Part 19 (1/2)

Rhubarb is wasted by removing the pink skin from young rhubarb, which should be retained to add flavor and color-attractiveness to the dish.

Raw food in quant.i.ty is frequently left in the mixing bowl, while by the use of a good flexible knife or spatula every particle can be saved. A large palette knife is as good in the kitchen as in the studio.

The next step in food preparation is cooking, and tons of valuable material are wasted through ignorance of the principles of cooking.

Bad cooking, which means under-cooking, over-cooking or flavorless cooking, renders food inedible, and inedible food contributes to world shortage. Fats are wasted in cooking by being burned and by not being carefully utilized as dripping and shortening. The water in which salt meat, fresh meat, or poultry has been boiled should be allowed to cool and the fat removed before soup is made of it. Such fat can be used, first of all, in cooking, and then any inedible portions can be used in soap making.

Tough odds and ends of meat not sightly enough to appear on the table are often wasted. They can be transformed by long cooking into savory stews, ragouts, croquettes and hashes, whereas, if carelessly and insufficiently cooked, they are unpalatable and indigestible. Sc.r.a.ps of left-over cooked meat should be ground in the food-chopper and made into appetizing meat b.a.l.l.s, hashes or sandwich paste. If you happen to have a soft cooked egg left over, boil it hard at once. It can be used for garnishes, sauces, salads or sandwich paste.

Use all bits of bread, that cannot be used as toast, in puddings, croquettes, scalloped dishes or to thicken soup.

Don't throw away cold m.u.f.fins and fancy breads. Split and toast them for next day's breakfast.

Foods that survive the earlier forms of waste are often lost at table by the serving of portions of like size to all members of the family.

The individual food requirements differ according to age, s.e.x, vocation and state of health. Each should be considered before the food is served, then there will be no waste on the plates when the meal is over. The following table, showing the daily requirement of calories for men and women in various lines of work, ill.u.s.trates this point:

WOMEN CALORIES Sedentary work ... 2,400 Active work ... 2,700 Hard manual labor ... 3,200

MEN CALORIES Sedentary work ... 2,700 Active work ... 3,450 Hard manual labor ... 4,150

Although the serving of food should be carefully planned so as to prevent waste, care should be taken that growing children have ample food. It is a mistake to suppose that a growing child can be nourished on less than a sedentary adult. A boy of fourteen who wants to eat more than his father probably needs all that he asks for. 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. It is a false idea of good providing that platters must leave the table with a generous left-over. 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.

One would think that with the various uses to which all kinds of foodstuffs may be put that there would be little left for the yawning garbage pail. But the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture is responsible for the statement that $750,000,000 worth of food has been wasted annually in the American kitchen. Undoubtedly a large part of this wastefulness was due to ignorance on the part of the housewife, and the rest of it to the lack of co-operation on the part of the employees who have handled the food but not paid the bills.

According to a well-known domestic scientist, the only things which should find their way to the garbage pail are:

Egg sh.e.l.ls--after being used to clear coffee.

Potato skins--after having been cooked on the potato.

Banana skins--if there are no tan shoes to be cleaned.

Bones--after having been boiled in soup kettle.

Coffee grounds--if there is no garden where they can be used for fertilizer, or if they are not desired as filling for pincus.h.i.+ons.

Tea leaves--after every tea-serving, if they are not needed for brightening carpets or rugs when swept.

Asparagus ends--after being cooked and drained for soup.

Spinach, etc.--decayed leaves and dirty ends of roots.