COLD WEATHER FOODS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26780, 25 May 1948, Page 2

COLD WEATHER FOODS

Planning the Winter Menu Winter is here, and so gradually we alter our food habits and the ways in which we serve food. Hot food becomes more necessary, and the more fatty foods become more desirable. Fatty food gives us over twice as much heat and energx as does an equal weight of starchy and sugary food, so that our winter liking for suet puddings and stews is understandable. Soups come into their own—not that they should be fatty foods, but; because of the warming effect of hot liquid. They should be made worthwhile, however, with plenty of vegetables, barley, macaroni or split peas for thickening, and with milk or dried skim milk powder added, if suitable for the kind of soup to be served. Casseroles and Stews Casseroles and brown or white stews become more attractive as the days shorten. These may be made not only from the cheaper cuts of meat, but from rabbit, Ox tail, sweetbreads, brains, liver, tripe and most of the unrationed meats.

A flavour of bacon in the casserole, even if from bacon ends, goes far to improve the flavour of the unrationed meats. An occasional dish of steak and kidney pudding, with suet pastry, and made from cheap stewing steak, is a warming dish. All these should be served with potatoes and vegetables, a green vegetable every day if possible. The stewed fruit and cold custard or junket of summer gives place to apple or rhubarb sponge, black currant rolypoly boiled apple pudding, apple charlotte and steamed puddings with the small dried fruits. The custard, real or feigned, is served as a hot sauce. In winter, a good hot breakfast is more than ever essential. This should include hot porridge for all and a hot cooked breakfast dish for all but the very young folk. Fried bread becomes more desirable, and relieves the pressure on toast and butter. In winter, as In summer, the children need their one and a-half pints to two pints of milk daily, part of which may be supplied in cooked dishes in the form of dried skim milk for economy’s sake. But the cold drinking milk of summer becomes cocoa or any hot milk drink. When cold weather comes, then the foods are much the same, except that the fatty foods increase, and the methods of cooking and serving the common foods of the balanced diet gradually change to meet the needs of the season. Winter Salads Try making salads of cooked, neatlydiced root vegetables, with an addition of well-cooked lima or haricot beans. Remember that cold foods need more seasoning than hot foods, so season well. To add interest, add chopped, crisp bacon, diced corned beef, sprigs of pickled cauliflower or leaves of pickled walnut or gherkin. , , Serve this mixture in lettuce leaves, or surrounded by crisp shredded raw cabbage with a cube of cheese, or salad dressing, and it will form the base of a substantial and satisfying meal.