Quantity cookery

The responsibility for maintaining a constant variety in food calls for the continued exercise of initiative, the determination to avoid monotonous repetition, a mind open to new foods and new methods of prepara- tion and systematic marketing trips in order to keep in touch with seasonal changes. Perhaps the most frequent criticism of institutions is on the lack of variety in meals. Hotels, clubs and tea rooms can draw trade by serving out-of-season foods when they first appear in the market. Institutions whose pur- chases are limited by a budget should make the most of seasonal foods when the market is at its height and the food is cheapest. Such institutions should avoid serving foods that are not actually in season. Serving berries or melons before the height of the season dulls the appetite of the patron for these foods so that by the time they have become economical to serve he has tired of them. Variety should be introduced not only in the kinds of food but in the preparation, garnish and service. Even in charitable homes and other institutions where the aim is to serve at a minimum cost, the menus can be made attractive through variety in preparation. Corn meal and cottage cheese, two of the least expensive foods we have, can be utilized in a wide variety of ways. There should be no hesitation about serving new dishes, for maximum variety is essential to a happy patronage whether in the tea room or the benevolent institution. The point to be kept in mind, where the guest has the privilege of selection, is that all the MENUS FOR LARGE NUMBERS s variety should not come within the day or meal but within the week or month. Surprise always helps to induce appetite and this fact is as applicable to the menu in the children's home as to that of the tea room. It is good business practice as well as good dietetic practice to plan meals according to the weather and the time of year. Hot, heavy foods sell best in cold weather. Cool, crisp, fresh foods sell best on the hot- test days. The public is very susceptible to weather conditions. Holidays give a popularity to certain foods which they enjoy at no other time of the year. It is good business to make the most of these foods by serving them on appropriate days. There are definite relations between the menu and the equipment available for its execution. For instance, a menu which calls for oven cooking to the exclusion of the use of the top of the stove or supplementary steamers will be impossible to carry out. The menu should be planned in order that the cooking may be divided between all the available equipment, such as ovens, steamers and top space on stoves. In the kitchen, as in the industrial plant, it is good manage- ment to give space only to efficient equipment and to use that equipment to its maximum capacity. Again, incomplete equipment may have to be con- sidered in planning the menu. If there is no power machinery the amount of hand work or heavy physical preparation called for may have to be cut down in accordance with the equipment at hand. In serving large numbers power machinery will often pay for itself in a few months through the saving in labor. It will not only do the work better and more humanely but will allow a much greater variety of food. In the matter of equipment the institution must get away from the idea that it is a large home, with working 6 QUANTITY COOKERY conditions as they have been in the average home. It should consider] itself an industrial plant where one of the aims is maximum production with minimum labor ; and it should realize that proper equipment and proper working conditions are necessary in the accomplishment of this aim. Even though the labor supply may be adequate, efficient planning of menus demands that there be an adjustment between those foods requiring much labor and those requiring little, so that proper balance may be maintained.