THE OBJECT OF COOKERY IN THE SCHOOLS. 123 



THE OBJECT OF COOKERY IX THE SCHOOLS. 



JEXXETTE CARPENTER. 



Men have given years of valuable time to the study of science, but. until 

 very recently, the science which directly affects the life of every -human 

 being, has received little attention. Apparently we are much more con- 

 cerned about the food which our domestic animals shall have, than about 

 that from which we ourselves draw our nutrition. 



Throughout this broad land there are thousands of homes, and in each 

 and every one of them, three times a day, the members of the house- 

 hold are directly concerned with the art and science of cookery. Prob- 

 ably in the great majority of cases, the chief interest is to have a meal 

 served, which shall satisfy tlie appetite regardless of its meeting the re- 

 quirements of the body. Many housekeepers know how to prepare a 

 dainty and an attractive meal, but few know whether or not the food 

 furnished is nutritious, or whether or not is it fitted to the needs of the 

 individual members of the family. Many women have little idea of the 

 relative food value and cost of foods. The butcher tells us that many of 

 his poorest customers buy the more expensive cuts of meat, not be- 

 cause of their superior flavor, but because of the lack of knowledge on 

 the part of the cook. She does not know that with proper cooking, 

 many cheap cuts of meat can be made into palatable dishes which will 

 furnish more nutriment than the tender and easier cooked steak which 

 is more expensive. In other cases, where food is well selected, it is so 

 cooked that it is rendered indigestible. 



Years of study have been given to "how to cure sick people," but very 

 few to how to keep persons so nourished that their bodies axn resist 

 disease; but health and strength depend upon food. A recent medical 

 journal has this to say on this subject, "to raise a race physically and 

 mentally sound, the children must be well fed; and in order to bring 

 about this result, the women of the poorer classes must possess a knowl- 

 edge of selecting suitable food and of cooking it in the proper manner." 



The aim of all education is to make more useful members of society. 

 It is in the public schools below the high school where most of the 

 future citizens receive their education, and it is there that cookery should 

 be taught. Xo one will question the value of manual training as an 

 aid to education, inasmuch as it trains the hand to do 'the will of the 

 brain. Shop work, sewing and cooking are all included under manual 

 training, and of these cookery, because of its relation to the home and 

 to the health, seems of greatest importance. 



Cookery includes the choice of food materials, their cost and food 

 value, the care before and after preparation, the method of preparation, 

 and the digestibility of materials. In the work in cooking, as taught 

 in the public schools, the lessons cover the effects of the application of 

 different degrees of heat to the different classes of foods — the effect upon 

 starches as illustrated hj cereals, upon the albumen of e^^, milk and 

 meat; upon gluten of wheat, and upon the fats. The food value, the cost, 



