Notes and recipes, freshman domestic science, H. Sophie Newcomb memorial college

The kitchen is the room where food is cooked, and it should be the cleanest room in the house — the kitchen and the bedroom — the two cleanest rooms. The things mother uses to prepare food with are called utensils. See the word on the blackboard. We must have clean utensils if we want clean food, so we wash them with hot water and soap and dry them very, very dry, and put them into cupboards and drawers out of the dust. In what room is food cooked? What does mother use to put potatoes into when she boils them? What does she mix cake with? What does she mix flour with. If these are dusty or sticky with dirt, what will happen to the food? A cooking school kitchen is some different from a home kitchen, because there are so many people who have to work in it. A pale yellow and white and blue in this kitchen makes it look cool as well as clean. Even the refrigerator and fireless cooker and bookcases are white. This is to make the dirt spots show so that we can keep them clean. Why do you think this kitchen is painted white and yellow? Do you see a little line of blue tiling? What color are the dishes in the little cupboards? Look at the floor. See if you can find any cracks. No — no place for dirt to stick. Look at the windows. Windows are made for light and fresh air. Notice how the screens cover them all the way to the top. You see that we can pull down the windows to let out the hot air and smoke, and yet no flies can come in. Notice that even the transoms over the doors have screens and are open. Did you ever notice the smoke coming out from the top of the windows? The odors of the cooking and the steam will also go out with the smoke. Flies are always dirty, and sometimes the dirt on their little feet makes sickness, so we keep them out. Why was this floor made without cracks? Why are there no shades at the windows? Why are the windows pulled down from the tops? Why do we have wire screens over them? Each one of you may have a kitchen table and cupboard and little stove of your own to learn to cook with. Assign desks. Pull out the drawer. Notice three compartments or little spaces. See what is in the left side, and name the articles in your mind. The middle compartment has a whole family of utensils; we call them the happy family. The knife and fork on the right side are like a mother and father. Then the good aunty, the spatula. The little sisters are the teaspoons, the big sisters are the tablespoons, and the baby brother, the paring knife, always rests his head in the big sister's lap. Each one has his own place, and is never happy when put into the wrong place. Take out each utensil and put it back into the very spot where it belongs. Where do you see the knife and fork which look like a pair? Look into the right hand space. Wooden spoons are stronger and more quiet for some kinds of cooking. Flat egg beaters are used when beating eggs on a plate, and the wheel ones are used in a bowl. Take out one teaspoon and a case knife like this. Close the drawer. I notice that some of you close the drawer so quietly that the happy family could not be disturbed. Can you show nie the utensil in this compartment which is meant for beating eggs? For stirring cake?