The Century Cook Book Part 8

3 oz. chocolate .08 1/2 cup sugar .02 -- .10 -- Cost of third day's dinner .46

FOURTH DAY'S DINNER

1 codfish steak, 1 lb. .10 4 smelts for garnis.h.i.+ng .10 -- .20

CHARTREUSE OF CHICKEN (page 190).

1 cup rice .04 White sauce .07 What is left of turkey including giblets .00 Boiled potatoes .05 Scalloped tomatoes .15 Salad of water-cresses .05 Bread pudding .10 -- .46 -- Cost of fourth day's dinner .66

First day $1.91 Second day .54 Third day .46 Fourth day .66 Extras for bread, seasonings, etc. .30 ---- Total $3.87 Average per day 96-3/4 cents.

The turkey in this case gave three cupfuls of chopped meat after the dinner of the first day. Any kind of meat can be made into the same dishes, and will be liked if the meat is chopped very fine, is well seasoned, and made creamy by using enough sauce.

WASTEFULNESS

As a rule the family life of America does not represent opulence, yet it has become a familiar saying that a French family could live on what an American family throws away.

Again, it is said that in American kitchens half the provisions are spoiled and the other half wasted. There is no need to-day of being open to such accusations. At small expense a woman can have the benefit of lessons in cooking-schools, and should not be accepted as a cook until she has some knowledge of the duties, and is qualified to bear that name.

The gage of a woman's rank in her profession can be definitely determined by what she wastes or utilizes, and the high wages paid a first-cla.s.s cook are often saved by the intelligent use she makes of all her materials. Many of her best entrees are but a combination of odds and ends which another cook would throw away. Her delicious sauce, which gives a very ordinary dish that requisite something which makes it highly esteemed, may be but the blending of many flavors obtained from little sc.r.a.ps.

The waste in foods need be so small as practically to have no waste material; not a crumb of bread, a grain of sugar, a bit of b.u.t.ter, a sc.r.a.p of meat or fat, a piece of vegetable or leaf of salad, but can be utilized with profit. The soup pot is a receptacle for everything too small for other uses, and from this source can be drawn seasonings which will give richness and flavor to innumerable dishes, which are greatly improved by using stock instead of milk or water in their preparation.

HOW TO UTILIZE WHAT SOME COOKS THROW AWAY

[Sidenote: Bread.]

Trim such pieces of cut bread as will do for toast into uniform shape and serve at the next breakfast. Smaller pieces cut into croutons (page 81) for garnis.h.i.+ng or for soup. Save unshapely pieces for bread pudding, Brown Betty, or stuffings. Save every sc.r.a.p of bread for crumbs, to use for breading croquettes, chops, scallop dishes, etc. It is well to have two kinds of crumbs, using the white ones for the outside of fried articles, as they give a better color.

To prepare the crumbs, separate the crumb from the crusts of bread and dry each of them slowly, on separate tins, on the shelf of the range. When dry, roll, sift and place them in gla.s.s preserve-jars until wanted.

[Sidenote: Fat.]

Clarify all beef fat and drippings, the grease which rises on soup stock, and fat from poultry, and keep in a clean jar or tin pail for use in frying; it is preferable to lard (see "frying," pages 72 and 59). Mutton, turkey, and smoked meat fat has too strong a flavor to be used for frying, but save it with other fat that may be unsuitable for frying, and when six pounds are collected make it into hard soap (page 259).

Use the marrow of beef bones on toast for a luncheon entree (page 159), or use it with bread to make b.a.l.l.s for soup (page 94).

Grill wings and legs of fowls that are left over (page 188) for luncheon, or stuff the legs as directed (page 188). If the sinews are removed from the legs when the fowl is drawn, as directed (page 180), the meat of the leg will be as good as that of the second joint.

Use a ham bone for improving bean soup. Use the carca.s.ses of fowls and the bones from roasts for making soup.

Try out chop bones and other meat taken from the plates for soap fat.

[Sidenote: Tough Pieces.]

Chop the tough ends of steak very fine, season, and form them into b.a.l.l.s or cakes, saute or broil them, and serve for breakfast or luncheon (see "Hamburg steaks," page 151).

[Sidenote: Small Pieces, Cold Meats.]

Cut pieces of white meat into dice or strips, mix it with a white sauce, turn it into a flat dish, make a border of pointed croutons, sprinkle over the top a little chopped parsley, and garnish with hard-boiled egg; or mix the meat with aspic jelly in a mold and serve cold with salad.

Mix dark meats of any kind with a brown sauce, and garnish with lettuce leaves, hard-boiled eggs, and croutons. Any kind of cold meat may be chopped and used in an omelet, or combined with rice and tomatoes for a scallop. For cold mutton see "Ragout of Mutton" (page 165).

[Sidenote: Eggs.]

Save egg-sh.e.l.ls to clear soup, jellies, or coffee. Boiled eggs that are left return to the fire and boil them hard to use for garnis.h.i.+ng, to mix with salad, or to make golden toast (page 270) for luncheon. Cold poached eggs can be boiled hard and used in the same way. Cold fried or scrambled eggs can be chopped and mixed with minced meat, and will much improve it.

When an egg is opened for the white alone, drop the yolk carefully into a cup, cover the cup with a wet cloth, and keep it in the ice-box until wanted. When whites are left over make a small angel cake (page 467), angel ice cream (page 497), kisses (page 475), or cover any dessert with meringue, or serve a meringue sauce (page 448) with the next dessert, or make a meat souffle without yolks (page 190).

[Sidenote: General Odds and Ends.]

Everything too small to utilize in other ways put in the soup pot, and from this can be drawn sauces and seasoning for minces, scallops, etc., that will often be better than specially prepared stock.

[Sidenote: Cereals.]

Oatmeal, hominy, cracked wheat, and other cereals which are left over can be added next day to the fresh stock, for they are improved by long boiling and do not injure the new supply, or such as is left can be molded in large or in small forms, and served cold with cream, or milk and sugar. In warm weather cereals are nicer cold than hot. Cold hominy and mush, cut into squares and fried, so that a crisp crust is formed on both sides,--also hominy or farina, rolled into b.a.l.l.s and fried,--are good used in place of a vegetable or as a breakfast dish.

Any of the cereals make good pancakes, or a small amount added to the ordinary pancake batter improves it.

Cold rice can be added to soup, or made into croquettes, or used in a scallop dish, or mixed with minced meat and egg and fried like an omelet. Cold rice pudding can be cut into rounded pieces with a spoon and served again on a flat dish; this may be covered with whipped cream or flavored whipped white of egg.

[Sidenote: Vegetables.]

A small amount of vegetables left over may go into the soup, or may be mixed with a ragout. Peas, tomatoes, or beans can be put in an omelet. A number of vegetables mixed together can be used for a salad. Cauliflower broken into flowerets, covered with white sauce, and sprinkled with grated cheese, makes "cauliflower _au gratin_," a dish which is much liked.

The coa.r.s.e stalks and roots of celery make a good vegetable dish when cut in pieces and boiled, or they make a good cream-of-celery soup. The leaves are valuable in the soup pot for flavor; also are useful for garnis.h.i.+ng.

[Sidenote: Sour Milk.]

Sour milk makes cottage cheese, or makes good biscuits.

For uses of stale cakes see page 411.

For jellies left over see page 418.

[Sidenote: Fruits.]

When fruits show signs of deterioration, stew them at once instead of letting them decay. See compotes. Stew apple parings and cores to a pulp and strain; this will make a jelly which, spread on apple tart, greatly improves it.

Boil lemon and orange peels in sugar, and dry as directed, page 527, for candied peels.

[Sidenote: Cheese.]