Most for your money cookbook

The most-advertised names often do not give the best value. A famous packer, for instance, puts up the most watery fruits and vegetables, the least solid food for the money, a fact not revealed until the can is opened and contents examined. And what a difference between the luscious picture on the outside and the sickly quality within! It is a pleasure to encounter a brand which lives up to its label artist's ideal. After sifting out the trash from the true, a duty we all owe the families which eat from our hands and the public each consumer represents, there is still that question of taste to consider, the most important feature of all quality. It is not always the fanciest looking stuff, raised for size and appearance, that is best flavored. But every member of the family will be keen to vote on this point of taste as soon as the chance is given him. Meat labels are as deceptive as any. That purple stamp, which resembles a government inspector's, deceives sometimes, and when read turns out to be the butchering establishment's own statement. The housewife who takes an interest in her job of being the spender of hard and uncertain earnings has to be a keen detective, as well. And a $3.00 membership in the Consumers Union will pay dividends, as will purchases from the growing consumers' cooperatives. Polenta PLAIN POLENTA To I quart of boiling water add i teaspoon salt, then sprinkle in approximately i cup yellow cornmeal so slowly that it does not lump, stirring constantly. Continue to stir until it thickens and finish cooking over reduced heat, stirring often; or set in a double boiler. Cornmeal develops its best flavor thus, by being dropped directly into boiling water. If mixed with a little cold water first, as given in many recipes, just to save the trouble of stirring out any possible lumps, neither the texture nor the taste is as good. So far, this is the same mush that we usually eat as a breakfast cereal, with milk and sugar. Of course we also let it cool, slice and fry it, and serve it with syrup or gravy. But we seldom mix anything piquant with it, while the French, Spaniards and other Europeans, fix cornmeal mush in a number of delicious ways and eat it almost as commonly as the Italians, who call it Polenta, and with whom it is often the main dish of the evening meal. POLENTA WITH CHEESE (i) Lay tablespoons of hot mush in a hot dish, sprinkling each with grated cheese and a dash of cayenne or paprika. Lay more tablespoons of mush on top of these, sprinkle with more cheese until ail is used. Then brown under the grill — or eat as is. POLENTA WITH CHEESE (2) Make thick corn meal mush by sprinkling ^4 pound yellow corn meal, also called Indian meal, a little at a time, into i}4 pints salted boiling water. POLENTA 119 Remove i tablespoonful of mush at a time and lay it in a baking dish, being careful to preserve the oval spoon shape and keep each separated a little from the others. Sprinkle with grated hard cheese and moisten with butter browned in a pan, but not blackened. Put the dish in a hot oven for about 5 minutes to let the cheese melt in, then serve piping hot in the same dish it's baked in. POLENTA WITH MEAT GRAVY OR HASH