FIRELESS COOKERYYou may be too young to remember when we actually had a genuine “Fireless Cooker” in our kitchen and used it often to prepare many some delicious, nutritious meals for our large family.
It must have thought at the time – the mid 1920’s – that other families had such fantastic stoves but since that time I have been alert to find another such stove anywhere and I have yet to find one. We made good use of that stove right on up into the Great Depression years of the 1930’s I can even recall that we shared it with a family who lived in the big , white house next door to us.
The metal legs weakened where they were screwed to the base of the metal box and caused a wobble which , with repeated wiggles, split the seams of the cooking wells. A strange or irony came from it all in that we found we could not get replacement parts for the stove. No store in town “carried” such a strange item, including the hardware store where Dad had originally bought it. Their explanation of it was that a new company tried to market a new product which “bombed” as so many innovative products tend to do when they try to market the item without customer interest and concern and dealer/distributor loyalty, support and service. Our Fireless Cooker was a novelty then even though we were not aware of its unique nature at that time. Ours was painted in bright green with legs and latches in black, in case happen to come across one in your travels.
It was an adaptation of the slow cooking techniques which have been used for centuries . It worked will for us and I've always felt we enjoyed better foods and improved nutrition benefits through so many years.
I'd say it is time to market a version of the same thing all over again today!
A.L.M. September 20, 2005 [c399wds].
