Use and preparation of food

Strong-flavored fats may be made into savory fats by adding to each pound of suet, in rendering, one small whole onion, a sour apple sliced thick, and a scant teaspoon of ground thyme or mixed herbs tied in a cloth. Other combinations of seasonings may be used. SOFTENING A HARD FAT. To two or three parts of hard fats, such as beef or mutton, mix one part of soft fat, such as lard, chicken fat, or vegetable oil. The amount will depend upon the relative consistencies. The mixing may be accomplished by rendering the two kinds of fat together or by stirring the melted fats together. Stir the mixture at intervals during cooling. FRIED MUSH WITH CRACKLINGS. Yellow cornmeal, 1 cup. Boiling water, 3^ cups. Crackliugs, 4 cup. Salt, 1^ to 2 teaspoons. Flour, 2 tablespoons. Mix cornmeal and flour and sift it into the boiling salted water. Cook over direct heat until it thickens ; then finish over hot water or in a fireless cooker. Just before molding in a disli moistened witli cold water, stir in the cracklings. Let stand until solid ; then cut and fry as ordinary mush. A little cheese may be stirred into the mush before molding, if desired. Lesson 2. The Use of Home-Rendeeed Fats in Cooking, AIM. To show how home- rendered meat fats may be used in cooking. POINTS TO be brought OUT. 1. The modern housewife has almost lost the art of utilizing homerendered meat fats in cooking. The advancing cost of living makes it important that all meat fats be saved and substituted in cooking for the more familiar commercial fats. A. The characteristic flavor of a fat may be utilized. Instead of tlirowing away ham or bacon fat on account of its smoky flavor, they may be used in dishes to which they give distinctive flavors. These include eggs or potatoes, scrambled eggs, Spanish sauce, cornbread, baked beans, baked peas, bean or pea soup. These fats are a J so useful for seasoning spinach or other greens or for use in hot dressing for salads. (See Lesson 5.) B. The unpleasant flavor of some fats may be disguised or reduced. Savory fats or mutton fats rendered with milk (Lesson 1) nuiy be used for frying or sauteing or for making gravies or sauces. (Sausage fat is an example of savory fat.) Strongly-flavored fats, like ham, bacon, or mutton, may be used in highly-seasoned mixtures, such as gingerbread or chocolate cake. C. Hard fats, when softened, may be used to take the place of more usual fats in making bread, cake, and pastry. (1) Butter and lard are usually used for making bread, cake, and pastry, because they are soft enough to mix readily and evenly with other ingredients and do not harden enough to make the flour mixture crumbly if it stands for any length of time. (2) Hard fats, such as beef kidney fat, lamb or mutton fat, are not satisfactory in their natural state for use in flour mixtures, because they must be melted to mix easily, and they harden rapidly, producing a crumbly mixture. If they are mixed with a softer fat (Lesson 1) to make a compound with the approximate consistency of lard or butter, they may be used in any bread, cake, or pastry.