The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1903-11-03
COOKING FOR SICK.
A QUEER BRANCH OF CULINARY ART
TAUGHT IN WASHINGTON CITY.

Privates who Have Enlisted In the Hospit-
al Corps Taught the Art Of Preparing
Food Suitable for Invalid and Gonzales
cent Soldiers.
One Of the most interesting SCHOOL,
dn cooking for the sick to be found
anywhere is now at the Washington
Barracks, where Miss Elizabeth Stack
is teaching the privates who have en-
listed for service In the Hospital Corps
the art OF pseparing food suitable for
invalid and convalescent soldiers. This
Is new idea. Hospital stewards have.
of course, rec e.ved instructions Of this
sort before, but the taking of the raw
volunteers and drilling them In the
niceties of cooking Is something new.
So successful has 1t been that the au-
thorities at San Francisco have been
directed by the War Department to
open a similar course Of instruction
for the volunteers there.
Miss Stack has classes numbering In
all about fifty, and they are taught in
groups of about one-third that number.
four lessons and four reviewes. The
pupils are sturdy men, fresh from a
great variety of occupations. The
course begins with milk, and there
men are taught processes Of sterilizing
and pasteurizing and the cases Of milk
in various stages of convalescence.
Similar. studies in water follow. Then
tall n
that the cereals. The possibilities of
rice form large chapter In the In
struction. for 1t is taken for granted
that at Manila this will be the most
easily obtained Of the cereal foods.
Another branch Of the instruction is
to take the various army rations. the
emergency. the travel and regular ra-
tion. and see what can be dontuyith
them In the way of making them adapt
able to the needs CT the sick. The
ways of preparing bacon SO that 1t
will lie moro digestible are carefully
considered. AS for hardtack. Misc
Stack shows her pupils ten different
methods Of preparing 1t. The travel
ration, which Is very much condensed
in all things. is also a subject of study
in the same way. The cooking OF the
ordinary company ration Is not part
of this course, because that fella to the
company cooks, who may need the In
struction just as much as the prlvates
In the Hospital Corrs. but ss yet they
do not get 1t except In the hard school
of experience. It usually happens,
that company Of volunteers contains
at least one man who he's served as
cook In hotel or restaurant.
The way the men take hold of this
work Is surprieing Most OF them ap-
pear amazed at the possibilities In the
line Of scientific cooking, and where
they have homes they usually an
nonnce that they will effect revou-
ton In cooking tte,e upon their return.
The BARRIERS are said to take TO cook
ing very naturally Some of the nien
of other occupations make very hard
work Of 1t. 'rhe other day Miss Stack
took come work away from one OF the
men, saying: "Let me show you now
to do this" The man LOGGED on and
replied disdainfully: "Oh, that's a
woman's way" To this Miss Stack
very properly replied: "If you are to
do woman's work you must learn to
do 1t in woman's way"
There is an economic side to this
work. tco. The hospitals are allotted
80 cents a day for each patient VITA
which to buy milk and other food. The
class Is taught some Of the principles
OF food-buying; what things will be Of
most service that can be procured
within the limits Of that sum. All this
instruction goes on side by side with
the regular army training for the Hos
pital Corps. such as the litter and the
ambulance drills. Now. men are en-
listed direct for the Hospital Corps,
while In the recent war all volunteers
enlisted ON the same basis and certain
Of them were picked out for thia work.