COLLEGE WOMEN AND THE NEW SCIENCE. 6jj 



cellar were rented at 142 Pleasant Street, " a respectable part of the 

 city, consisting mostly of small shops and of houses let out in flats or 

 rooms, and occupied by people who follow various trades." 



By January 24, 1890, the kitchen was opened for the sale of 

 food, it offering at that time beef broth, vegetable soup, pea soup, 

 corn mush, boiled hominy, oatmeal mush, cracked wheat, and spiced 

 beef. Since then other preparations have been added. 



Every dish offered by the kitchen is what would be known as a 

 standard dish as compared with one suited only to occasional times. 

 In order to be able to offer standard dishes, the requirements which 

 they must meet were several. " First, the cost of material must not 

 go beyond a certain limit. Second, the labor of making it must not 

 be too great. Third, it must be really nutritious and healthful. 

 Fourth, it must be in a form that it could be easily served, and kept 

 hot without loss of flavor. Fifth, it must suit the popular taste 

 enough to be salable." - 



One of the first things accomplished by the New England 

 Kitchen was the making of beef broth from the cheaper cuts of meat 

 which was unvarying in nutriment and flavor. To this end the broth 

 was frequently analyzed under the supervision of Mrs. Richards at 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 



More than twenty experiments were tried in its preparation, and 

 one gets the best idea of the care which these college women took to 

 have every scientific principle of soup-making carried out by quoting 

 from the first report published : " The old-fashioned method of mak- 

 ing soup in a pot on the stove was tried, and given up; the use of a 

 Papin soup digester was no more satisfactory, the difficulty of regu- 

 lating the heat and of retaining the flavors of the meat being found 

 to be insurmountable. Gas or oil used under a pot gave little better 

 satisfaction, the bottom being always hotter than the top, and the 

 loss of heat from the whole surface proving wasteful. The labor 

 of making soup by these methods was considerable, and it required 

 the constant supervision of an experienced hand; moreover, no way 

 could be devised for making large quantities at a time. Along with 

 these experiments went others with the Aladdin oven, which were 

 so promising in their results that we had tin-lined copper vessels 

 made to utilize the entire capacity of the oven — i. e., thirty quarts — 

 and settled on this method for making the broth. It was found to 

 have these advantages: First, it made the scientific requirements 

 for soup-making possible — i. e., (a) long, slow heating before the 

 coagulating point was reached; (h) the continuation of the cooking 

 at a temperature slightly below the boiling point, and long enough 

 to get from the bones and tendons that proportion of gelatin which 

 Ave knew to be desirable; (c) the retention of the full flavor; and (d) 



