At the time of its publication, this pamphlet would have been a useful resource for anyone interested in reducing their dairy intake, especially if they were watching their weight or had allergies or intolerances to dairy. From its contents, we can learn a bit about what cooking was like in the early 1920s. After the First World War, a short economic recession occurred as the Canadian economy shifted from wartime to peacetime. However, the country bounced back quite quickly, and Canadians desired to enjoy life and spend heartily. Parties and socializing were commonplace, and as more Canadian women hosted gatherings, it became necessary to have recipes for easy-to-make snacks and dishes, enabling the woman of the house more time to spend with her guests. It is likely for these reasons and others that the recipes in Why and How to Use Skim-Milk are so straight-forward and simple.

Through this cooking pamphlet, there is a significant educational component that aims to provide information about skim milk and its health properties. Throughout the 1920s, the Department of Agriculture published several similar cookbooks, such as Why and How to Use Buttermilk, Why and How to Use Milk, and Why and How to Use Cottage Cheese. All of the pamphlets could be requested free of charge from the Department of Agriculture. The size of this cooking pamphlet is significantly smaller than most Canadian cookbooks produced at the time. Likely, keeping the pamphlet smaller and free of charge was a way to cut costs while still educating the public and supporting the products produced by Canadian dairy farms. The pamphlet notes that skim milk, although it lacks some of the flavour of full fat milk, can still provide the same nutrients and minerals needed for growing bodies. This contradicts more recent research which suggests that skim milk is actually not the healthiest option because it lacks valuable nutrients such as vitamins A and E. Today, skim milk is not recommended for children under five years of age because of the absence of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals. Some other studies, however, claim that drinking skim milk over full-fat milk or even 2% milk may improve the gut microbiome significantly.

This cooking pamphlet's primary objective is to educate readers about skim milk and encourage its consumption. This is demonstrated in the fact that it contains more information about replacing full fat milk with skim milk than it does about cooking and recipes. Compared to modern day cookbooks, this pamphlet is not organized in any sort of logical way, which was not uncommon for the time. When it was published in 1922, the First World War had only finished four years earlier, and both the Canadian populace and the government were eager to get back to "normal." Based on the number and type of pamphlets they produced, the federal Department of Agriculture was eager to assist farmers in getting back on their feet. By producing these pamphlets, the Department of Agriculture was able to deliver to a wide audience a range of information about dairy products and substitutions.