Fifty-two Sunday dinners

INTRODUCTION

How to make pure food, better food and to economize on the cost of same is just now taxing the attention and ingenuity of domestic science teachers and food experts generally. The average housewife is intensely interested in the result of these findings, and must keep in touch with them to keep up with the times and run her home in an intelligent and economical as well as healthful routine.

The eternal feminine question is, "What shall we have for dinner to-day?" It is not always the easiest thing in the world to think of a seasonable menu, nor to determine just the right combination that will furnish a meal appetizing and well-balanced in food values. Furthermore, both the expense and the amount of work entailed in preparation must be considered.

This Cook Book is especially designed to meet just that pressing daily need of the housewife. It presents for her guidance a menu for every Sunday dinner in the year; it suggests dishes which are seasonable as well as practical; it tells in a simple, intelligent manner just how these dishes can be made in the most wholesome and economical form; and the recipes have all been especially made for this book and tested by that eminent expert, Mrs. Elizabeth O. Hiller.

The title of "52 Sunday Dinners" has been given the book because Sunday dinners as a rule are a little more elaborate than the other dinners of the week, but from these menus may be gleaned helpful hints for daily use.

While climatic conditions differ somewhat in various sections of the country, we have tried to approximate the general average, so that the suggestions might be as valuable to the housewife in New England as to the housewife in the West or South, or vice versa.

Simplicity, economy and wholesomeness have been given preferred attention in the preparation of these recipes, many of which are here presented for the first time.

In the interest of health and economy a number of the recipes suggest the use of Cottolene—a frying and shortening medium of unquestioned purity—in place of butter or lard. Cottolene is a vegetable shortening, pure in source and manufactured amid cleanly favorable surroundings. It is no new, untried experiment, having been used by domestic science experts and thousands of housewives for nearly twenty years; to them Cottolene for shortening and frying is "equal to butter at half the price, better and more healthful than lard—and more economical than either." We, therefore, offer no apologies for the small proportion of recipes specifying the use of Cottolene, and suggest that a trial will convince any housewife that Cottolene makes better food than either butter or lard, and is preferable from the standpoints of efficiency, economy and healthfulness.

We commend this book to your critical inspection and test, believing you will find it convenient, helpful, unique and pointing the way to better and more economical living.

For All Shortening and Frying Use COTTOLENE

Cottolene is not offered the housewife as a cheap imitation of either butter or lard, but as a vegetable product which is superior to either for cooking purposes. Because it happens to be about half the price of butter, or less, is but an additional reason, from a purely economical standpoint, for its use. The main argument for the use of Cottolene is the purity of its ingredients and the wholesomeness of the food prepared with it.

There isn't an ounce of hog fat in Cottolene, and from cottonfield to kitchen human hands never touch the product. It is pure and absolutely free from taint or contamination from source to consumer. Packed in our patent, air-tight tin pails, Cottolene reaches you as fresh as the day it was made. Lard and butter are sold in bulk, and do not have this protection.

Cottolene is always uniform in quality, and because of its freedom from moisture it goes one-third farther than butter or lard, both of which contain about 20% of water. It is much more economical than lard; about 50% more so than butter.

Cottolene contains no salt, and is richer in shortening properties than either butter or lard. Two-thirds of a pound of Cottolene will give better results than a pound of either butter or lard.

Because Cottolene is made from sweet and pure oils, refined by our own special process, it makes food more digestible. Its use insures light, flaky pie-crust; it makes deliciously crisp, tender doughnuts; for cake-making it creams up beautifully and gives results equal to the best cooking butter; muffins, fritters, shortcake and all other pastry are best when made with Cottolene; it makes food light and rich, but never greasy. Cottolene heats to a higher temperature than butter or lard, and cooks so quickly the fat has no chance to soak in.

You can fry fish in Cottolene and use the remaining fat for frying potatoes or other food. The odor of fish will not be imparted to the other food fried in the fat. Cottolene is just as pure and healthful as olive oil, and is unqualifiedly recommended by leading physicians, domestic science authorities and culinary experts as wholesome, digestible and economical. The use of Cottolene in your frying and shortening will both save you money and give you better results.

HOW TO USE COTTOLENE

The General Care of Cottolene

Exercise the same care and judgment with Cottolene as you would with butter, lard or olive oil; keep it in a moderately cool place when not in use, just as you would butter—so that its best qualities may be preserved.

Moreover, just because you occasionally buy strong butter or rancid lard which your grocer has kept in too warm a place, you do not denounce all butter or lard and give up their use; neither would it be fair to condemn Cottolene simply because your grocer may not have kept it properly. No fat will keep sweet indefinitely without proper care.

