Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1918 — Uncle Sain’s Food Lessons [ARTICLE]

Uncle Sain’s Food Lessons

(Special Information Service U. S. De* oartment of Agriculture.) MAKE A LITTLE MEAT GO A LONG WAY. Don’t think that you must eat a lot of meat to be strong. Meat Is good to help build up the body, but so are many other foods. in tnese oisnes part or your Building material comes from the more expensive meat and part from the cheaper peas, beans, hominy, and barley. The little meat with the vegetables and cereals will give your body what it needs. Savory Stews and Meat Pies. Do you know how good they are? They may be so varied that you can have a different one every day in the week, and all of them delicious. It needs only a small piece of meat to give flavor to a hearty dish. Try them. They can be a whole meal and a nutritious one. These recipes serve five people. Here is an English stew that is especially good: Hot Pot of Mutton and Barley. One pound mutton. One and a half cupfuls pearled barley. One tablespoonful salt. Four potatoes. Four onions. Celery tops or other seasoning herbs. Cut the mutton in small pieces, and brown with the onion in fat cut from meat. This will help make the meat tender and improves the flavor. Pour this into a covered saucepan. Add two quarts water and the barley. Simmer for one and a half hours. Then add the potatoes cut in quarters, seasoning herbs, and seasoning, and cook onehalf hour longer. Beef Stew. One pound beef. Four potatoes cut in quarters. Quarter peck peas or one can. One cupful carrots cut up small. One teaspoonful salt. Cut the meat in small pieces and brown in the fat from the meat. Simmer in two quarts of water for one hour. Add the peas and carrots and cook for one-half houf, then add the potatoes. If canned peas are used, add them ten minutes before serving. Serve when potatoes are done. Different Stews. Here is the way you can change the stews to make them different- and to 'suit the season: 1. The meat. This may be any kind and ihore or less than a pound may be used. Use the cheap cuts, the flank, rump, neck, or brisket. The long, slow cooking makes them tender. Game and poultry are good. 2. Potatoes add barley may be used or barley alone, or rice hominy, or macaroni. 3. Vegetables. Carrots, turnips, onions, peas, beans, cabbage, tomatoes are good, canned or fresh. Use one or more of these, as you wish. 4. Parsley, celery tops, onion tops, seasoning herbs, or chopped sweet peppers add to the flavor. 5. Many left-overs may be used —not only meat and vegetables, but rice or hominy. How to Cook the Stews. All kinds of stews are cooked in just about the same way. Here are directions which will serve for making almost any kind. Cut the meat in small pieces and brown with the onion in the fat cut from the meat. Add the salt and pepper, seasoning vegetables (onion, celery tops, etc.), two quarts of, water, and the rice, or other cereal, if it is to be used. Cook for an hour, then add the vegetables except potatoes. Cook the stew for half an hour, add the potatoes cut in quarters, cook for another half an hour, and serve. The tireless cooker may well be used, the meat and the vegetables being put in at the same time. Left-overs or canned vegetables need oply to be heated through. Add them 15 minutes before serving. Dried peas or beans should be soaked overnight and cooked for three hours before adding to the stew; or, better, cook them overnight in a fireless cooker. Meat Pies. Another good way to use a little meat. Have you ever used rice, cornmeal mush, or hominy for a crust? This is less work than a pastry crust and saves wheat Four cupfuls cooked cornmeal, rice, or hominy. One onion, two cupfuls tomato, eighth teaspoonful pepper. One tablespoonful fat One pound raw meat or left-over meat cut up small. One-half teaspoonful salt. Melt the fat, add the sliced onion, and if raw meat is used, add it and at,lr until the red color disappears. Add the tomato and seasoning. If cooked meat is used, add it with the tomato and seasoning, after the onion, Js browned, and heat through. Grease a baking dish, put in a layer of the cereal, add the meat and gravy, and cover with the cereal dotted with fat Bake for half an hour. Shepherd’s Pie. This is the name of a meat pie with • mw shed-potato crust browned in the oven.