“We have made several notices of various improvements and inventions for cooking and heating by gas,” read an article in the Baltimore Sun in 1854, “and we have no doubt the result will eventually prove important to the world.” At a fair in Philadelphia, a gas stove made by Andrew Mayer had been used to roast a 14lb piece of beef for two hours. “The meat was partaken by a number of persons,” the Sun wrote, “and highly enjoyed.”
Cooking was an ordeal that required the acquisition of wood or coal to heat a stove. Controlling the heat was a challenge. And the inconveniences affected more than just the cook. The fuel produced ash and smoke. Airborne cinders could cause mass destruction.
But gas stoves didn’t catch on immediately. In many homes, a stove served other functions, like heating the house. Some gas ranges accounted for this, while others did not. For some people, a cozy open hearth or a radiating wood stove were comforting presences. And learning to cook on a new device doesn’t exactly excite people who were tasked with cooking for a family day-in and day-out.
Gas gradually caught on, with the help of celebrity chefs like Alexis Soyer – a French author of popular cookbooks. Stateside, home economists like Sarah Tyson Rorer demonstrated how to cook on the new devices, and extolled the ways gas cooking could save time and money.