The Use of Cottolene for Shortening

Of course, the recipes in this book indicate the exact amount of Cottolene to be used. In your other recipes, however, a general, and important, rule for the use of Cottolene is:

Use one-third less Cottolene than the amount of butter or lard given in your recipe.

For cake-baking, cream the Cottolene as you would butter, adding a little salt; Cottolene contains no salt. For other pastry handle exactly the same as directed for either butter or lard, using one-third less.

The Use of Cottolene in Frying

In sautéing, browning or "shallow frying" (as it is sometimes called) use only enough Cottolene to grease the pan. The Cottolene should be put into the pan while cold and, after the bottom of the pan is once covered with the melted Cottolene, more can be added as desired. Add more fat when you turn the food.

Cottolene can be heated to a much higher temperature without burning than either butter or lard, but—unless allowed to heat gradually—the Cottolene may burn and throw out an odor, just as would any other cooking-fat.

For deep frying, have Cottolene at least deep enough to cover, or float, the article being fried, heating slowly. For uncooked mixtures, such as doughnuts, fritters, etc., test with one-inch cubes of stale bread. The cubes of bread should brown a golden brown in one minute; or test with a bit of dough, which should rise at once to the top with some sputtering. Make this test always,—never trust your eye. The fat should be kept at an even temperature. For cooked mixtures, such as croquettes, fish balls, etc., the cube of bread should brown a golden brown in 40 seconds.

Uncooked fish and meat are better when covered with bread crumbs, to keep the crisp crust desired in frying food (see note on Egging and Crumbing under Culinary Hints, Page 12). The fat should be hot at first, that it may not penetrate; then reduce the heat, that the food may cook till done, without burning.

Crumbed food is usually arranged in a croquette basket before placing it in the hot fat. This prevents the food from moving about, which sometimes causes the crust to loosen from the food, allowing it to absorb the fat.

Never let the fat heat to smoking point, for then it is burning hot, and the food will burn on the outside while the inside remains raw and uncooked. Cook only three or four pieces at once, for more will chill the fat and prevent perfect frying.

After the food has been cooked by this frying method it should be carefully removed at once from the fat and drained on brown paper.

Care of Cottolene After Frying

After the frying is done, the fat should be allowed to stand in a cool place to permit any sediment to settle. When cool, pour the fat carefully through a double fold of cheesecloth, or through a fine strainer. It is then ready for use.

Cottolene does not retain the taste or odor from any article whatever that may be fried in it, and it may be used over and over again. You may from time to time, add fresh Cottolene to it as your quantity diminishes, but the frying qualities of the Cottolene are not affected by the shrinkage of the fat.

What Noted Cooking Experts Think of Cottolene.

These are but a few. Other well known authorities who have tested Cottolene and recommend its use are:

Eminent Physicians Endorse the Wholesomeness of Cottolene

Other eminent physicians who have endorsed and recommended Cottolene are: Henry Seffmann, M.D., Professor of Chemistry, Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Prof. Jesse P. Battershall, Ph.S., F.C.S., Chemist U.S. Laboratory, New York; Dr. Allen McLane Hamilton, New York, N.Y.; Dr. Edw. Smith, Analyst New York State Board of Health.

HOW TO MEASURE

Stir up all packed materials, like mustard in its box, and sift flour before measuring. Fill cup without shaking down, and dip spoon in material, taking up a heaped measure, then with a knife scrape off toward the tip till you have level measure. Pack butter or Cottolene in cup so there will be no air spaces. A scant cup means one-eighth less and a heaped cup about one-eighth more than a level cup.

Divide a level spoon lengthwise for a half measure, and a half spoon crosswise for quarters or eighths. A pinch means about one-eighth, so does a saltspoon; less means a dash or a few grains.

A rounded tablespoon means filled above the rim as much as the spoon hollow below, and equals two of level measure. It also equals one ounce in weight, and two rounded tablespoons if put together would heap a tablespoon about as high as would an egg, giving us the old-time measure of "butter size of an egg," or two ounces, or one-fourth the cup.

Except in delicate cake, or where it is creamed with sugar, and in pastry—where it should be chilled to make a flaky crust, Cottolene or butter may be most quickly and economically measured after it is melted. Keep a small supply in a granite cup, and when needed, stand the cup in hot water, and when melted, pour the amount desired into the spoon or cup. For all kinds of breakfast cakes, it is especially helpful to measure it in this way.

