Five Things You Should Have Learned in Home Ec

What do you learn in home ec class?

Curious about the things you learn in home ec? There was a time when Home Economics was taught in nearly every high school and nearly every girl took this class to prepare for her assumed future as a homemaker. Thankfully we’ve moved past the time when it was assumed that women (and ONLY women) were destined only to tend the home. But some important and useful home and life skills have been lost along the way. Here are five things you should have learned in home ec that are still incredibly useful. If you didn’t learn these in home economics, there’s still plenty of time!

Things You Should Have Learned in Home Ec

1. BASIC SEWING

It’s a fact that most clothing used to be sewn and mended at home, generally by the women of the household. The advent of sewing machines and garment factories eventually made it possible for even families of modest means to start purchasing most or all of their clothing. Once clothing manufacturing moved overseas to exploit ultra-cheap labor, there was no reason or incentive for anyone to sew their own clothing, other than enjoyment or personal preference.

While sewing entire garments from scratch may be outside the scope of modern life for most people, basic sewing skills are still very useful. By knowing a little hand-sewing, you can take care of minor repairs to clothing and home goods and create simple items.

Here are a few things you’ll be able to do just by learning how to thread a needle and make a few stitches:

• sew buttons back on
• mend small rips or tears
• patch holes
• simple alterations like hemming trousers or tapering shirts to improve their fit

If you learn how to use a sewing machine, it’s relatively easy to sew things like throw pillows, simple window treatments and basic clothing items. All of those things can be sewn by hand, too, but it will take a lot more time. Learning to sew was a major component of home economics class and it’s a skill that’s definitely worth pursuing now.

Want to learn how to sew? This is one of the absolute best sewing books out there.

YouTube is also full of great tutorials.

2. PLAIN COOKING

It’s incredibly useful to know how to prepare food and cooking used to be taught in home economics, or even as a separate class. Even a handful of simple recipes and techniques can make a huge difference in your ability to feed yourself at home. Personally, I think learning a few kitchen techniques is more useful than memorizing recipes, but both have an important role to play in helping you feel comfortable in the kitchen.

You might not enjoy it or it might feel challenging but basic cooking skills are attainable for most people. You can save a lot of money not just by cooking at home instead of dining out but by learning how to prepare foods ‘from scratch’ instead of buying the prepared versions.

Here’s a few kitchen skills that are the most useful and versatile:

• How to cook pantry staples like rice, pasta and dried beans.
• What do do with vegetables – knowing how to cook them is important but so is knowing  how or when to peel them, the best way to cut them up for the application at hand and how to store them to maximize freshness and flavor
• How to correctly use kitchen knives. For both safety and improving your food preparation, it’s good to know proper knife technique
• Simple methods for cooking cuts of meat – knowing how to cook a piece of chicken or a pork chop is useful on it’s own but also introduces skills you’ll need to cook larger or more complicated meats
• How to make a basic white sauce and a basic brown sauce. There are tons of dishes one can create without making sauce. But knowing how to make a roux and turn it into sauce is a powerful kitchen skill. Making sauces at home is also substantially cheaper than using pre-packed options.
• How to make a standard tomato sauce. Learning how to turn a can of tomatoes into sauce for spaghetti, pizza, lasagna or a multitude of other dishes is so useful. Even the simplest homemade tomato sauce tastes better, too.
• Make stock or broth. If you cook nearly anything, you’ll have scraps of meat or vegetables and possibly bones. Using those to make broth or stock reduces kitchen waste, adds flavor to other foods and lowers your grocery bill. You can make a big batch of broth and freeze or can it in smaller portions.

These kitchen skills will expand the number of dishes you can make at home and they’ll give you building blocks for learning other techniques. This is NOT an exhaustive list but it’s a decent starting place if you’re interesting in learning how to cook at home.

If cooking just isn’t your jam, try these ideas for Making Cooking Less Tedious

3. HOW TO DO LAUNDRY AND USE AN IRON

Laundry is both incredibly basic and something with very specific rules. It’s also an area in which it is possible to get along without even realizing what you don’t know. After all, it’s completely possible to throw all your clothes into the washer, turn it on and then chuck it all in the dryer. You’ll almost certainly end up with a load of cleaner clothes. But learning how to correctly combine garment and fabric types in the wash as well as which temperature settings will lead to cleaner, brighter clothes that last longer.

