The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-13
SAVE CHILD FROM
 MOTHERS COOKING
Skilled Teachers Are Sent To
 the ienementS
A NEW YORK SOCIETY
To Improve Conditions of the Poor, Give Better Health and Strong CT Home Feelng-Effort to
 Reach the Heart.

New York. september 19-Sending an ex- pert teacher of cooking from kitchen to kitchen in the tenements just to save father and the children from the kind of cooking mother used to do, is one of the novel methods of relief now being employed with great success by the As sociation for Improving the Condition of the Poor. Already the results of the ex- pertinent are marked. In many families where the cooking teacher gives lessons the health of children has been improved and the condition of the family purse has been so much bettered that the family instead of needing help now gets along very well on it's own earnings. It is also very noticeable that the fathers in many of these homes frequent the corner sa- loon less and are in much better humor because they are being fed the things they ought to eat, and fewer children are making their luncheons on penny candy than when their mothers did not know enough to cook simple, inexpensive noon meals for them.
 The plan of teaching mothers how to cook resulted directly from a series of investigations of school children who were reported as being underfed. In many of these cases the Investigators found that the families had a sufficient income to provide enough food for all, and were actually spending at the gro- cer's and butchers more than enough to keep everybody well fed. The trouble lay in the sort of cooking mother used to do" and the sort of foodstuffs she bought. In many cases good food after mother got through burning 1t and fry ing it was anything but palatable and had little nourishment left in it. In other cases mothers purchases were so unwise that no amount of cooking would make a sufficient diet out of them.
 To those families which ought to be able to get along but somehow failed to make ends meet or to provide enough nourshment for their children, the cook ing teacher went as a visitor Her first lesson was commonly a demonstration that no one could cook good food In a dirty kitchen and with dirty utensils.
 Then probably she offered to go out to market with the mother. At the grocer's and the butchers, the cook ing teacher who has buying down SD fine that she dan feed a family for 15 cents day per person. began to save money for the family by teaching the mother why this very cheap cut was really more expensive than one slight ly higher in price per pound, and why green vegetables should be used at this season and the inevitable potatoes and winter vegetables left to another season. In purchasing a diet for tho poor choice of different cuts and quail ities is very important.
 For while one cannot very well spoil a srloin steak costing 60 cents, the cheaper cuts are dependent on culinary skill for any appetizing quality. After market the teacher went back to the tenement kitchen and with the ordi- nary utensils and with the ordinary foods and seasonings, proceeded to make materials which had heretofore gone into an almost uneatable dinner, into a repast which forced the hus- band to sit up and take notice. Many lessons would follow and soon the visited mother would invite her friends to come in. Before many months she would be trained in skilled purch asing and in the arranging of a dietary pro- gramme and competent to cook properly the articles she purchased.
 The family she would find to her surprise, was getting more and better food for less money. And when hard times happened along, this mother would know just how to cut her food bills so as to save money and yet nor materially lessen the nourishment Not infrequently. the cooking teacher found that mothers bought cheap stew meat and then spent large amount in fuel cooking it. These were taught how to make fireless cookers which saved fuel and at the same time kept all the essences of the meat.
 In hundreds of cases, the instruction of the cooking teacher has proved to be the means of putting the entire fam fly on a better economic plan. When ever there were girls old enough, the cooking teacher saw that they, too, be-