Elements of the theory and practice of cookery

2 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY spent their lives in hunting and fighting ; the animals killed they brought home for the women to cook. In order to do this more conveniently, the women made clay dishes and baked them by the fire or in the sun. Because the women stayed at home all day, they were interested to improve their way of living. Dwellings more comfortable than caves began to be constructed — tents of animals' skins, and huts made of boughs, such as some savages live in to-day. Finally, when people had become civilized, they built for themselves large and fine houses, varying in style to suit different climates and the customs of different countries. Of the various kinds of labor still carried on at home by the members of the household, the most important are cooking, cleaning, and laundry work, commonly classed, together with a few other occupations, as Jiousework. Household industries and household science. — Science is systematic knowledge. Household Science is systematic knowledge of things pertaining to the home. It treats of the house and its industries in their relation to the welfare of the household. Cookery, one branch of House- hold Science., treats of the preparation of food for eating. A rational study of any subject includes both practice and theory. Practice teaches how to do a thing ; theory explains why it should be done. Home and school ought to work for the good of the nation. — In its mission of training children to be good citizens, the school needs help from the home. For without right home conditions, including a sufficient HOMES AND HOME-MAKING 3 supply of suitable and well-cookecl food, boys and girls cannot have the strong bodies and clear minds needed for doing school work while they are children, and for their life-work as men and women. Think, then, how important to the nation it is that home-makers should have a knowledge of Household Science ! Training for home-making. — All knowledge comes by study and practice ; a girl spends two years, at least, in fitting herself to teach ; a boy, even longer in learning a business or trade. Is special preparation less neces- sary for home-making, which involves many kinds of work, some of them difficult, and which usually includes the noblest of all occupations, the care and training of children? And do you not think, since almost every woman is at some time engaged either in making a home or in helping some other woman to make one, that every girl should learn all she can about housekeeping and home-making? In studying Household Science, and particularly in studying Cookery, you will not only learn many inter- esting things that you would be unlikely to discover for yourself in doing housework at home, but you will find pleasure in the work itself. Because certain house- hold duties may seem hard or unpleasant is no reason for considering housework unworthy of attention. Some people make hard work of housekeeping by doing it in an unthinking way ; when, by putting their minds upon it, they might discover how to make it easier and pleas- anter. Only by treating housekeeping as an honorable employment, worthy of our best thought and skill, can 4 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY we bring about conditions of health, comfort, and hap- piness in our homes.