Study attractive ways of serving food.  Plain, cheap, dishes can be made appetizing if they look attractive on the table.

Experiment with meat substitutes.  Cheese, dried vegetables and the cheaper varieties of fish can supply all the nutriment of meat at a much lower cost.

Don’t do your cooking “by guess.”  If the various ingredients are measured accurately, the dish will taste better and cost less.

Don’t buy delicatessen food if you can possibly avoid it.  Delicatessen meals cost 15 per cent. more than the same meals cooked at home, and the food is not as nourishing.  You pay for the cooking and the rent of the delicatessen store, as well as the proprietor’s profit.

Don’t pay five or ten cents more a dozen for white eggs in the belief that they are superior to brown eggs.  The food value of each is the same.  The difference in shell color is due to the breed of hen.

Tell the butcher to give you the trimmings of chicken, i.e., the head, feet, fat and giblets.  They make delicious chicken soup.  The feet contain gelatine, which gives soup consistency.

Buy a tough, and consequently less expensive, chicken and make it tender by steaming it for three hours before roasting.

Don’t put meat wrapped in paper into the ice-box, as the paper tends to absorb the juices.

Try to find a way to buy at least a part of your meats and eggs direct from the farm.  You will get fresher, better food, and if it is sent by parcels post it can usually be delivered to your table for much less than city prices.

MEAT ECONOMY DISHES

MOCK DUCK

1 flank steak 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 cup breadcrumbs 1 tablespoon onion juice 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning 1 pint boiling water 1/3 cup of whole wheat flour

Reserve the water and the flour.  Mix other ingredients.  Spread on steak.  Roll the steak and tie.  Roll in the flour.  Brown in two tablespoons of fat.  Add the water—­cover and cook until tender.

BEEF STEW

1 lb. of meat from the neck, cross ribs, shin or knuckles 1 sliced onion 3/4 cup carrots 1/2 cup turnips 1 cup potatoes 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1/2 cup flour 1 quart water

Soak one-half of the meat, cut in small pieces, in the quart of water for one hour.  Heat slowly to boiling point.  Season the other half of the meat with salt and pepper.  Roll in flour.  Brown in three tablespoons of fat with the onion.  Add to the soaked meat, which has been brought to the boiling point.  Cook one hour or until tender.  Add the vegetables, and flour mixed with half cup of cold water.  Cook until vegetables are tender.

HAM SOUFFLE