Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 200, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1915 — VARIETY IN THE MENU [ARTICLE]

VARIETY IN THE MENU

SUBJECT TO WHICH MORE AT* • tention should be given.

Well for Cook to "Think Up" Now Ways of Bervlng Food, With tho Idea nf Getting Away From Unappetizing Monotony. Perhaps in no department of woman’s work is it so easy to get into a groove as in catering. However good the food may be. it fails to be appreciated as it should, if it lacks variety, writes a contributor to the Queen (London). To avoid this, It is a wise plan to keep a menu book, also notes of new dishes to be tried, and also frequently to consult a cookery book to refresh the memory and stimulate one of the new ideas. Lists are also most valuable, as it is well worth the trouble to arrange them for reference; a list of breakfast dishes, one of meats and joints, another of sweets, and one of cakes, would do much to avoid monotony. Now breakfast dishes in these days of high-priced eggs and bacon do present a difficulty, and both forethought and extra time for preparation are needed here. Rissoles mat be made out of mere scraps of meat and potatoes; half a pound of sausage meat will make quite a large dish. Remains of tongue, beef, or ham can be minced and flavored and mixed with crumbs and served on hot toast, or heated with thick gravy and served on 4 fried creton, or used to stuff tomatoes or eggs, or to fill a savory pancake. Ox kidney and New Zealand kidneys can be stewed, curried, or made into kidney Coast; kedegree can be made with either fish or eggs; haddock toast, or fishcakes, steaks of hake or cod fried, fillets of haddock dipped in batter and fried, grilled mackerel or herrings, are all good. The occasional bacon can be helped out with fried bread one morning, saute potatoes another, and a third used merely as a garnish to a dish of sheep's liver. Homemade potted meat* beef-and-bacon galatin, and rabbit pie or mold all help to make a change; and please add scones or hot rolls occasionally, and a dish of fresh, fruit once or twice a week. A beetroot simmered in strong, clear stock is nice, or carrots boiled in stock and put through a sieve, and the puree made the right consistency with nicely flavored stock. A puree of brussels sprouts or marrow are both good, and onion, celery, tomato, lentil, or haricot soups are all easily made; so is a smooth white soup, half milk and half water, with onionß, potatoes, and leeks simmered in it, and rubber through the sieve. Of fish, again if the more expensive kinds are tabooed, there is a fresh haddock, boiled, with parsley sauce, or stuffed and baked; cod fried in batter, with pickled walnuts,- grilled whiting, stuffed or baked mackerel, or hakft with horse-radish sauce.