“Any systematic housekeeper will hail the day some enterprising yankee or buckeye girl shall invent a stove or range with a thermometer attached to the oven so that the heat may be regulated accurately and intelligently.”

~ Quote from “Buckeye Cookery: With Hints on Practical Housekeeping, by Estelle Woods Wilcox, 1881.”

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Imagine what it was like to cook food using only a wood burning stove. Oven thermometers hadn’t been invented yet, so recipes often said to cook until done, or to use a slow, moderate or hot oven.

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INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS:

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TESTING THE OVEN HEAT WITH YOUR HAND

Put your hand inside and count how many seconds you can safely hold it there.

Slow oven ~ you can hold your hand in the oven for 60 seconds without burning.

Moderate oven ~ you can hold your hand in the oven for 45 seconds without burning.

Hot or quick oven ~ you can hold your hand in the oven for 35 seconds without burning.

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TESTING THE OVEN HEAT WITH BROWNED FLOUR

For a slow oven — One teaspoon flour sprinkled on a tin or aluminum plate turns light brown in five and one-half minutes.

For a moderate oven — One teaspoon flour sprinkled on a tin or aluminum plate turns light brown in three and one-half minutes.

For a moderately hot oven — One teaspoon flour sprinkled on a tin or aluminum plate turns light brown in three minutes.

For a hot oven — One teaspoon flour sprinkled on a tin or aluminum plate turns light brown in one and one-half minutes.Sprinkle one teaspoon flour on a tin or aluminum plate.

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TESTING THE OVEN HEAT WITH PAPER

Have white paper for testing the heat of the oven. Put a piece on the bottom of the oven and close the door. To obtain these various degrees of heat, you try paper every ten minutes till the heat required for your purpose is attained.

For pastry, the oven should be hot enough to turn the paper dark brown in five minutes.

For bread, the heat should turn it in six minutes. All kinds of muffins can be baked at this heat.

Sponge and pound cakes require heat that will turn white paper light yellow in five minutes.

Cup cakes require heat that will turn white paper dark yellow in five minutes.

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WHEN OVEN THERMOMETERS INVENTED

It wasn’t until the early 1900s that gas and electric ovens became more common and the first oven thermostats appeared around 1915.

The Information below is copied from a Watkins cookbook, published in 1936. Many people living in the early 1900s still used wood burning stoves. Temperatures are included to describe a slow, moderate, or hot oven.

“For the use of those who have no oven thermometer there are several practical tests. set a pan sprinkled with flour in the oven and if it becomes a delicate brown in five minutes the oven is slow (250-350F). If the fire turns a medium golden brown in five minutes, the oven is moderate (350-400F). If the flour turns a deep, dark brown in five minutes, the oven is hot (400-450F).”

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Have You Ever Used a Wood Burning Cook Stove? Please Leave a Comment Below.

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