--how all the guests
were fed and then twelve baskets were gathered up. Often after
preparation that which is gathered up to be thrown away is as large in
quantity and as high in food value as the portions used.

Vegetables are wasted in preparation by too thick paring, the
discarding of coarse leaves such as are found on lettuce, cabbage and
cauliflower, discarding wilted parts which can be saved by soaking,
throwing away tips and roots of celery and the roots and ends of
spinach and dandelions. All these waste products can be cooked tender,
rubbed through a sieve and used with stock for vegetable soup, or with
skimmed milk for cream soup. Such products are being conserved by
the enemy, even to the onion skin, which is ground into bread-making
material.

Throwing away the water in which vegetables have been cooked wastes
their characteristic and valuable element--the mineral salts. Cooking
them so much that they become watery; under-cooking so that they
are hard and indigestible; cooking more than is required for a meal;
failing to use left-over portions promptly as an entree or for cream
soups or scalloped dishes--all these things mean an appalling waste of
valuable food material. Good food material is also lost when the water
in which rice or macaroni or other starchy food has been boiled is
poured down the kitchen sink. Such water should be used for soup
making.

Fruits are wasted by throwing away the cores and skins, which can be
used for making sauces, jams and jellies, the latter being sweetened
with corn syrup instead of sugar.

Rhubarb is wasted by removing the pink skin from young rhubarb, which
should be retained to add flavor and color-attractiveness to the dish.

Raw food in quantity is frequently left in the mixing bowl, while
by the use of a good flexible knife or spatula every particle can
be saved. A large palette knife is as good in the kitchen as in the
studio.

* * * * *

The next step in food preparation is cooking, and tons of valuable
material are wasted through ignorance of the principles of cooking.

Bad cooking, which means under-cooking, over-cooking or flavorless
cooking, renders food inedible, and inedible food contributes to world
shortage. Fats are wasted in cooking by being burned and by not being
carefully utilized as dripping and shortening. The water in which salt
meat, fresh meat, or poultry has been boiled should be allowed to cool
and the fa