Oregonian Haruspex > wrote:

> An old-style wood or coal fired stove was often constructed with the
> entire top surface as one large piece of cast iron. The fire would
> usually be the most intense off to one side where the firebox was, and
> the further you got from that side the cooler it became progressively.
> At the opposite side from the firebox the stove would be well below a
> simmer (say 70-80º C or so) so you could place things you wished to
> keep warm there.

Interesting, thanks! I wonder if there is a way to reproduce this with
a modern gas stove. I'm interested in this waterless teapot-warming
technique, because I often want to re-warm a 'pot containing spent
leaves from a previous brew, to which I'll add fresh leaves to make new
tea. So that, in a way, the two teaspoons of spent leaves, already in,
are "for the teapot" and one teaspoon of fresh leaves "for me".

Does anyone use this method? It seems to work, taste-wise, especially if
the teapot hasn't gone cold.

--
Dario Niedermann. Also on the Internet at:

gopher://retro-net.org/1/dnied/ , http://devio.us/~ndr/