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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1924)
JANUARY, 1924 PRACTICAL COOKERY JOHN D. POLLARD, Managing Editor PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE OMAHA BEE “Cookery is become an art, a noble science." —BURTON The Power Plant of the Home E D I T O R A L nil LX visiting a modern battleship for the first time one is certain to en counter an experience, the signifi cance of which is not plain for some time after it is undergone. After in specting the deck, viewing the great anchor chains, the winches, the lifebuoys, the long, grim barrels of the great guns, thrust out from the squat turrets, and various other objects and articles that are marvelous to a landsman, one next comes to a door, through which en trance to the real ship is obtained. Likely the first impression is that the door is rather nar row, the next, although this does not at first come to us, that the jam is unusually deep. After we-have viewed the various decks and their arrangement and begin making our gen eral inquiries, we find we have passed through a wall of armor plate and are really more se curely encased than if we were inside a bank vault. The purpose of that wall is to enclose and protect the vitals of the ship, most important of which is its power plant. You ask. “What has this to do with cookery?” Simply this: The kitchen is the power plant of the home and deserves to be protected with as much care as is the power plant of the battleship. Not that it requires 14 to 18 Inches of Harveyized or other special steel for walls, for it should be light and sunny, easy of access from both interior and ex terior. and deserves to be finished in keep ing with its importance and consequent dignity. Our French cousins, who give a little more att« ntion to these matters than do we, have recently elevated cookery to the emi nence of the ninth art. with the most con spicuous of capital “A" as an initial. The ceremony, elaborate and extensive, took place at the late “Salon d’Autome,” inau gurated at the Grand Palais on Saturday, November .3, when all the skill and inven tion of the cooks of France, together with the triumphs of the vintner, the distiller and the brewer, the confectioner and the pastry bakers, were not only arrayed and displayed, but tested to the utmost by the company that gathered day after day for 10 consecutive days. Why was this done? Because the French have a definite sense of the value of cookery. Cuisine is an es sential art of France and the good repast around which a happy family gathers is one of the sustaining forces of France. Maybe some of the boys who went over there in the pursuit of certain duties which required their presence may be inclined to question this, but the answer will be that they didn’t learn all there is to know of France. Some of them in sist they found out enough, but that is beside the quest ion. (letting back on the main line again—the kitchen deserves the title of power plant of the home, because it really is such. C.reat stress is laid on the living room, to see that it is comfortable, light ami airy. Here are spent the leisure hours, the happy communication of the family group, the joyous intercourse with friends and relatives, and naturally the sur roundings should be such as conduce to the pleasurable relaxation looked for there. The dining room is important, for here the regular business of eating and drinking is carried on, and it. too. must have a character in harmony with the purpose for which it exists So wo tnnv go on throughout the entire establishment of I In- home, pointing out the characteristics that should distinguish, each room, in order that final I \ a beautiful and complete whole is presented, 't et. when all is summed up. rata logued and properly valued, the kitchen will be found to be the most important of all in the maintenance of the true balance from which the ideal home life proceeds. All will agree without debate that from the kitchen comes the food needed to sustain life. As this food is prepared and served, daintily or otherwise, well cooked or not. savory of the relish it promises or repellent in odor and ap pearance, depends the success of the venture. In days gone by women learned to cook—they usually had to, for even the mistress of a great establishment, where the drudgery was done by servants, must know her business or she could not supervise the preparation of the viands for the feasts to which her guests looked forward to with delightful anticipation. No less was she the efficient purchasing agent any housewife must be to actually fulfill her mission. In those days the kitchen was big and roomy. Its dimensions came down from an an tiquity wh^reunder a great many operations other than just preparing food for the table The Clock of Life The