"When science strikes the kitchen, it strikes home": the influence of Sarah Tyson Rorer in the Progressive Era kitchen, 1880-1915
Date
2017
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The prolific teaching and publishing career of Philadelphia cooking instructor Sarah Tyson Rorer (1847-1937) highlights how Progressive Era food reformers encouraged women to conceptualize their roles within social reform, food preparation, and the scientific study of nutrition. This thesis analyzes cookbooks, magazines, and advertisements through three case studies of Rorer’s writing. The first looks at home canning as a reaction to increased mechanization in the kitchen. The second examines the lard alternative Cottolene as a vehicle for promoting domestic science ideology. The third case study focuses on the impact of published cooking texts through Mrs. Rorer’s Diet for the Sick cookbook. ☐ Sarah Tyson Rorer positioned herself as a cultural broker of progress between industry, the medical field, and women working in home kitchens. As a member of a group of cultural gatekeepers introducing domestic science to the public, Sarah Tyson Rorer negotiated the normalization of increased industrial technology in the home through: her evangelism of nutrition as a popular science, her promotion of Progressive Era food and gender ideology, and her cultivation of an authoritative celebrity persona. Critical analysis of one woman’s cooking literature reveals broader patterns of how food reformers encouraged ideal social behavior and adoption of new kitchen equipment and food products. Her work contributes to our understanding of how people use text as an object to navigate gender, power, and social change.
Description
Keywords
Social sciences, Cookbook, Foodways, Rorer