True food values and their low costs

Good macaroni is a highly nutritious food, and ' cooked with cheese it is an almots ideally bal- anced ration. However, the claim that macaroni contains four times the nutriment of meat by weight is misleading. It would be approximately correct to say that you get the same amount of nutriment for a fourth of the money, when buy- ing the macaroni, and, from an economic point of view, its occasional substitution for meat, especially when served with cheese, is highly to be recommended. Pound for pound, sirloin steak yields only two-thirds as much energy or heat asj macaroni, but it contains twenty times as mudll fat, and about a fourth more protein. Fats Fat, aside from being a lubricant to the t is the greatest source of latent or reserve e that the body has, yet tliere is probably no r sary food constituent more thoroughly dislik AND THEIR LOW COSTS 189 Fats nitist be broken up or emulsified before they can be digested. Fortunately the norma! body is so constituted that it does not crave large quantities at a time. For this reason fats are seldom served by themselves alone, but in com- bination — olive oil being generally cut by lemon juice or vinegar in a French dressing, butter being ■spread on bread, eggs served with bacon, apple sauce with fat pork, etc. Nature demands a bal- ance. Fat is the last food constituent to be acted upon by the digestive organs : foods cooked in fat re- main in the digestive tract from one to two hours longer than is ordinarily necessary. For this rea- son, if such foods are eaten to excess, sooner or later intestinal indigestion is sure to follow. CHAPTER XXXV Tested Recipes for Cake "Yon cannot cat your cake and keep it too." — Proverb. Date Cake J^ cup butter 2 eggs, beaten until light \ Ij^ cups brown sugar '/• cup sweet milk Wi cups sifted Jlour 2 teaspoons baking-powder Mix all together until smooth, then add a half teaspoon nutmeg, a half teaspoon cinnamon, a i half pound of dates, cut in cubes. Beat hard and ^ bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes. Soft Molasses Cookies •aspoon ginger y^ cup butter J^ cup boiling water 1 cup molasses 1 level teaspoon soda 'A t Flour for drop baiter Melt the butter in the boiling water ; add the ' molasses and the other ingredients sifted to- gether. Drop from a spoon upon a buttered baking-pan, having the cakes some distance apart. Bake in a moderately quick oven. The dough should be of a consistency to makes cakes that do not spread too much. Try one cake, then add more flour if needed. Stored in a tight-closed -m earthen jar the cakes will keep moist a long time, f TRJJE FOOD VALUES 191 Jelly Roll 2 eggs Pinch of sal! Yi cup sugar 1 teaspoon baking- 5 tablespoons milk powder 1 large cup flour Bake in large baking-pan, spread with jelly, and roll while hot. Oatmeal Gingerbread Warm one pint of molasses with a fourth pound of butter, lard, or good drippings, and a fourth pound of brown sugar. Mix with one and a half pounds of fine oatmeal, a half pound of flour, a teaspoon of baking-powder, a tablespoon ground ginger, a half teaspoon mixed spices, one ounce candied orange peel, cut fine, one pound raisins chopped. Pour the warmed ingredients over the dry mixture and stir well. A portion of this mixture may be mixed with nuts and baked in squares in a slow oven. The rest may be baked in a loaf tin. Snickerdoodles 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 4 lablespoons butler 1 cup mitk 1 scant cup flour 2 teaspoons baking-powder 1 cup raisins ground with a meal culler Drop batter from a tablespoon onto greased tins, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixed, if desired. Bake in quick oven. 192 TRUE FOOD VALUES