By Jim Harmon
“Poor cooking has driven more men to drink than all the barrooms in the country!”
“The great mass of humanity are starving their bodies on indigestible bread.”
And Mrs. Emma Pike Ewing was just getting warmed up. Running a household, she declared, was a “science,” and good cooking was the “prime factor in the physical, moral and intellectual development of the individual.”
I found her article about cooking – specifically scientific cooking – in the Missoula Weekly Gazette, dated September 16, 1891.
Headline – The Missoula Sentinel Jan 23, 1914
Headline – The Missoula Sentinel Jan 23, 1914
Ewing scoffed at the common belief that women had intuitive knowledge of how to cook and keep house, or were well trained by their mothers.
Further – even if a young woman was trained by her mother, she likely learned only a limited number of menu items that were served over and over again.
Such was the case with my mother, but it wasn’t her fault. My dad wanted meat and potatoes – every night! Her challenge was being creative within those narrow parameters.
All I knew for certain back then, as a child, was that “Wonder Bread helps build strong bodies in 12 ways!” (Although I couldn’t then – and can’t now – name a single one of those 12 ways.)
Clipping – -Domestic Science – The Missoula Sentinel Jan 23, 1914
Clipping – -Domestic Science – The Missoula Sentinel Jan 23, 1914
Anyway – back to Mrs. Ewing’s thoughts on the young bride: When first married, she had no knowledge of cooking, “but she saw the necessity of learning.” Since there was no school to teach such skills, she began experimenting and educating herself about meal preparation.
She developed the belief that “good food is an important factor in the development of the individual, morally, mentally and physically, and since then, the leading aim of her life was to improve people’s diet by the introduction of better and more economical methods of cooking.”
So Ewing created a school of cookery in Chicago which led to her appointment as Professor of Domestic Economy at Iowa Agricultural College and later to a similar position at Purdue University. Eventually, she was recognized as the “ablest teacher of household science in the United States.”
But that had its downside. According to one account, Ewing began receiving so many calls from across the country for lectures and lessons on culinary topics “that she decided to leave the school, placing someone else in her position.”
She went on to author a number of cookbooks, including “Cooking and Castle-Building,” “Soup and Soup Making,” and “The Art of Cookery: A Manual for Homes and Schools,” prior to her death in 1917.
Meantime, women across Montana were creating “housekeepers societies” to share everything related to “domestic science.”
In Bozeman, Mrs. S.M. Emery led the effort to create the Montana State Housekeepers Society in 1895, with the aim of “promoting better housekeeping throughout the state.”
Bozeman Clipping — Housekeepers’ Society Rocky Mountain Husbandman newspaper 4-11-1895
Bozeman Clipping — Housekeepers’ Society Rocky Mountain Husbandman newspaper 4-11-1895
Through a newspaper story, she invited “any woman of moral character, who is interested in good housekeeping (to) become a member by presenting her name accompanied by 25 cents initiation fee.”
But this was not a direct appeal to women – after all, it was 1895!
No, this was an appeal to husbands – the recognized heads of households: “We are anxious to form auxiliary societies, and would be very glad if you would place this before your wives and induce them to enter the work.
“We will be glad to send them our constitution and exchange views. We hope to gain much from the experience of each other, and by gaining scientific knowledge of ‘woman’s work’ (it will) elevate it to the position that it should occupy, as one of the most important professions.
“We would be glad to hear from your ladies” prior to our next meeting.”
For young mothers, a 1914 Missoula Sentinel newspaper article spelled out an appropriate breakfast for a 6- to 9-year-old child.
“Four steamed prunes with juice but no sugar, four tablespoons of cooked whole wheat germ with one-half ounce of butter, and one cup of cocoa.” For an adult, just increase the amount by one quarter (one half, if the adult spends the work day outdoors).
Yum?
Jim Harmon is a longtime Missoula news broadcaster, now retired, who writes a weekly history column for Missoula Current. You can contact Jim at [email protected]. His best-selling book, “The Sneakin’est Man That Ever Was,” a collection of 46 vignettes of Western Montana history, is available at harmonshistories.com.
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Publish date : 2024-09-02 02:18:00
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