Healthful Cookery
203
But the daughters are not the ones to be blamed wholly in this
matter. The mother is at fault. She has not patiently taught her daugh-
ters how to cook. She knows that they lack knowledge in the cooking
department, and therefore feels no release from the labor. She must
attend to everything that requires care, thought, and attention. Young
ladies should be thoroughly instructed in cooking. Whatever may be
[262]
their circumstances in life, here is knowledge which may be put to a
practical use. It is a branch of education which has the most direct
influence upon human life, especially the lives of those held most dear.
Many a wife and mother who has not had the right education, and
lacks skill in the cooking department, is daily presenting her family
with ill-prepared food, which is steadily and surely destroying the
digestive organs, making a poor quality of blood, and frequently bring-
ing on acute attacks of inflammatory disease, and causing premature
death....
Encourage the Learners
It is a religious duty for every Christian girl and woman to learn
at once to make good, sweet, light bread from unbolted wheat flour.
Mothers should take their daughters into the kitchen with them when
very young, and teach them the art of cooking. The mother cannot
expect her daughters to understand the mysteries of housekeeping
without education. She should instruct them patiently, lovingly, and
make the work as agreeable as she can by her cheerful countenance
and encouraging words of approval. If they fail once, twice, or thrice,
censure not. Already discouragement is doing its work, and tempting
them to say, “It is of no use; I can’t do it.” This is not the time for
censure. The will is becoming weakened. It needs the spur of encour-
aging, cheerful, hopeful words, as, “Never mind the mistakes you have
made. You are but a learner, and must expect to make blunders. Try
again. Put your mind on what you are doing. Be very careful, and you
will certainly succeed.”
Many mothers do not realize the importance of this branch of
knowledge, and rather than have the trouble and care of instructing
their children and bearing with their failings and errors while learning,
they prefer to do all themselves. And when their daughters make a
failure in their efforts, they send them away with, “It is no use, you