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
