Foods and home making

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Foods and Home Making is a 1928 American high school textbook by Carlotta C. Greer, blending practical cookery instruction with the broader home economics curriculum of its era. Organized into seven units following the rhythm of a household day and year, the book moves from breakfast preparation through housewifery, luncheon, dinner, health and child care, food preservation, and hospitality. It is not simply a recipe collection but a pedagogical tool, mixing scientific experiments (such as demonstrations of starch behavior or yeast growth), nutritional charts, kitchen management advice, and etiquette instruction alongside roughly 190 anchored food preparations. Readers will find guidance on selecting produce and meats, operating gas ranges and iceboxes, setting tables, budgeting time and money, canning fruits and vegetables, caring for the sick, feeding young children, and hosting parties. The tone throughout is instructional and moralizing, framing cooking and household management as both scientific discipline and civic or family duty. Modern readers will encounter period attitudes about nutrition, gender roles in the home, and domestic economy, presented through classroom exercises, scoring rubrics, and comparative experiments (including one involving white rats) meant to teach adolescent students the reasoning behind food choices, not just the mechanics of cooking.

The book is arranged in seven numbered units that mirror both a daily meal schedule and a yearly domestic cycle: Breakfast, Housewifery, Luncheon, Dinner, Health and Child Care, Food Preservation, and Hospitality. Within each unit, chapters combine expository lessons (on nutrition, food science, or household equipment) with recipes, scorecards, and comprehension questions posed as headings (for example, 'How should breakfast cereals be cooked?'). Section 1 lays out this pedagogical structure explicitly, describing the seven units and their purpose. Later sections show the unit boundaries in practice: section 12 transitions into Unit 3 (Luncheon or Supper), section 19 opens Unit 4 (Dinner) with beef buying, section 27 begins Unit 6 (Food Preservation), and section 29 opens Unit 7 (Hospitality). Chapters are numbered sequentially (Chapter I through at least Chapter XLIII) and frequently end with review questions, scorecards, or tables (such as roasting time tables or calorie charts). Appendices at the end (section 31) cover nutrition tables, kitchen utensils, weights and measures, and pest control reference material for teacher and student use.