<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3YJ2IS_0wCSNzLv00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3YJ2IS_0wCSNzLv00" width="1449" height="1099" ></figure><p>Informal cooking “schools” were popular in the early 20th century. In the summer of 1913, the Tacoma Daily Ledger and Tacoma Daily News newspapers brought Mary Lewis Haines to the area to teach free classes.</p><h2>Domestic Science in Tacoma</h2><p>The American diet rapidly changed during this time as food production became more processed and mechanized. A group of college-educated women brought together new technology and advances in nutrition science. New York’s Mary Haines was one of these “domestic scientists.” Later called home economists, the women researched, wrote, and taught. Some worked in schools, while others, like Haines, toured the country, giving lectures and demonstrations. And they revolutionized how people ate.</p><p>Haines’ classes were geared towards young women and inexperienced cooks. Her focus on simple, economical, and “healthful” food reduced the cost of living, especially using leftovers and inexpensive meat cuts. Good home cooking, she argued, was the foundation of a thriving society. She offered ordinary food in creative varieties.</p><p>Students were encouraged to ask questions or put them in the question box. The hosts gave out notebooks and pencils for the audience to write down recipes. Students brought small dishes and spoons to sample recipes. Women from all walks of life attended. One man even came the first week!</p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3upVny_0wCSNzLv00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3upVny_0wCSNzLv00" width="711" height="1280" ><figcaption>Mary Lewis Haines was a domestic science expert and author who taught in Tacoma in the summer of 1913. During her demonstrations, she dedicated her “Northwest White Layer Cake” to the women of Tacoma. Photo from the Tacoma Daily Ledger, September 25, 1913. Photo courtesy: Washington State Library</figcaption></figure><h2>Week 1</h2><p>The cooking school was held in the first-floor auditorium of the Perkins Building, 1103 A Street, headquarters of the co-sponsoring newspapers. Classes took place Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. Haines also held classes for employed women at 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.</p><p>The school opened Monday, June 9, with “12 ways to cook hamburgers. ” On Wednesday, there were veal birds on toast, stuffed pork tenderloins, steak creole, steak country style, halibut en blanquette, German pot roast, broiled kidneys, Vienna potato rolls, meat pies, escalloped pot roast and pot roast hash.</p><p>Haines ended the week with chicken a la king, oyster sausage, peach meringue pie, chicken tomato pie, surprise croquettes, and soft gingerbread. In total, 300 people attended the school’s first week.</p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2vDB6e_0wCSNzLv00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2vDB6e_0wCSNzLv00" width="1600" height="832" ><figcaption>Haines used local products in her school, like the Detroit Jewell Gas Range, which was sold at Gas Consumers Supply Co., and Amocat brand canned vegetables and fruit. As seen in this June 12 Tacoma Daily News ad, she also used T.C. Brand “pure open kettle rendered lard” from Carstens Packing Company. Photo courtesy: Washington State Library Newspapers</figcaption></figure><h2>Week 2</h2><p>Haines’ second week in Tacoma opened on Monday, June 16. The class focused on fish recipes. She demonstrated escalloped crabmeat, baked fish, planked fish, fried smelts with tartar sauce and several sauces. Halibut was served both “a la Royale” and with piquant sauce.</p><p>On Wednesday, Haines made baking powder biscuits, strawberry shortcakes, chicken croquettes, fish cutlets, shad roe croquettes, croquette sauces, pudding sauces and a cheap steam pudding that could be made for 15 cents.</p><p>On Thursday, Haines hosted a luncheon for 24 newspapermen and others in the Perkins Building. Forty young women came to Haines’ evening class.</p><p>The domestic science expert ended the week on Friday demonstrating planked hamburger steak, poor man’s rice pudding, parsnip balls, veal en casserole, surprise croquettes, and spaghetti royale. </p><h2>Week 3</h2><p>Haines started her third week of classes on Monday, June 23, with pies. After whipping up pie dough, she made lemon raisin, lemon meringue, cream, cherry, pumpkin, tomato chicken, date, apple pies and rhubarb custard pies. Her crust, the Daily Ledger boasted, was as “flaky as thistledown.”</p><p>Her Wednesday class was supposed to be dedicated to bread, but she made corn oysters instead because the yeast failed to rise. Haines also invited a meat cutter from Bay City Market to carve up a side of beef to demonstrate popular cuts.</p><p>Haines ended the week with pearl tapioca pineapple pudding, cream puffs, snowball pudding, rice and cheese croquettes, marshmallow cream, and vegetable croustades.</p><p>That Saturday at 2 p.m., she held a special demonstration for “skon,” or five-minute hot bread similar to baking powder biscuits, that could be cooked with a frying pan over the stove or campfire. Men were especially invited to learn and compete in a bread-making contest.</p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1UJXN7_0wCSNzLv00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1UJXN7_0wCSNzLv00" width="1565" height="781" ><figcaption>A recipe for “Hamburger Hash on Toast” from “Helpful Hints for Housewives.” Haines demonstrated it at her cooking school. Photo courtesy: Google Books</figcaption></figure><h2>Final Week</h2><p>Haines’ final week was short. Because of the big Montamara Festo carnival, she taught classes Monday and Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday. She brought cake recipes: chocolate triangle, almond chocolate, cheap cream, English walnut, sunshine, velvet white and jelly roll. She also prepared icings and fillings. Haines also shared a cake recipe from a local woman.</p><p>Tuesday brought salads and dressings. Salads included macaroni, shrimp, Roquefort cheese, and asparagus with Hollandaise sauce and fruit with or without gelatine. Dressing included French brandy dressing and boiled mayonnaise cream.</p><p>Her final class, whose menu is not preserved, was on Wednesday morning.</p><h2>Kennedy Bros. Arcade Store School</h2><p>Although her school in the Perkins Building was over, the Kennedy Brothers Arcade Store, corner of C and 13th Streets, invited her to teach the course again. From July 7 through August 2, classes were held every weekday and Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. in the third-story auditorium.</p><p>The school was just as popular as before. Despite the rain, 120 attended her class on July 10 alone.</p><h2>Mary Haines Returns</h2><p>Haines returned to Tacoma in late September with her new book in hand, “Helpful Hints for Housewives,” published by Olympia’s Recorder Press. She opened a multi-day class at the Arcade store on September 23. They also sold her book.</p><p>Haines stayed into early October to hold a cake-baking contest. Proceeds from the sale of the cakes went to the Woman’s Vocational Home or Rescue Home. Haines was also a guest at a benefit tea held for the Home hosted by Mrs. C.W. Rhodes.</p><p>Although Mary Haines’s time in Tacoma was short, her students had learned much. Women like Haines, with her emphasis on science and education, helped transform American cooking into what it is today. And this cooking was something anyone could do. While the Daily Ledger might call her a “Wizard of the Stove,” Haines told them, “Everyone can learn to cook if they want to.”</p></div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Let’s Cook! Tacoma’s Mary Haines Cooking School in 1913

Informal cooking “schools” were popular in the early 20th century. In the summer of 1913, the Tacoma Daily Ledger and Tacoma Daily News newspapers brought Mary Lewis Haines to the area to teach free classes. Domestic Science in Tacoma. The American diet rapidly changed during this time as...