The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-11-02

There is. doubtless, no domestic
need so urgent at the present writ
ing as the need of good cooks. The
ordinary servant girl knows nothing
of the chemistry of cooking and
cares nothing for it, and the remark
is true OF a great many women who
do their own work. Multitudes of
housekeepers need to learn that
there must be more in what we eat
than something TO allay the pangs
of hunger. II is one thing TO eat,
IL is quite another to be fed. The
experience of 4 gentleman related
not long ago to us is common ex-
perience sMy wife goes to market
and selects the best of everything
and has it sent home, and when it
comes to the tlble it is not fit to eat,
spoiled in the cooking" If that
ladv had the strength to cook for
her family thei would be no lack of
relish and perfection i'll the food
brought on her table, but she, like
MANY others, must depend on the
labor of others.
The science of cooking is an exact
science, as exact as chemistry or
mathematics or music or astrono-
NV. 1t requires long and careful
training, delicate manipulation.
quickness of sense, correctness of
taste, soundness of judgement and
ripe experience. How many of
these qualities one can expect to find
the foreign importations of servants,
our readers very well know. How
many of them are found let the null
titudes of housekeepers who have
trained one 'greenhorn" after anoth-
er for the last thirty years testify. 1t
is not to be expected that the class
of emigrants who come to us for
work should know much about
cooking. And as we are TO great
extent dependent ON them for do
mestic help, they must learn to cook.
if at all, after they come to this
country, and they will and do learn
at our expense. If the expense
were only that of money, it would
be comparatively trifiing, but it is
of comfort, of health, often of life
itself-of that which once lost can
not be regained.
The simple and easy solution of the
whole question lies in the establish
ment and multiplication of cooking
schools. Before we shall have
these in numbers, the minds of our
women must be awakened tn the vi
tai necessity ofconcerted movement
in this matter. 1t is difficult
thing to obtain graduates from Nor
NAL schools TO fill the positions OF
teachers we have graduates from
art schools, classical schools, schools
of design, of telegraphy, commercial
schools kind Of school but
those of cooking, housekeeping sew
ing and do we not need these even
more than We need some of the 9th.
ers =? We have begun in social life
with the most far-away needs, and
{ now we begin to approach those
nearer and nearest. Astrology was
the first so-called science, and in
studying this, astronomy was born.
The science of chemistry had It's
origin in thesearch for philosophers
stone, which would transmute every.
. thing it touched into gold. We
have now the most beautiful china
and silver services to eat from. Is
, it not quite time that the food serv-
ed in these dishes should be as fine
in quality, as high in art, as exqui-
site in preparation, as faultless in
taste, as the dishes themselves ? We
want schools of plain cooking and
, schools of art cooking. with regular
courses and a diploma at the end OF
the last course. These possessing a
diploma would not lack for imme-
date and remunerative situations.
If several ladies in any city OF
village would unite in fitting up q
kitchen, and hiring a chez, and send.
ing their their own servants or chill.
dren as pupils, the movement might
be begun. They could contract
with their servants to remain with
them at q certain price for certain
time in consideration of the tuition
received at the cooking school. Many
housekeepers would be glad to be
pupils and have their children pu-
pills also. When servant girls are
made to realize that certain employ
ment and increase pay are sure to
, those who have been through a
, course of culinary instruction, they
+. will be eager to avail themselves o.
| it. Until that time, and without
the cooperation of their employers
they will take as little ieterest in the
t subject as possible. When Mr.. Blot
gave lessons in cookery some years
t ago, Brooklyn gentlemas sent his
cook to take course, paying her tut
ton, which was $50. lie sud that
in the next years she saved him that
$50 a dozen times over. She learn
ed to economize everything, to make
sayory dishes frem plain materials
: to cook in the best and easiest man.
ner, and to get up her dinners in
style and taste without waste Of ma
terial and without great expense.
Here is work in which the fields
are white for the harvest. Miss
Corson in New York and Miss Par
lao in Boston are pioneers in the
, work, and are doing an immense
amount of good. Their example
! should be followed in every city and
! large town, till cooking schools, are
as common as district schools, till
the woman who cannot cook will be
as uncommon as the woman who
cannot read and write and spell.
We have abolished slavery. we are
trying to abolish intemperance, cru
city to animals; let US abolish bad
cooking and inaugurate the reign
of wholesome perpared food. Thus
! shall we effectively pave the way for
the long expected millennium.
The Origin of Newspapers.