Have you seen one of these ... ?

[RogueRugger]

This is a cooking stone used for chuckwagon cooking around the turn of the century. The stones were heated in the campfire and then placed in a metal lined oak box, just bigger than the diameter of the stone. One stone went on the bottom, then the pot, then another stone on top. The cover on the box was latched down and the meal cooked as the cattle drive moved to the next location.

I've been asked to forge a new tool to replace the missing hook. A design similar to a steak turner almost works, but because the box is narrow, the hook has to be slightly different shape. It's easy enough to make something that works, but I'd like it to be as close a reproduction as possible.  

Anyone seen one of these before? Thanks in advance, Dave 

Disclaimer: All of the info here is based on a discussion with the customer. 

 
 

[ThomasPowers]

I'll check the 1897 and 1908 Sears Roebuck catalogs tonight.

[RogueRugger]

Thanks  Thomas! I know things are complicated for you right now so don't sweat it too much. Greatly appreciated though! Dave 

[ThomasPowers]

Well my wife drove down last night to pick up my Mother and Sister and bring them up to Albuquerque to go to the hospital and tell my youngest brother that Dad died last week; so I have tonight open and sleep is greatly overrated...

[RogueRugger]

So, just a bit more info from the customer: the stoves were touted as quite the labor saving device for wives in the early 1900's. Not just for cowboys! The stoves were called 'The Caloric Fireless Cook Stove'. Haven't had a chance to do much more investigation, certainly no pics of the stone handling tool. 

[ThomasPowers]

Have you seen the "hay box cooker" that used a kerosene lamp to cook food?  (see wikipedia entry on haybox which includes info on your version: "Commercial designs based on this principle differed only in details of construction, and the kind of insulating material used. Some types were provided with soapstone or iron plates which were heated during the preliminary cooking on the stove and then placed in the fireless cooker either over or under the cooking pot. In these types, a non-flammable insulating material was used.")

[starbits]

In one article it mentions a complete set including a set of tongs.   In the photo at this link you can see a set of tongs at the bottom left of the photo.

 

[Tubalcain2]

kinda like a low tech crock pot. kinda cool!

[Kozzy]

Yes, those are mentioned quite positively in a 1918 (iirc) book I have on how to properly run a kitchen.  There is some description on how to use the cooker but it's so easy you can guess it for yourself.

The way it's glowingly written, you'd think it was as novel, innovative and helpful as a microwave was to many of us a few years back.

[ThomasPowers]

I think I'd compare it to a Crock Pot instead of a Microwave.

Very fast leafing through the Sears Roebuck catalogs didn't turn one up

[Frosty]

An old trick Dad showed us in Boyscouts was to heat sand in or next to the fire scoop it out and keep food hot or slow cook with it. We warmed rocks to keep our feet warm on cold nights too. No cooking the tootsies!

I really like the "hay box cooker".  See, invent a better bean hole and people will beat a oath to your chuck wagon.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Fond memories of soapstone footwarmers in old New England farmhouses, heated in the fireplace, wrapped in a towel, and put under the covers at the foot of the bed!

[ThomasPowers]

I have a couple of those on top my woodstove to help it emulate the much more expensive soapstone sided stoves.

[SLAG]

Frosty,

Some of the Uyghur people are situated in the Takla Makan desert, in the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang-Uyghur.  While travelling through the desert they prepare their sleeping places by digging a long trench in the sand. about three feet deep. They place large flat boulders/rocks in their camp fire for several hours. The heated rocks are lifted out of the fire and placed onto the bottom of the trench. Then those rocks are covered by a two foot deep layer of sand. That done, they are ready for bed. Rarely do they have to erect a shelter over the "bed". The air is always very dry and also cold, at night. (below freezing night temperatures are not an uncommon feature in these regions)

That desert is the second largest shifting sand desert in the world.

The better known Gobi desert lies to the East of the Takla Makan. There is a caravan route north and one south in that desert that constituted part of the fabled silk road.

This sleeping method has been adopted by the various peoples that travel through the Western Desert of North Africa. Also, other desert peoples.

The method really works a treat.

SLAG.

[Frosty]

Dad showed me that warm bed too though we used smaller rocks and didn't bury them so deep. A warm sand mattress beats a waterbed any day. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Millhand]

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

Dad showed me that warm bed too though we used smaller rocks and didn't bury them so deep. A warm sand mattress beats a waterbed any day. 

Frosty The lucky

Bear paw looks up from his bed.

" Didn't put enough dirt down,, Saw it right off" 

love that part! 

[Smoggy]

Victorian kitchens often used straw boxes for shooting trip lunches, meals were prepped and par cooked then packed in the strawbox(es) and loaded onto the coach to be ready for hot lunch in the field (often lavish and many courses), or on the biiterly cold moors in for the gloriuos 12th grouse seasson opener, Also available for fishing trips and long overland journeys or sailings.The Victorians did prefer to rough it in comfort.

[ThomasPowers]

Have you read   "The Art of Travel (1872) : Or Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries"  by Francis Galton------NOT THE SAME NAMED BOOK BY ALAIN DE BOTTON!!!   It's a Victorian book on how to run expeditions to places like Darkest Africa or the Arctic  with much good info on it like can camel or water buffalo milk be transported the longest for your tea....or how to set up your camp in uncertain territory.

[SLAG]

Smoggy,

The Victorians certainly knew how to live in style.

Gone are the good old days. Sigh.

T. P. you can always bring a lactating camel, along for high tea in the boonies.

Regards,

SLAG.

[RogueRugger]

14 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

I think I'd compare it to a Crock Pot instead of a Microwave.

Very fast leafing through the Sears Roebuck catalogs didn't turn one up

Thanks for looking! dR

18 hours ago, starbits said:

In one article it mentions a complete set including a set of tongs.   In the photo at this link you can see a set of tongs at the bottom left of the photo.

 

 Great find! I still haven't found time to do any serious digging. With all respect, I'm not completely convinced that the tongs are the answer. Maybe, but going to dig some more. Thanks again! dR

[Frosty]

7 hours ago, Millhand said:

Bear paw looks up from his bed.

" Didn't put enough dirt down,, Saw it right off" 

love that part! 

Can you skin grizz?

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Slag, lactating camels do not do well in Arctic climes---too tempting for the polar bears!

After reading that book I was tempted to dress for dinner to "keep up appearances".

[SLAG]

T. P.

Camels in the Gobi desert function just fine. But there are no polar bears nearby.

Thanks for the heads up on the book. It's now on my to do list. Hopefully inter-library loan can help. Or is that title on the net?

I will be passing on that information to the folks at http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/index.html  

They are living a Victorian lifestyle 24/7. (sort of like the s.c.a. gang.)

Regards,

SLAG.

 

 

[ianinsa]

for a good smile or two based on Victorian ideas I often haul along a copy of Mrs. Beaton's book on long boring trips.

it advises getting the servants to clean the mirrors using gin and tonic etc.

[RogueRugger]

Lactating camels aside (I feel like I started a thread of the Telephone Game), I believe I found depictions of the hooks used for the stone radiators: 

Figure 11 in this 1911 document.

Or the picture on Page 15 of this document.

 What I forged was a bit excessive in the hook and the handle was different. Mine functioned a bit better than the plain hook but would have been prohibitive for mass production. 

thanks for making a rather mundane post into something [whatever the opposite of mundane is]. Dave