Foods That Will Win The War Part 4

SPLIT PEA PANCAKES

2 cups split peas 2 egg whites 1/3 cup flour 1 cup milk 2 egg yolks 2 tablespoons pork drippings 1/8 teaspoon cayenne 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoonful baking powder

Soak peas over night, cook, and when tender, put through a food chopper and mix the ingredients. Bake on hot greased griddle.

BREAD GRIDDLE CAKES

2 cups sour milk 2 cups bread

Let stand until soft

Put through colander. For each one pint use:

1 egg 1 teaspoon soda 2 teaspoons sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup flour 1 egg beaten

Mix well; bake at once on hot greased griddle.

OATMEAL PANCAKES

2 cups oatmeal 1 tablespoon melted fat 1/8 teaspoon salt

Add:

1 egg beaten into a cupful of milk 1 cupful flour into which has been sifted 1 teaspoonful baking powder.

Beat well. Cook on a griddle. This is an excellent way to use left-over oatmeal.

POTATO PANCAKES

2 cups of chopped potato 1/2 cup milk 1 egg 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups flour 5 teaspoons of baking powder 2 cups of hot water

Parboil potatoes in the skins for fifteen minutes. Pare and chop fine or put through food chopper. Mix potatoes, milk, eggs and salt. Sift the flour and baking powder and stir into a smooth batter. Thin with hot water as necessary. Bake on a greased griddle.

RICE WAFFLES

1 cup cold boiled rice 1-1/2 cups milk 2 eggs 2 cups flour 1/3 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon melted fat 4 teaspoons baking powder

Add milk to rice and stir until smooth. Add salt, egg yolks beaten; add flour sifted with baking powder and salt; add fat; add stiffly beaten whites.

RICE GRIDDLE CAKES

1/2 cup boiled rice 1/2 cup flour 3 tablespoons fat 1 pint milk 2/3 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon soda

Stir rice in milk. Let stand one-half hour. Add other ingredients, having dissolved soda in one tablespoon cold water.

CORNMEAL WAFFLES

1 cup cornmeal 1/2 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 cup corn syrup 1 egg 1 pint milk 1 tablespoon fat

Cook cornmeal and milk in double boiler 10 minutes. Sift dry ingredients. Add milk, cornmeal; beaten yolks; fat, beaten whites.

CORNMEAL AND RYE WAFFLES

1 cup rye flour 3/4 cup cornmeal 1 teaspoon salt 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 tablespoon melted fat 2 eggs 1-1/4 cups milk

Sift dry ingredients. Add beaten yolks added to milk. Add fat and stiffly beaten whites. If waffles are not crisp add more liquid.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Each Food Shown is Equivalent in Protein to the Platter of Meat in the Center of the Picture.]

SAVE MEAT

_REASONS WHY OUR GOVERNMENT HAS ASKED US TO SAVE MEAT WITH PRACTICAL RECIPES FOR MEAT CONSERVATION_

As a nation we eat and waste 80 per cent. more meat than we require to maintain health. This statement, recently issued by the United States Food Administration, is appalling when we consider that there is a greater demand for meat in the world to-day than ever before, coupled with a greatly decreased production. 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. This was burning the candle at both ends, and they now face increased demand handicapped by decreased production.

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.

Although most persons believe that protein can only be obtained from meat, it is found in many other foods, such as milk, skim milk, cheese, cottage cheese, poultry, eggs, fish, dried peas, beans, cow peas, lentils and nuts. For instance, pound for pound, salmon, either fresh or canned, equals round steak in protein content; cream cheese contains one-quarter more protein and three times as much fat; peanuts (hulled) one-quarter more protein and three and a half times as much fat; beans (dried) a little more protein and one-fifth as much fat; eggs (one dozen) about the same in protein and one-half more fat. It is our manifest duty to learn how to make the best use of these foods in order to save beef, pork and mutton, to be shipped across the sea.

This means that the housekeeper has before her the task of training the family palate to accept new food preparations. Training the family palate is not easy, because bodies that have grown accustomed to certain food combinations find it difficult to get along without them, and rebel at a change. If these habits of diet are suddenly disturbed we may upset digestion, as well as create a feeling of dissatisfaction which is equally harmful to physical well-being. The wise housekeeper will therefore make her changes gradually.

In reducing meat in the diet of a family that has been used to having meat twice a day, it will be well to start out with meat once a day and keep up this regime for a couple of weeks. Then drop meat for a whole day, supplying in its stead a meat subst.i.tute dish that will furnish the same nutriment. After a while you can use meat subst.i.tutes at least twice a week without disturbing the family's mental or physical equilibrium. 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 meat that we use to obtain flavor in sauces and gravies need not be large in quant.i.ty, 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.

Dr. Harvey W. Wiley has stated that the meat eating of the future will not be regarded as a necessity so much as it has been in the past, and that meat will be used more as a condimental substance. 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.

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. This idea is entirely without foundation, for the foods mentioned as meat subst.i.tutes earlier in this chapter can be made to feed the world, and feed it well--in fact, no nation uses so large a proportion of meat as America.

The first step, therefore, in preparing ourselves to reduce meat consumption is to recognize that only a small quant.i.ty of meat is necessary to supply sufficient protein for adult life. The growing child or the youth springing into manhood needs a larger percentage of meat than the adult, and in apportioning the family's meat ration this fact should not be overlooked.

The second step is to reduce the amount purchased, choosing cuts that contain the least waste, and by utilizing with care that which we do purchase. Fat, tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, 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.