Cheese Sauce No. 4.
Same as cheese sauce No. 2, save that 2 tablespoonfuls of melted butter are mixed with the flour before the latter is put into the milk. This sauce is therefore very rich in fat and has only a mild flavor of cheese.
Among the recipes for dishes which may be used like meat, the first 30 are such that, eaten in usual quantities, they will provide much the same kind and amount of nutritive material as the ordinary servings of meat dishes used at dinner. In several cases there is a resemblance in appearance and flavor to common meat dishes, which would doubtless be a point in their favor with many families.
While, chiefly owing to custom, it may not accord with the taste of the family to serve cheese dishes at dinner in place of meat, it is much more in accord with usual dietary habits in American homes to serve such dishes at least occasionally for lunch, for supper, or for breakfast; that is, for a less formal meal than dinner. The last group of recipes in this section, beginning with “breakfast cereals with cheese,” supply rather smaller proportions of nutritive materials than those in the first group and so may be more suitable for use at the less hearty meals. There is no hard and fast line to be drawn between the two groups, however, and many of the recipes may be used interchangeably.
In the recipes calling for large amounts of cheese the food value is given, not in figures, but in comparison with beef of average composition and average percentage of waste. This comparison is necessarily rough owing to the varying composition of the foods and the varying weights of such ingredients as a cupful of grated cheese or bread crumbs. In making the comparisons, beef of average composition has been considered to have 15.2 per cent of protein, and a fuel value of 935 calories per pound; ordinary American cheese has been considered to have 26 per cent of protein and a fuel value of 1,965 calories per pound. After many weighings, 4 ounces was decided to be the average weight of a cupful of cheese and 2½ ounces the average weight of a cupful of bread crumbs. These weights have been taken, therefore, in calculating the food value of dishes. When cheese is very soft, however, it may be pressed into a cup and measured like butter. Under these circumstances, the weight of a cupful of cheese may be considered one-half a pound. The price of cheese is taken as 22 cents a pound, of butter 25 cents a pound, of eggs 25 cents a dozen, in this and all similar calculations in this bulletin. Prices vary with time, place, and season. Those mentioned above are such as were paid for materials at the time the experiments here summarized were made and are not extreme values in either direction. Like all such estimates, the calculations are only relative, and the housekeeper who wishes to estimate the comparative cost of the cheese dishes and other foods can readily do so by taking into account the amount of materials used and the prices paid for ingredients at any particular time.