Taken from an article by Katherine Lewis (the vicar's wife)concerning a new Cookery Class being set up in Briton Ferry…….

Many people say when asked to attend cookery classes, "I can cook all I have to cook well enough," but they forget that the less there is to cook the more important  it is to cook it nicely, and make it go as far as possible. One woman will put a whole pound of steak in a frying-pan and make it so dry and hard that hardly enough of it can be eaten to suffice one person. Another will stew the worse end of a neck of mutton with nice vegetables and make it into a delicious dinner for a whole family. One woman will set her family down to a tea of new bread and butter which disappear with amazing rapidity; another will be careful to have bread a day or two old, and will make a good dish of cakes (for which there are so many economical recipes) which will delight her children and be far more wholesome and cost much less that fresh bread and butter

But economical cookery must be learnt, it cannot be expected to come of itself. Again, the various forms of indigestion which cause so much illness and suffering in Briton Ferry are entirely due to badly cooked and unwholesome food.

Intemperance again is very largely caused by bad cooking. There has probably never been a case known in which a man has left a clean, comfortable home, and a hot, tasty, though perhaps only a very cheap, supper, to spend his evening in the public house. But one cannot wonder that a man who knows that only greasy, black, half-cold food awaits him at home steps in for a glass of spirits to warm and comfort him.

Domestic unhappiness too is largely caused by bad cooking. A half-raw leg of mutton and a sticky pudding will upset the tempers of a whole family for the rest of the day. On the other hand, if a household sit down to a well-cooked dinner of something they like, they all feel happy and contented. We often see in the papers that a man is summoned for assaulting his wife. He comes home, finds no supper ready, swears at his wife, who throws something at him, and he begins to break her head with the poker, and next day is brought before the magistrates and fined. But if that man had seen, when he came home, a nice little pie, or a savoury dish of fish, or even some hot baked potatoes, waiting for him, he and his wife would have sat down together as comfortable as possible, and all the misery, disgrace, and expense would have been avoided.

Good cookery is of far more importance than many people think, and it is hoped that these lessons, which afford so good an opportunity of learning, will be very largely attended.

The Vicarage                                             KATHERINE LEWIS