gas and electricity boards provide showrooms where you can inspect a selection of new equipment; but the coal boards do not appear to have ventured into this field, and I know of few ironmongers—even in London—who keep a good range of solid-fuel cookers. A reader living in the country tells me it has been almost impossible to get an objective view of the various models.

In London, however, an admirable organisa- tion called the Women's Advisory Council on Solid Fuel is prepared to help. This is maintained by grants from the solid-fuel industry, and repre- sentatives of leading women's groups sit on the council.

Already known in the trade as 'the Solid Women,' I feel it is time the council, who run an excellent free information centre in South Moulton Street, should also change their official name. Nowadays men have an interest in such things as domestic heating and, although I am told they are welcome at the centre, many will be put off by the name.

There are two distinct types of combined heater-cooker on the market today. The first is the completely insulated model which is so heavily lagged that, unless the steel hotplate is raised for cooking, it does not heat the room.

This, of course, is an advantage in summer. These cookers are thermostatically controlled and burn about three tons of smokeless fuel a year. Be- cause of the heavy insulation they are not cheap. Aga and Esse are the most famous names in this range and prices are between £90 and £130.

The second type of stove, the semi-insulated heater-cooker, is roughly half the price and popular models cost between £25 and £30. They will burn almost any type of fuel and give enough heat to warm an average kitchen. Fuel consump- tion is higher than in the completely insulated stove and a yearly average is about five tons. Nearly two dozen different semi-insulated stoves are recommended by the Coal Utilisation Council and the Solid Smokeless Fuels Federation and there is little to chooSe between them except de- tails of finish. The Rayburn models, made by Allied Ironfounders Limited, are probably the most popular. A good, but little-advertised, model is Chatwin's 'Sunbeam Superior,' which is designed for use with two radiators, in addition to providing normal hot-water and cooking facilities.

In most households the amount of soaps, polishes and scouring powders used in a year must remain fairly constant; and with reasonable care none of these products deteriorates noticeably. Yet most of us shop haphazardly for them, buy- ing in small quantities on a weekly shopping list. Obviously this is uneconomic : not only because every time we buy we also buy the packaging, but because of the time and energy expended.

Bulk buying is surely the answer. I am glad to see that Mr. James Hough, an enterprising hardware merchant in Church Street, Kensing ton, has organised such a scheme for the sale of soap powders, scourers, polishes and domestic bleach. He supplies plain bulk packs in quantities up to twenty-eight pounds, and the saving is re- markable. On some products it works out at half or even more. Lux flakes, for instance, are sold in twenty-eight-pound cartons for £2 2s., a saving of £2 10s. Ajax cleaner in bulk costs £2 8s. in- stead of £6 2s. 6d.; washing soda is 19s. 10d. instead of £2 16s.; Mansion Polish 19s. instead of £1 18s.

One disadvantage is that few shoppers today are prepared to put out £2 at a time for soap powder. Mr. Hough got round this problem by an arrangement with a city discount house. The amount of commodities used by a family of four for nine months was estimated and credit-sale terms for the lot were worked out. Even with the 7 per cent. service charge this involved, it was still.very worth while.

The customers are pleased : Mr. Hough is well satisfied with his profit and the great saving in invoice work. The only people who are not exactly mad about the scheme are the big manu- facturers.

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Pharos has passed on to me a letter from the secretary of the Stilton Cheese Makers' Associa- tion, Mr. John B. Easom, apropos of a recent court case. 'It is most unfortunate,' Mr. Easom writes, that Stilton Cheese is yet another of our prime English foods which it is possible to spoil by poor methods of serving. There has always been a wasteful tradition of serving cheese with a spoon, and also- of putting port into it. This last method is merely a means of trying to resuscitate a cheese which is not absolutely first class.

There is no need (the Stilton makers are tired of telling people) either for the spoon or for the port. Then why is it still so often served with the one, after liberal dousing with the other? We are creatures of habit; but few habits that I know are so unnecessarily wasteful.

The correct way to keep a good Stilton in good condition, according to the makers, is to keep it at room temperature covered with a cloth. If it has been allowed to go dry, the cloth should be damped with brine—a handful of salt dis- solved in a basin of water. The recovery of tex- ture and flavour may be assisted by a little warmth, but a fluctuating temperature will ruin a good cheese; the best, for storing purposes, is around 58° Fahrenheit.