The problem of home cooking is to prepare appetizing and wholesome meals, with due regard to expenditure of time and money.

The typical cooking course teaches the art by means of separate dishes, leaving the student at a loss when it comes to combining them or to preparing whole meals of several dishes at the same time.

The beginner, with only a cook book for a guide, often attempts the most difficult and complicated dishes first, with failure and discouragement, loss of time and materials as the result. The cook book gives little help in serving wholesome food combination and a balanced diet. It does not answer the ever-present question, "What shall be provided for today, for tomorrow, for the day after?"

In this series of lessons is presented a systematic correspondence course in the cooking of meals, with detailed directions, not only for cooking the separate dishes, but also for preparing and serving each meal as a whole.

The course is divided into twelve parts, each containing the recipes for a week's menu, typical of one month in the year. With the exception of seasonable fruits and vegetables, the menus may be applied to any month. In the first lessons the simplest recipes are gives, gradually increasing in difficulty to advanced work in the lessons of the later months. The recipes, in most cases, give quantities suitable for serving a family of four. The cost of the food served is now omitted because so variable, but its food value is given, followed by suggestions for reducing the cost, if desired.

The menus are planned to give pleasing, variety, wholesome food combination, and well-balanced meals which may be prepared with economy of time, effort and money. Menus for special occasions are included, as for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, formal and informal luncheons and dinners, chafing-dish suppers, birthday and children's parties, etc.

Each part contains one or more special articles relating to the "Preparation of Meals," such as waiting on table, carving, dishwashing, candy making, marketing, fuels, planning menus, canning, preserving, etc. Helpful hints and suggestions are given throughout the lessons and at the end of many of the parts. A summary of all the menus, glossary, bibliography and full and complete index are provided at the end.

In the following course, the student is expected to cook and serve all of the meals given in Part I during the first month, the meals in Part II during the second month, and so on through the twelve parts. The written work consists in sending a detailed report of each month's work, telling of successes and failures, giving time spent in cooking, the cost of the meals served, and asking questions. Report blanks are furnished. A certificate, 16 by 21 inches, on parchment bond, is awarded if the twelve reports are made.

In the preparation of the course, the literature of cooking has been examined thoroughly and the assistance of a number of prominent teachers of cookery has been obtained. The course is offered in the expectation that it will prove particularly helpful to beginners and be welcomed as well by those who have had experience but who desire to perfect themselves further in modern methods of cooking.

American School of Home Economics.