WASTEFUL COOKING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 10 April 1922, Page 5

WASTEFUL COOKING

Economy in household expenditure is very necessary in these days- of high prices for food and'fuel and heayy. taxation (writes Walter M. Gallichan, the well-known dietetic, expert, in a Loudon paper). The avoidance of waste in the kitchen does not involve much extra labour. It is principally a question of knoAvledgo. _ A For example, it is not difficult to us® a peeling implement instead of a knife when preparing potatoes for cooking, but. many cooks persist in using a knife. Beneath the outer skin of a potato is the fibro-vascular layer, which contains the principal bodybuilding substance and minerals found in this vegetable. Every day in millions of kitchens this valuable fever is removed with the peel and thrown aAvay. , J The best way to cook potatoes is steaming in their jackets. Baking potatoes in their skins is not ail economical method, because a part of the nourishing layer is thrown, away with, the rind. v ,

Some waste in cooking meat is inevitable. A piece of beef weighing 21bloses about Jib if it is boiled, and rather more if it is baked. Still more weight is lost during roasting. A considerable part of thisi loss is _ water, -but there is also a loss of nutrients. Very slow cooking uses no more fuel than Vapid cooking, and almost all food is . improved, in flavour by slow cooking. The casserole pot and the double saucepans are fuel-savers and waste-sparers. . Quick cooking over a fierce fire or a flaring gas ring is costly and unhealthy, and hardens the fibres of the meat. Stowing is the cheapest and wholesomest method of cooking meat.

Fats of all kinds a,re universally expensive, but in London alone an enormous quantity of useful fat in the form, of dripping is “washed up” with tho dishes and plates after every meat meal. Liquor and odds and ends that would make stock for soupy ®re. ajso thrown aivay in many homes. Batter is sometimes used’ for frying when dripping or lard Avould serve equally Avell. Every day a host of people sit down to typical waste meals. Tho meat has been cooked quickly, and is. overdone and lacking in nutritive juices. The best part of tho potatoes has been thrown into tho dustbin with the thick peelings. The “greens” have been deprived of their salts by furious boiling, and about half of the cabbage has been rejected before cooking. - ■ Some ’ cooks throw away every leal that has a speck upon it, instead of cutting out tho speck. We are notoriously wasteful in the kitchen. Tho lessons of tho food shortage during tho war have been forgotten, and wo have returned to the old slack rule-of-thumb methods/ Scientific cookery pays. It is foodsaving and tiino-and-money-saving, and promotes health and well-being. Reform in domestic economy would considerably relievo the strain upon the family finances in many thousands of householdsWhen cabbage, cauliflower,, or spinach are boiled, the best part of tho health-giving salts is left in the water. During tho present scarcity of green vegetables cabbages should bo steamed, not boiled.