In planning meals try to avoid monotony; do not have the same foods for the same days each week.  Try new and unknown dishes by way of variety.  Pay attention to garnishing, thereby making the dishes attractive to the eye as well as to the palate.

The recipes in this book are planned for a family of five, but in some instances desserts, puddings and vegetables may be used for two meals.  Cakes are good for several days.

Do not consider the use of eggs, milk and cream an extravagance where required for certain desserts or sauces for vegetables, as their use adds to the actual food value of the dish.

As a rule the typical Jewish dish contains a large proportion of fat which when combined with cereal or vegetable fruits, nuts, sugar or honey, forms a dish supplying all the nourishment required for a well-balanced meal.  Many of these dishes, when combined with meat, require but a small proportion of same.

Wherever fat is called for, it is intended that melted fat or dripping be used.  In many of the dishes where fat is required for frying, any of the good vegetable oils or butter substitutes may be used equally well.  These substitutes may also be used in place of butter or fat when same is required as an ingredient for the dish itself.  In such cases less fat must be used, and more salt added.  It is well to follow the directions given on the containers of such substitutes.

It is understood that all meats be made kosher.

Before preparing any dish, gather all materials, and see that all the ingredients are at hand.

RULES FOR KASHERING

In the religious and dietary laws of the Jewish people, the term “kasher” is applied to the preparation of meat and poultry, and means “to render fit” or “proper” for eating.

1.  To render meat “fit” for food, the animal must be killed and cut up according to the Jewish method of slaughter, and must be purchased from a Jewish butcher.

2.  The meat should be put into a pan, especially reserved for this purpose, entirely covered with cold water, and left to soak for half an hour.  Before removing the meat from the water every particle of blood must be washed off.  It should then be put upon the salting board (a smooth wooden board), placed in a slanting position, or upon a board with numerous perforations, in order to allow the blood to freely flow down.  The meat should then be profusely sprinkled on all sides with salt, and allowed to remain in salt for one hour.  It is then removed, held over a sink or pan, and well rinsed with cold water three times, so that all the salt is washed off.  Meat left for three days or more unsoaked and unsalted, may be used only for broiling over coals; it may not be cooked in any other way.

The ends of the hoofs and the claws of poultry must be cut off before the feet are kashered.

Bones with no meat or fat adhering to them must be soaked separately, and during the salting should not be placed near the meat.