Soda, baking powder, spices, etc., are generally measured with a teaspoon, level measure, for this gives the proportional amount needed for the cup measure of other materials.

STANDARD TABLE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

Time Tables for Cooking

HELPFUL CULINARY HINTS

Water boiling slowly has the same temperature as when boiling rapidly, and will do just the same amount of work; there is, therefore, no object in wasting fuel to keep water boiling violently.

Stewing is the most economical method of cooking the cheaper and tougher cuts of meats, fowl, etc. This method consists in cooking the food a long time in sufficient water to cover it—at a temperature slightly below the boiling point.

Braising. In this method of cooking, drippings or fat salt pork are melted or tried out in the kettle and a bed of mixed vegetables, fine herbs and seasoning placed therein. The article being cooked is placed on this bed of vegetables, moisture is added and the meat cooked until tender at a low temperature. The last half hour of cooking the cover is removed, so that the meat may brown richly.

In broiling and grilling, the object is first to sear the surface over as quickly as possible, to retain the rich juices, then turn constantly until the food is richly browned. Pan-broiling is cooking the article in a greased, hissing-hot, cast-iron skillet, turning often and drawing off the fat as it dries out.

Sautéing is practically the same as pan-broiling, except that the fat is allowed to remain in the skillet. The article is cooked in a small amount of fat, browning the food on one side and then turning and browning on the other side.

Frying. While this term is sometimes used in the sense of sautéing it usually consists of cooking by means of immersion in deep, hot fat. When frying meats or fish it is best to keep them in a warm room a short time before cooking, then wipe dry as possible. As soon as the food has finished frying, it should be carefully removed from the fat and drained on brown paper.

Use for this dry bread crumbs, grated and sifted, crackers rolled and sifted, or soft stale bread broken in pieces and gently rubbed through croquette basket; the eggs should be broken into a shallow plate and slightly beaten with a fork to mix the white thoroughly. Dilute the eggs in the proportion of two tablespoons cold milk or water to every egg. The crumbs should be dusted on the board; the food to be fried should be lightly crumbed all over, then dipped into egg so as to cover the article entirely, then rolled again in bread crumbs. Sometimes, as in cooking fish, flour is used for the first coating in place of the crumbs, the article being then dipped into the egg mixture, then with crumbs and then fried.

Consists of introducing small strips of fat, salt pork or bacon through uncooked meat. To lard, introduce one end of the lardoon (the small strip of fat) into a larding needle and with the pointed end take up a stitch one-half inch deep and one-half inch wide. Draw the needle through carefully so that the ends of the lardoon may project evenly over the surface of the meat. Oftentimes, however, thin slices of fat, salt pork or bacon are placed over the meat as a substitute for larding, although it does not give quite the same delicious flavor or look so attractive.

Consists of adding a pickle, composed of vinegar and oil, to the ingredients of some combination used in salad making.

For washing dishes and cleaning pots and pans use a solution made by dissolving a teaspoonful or so of Gold Dust Washing Powder in a dish-pan full of water. If the cooking utensils have become charred or stained in cooking, sprinkle some Polly Prim Cleaner on a damp cloth and rub utensil thoroughly. After scouring, rinse the article well in hot water, and wipe dry. Use Polly Prim Cleaner also, for cleaning cutlery and for keeping the refrigerator clean and sweet.

This menu—the first of the year—has been prepared rather more elaborately than the customary Sunday menus, with the thought that it might serve also as suggestion for a New Year's Dinner.

Process: If possible, have the little Blue Points. Open, loosen, and leave them on the lower shell. Fill soup plates with shaved ice and arrange shell on ice having the small end of shells point toward center of the plate. Wash lemons, cut in quarters, remove seeds and serve one-quarter in center of each plate. Garnish with sprays of parsley arranged between the shells. Pass remaining ingredients on a small silver tray, or a cocktail dressing may be made and served in a small glass dish and passed to each guest.

Consommé served with a meringue, prepared as follows: Beat the whites of eggs very stiff and drop by heaping tablespoonsful into milk heated to the scalding point in a shallow vessel (a dripping pan is the best), using care that milk does not scorch. Turn each spoonful, allowing it to cook, until it sets. Place one of these individual meringues on the top of each service of consommé, and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley. Serve with Imperial Sticks.

Cut stale bread in one-third inch slices, remove the crusts. Spread thinly with butter. Cut slices in one-third inch strips, put on a tin sheet and bake until a delicate brown in a hot oven. Pile "log cabin" fashion on a plate covered with a doily, or serve two sticks on plate by the side of cup in which soup is served.