Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-10-19
Cooking.

Cooking.
There IS, doubtless, no domestic need 50
urgent at the present writing as tie need
of good cooks. The ordinary servant girl
knows nothing of the chemistry of cooking
and cares nothing for it, and the same re-
mark is true of great many women who
do their own work. Multitudes of house
keepers 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, it is quite another to be fed. The
experience of gentleman related not long
ago to US is the common experience: my
wife goes to market and selects the best OF
everything and has it sent home, and when
II comes ON the table it Is not fit to eat
spoiled in the cooking" If that lady had
the strength to cook for her family there
would be no lack of relish and perfection
IN 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 sci
ence, as exact as chemistry or mathematics
or music ur astronomy. Ii requires long
and careful training, delicate manipulation,
quickness OF sense, correctness OF taste,
soundness of judgment and ripe experience.
How many of these qualities one can ex-
pct TO find in the foreign importations of
servants, our readers very well know.
How many of them are found let the null
tiludes of housekeepers who have trained
one s'greenhorn" after another for the last
thirty years testify. 1t Is not TO be ex-
pected that the class of emigrauts who come
far x.ynrl- chnnld Epnu- oh
cooking. And as we are to great extent
dependent on them for domestic 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, 1t would be compare
lively trifiing, but It is of comfort, Of
health, often of life itself--of that which
once lost cannot be regained.
The simp.e and easy solution of the
whole question lies in the establishment
and multiplication of cooking schools.
Before we shall have these In numbers.
the minds of our women must be awakened
TO the vital necessity of concerted move
ment in this matter. 1t is not a difficult
thing to obtain graduates from Normal
schools TO I'LL the positions of teachers; We
have graduates from art schools, classical
schools, schools of design, of telegraphy,
commercial schocls-erery kind of school
but those of cooking, housekeeping, sew
ing; and do we not need these even more
than we need some of the othersl We
have begun in social life with the most
far-sway needs, and now we begin 10 ap-
proach those nearer and nearest. Astrol-
ogy was the first so-called science, and ID
studying this, astronomy was born. The
science of chemistry had its origin in the
search for the philosophers stone. which
into gold. We have now the most beauti-
full china ana glass and silver services to
eat from. Is it not quite time that the
food served IN these dishes should be as
fine in quality, as high in art, as exquisite
III 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. Those possessing
"A diploma would not lack for immediate
and remunerative situations.
III several ladies in any city or village
would unite In fitting up kitchen, hiring
a chet, and sending their own servants or
children as pupils. the movement might be
begun. They could contract with their
servants to remain with them at a 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 pupils alsc. |
When servant glils are made to realize that |
certain employment and increased pay are |
sure to those who have been through |
course of culinary instruction, they will |
be eager TO avail themselves OF 1t. Until |
that time, and without the cooperation OF |
their employers, they will take as little in |
terest in the subject as possible. When |
Mr.. Blot gave lessons in cookery some |
years ago, Brooklyn gentleman sent his
cook to take the course. paying her tuition,
which was $50. lie said that in the next
years she saved him that $50 dozen times
over. She learned to economic every
thing, to make savOry dishes from plain
to cook in the best and easiest
and TO get up her dinners in style
and taste without waste of material and
without great expense.
Here is a work in which the fields are
white for the harvest. Miss Corson in New
York and Miss Parioa in Boston are DO
neers in the work, and are doing an i'm
mense 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
cannet cook will be as uncommon as the
woman who cannot read and write and
spell. We have abolished slavery, we are
trying to abolish intemperaDce, cruelty 10
children and cruelty to animals; let us
abolish bad cooking and inaugurate the
reign of wholesomely prepared food. Thus
shall we effectively pave the way for the
lonr