Although I hate ironing, it’s really useful to know how to press a shirt or pants properly.  Having nice, crisp clothing looks and feels great but more importantly, knowing how to iron things on the right setting and in the right way will prolong the life of your clothes. I freely admit that I try to buy clothing and table linens that require little to no ironing but I’m glad I know how to press things when it’s unavoidable.

4. BASIC BAKING

Baking is a completely different skill set from cooking, even though both involve food preparation. Mastering even a few baking recipes means you’ll be able to bake tons of staple foods at home. Although baking requires precision, it is often less mercurial than cooking.

Here’s a couple of suggestions for getting started:

• BREADS – You might be picturing bread baking as a long, arduous process with tons of steps. Some bread is more of an undertaking but there are lots of recipes that require very little kneading or rising.  Quick breads are great for a new baker because the leavening comes via baking powder. That means you combine the ingredients and chemistry drives the lift. No fiddling with yeast, no kneading and rising.

Once you see how easy, cheap and delicious baking bread at home is, you’ll be converted. And if you have food sensitivities or restrictions, baking bread (and other things!) at home can open up a huge new world of possibilities.

I started with this Beer Bread Recipe years ago and I highly recommend it. From mixing to slicing, you can have a loaf of bread in an hour.

If you’ve gotten the hang of quick breads, this Basic Yeast Bread Recipe is also a great introduction to bread baking.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough if you want to explore bread baking

• COOKIES. The great thing about learning to bake cookies is that cookies are delicious. Ok, but seriously, baking cookies is a great way to start understanding the fundamentals of kitchen chemistry and the actual baking process. Plus if the first round goes awry, you can try again with the rest of the batter.
• BISCUITS.  These are also a quick bread, but tend to occupy a different role in the contemporary meal. A batch of biscuits is one of the quickest bread items to throw together, though, and are excellent at every meal. If  bread feels overwhelming, try a batch of biscuits first. Like cookies, it can also be easier to tell when biscuits are finished baking than a loaf of bread.
• PIZZA DOUGH. Arguably the most complex item on this list but still attainable for even new bakers. Dough requires working with yeast and some kneading and stretching, which makes it a great teaching recipe. And once you have homemade pizza, you’ll never go back to delivery.

Again, this is not an exhaustive list. But it’s someplace to start. Baking, like cooking, can be as simple or as complex as you wish to make it.

5. HOUSEHOLD CLEANING AND BASIC MAINTENANCE CHORES

This is the most vague category on here, but it’s also one of the most important. Whether you live in an apartment or house, it’s important to know how to properly clean things like stoves, sinks, and toilets. That’s not just for the sake of nicety – improper or inadequate cleaning techniques can damage appliances or plumbing. Not understanding how to clean and sanitize kitchen or bathroom surfaces can lead to illnesses.

Here’s a few tips for Making Cleaning Easier 

Its important to understand how your furnace or air conditioning system works and if/when you need to change filters or perform routine cleaning. Ditto the washer and dryer. Not cleaning the lint trap and duct can destroy the dryer or cause a fire.

If you’re a renter, talk to your landlord or property manager and find out which tasks you are responsible for. Generally, the tenant is responsible for in-unit things like furnace filters but it’s best to check in and find out. If you’ve been renting the same unit for a long time, there may be bigger maintenance chores that are overdue, since many annual or seasonal tasks get done in between renters.

When it comes to maintenance chores, an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure. It’s far more difficult and expensive to repair plumbing than to prevent damage, for example.

This is not a comprehensive list – there are many valuable skills that used to be routinely taught in school, including important things like personal finance, first aid, basic outdoor skills and more. These five skills are all still very useful and learning or improving any of them is likely to save you money, prevent future disasters and help you feel more confident and capable.

If you were lucky enough to take a Home Ec class, did it cover some of these? Are there other Home Skills you wish you knew? Let me know in the comments!

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