Standard Paper-Bag Cookery

cooked. Press the air out of the bag, fold over the corners and make two folds of the mouth of the bag, fastening firmly with three or four clips, or even pins. No harm is done if the two lower corners of the bag are folded and also fastened with one clip each. III. Now be sure the oven heat is right. If you are using gas for the cooking, light for five minutes before the bag goes into the oven. The average oven heat should be not less than 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and may be 250 degrees. When the bag is put into the oven, the heat must be at once reduced to 170 degrees. An inexperienced cook lacking an oven thermometer can test the right degree of heat by placing a bit of paper in the oven and noting the color it assumes. At the end of five minutes it should be a light golden brown. If the heat is too intense the bag will burst. Now carefully lay the bag on the grid shelves or wire broilers--never on solid shelves, being careful to _place the seam side of the bag up_. This is imperative, as otherwise the juices of the food being cooked may cause the seam to open, and distribute its contents over the oven. Once placed in position, roasts and entrees on the lower shelf, about an inch from the oven floor, fish on the middle shelf, and pastry on the top where heat is most intense,--do not move or open the bags until the schedule time of their cooking is accomplished. In placing the article to be cooked, take care that the bag does not touch the sides of the oven and that it is not too close to the flames. When the time limit of cooking has expired, take up the bag from the shelf by drawing _with_ the wires, not across them, which is apt to tear the bag made tender by charring. Slip on to the lid of a pot or flat tin held just beneath the grid and thence to