A few bills of fare are given below which experience has shown to represent combinations of dishes which are palatable and which, if eaten in usual amounts, will supply protein and energy in proportions which accord with usual dietary standards. Menus such as these are more commonly served at lunch or at supper, but they might equally well be served for dinner, the selection of dishes for any meal being of course chiefly a matter of custom and convenience for those who have any range of choice.
Suggested bills of fare in which cheese dishes are the chief source of protein and fat.
| Menu No. 1. | Menu No. 2.—Continued. |
| Macaroni and cheese (p. [26] or p. [27]). | Coffee. |
| Raisin bread or date bread. | Fruit salad with crisp cookies or meringues. |
| Orange and water-cress salad. | |
| Baked apples. | Menu No. 3. |
| Sugar cookies. | Clear soup. |
| Cocoa. | Baked eggs with cheese (p. [29]) or Boston roast (p. [28]). |
| Menu No. 2. | Baked potatoes. |
| Cheese fondue (p. [24] or p. [25]). | Lettuce salad. |
| Toast, zwieback, or thin and crisp baking-powder biscuit. | A sweet jelly, crab apple or quince for example, or a preserve. |
| Celery. | Rye bread. |
| Potatoes, baked, boiled, or fried in deep fat. | Orange or banana shortcake. |
| Peas, or some other fresh vegetables. | Tea. |
These bills of fare should be taken as suggestive merely and not as a solution of the problem. In fact, the whole art of making bills of fare needs developing. There is abundant evidence that overeating, where it exists, is frequently due to the fact that meals are not skillfully planned. People often continue eating after they have taken enough in total bulk because they have not had all they want of some particular kind of food. The meal has contained too large a percentage of proteid or too much starch; has been too moist or too dry; too highly flavored or not sufficiently flavored. Bill-of-fare making calls not only for knowledge of food values but also for skill in combining flavors and textures.
In this discussion of menu making, and of the use of cheese as an integral part of the diet, the aim has been to suggest ways of using cheese to add to the palatability of meals made up of usual dishes, and to suggest dishes containing cheese which could serve as substitutes for meat dishes when so desired, and also for dishes of many sorts to be used as taste suggests and in which the nutritive value as well as the flavor is increased by the addition of cheese. If cheese is used and in quantity, it is obvious that some other proteid and fat foods should be diminished, in order that the meal or day’s menu may not be unduly hearty.
For the convenience of the housekeeper, a number of recipes for cheese dishes are given in later pages, these being preceded by directions for making cottage cheese and other similar cheeses which are usually made in the home.
HOMEMADE CHEESE.
Even as late as a generation or two ago cheese of different kinds was made at home for family use, as sour-milk or cottage cheese still is, and cheese making was very generally a farm industry, cheese, like butter, being sold by the farmer who made it. Cottage cheese is very commonly homemade. Most types of cheese, however, are now as a rule made on a large scale in factories where advantage may be taken of labor-saving devices. The general topic of farm cheese making has been considered in an earlier bulletin of this series,[14] prepared by the Dairy Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry.
Curds and Whey.
Cheese curds and whey, an old-fashioned dish, which is often spoken of in accounts of life in earlier times, sometimes refers to sour-milk curd and sometimes to curd separated with rennet. This dish when made with rennet is much like junket and though far less common to-day than was once the case is wholesome and palatable.