clock of life is wouiul but oru i. inti no one has the power To tell just when the hands will stop^ It late or early hour. Voir is the only time you own: l.ire, love, toil uitli n will: Place no faith iti ‘'tomorrow.' for I he cloi k may then be still. -—Select*^ ■ were carried on in the kitchen. Recall how the fair but proud young lady told the youth ful champion. King Arthur, sent to do her mis sion, that he smelled of the scullery? From the scullery at Camelot to the kitchen of to day is a long journey, and it fairly marks the advance in civilization made by man. Just as this great progress may be noted with satisfaction, so is it possible to congratu late all hands on the advance in methods. Not so very long ago. in fact within easy memory, ,much cookery* was carried on by rule of thumb. Ciirls learned the art and secrets by watching their mothers. Recipes called for a pinch of this and a dusting of that, a lump of butter the size of a hazel nut or quarter of a teaspoon of some other ingredient—and everybody will re call how the teaspoons of those dear old days \aried in size. Indeed, the results sometimes almost equalled that of the dose of medicine given by the volunteer nurse. He had been told to give the patient as much of the powder as would lie on a dime, but, not having a dime. ga\ e as much as would lie on 10 pennies. It i." all well enough to talk about the pies mother used to make; she did make good pies, but it was a miracle of judgment and had nothing to do with the exact rules of cookery. keoipes nowadays are really formulas, can fully worked out on exact linos, with definite proportions to be accurately measured. No longer is the temperature of the oven tested by eel. for a thermometer gives the certain read - ing. and some ovens have a device whereby {he needed degree or heat can he a r >r *ti cally maintained a* will. Of course, other changes have come. Th> growing girl now learns her cookery through the domestic science course at school, when she has every facility for making little p.---e. and soon learn- the true culinary art, with a full knowledge of the reasons as well a methods. Do r.ot say the girls do not learn for it is a matter of record that at a great ex hibit of home-baked bread in Omaha once th prizes were won by girls who learned how t make bread at h >ol. much to the amazement of certain go<>d ho ,--keepers who pride’1 themselves on their -! ill as baker Let us go back to 'he battleship for a mo ment. Aft r pacing 'hat narrow door in th< armor plate wall the visitor > led eventually on certain deck- well below the water line Here is discovered machinery of many kinds, the great engines, boilers, pumps, dynamos, magazines, all the intricate and extensive means by which the great vessel is kept mov ing and managed, pa. ked tog. ther as skillfully and almost as closely as the works of a —I watch. We wonder in the end how all we I So it is wit the mod< ri kite! had a brass or copper kettle, a frying pan. a griddle and a good pot felt some pride in her equipment for ng . - gone forever." Many specialized .,'en-ib are now required, each for its panic .lar purpose, but all in order. A kit of knives another of spoons, the sifters and grinders measuring cups and testing apparatus ar. amazing array of implements, the uses of which mere man is as ignorant as a Inish man, fill up 'he drawers and other recep tacles of cabinet, table, pantry and s: . ..go room generally. The cook knows wha: •<> do with them, though, and the far ily knows what to do with what they make I possible. Cookery really is an art and the Ameri can women are coming to understand it better and practice it with greater precirio* every day. while the American men are the beneficiaries of this increasing knowledge of a most important -iib ect. The Omaha Bee PRACTICAL COOKERY Magazine is devoted to the great mission of extending this knowl edge. by bringing to the attention of read ers not alone now and better ways of doing old familiar things, but commending those th ! gs that have been tried and proved worth; The importance of this is not to be or estimated. Fevond any cavil, the kitchen is the power plant of the home. As such it deserves the greatest care, and as modern invention and discovery has robbed the art of cookery of most of its drudgery, so it has made the hours spent in the kitchen hours of rea’ pleasure to the woman who truly values the knowledge she has of good food and skill n i’s prepa ration. It Never Happened A married co..pie had engaged a cook She was pretty as a picture, but her caking was terrible. One morning the bacon was burned to such a crisp as to be wholly inedible. ■■Dear," said the wife *o her husband. Tn afraid the cook has burned the bacon. You”, have to be satisf.ed w ith a kiss for oak ."a this morning.'* “All right c--' c d gruffly “call her in