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 fat removed before soup is made of it. Such fat can be used, first of all, in cooking, and then any inedible portions can be used in soap making.
Tough odds and ends of meat not sightly enough to appear on the table are often wasted. They can be transformed by long cooking into savory stews, ragouts, croquettes and hashes, whereas, if carelessly and insufficiently cooked, they are unpalatable and indigestible. Scraps of left-over cooked meat should be ground in the food-chopper and made into appetizing meat balls, hashes or sandwich paste. If you happen to have a soft cooked egg left over, boil it hard at once. It can be used for garnishes, sauces, salads or sandwich paste.
Use all bits of bread, that cannot be used as toast, in puddings, croquettes, scalloped dishes or to thicken soup.
Don't throw away cold muffins and fancy breads. Split and toast them for next day's breakfast.
Foods that survive the earlier forms of waste are often lost at table by the serving of portions of like size to all members of the family. The individual food requirements differ according to age, sex, vocation and state of health. Each should be considered before the food is served, then there will be no waste on the plates when the meal is over. The following table, showing the daily requirement of calories for men and women in various lines of work, illustrates this point: