For when the real cost of one big satisfying dish is counted, sim-
ply by dividing it by the number of eaters, it's sure to be less than
any five-course dinner where four-bits has gone for more or less
useless appetizers, thirty cents for an insipid salad and another
half-dollar for drug store ice cream blown up with a bicycle pump,
without counting the main dish, which is all that hunger really
hollers for. Such a meal, after counting in the celery, olives, cottony
bakery cake, and other bits of conventional swank, comes to any-
way fifty cents a head, because a few of the courses, and probably
those least appreciated, cost out of all proportion to the substantial
ones. So it's hard to say which dish is expensive and which is cheap,
because this always depends on the satisfaction the eater gets out
of it.
On top of this there's the extra labor and fuss, which is entirely
eliminated by a single well-balanced and bounteous dish that has
everything and is accompanied by a plenitude of honest bread and
one good relish, or one meaty salad and a whole quart of fine ripe
olives with plenty of crusty, yet juicy, well-made bread, either
of which leaves the diner better satisfied, and certainly at a cost
98 MOST-FOR-YOUR-MONEY COOK BOOK
of less than half the standardized dinner. Indeed, one more-or-less
useless course may cost even more than a big all-around hot potful
that has everything.
The idiocy of "courses" is well pictured in the story of a cook
to the Great Conde who felt so disgraced when a fish failed to
come in time to serve it after the soup that he "killed himself with
his sword and drew his last breath just as the fish arrived.'*
Other nations cherish and preserve their soupy stews, consider-
ing them worthy to appear on elegant as well as simple tables.
Spanish people, no matter where they live, always have the olla
podrida in the mother land, their cosidas in the countries south of
us, and that diWm.^ puchero of the Argentine; the Italians have their
multitudinous minestras; Russians and Central Europeans eat
those grand borschts and even more substantial cabbage soups in
which slices of meat are couched to satisfy the most ravenous
hunger; and the French make a ritual of their pot aufeu. Any of
these, plus a plenteous relish of pickled peppers, onions, radishes,
olives, cole slaw, or any salad, for the vitamins, and a light dessert,
are all the heart and watering mouth desire. But try to get a knife-
fork-and-spoon dish in America, except in a foreign restaurant or
home, or in some artist's studio.
Artists are especially adept at the one-dish meal, bringing to its
composition their genius for balanced composition, color and inven-
tion. It may be only a steaming kettle of spaghetti, but the sauce
will be thought out with care and then done with a flair. It will
contain all the food elements for health and strength, and with
attention undivided among several other saucepans, that one
spaghetti pot will be kept boiling just right, will be removed from
the heat at the psychological second so it won't cook soggy, will
be drained with care and given just the right dousing of cold water,
to make it perfect
Page 52
Presented as published in 1938. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
For when the real cost of one big satisfying dish is counted, simply by dividing it by the number of eaters, it's sure to be less than any five-course dinner where four-bits has gone for more or less useless appetizers, thirty cents for an insipid salad and another half-dollar for drug store ice cream blown up with a bicycle pump, without counting the main dish, which is all that hunger really hollers for. Such a meal, after counting in the celery, olives, cottony bakery cake, and other bits of conventional swank, comes to anyway fifty cents a head, because a few of the courses, and probably those least appreciated, cost out of all proportion to the substantial ones. So it's hard to say which dish is expensive and which is cheap, because this always depends on the satisfaction the eater gets out of it.
On top of this there's the extra labor and fuss, which is entirely eliminated by a single well-balanced and bounteous dish that has everything and is accompanied by a plenitude of honest bread and one good relish, or one meaty salad and a whole quart of fine ripe olives with plenty of crusty, yet juicy, well-made bread, either of which leaves the diner better satisfied, and certainly at a cost
of less than half the standardized dinner. Indeed, one more-or-less useless course may cost even more than a big all-around hot potful that has everything.
The idiocy of "courses" is well pictured in the story of a cook to the Great Conde who felt so disgraced when a fish failed to come in time to serve it after the soup that he "killed himself with his sword and drew his last breath just as the fish arrived.'*
Other nations cherish and preserve their soupy stews, considering them worthy to appear on elegant as well as simple tables. Spanish people, no matter where they live, always have the olla podrida in the mother land, their cosidas in the countries south of us, and that dicho puchero of the Argentine; the Italians have their multitudinous minestras; Russians and Central Europeans eat those grand borschts and even more substantial cabbage soups in which slices of meat are couched to satisfy the most ravenous hunger; and the French make a ritual of their pot aufeu. Any of these, plus a plenteous relish of pickled peppers, onions, radishes, olives, cole slaw, or any salad, for the vitamins, and a light dessert, are all the heart and watering mouth desire. But try to get a knife-fork-and-spoon dish in America, except in a foreign restaurant or home, or in some artist's studio.
Artists are especially adept at the one-dish meal, bringing to its composition their genius for balanced composition, color and invention. It may be only a steaming kettle of spaghetti, but the sauce will be thought out with care and then done with a flair. It will contain all the food elements for health and strength, and with attention undivided among several other saucepans, that one spaghetti pot will be kept boiling just right, will be removed from the heat at the psychological second so it won't cook soggy, will be drained with care and given just the right dousing of cold water, to make it perfect