Metropolitan cook book

Note. — Cream soups may be thickened with oatmeal or barley cooked with the milk until thickened and then strained. CORN CHOWDER Fat salt pork, 1 inch by 4 potatoes cut in |-inch 1 quart milk 3 inches slices 8 crackers 1 sliced onion 1 can corn Salt and pepper Cut pork into small pieces and try it out in a pan over a slow fire. Add the sliced onion and cook 5 minutes without burning. Strain fat into a saucepan. Add potatoes and boiling water to fat and cook until potatoes are soft. Then add the milk and corn. Heat to boiling point. Season with salt and pepper. Moisten crackers in cold milk. Serve crackers on top of chowder. FISH CHOWDER 2 cups flaked cod, or 1 pint boiling water 1 tablespoon salt fresh cod or soaked 1 sliced onion | teaspoon pepper salt cod Salt pork fat, 1 inch by 1 quart milk 8 potatoes, cut into 3 inches 8 crackers |-inch slices Try out fat, add sliced onion and cook to a light brown, without burning. Strain fat into saucepan, add potatoes and boiling water and cook 10 minutes. Add the fish and simmer 10 minutes. Add the milk and seasonings. Heat to boiling point and serve with crackers, split and previously dipped in cold milk. FISH If more fish and less meat were used in the daily meals, it would help to reduce the cost of living. Fish contains the same food value as meat at a much smaller cost, and furnishes a food that not only tastes good, but is easily digested. Whitefish, haddock, halibut, cod, flounder, smelts, perch, pickerel, sunfish and crappies belong to the white-fieshed family. Salmon, shad, lake trout, butterfish and herring belong to the red-fleshed family. As the white-fleshed fish is considered more easy of digestion than the red-fleshed, it should be selected for invalids, convalescents or those suffering from weak digestion. Fish should be eaten while fresh and in season. Stale fish is poisonous, so great care should be used in its selection. Fish contains albumen, and as albumen (which is like the white of egg) clots at a low temperature, it should be cooked at a temperature below boiling point of water. Local fish should be used as much as possible. Find out all the kinds of fish that can be obtained in your locality. HOW TO SELECT FRESH FISH Select a fish that has bright eyes and gills, shiny scales, firm flesh, and is free from a disagreeable odor. HOW TO CLEAN FISH Remove the scales by drawing a knife over the fish, beginning at the| tail and working toward the head. Wipe the fish inside and outside with a cloth wet in cold, salted water, then wipe with a clean dry cloth kept for the purpose. Head and tail may or may not be taken off, according to the manner of cooking. METHODS OF COOKING FISH Broiling, baking and steaming are the best methods for cooking fish. Fish suitable for broiling are: Split mackerel, white fish, cod, shad,? trout, etc., sliced halibut and salmon, white smelts and small fish. To broil — i brush with melted fat, sprinkle with flour, salt and pepper, and cook over a flame or clear fire. Fish suitable for baking whole are: Whitefish, cod, haddock, small salmon| shad. Follow directions for baked fish. Fish suitable for boiling are: Salmon, halibut, cod, haddock, trou etc. Cook in piece of cheese-cloth. Add 1 tablespoon vinegar and 1 tabl spoon salt to each quart of water.