0
N umber in family, 6.
£1
8
0
THE SYLLABUS FOR CHILDREN
33
Supposing a teacher were teaching cookery in London,
she could ascertain a good deal of the needs of her
neighbourhood from the caretakers or women employed
to clean, and a good deal more from a talk with the
head mistresses of the girls she teaches.
I think the homes in some districts in London will
come as a shock to many who are new to the Metropolis.
The 5s. a week * scullery cottages,’ so plentiful in the
great manufacturing towns of the North, are wholly
conspicuous by their absence in London. It may
easily be seen, then, that rent is a very important
feature in deciding on which of these budgets a teacher
should base her lessons. It will not be enough to
assume that because a man is earning £i 18s. a week
the second budget would apply in all cases. He
might be obliged to pay very heavy rent in the
particular neighbourhood, and this would reduce the
amount available for food, and consequently the dishes
taught ought to be cheaper.
The best skeleton syllabus is one which gives a
practical demonstration (short for preference) in a
certain process of cookery, followed by a practice
lesson, which will enable the pupils easily to prepare
and make the same dish themselves. In the provinces
the girls leave school at thirteen, and the limit of
fourteen has not been yet extended to these poor
children who thus become wage-earners at an earlier
age than in London. The children in the provinces
will, therefore, probably not get a second and third
course, and more has to be compressed into the first.
Even now in London refusal of the Board of Education
to pay grant on girls under eleven years of age will
make the chances very small of a third course being
given in cookery.
3
34
INSTRUCTION IN COOKERY
SKELETON SYLLABUS
c{
1.
2.
3-
4-
5-
6.
7-
8.
9-
10.
11.
12.
T3-
x4-
15-
16.
x7*
1 8.
19.
20.
Cleaning the various utensils used in a kitchen.
Baking milk puddings, management of stoves.
„ meat and Yorkshire puddings.
,, fish.
,, cakes.
„ pastry.
,, — revision of pastry lesson.
,, bread.
,, — revision of bread lesson.
Boiling vegetables.
„ fish, sauce, potatoes.
„ meat and dumplings and roots.
„ suet crust and roly-poly and meat pud-
dings.
,, — revision of suet crust. Steaming.
Stewing (white) — Irish stew.
„ (brown) — Haricot mutton.
Frying (shallow) Pancakes.
j) )j
„ (deep) Potato balls and fish-cakes.
jj >> >>
Either the baking or boiling section might be taken
first, as this makes it less monotonous for the teacher.
This provides twenty lessons. In classes where
three courses — one cookery, one laundry, and one
household management class — are taken in a year,
it would not be possible to go beyond the fifteenth
lesson.
In that case the second course should begin with
stewing, and the revision should include all processes
taught in the first course. They should, however, be
illustrated in the practice lesson by dinners and teas,
which gives the children practice in cooking to time.
THE SYLLABUS FOR CHILDREN
35
In the third course a few lessons should be devoted
to invalid cooking, and suitable appliances likely to be
able to be improvised, and also to the preparation of
infants’ food.
Page 15
Presented as published in 1908. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
N umber in family, 6.
Supposing a teacher were teaching cookery in London, she could ascertain a good deal of the needs of her neighbourhood from the caretakers or women employed to clean, and a good deal more from a talk with the head mistresses of the girls she teaches.
I think the homes in some districts in London will come as a shock to many who are new to the Metropolis. The 5s. a week * scullery cottages,’ so plentiful in the great manufacturing towns of the North, are wholly conspicuous by their absence in London. It may easily be seen, then, that rent is a very important feature in deciding on which of these budgets a teacher should base her lessons. It will not be enough to assume that because a man is earning £i 18s. a week the second budget would apply in all cases. He might be obliged to pay very heavy rent in the particular neighbourhood, and this would reduce the amount available for food, and consequently the dishes taught ought to be cheaper.
The best skeleton syllabus is one which gives a practical demonstration (short for preference) in a certain process of cookery, followed by a practice lesson, which will enable the pupils easily to prepare and make the same dish themselves. In the provinces the girls leave school at thirteen, and the limit of fourteen has not been yet extended to these poor children who thus become wage-earners at an earlier age than in London. The children in the provinces will, therefore, probably not get a second and third course, and more has to be compressed into the first. Even now in London refusal of the Board of Education to pay grant on girls under eleven years of age will make the chances very small of a third course being given in cookery.
SKELETON SYLLABUS
Cleaning the various utensils used in a kitchen. Baking milk puddings, management of stoves.
„ meat and Yorkshire puddings.
,, fish.
,, cakes.
„ pastry.
,, — revision of pastry lesson.
,, bread.
,, — revision of bread lesson.
Boiling vegetables.
„ fish, sauce, potatoes.
„ meat and dumplings and roots.
„ suet crust and roly-poly and meat puddings.
,, — revision of suet crust. Steaming.
Stewing (white) — Irish stew.
„ (brown) — Haricot mutton.
Frying (shallow) Pancakes.
j) )j
„ (deep) Potato balls and fish-cakes.
jj >> >>
Either the baking or boiling section might be taken first, as this makes it less monotonous for the teacher.
This provides twenty lessons. In classes where three courses — one cookery, one laundry, and one household management class — are taken in a year, it would not be possible to go beyond the fifteenth lesson.
In that case the second course should begin with stewing, and the revision should include all processes taught in the first course. They should, however, be illustrated in the practice lesson by dinners and teas, which gives the children practice in cooking to time.
In the third course a few lessons should be devoted to invalid cooking, and suitable appliances likely to be able to be improvised, and also to the preparation of infants’ food.