4G0 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



knowledge is divided into various sciences depending upon the point 

 of view taken. All over-lap. The composition of a mineral is 

 studied in both chemistry and mineralogy, the phenomena of os- 

 mosis in physics, chemistry, botany, physiology, and in cookery. 

 Therefore, we can not draw a line and say on this side is one science 

 and on that another. However, the chemist, with his point of 

 view, draws from the mass of human knowledge those facts which 

 explain chemical phenomena, and organizes this subject matter 

 of chemistry into a logical whole, and this whole is the science of 

 chemistry. In the same way, the facts that explain the phenomena 

 involved in the preparation of food may be organized into a logical 

 whole, the science of cooking. It draws largely from the other 

 sciences to be sure, but does not the well-formed science of plant 

 physiology do the same? When these scientific facts are arranged 

 so as to explain the phenomena of cooking and nutritive value of 

 foods, we have science of cooking; when arranged to explain life 

 processes in the plant, we have plant physiology. 



Our idea can, perhaps, best be brought out by comparison with 

 the usual methods of teaching cooking. The most used is the recipe 

 method. In this, the recipes are written upon the board, the student 

 follows directions and prepares the dish. The work is merely hand 

 training, purely imitative. Many schools, now to meet the plea 

 that this is not educative, have brought in some science. Soma 

 give short science talks, while the girls are supposed to be inter- 

 ested in the preparation of their dishes, thereby diverting their 

 minds from the work in hand, and the girls in their efforts to attend 

 to two things at one time, lose most of the value of both. Others 

 have many experiments to be performed; to what end? Simply 

 that the student may or may not understand to better advantage 

 the recipe that is still given her to follow. 



The basis of organization of this work is varied. The usual 

 "cooking-school" method is to have prepared during one lesson the 

 various dishes which go to make a well-planned luncheon. Different 

 girls are responsible for the various dishes, all observe each other 

 and never fail to copy the recipes, for without them they are lost. 

 At the end, the luncheon is served and eaten. Others base the or- 

 ganization upon the operations, baking one lesson, broiling the 

 next, frying the next, etc. This is not so bad, for the thinking mem- 

 bers of the class will be able to draw from the types under the 

 various heads some general principles, but the recipe is still with 

 us, so that the pupil need not think, unless she wants to, and the 

 variation in the effect of heat on the different food principles is not 



