Alberta M. Goudiss

“ The word fat usually brings to one's mind an unappetizing chunk of meat fat which most persons cannot and will not eat, and fatty foods have been popularly supposed to be "bad for us" and "hard to digest." Fats are, however, an important food absolutely essential to complete nutrition, which repay us better for the labor [pg 74] of digestion than any other food. If they are indigestible, it is usually due to improper cooking or improper use; if they are expensive, it is merely because they are extravagantly handled. ”

“ A little bit of saving in food means a tremendous aggregate total, when 100,000,000 people are doing the saving. One wheatless meal a day would not mean hardship; there are always corn and other products to be used. Yet one wheatless meal a day in every family would mean a saving of 90,000,000 bushels of wheat, which totals 5,400,000,000 lbs. Two meatless days a week would mean a saving of 2,200,000 lbs. of meat per annum. One teaspoonful of sugar per person saved each day would insure a supply ample to take care of our soldiers and our Allies. ”

“ Throwing away the water in which vegetables have been cooked wastes their characteristic and valuable element—the mineral salts. Cooking them so much that they become watery; under-cooking so that they are hard and indigestible; cooking more than is required for a meal; failing to use left-over portions promptly as an entree or for cream soups or scalloped dishes—all these things mean an appalling waste of valuable food material. Good food material is also lost when the water in which rice or macaroni or other starchy food has been boiled is poured down the kitchen sink. ”

“ Food waste is due to poor selection of raw materials, to careless storage and heedless preparation, to bad cooking, to injudicious serving, and to the overflowing garbage pail.
To select food in such a way as will eliminate waste and at the same time insure the best possible return for money spent, the housekeeper must purchase for nutriment rather than to please her own or the family palate.
When eggs are sixty and seventy cents a dozen their price is out of all proportion to their food value. ”

“ Fat, trimmings, and bones all have their uses and should be saved from the garbage pail.
Careful buying, of course, depends on a knowledge of cuts, a study of the percentage of waste in each cut, and the food value of the different kinds of meat. Make a study of the different cuts, as shown in the charts on pages 36, 37, and armed with this knowledge go forth to the butcher for practical buying.
Then comes the cooking, which can only be properly done when the fundamental principles of the cooking processes, such as boiling, braising, broiling, stewing, roasting and frying are understood. ”

“ As desserts are the chief factor in the use of quantities of sugar in our diet, the appended recipes will be of value, as they deal with varied forms of nutritious, attractive sugarless desserts. It is only by the one-ounce savings of each individual member of our great one hundred million population that the world sugar shortage may be met, and it is hoped every housekeeper will study her own time-tested recipes with the view of utilizing as far as possible other forms of sweetening. ”

“ The meat that we use to obtain flavor in sauces and gravies need not be large in quantity, nor expensive in cut. The poor or cheap cuts have generally more flavor than the expensive ones, the difference being entirely in texture and tenderness, freedom from gristle and inedible tissue. There are many cereals, such as rice, hominy, cornmeal, samp and many vegetable dishes, especially dried beans of all kinds, that are greatly improved by the addition of meat sauce and when prepared in this way may be served as the main dish of a meal. ”

“ This country, like all the powers at war, will undoubtedly be called upon to face increasing prices so long as the war continues, and waste in any form is not only needless squandering of the family income, but failure in devotion to a great cause. ”

“ Many a dollar is foolishly spent for delicatessen foods. The retail cost of ready prepared foods includes a fraction of the salary of the cook and the fuel, as well as the regular percentage of profit. The food, also, is not so nourishing or flavorsome as if freshly cooked in the home kitchen.
Buying perishable foods in larger quantities than can be used immediately. Too frequently meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, milk and cream are purchased in quantities larger than needed for immediate consumption, and lack of knowledge of use of left-overs causes what is not eaten to be discarded. ”

“ America must fill the breach. Not only must we meet the present increased demand, but we must be prepared as the war advances to meet an even greater demand for this most necessary food. The way out of this serious situation is first to reduce meat consumption to the amount really needed and then to learn to use other foods that will supply the food element which is found in meat. This element is called protein, and we depend upon it to build and repair body tissues. ”

“ Europe has for years used meat for flavor rather than for nutriment. It would seem that the time has come for Americans to learn the use of meat for flavor and to utilize more skillfully the protein of other foods.
[pg 32]
It may be difficult to convince the meat lover that he can radically reduce the proportion of meat in his diet without detriment to health. Many persons adhere to the notion that you are not nourished unless you eat meat; that meat foods are absolutely necessary to maintain the body strength. ”

“ When we come to waste caused by careless preparation we may be reminded of the miracle of the loaves and fishes—how all the guests were fed and then twelve baskets were gathered up. Often after preparation that which is gathered up to be thrown away is as large in quantity and as high in food value as the portions used. ”

“ It would be well also to introduce dishes that extend the meat flavor, such as stews combined with dumplings, hominy, or rice; pot pies or short cakes with a dressing of meat and vegetables; meat loaf, souffle or croquettes in which meat is combined with bread crumbs, potato or rice.
Meat eating is largely a matter of flavor. If flavor is supplied, the reduction of meat in the diet can be made with little annoyance. Nutrition can always be supplied in the other dishes that accompany the meal, as a certain proportion of protein is found in almost every food product. ”

