Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1918 — GREAT VALUE OF SUET IN COOKING [ARTICLE]

GREAT VALUE OF SUET IN COOKING

Most Housewives Know That It Is Excellent Shortening. IT HAS SOME MEAT TISSUE Possesses Same Food Value as Lard, and If Properly Tried Out, It is Satisfactory Substitute for . * Frying Purposes. Special pains should always be taken to save and use suet because of its great value in cookery. Most housewives know that rendered suet is a very good shortening and very commonly they also have special dishes In which the chopped suet Is used instead of a rendered fat. In addition to the fat it contains, chopped suet has some meat tissue. Rendered suet possesses the same food value as lard or other similar shortening, and If properly tried out it is a satisfactory substitute for frying purposes, for shortening, and for making savory fats. Anyone who regards suet as useful only In making soap 18 wrong for It Is a valuable food. Its use for soap making should be considered only when the fat has become too rancid for use or when it has been burned when used for frying.

Trying Out Suet. Those who do not know how to render and use suet sometimes object to it on the ground of Its hardness and special flavor. Fresh suet, however, can be so rendered as to make a soft useful fat practically free from any distinctive flavor or odor. The following is a simple method for trying out suet: Remove the skin and lean parts from beef fat and cut it into small pieces. Put it into a saucepan and cover it with cold water. Place it on the stove uncovered, as it is believed that steam carries away strong flavors. When the water is nearly all evaporated set the kettle back and let the fat try out. When the fat has ceased bubbling and the scraps of skin are shriveled, allow the scraps to settle at the bottom of the kettle, strain the fat through a cloth, and set |t away to cool. ] This fat is so valuable in cooking that housewives will do well to save all suet which is trimmed from beef and try it out Suet and Leaf Lard. For those "h ho want a mixture of suet and leaf lard, which is a softer fat than rendehed suet and has a different flavor, the following recipe will be useful: Take two parts of suet and one of leaf lard, finely ground, and mix together. Render, this with whole milk in the proportion of one-half pint to two pounds of the mixed suet and lard. (Render means to melt down or to clarify by melting.) This may be conveniently done if the suet and lard mixture be finely divided by passing it through a meat grinder and then heated in a double boiler, when the fat will be quickly released from the tissues, and when strained and allowed to cool will, form a cake on the surface , of the liquid which may be easily removed. < This fat has a good odor, color and texture, and is softer than the suet alone. It is particularly useful for frying and for shortening foods, which

are spiced or have distinctive flavors, and may be also used with satisfactory results In shortening such things as baking-powder biscuits. It Is also useful for cooking vegetables either alone or with the addition of a little butter. The unpopularity of fried food In many families Is due largely to the fact that the fat has been burned in cooking. Fat when heated to too high a temperature splits up and may form substances which have an Irritating effect on the throat and may cause digestive disturbance?. Fat in Itself is a very valuable food, and if it is not scorched should prove a healthful rather than an objectionable article of diet. i