Foods and home making

What makes a salad look inviting? Lettuce or some other uncooked food usually forms part of a salad. The uncooked food looks attractive when it is crisp. Even though a cooked food is used, the food should be cold when served as a salad. See page 115 of Food, Nutrition, and Health by McCollum and Simmonds. 287 288 Luncheon or Supper Whether the food used is uncooked or cooked it should be not merely cool, but, if possible, chilled . A salad is served with a salad dressing. Usually lettuce and other green foods used in salad making are moistened to keep them crisp. If the salad green is wet and a salad dressing is added, the water dilutes the salad dressing. This makes the salad unattractive. When ready to use, the greens and other foods used in salad making should be crisp, cold, and dry. The way to keep lettuce crisp and cold has been given on page 278. Lettuce may he dried as follows : Spread a clean towel on a work table. Place lettuce leaves on one end of the towel. Fold the other end of the towel over the leaves. Gently press the towel so that it absorbs the moisture. Not only should the lettuce and other salad materials be cold, but the salad dressing should be chilled. This means that if a salad dressing is cooked in preparing it, it should be made some time before it is to be used so as to allow time for chilling. A salad dressing contains vinegar, lemon juice, or some other acid and seasoning. If the dressing is poured over the salad and left for any length of time, the dressing may wilt the salad green. For this reason dressing shoidd never he added to a salad until it is just ready to serve. Why do we need fats? The food of the Eskimo is largely oil and fat. Why do the people of cold climates need this kind of food? Fat or oil gives one energy or heat. The Eskimo needs such food to keep him warm. We have learned that carbohydrates produce energy or heat in the body. Fats do the same thing in greater degree. Fats give about 2\ times as much energy as do carbohydrates. That is, a pint or pound of pure oil gives to the body approximately 2\ times as much energy or heat as a pound of pure starch. During the World War, fat was one of the foods which were scarce. Some people did not get as much fat as they needed. Although enough of other kinds of foods was given them, those Salads and Other Dishes 289 deprived of fatty foods often had a feeling of hunger. This was due to the fact that most foods are much more quickly digested than fats. Because fats are slow to digest, they give a person a feeling of satisfaction, of having had plenty to eat. We need to eat some fat. Butter and cream are wholesome fats ; they contain not only fats, but vitamins. Bacon fat and the oils extracted from the olive, from the seeds of the cotton Redrawn from U. S. Department of Agriculture Chart Figure 97. Composition of Butter Although butter is rich in fat, it is not pure fat. The percentage of water in butter is perhaps surprising. Butter is one of the foods rich in vitamin A, +++. plant, and from corn kernels are also good fats. These fats, however, are almost lacking in vitamins. Butter is not pure fat. (See Figure 97.) Salad oils are 100% fat.