“ The hydrogenated oils, home-rendered fats, lard and beef and mutton suet can be used for shortening fats.
In the purchase of meats, the careful housewife should see that the butcher gives her all the fat she pays for, as all fats can be rendered very easily at home and can be used for cooking purposes. Butchers usually leave as large a proportion of fat as possible on all cuts of meat which, when paid for at meat prices, are quite an expensive item. All good clear fat should, therefore, be carefully trimmed from meats before cooking. ”

“ Another source of waste of which few of us take account is home-made bread. Sixty per cent. of the bread used in America is made in the home. When one stops to consider how much home-made bread is poorly made, and represents a large waste of flour, yeast and fuel, this housewifely energy is not so commendable. The bread flour used in the home is also in the main wheat flour, and all waste of wheat at the present time increases the shortage of this most necessary food. ”

“ The waste occasioned by improper cooking is a large factor in both household and national economy.
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It has been estimated that a waste of an ounce each day of edible meat or fat in the twenty million American homes amounts to 456,000,000 pounds of valuable animal food a year. At average dressed weights, this amounts to 875,000 steers, or over 3,000,000 hogs. Each housekeeper, therefore, who saves her ounce a day aids in this enormous saving, which will mean so much in the feeding of our men on the fighting line. ”

“ Butter burns at 240 degrees Fahrenheit, while vegetable oils can be heated as high as 600 degrees Fahrenheit, furnishing a very high temperature for cooking purposes before they begin to burn. The scorching of fat not only wastes the product, but renders it indigestible, even dangerous to some people, and for this reason butter should never be used for frying, as [pg 75] frying temperature is usually higher than 240 degrees. It is well to choose for cooking only those fats which have the highest heat-resisting qualities because they do not burn so easily. ”

“ We must not save on the children; but it will be well to give them plain food for the most part, which will not tempt them to overeat, and tactfully combat pernickety, overfastidious likes and dislikes.
The United States Food Administration is preaching the gospel of the clean plate, and this can be accomplished by serving smaller portions, insisting that all food accepted be eaten; by keeping down bread waste, cutting the bread at the table a slice at a time as needed; by cooking only sufficient to supply moderately the number to be fed, and no more. ”

“ Fuel, too, is a serious national problem, and all coal used in either range, gas, or electric oven for the baking of poor bread is an actual national loss. There must be no waste in poor baking or from poor care after the bread is made, or from the waste of a crust or crumb.
Waste in your kitchen means starvation in some other kitchen across the sea. Our Allies are asking for 450,000,000 bushels of wheat, and we are told that even then theirs will be a privation loaf. ”

“ Beef and mutton suet can be rendered and made available. Fats which have been saved after meals are cooked should be clarified—that is, freed from all objectionable odors, tastes or color—so as to be made available as shortening and frying fats.
The following recipes and suggestions make possible the use of all fats, and as fat shortage is one of the most serious of the world's food problems, it is essential that every housekeeper have a larger knowledge of the utilization and economy of this essential food. ”

“ The increase in the demand for meat and animal products is due to the stress of the war. Millions of men are on the fighting line doing hard physical labor, and require a larger food allowance than when they were civilians. To meet the demand for meat and to save their grains, our Allies have been compelled to kill upward of thirty-three million head of their stock animals, and they have thus stifled their animal production. ”

“ Sweets are a food and should be eaten at the close of the meal, and if this custom is established during the war, not only will tons of sugar be available for our Allies, but the health of the nation improved.
The average daily consumption of sugar per person in this country is 5 ounces, and yet nutritional experts agree that not more than 3 ounces a day should be taken. The giving up of one ounce per day will, therefore, be of great value in reducing many prevalent American ailments. ”

“ When scrapple is to be eaten, cut into one-half inch slices, dredge with flour, and brown in hot fat.
FISH AS A MEAT SUBSTITUTE
As the main course at a meal, fish may be served accompanied by vegetables or it may be prepared as a "one-meal dish" requiring only bread and butter and a simple dessert to complete a nutritious and well balanced diet. A lack of proper knowledge of selection of fish for the different methods of cooking, and the improper cooking of fish once it is acquired, are responsible to a large extent for the prejudice so frequently to be found against the use of fish. ”

“ Flatulent dyspepsia, rheumatism, diabetes, and stomach acidity are only too frequently traced to an oversupply of sugar in our daily diet.
Most persons apparently think of sugar merely as a sweetening agent, forgetting entirely the fact that it is a most concentrated food. It belongs to what is called the carbohydrate group, upon which we largely depend for energy and heat. It is especially valuable to the person doing active physical work, the open-air worker, or the healthy, active, growing child, but should be used sparingly by other classes of people. ”

“ Waste of cooked food is a serious item in household economy, and no matter how skillfully leftovers are utilized, it is always less expensive and more appetizing to provide fresh-cooked foods at each meal. ”

“ When butter is used to flavor cooked vegetables, it is more economical to add it just before they are served rather than while they are cooking. The flavor thus imparted is more pronounced, and, moreover, if the butter is added before cooking, much of it will be lost in the water unless the latter is served with the vegetables. Butter substitutes, such as oleomargarine and nut margarine, should be more largely used for the table, especially for adults. Conserve butter for children, as animal fats contain vitamines necessary for growing tissues. ”

“ All the recipes in this economy cook-book have been thoughtfully adapted to the conditions of the time, and will show the practical housekeeper how to supply wholesome, flavorsome food for the least cost. ”

“ The chief function of fatty food is to repair and renew the fatty tissues, to yield energy and to maintain the body heat. The presence of fat in food promotes the flow of the pancreatic juice and bile, which help in the assimilation of other foods and assist the excretory functions of the intestine. ”