The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-06-29
Our Special COntributOrS-=-ISO5.
COOKS OF THE Doth CENTURY.
* By SARAH J. RORER, TX
Principal of the Philadelphia Cooking School.

1eth century we must go pdch w cHo
eighteenth and follow carefully along
the line, and through our present
century. After this investigation we
find that cooking in the eighteenth
century, from scientific standpoint,
was quite perfect. Each article OF
food was eaten and used because it
filled special purpose and returned
the proper elements to the human
system. Then it gradually fell into
the hands of uneducsted people. The
old cooks were usually men of most
thorough education, physicians as it
were. But as we move along we lind
that even the scullery maids were ad-
vanced to positions of cooks, because
they knew how to make line OF pal
atable dishes. And from one genera
ton to another they have degenerated
to the present day.
We in this country suffer by far
more than our foreign neighbors.
Being new and with many duties to
perform, little money, perhaps to per-
form them on we have grown into
the fashion of asking our cook to be
also our laundry maid, and in nine
cases out of ten, housemaid as we'll.
For all these duties we pay in some
sections So month, in others Sl5,
$40 or $40. These sums, as we look
at them, could scarcely be expected
to pay for brains and labor as we'll.
For this reason cooperative house
keeping has had struggle for exist
erce-may it always struggle = as
where families six or eight in number
Join for one common table, a house
keeper can be employed whose brain
will overlook the labor.
Our housewives have turned their
attention to almost every art but the
art of cookery. Domestic science is
the one science that has been in bad
repute. 1t is coming up slowly and
by the time we reach the twentieth
century men and women of brain will
do the cooking for the nation, simply
because by that time our subjects
will be so reduced in health that good
cooking will be a necessity.
In France and Germany the laws
are such, the manner of living such,
that with all their poverty the peas
antry are more BEAUTIFULLY fed than
our own people in equal surroundings
The average American housewife has
never been taught what true economy
means, and she feels that after eating
the meat from the turkey boiling of
the bones for soup is niggardly and
shows certain meanness, SO she
throws them away, which, to the
mind of the cultured woman, is more
niggardly, as extravaganza always
shows a lack of culture; and then
from scientific standpoint it is as
necessary that we have the bones of
the turkey to feed and nourish our
own bones as for us to have the meat.
So she has robbed her husband and
burned his money and also robbed
him of the ,nourishment that God has
given for his use. Our housewives
must, for their own salvation and the
salvation of their family, turn their
attention more carefully to the con-
ditions of their house, and especially
the table. Remember the table is the
hub upon which the health of the
family regolwes. Ruskin tells us that
a nations wealth depends entirely
upon the number of healthy individ-
uals the nation can show. If this be
true, where do we stand in Americas
Doctors are turned from our med
ical schools by the hundreds yearly
and right in my neighborhood in
Philadelphia one can count at least
forty, all thriving and making a
most comfortable living off badly-fed
people. A person who is insufficient
ly nourished is in condition to accept
and keep almost any disease that is
flying in the atmosphere. We are
told that if our stomach is in a
healthy condition we need not fear
cholera or yellow fever, two dread
diseases. We are also told that the
well-fed, whose bodies are in perfect
condition, are safe ia typhus regions,
and we do know that the happiness
of the individual is largely due to
the condition of his stomach. | was
exceedingly impressed by remark
of Edwin Russell few weeks ago,
which, to my mind, is true, that "the
physique has much more to do with
the success of the man than his ac-
tual mental power, and where the
two are combined success is certain
l have frequently noticed that very
brainy man with poor and INSULT
GENTLY nourished body rarely lasts