conomy, one of the cardinal principles of success in the details of housekeeping, as in all other occupations in life, consists not alone in making advantageous use of fresh material, but in carefully preserving and utilizing the "left-over" fragments and bits of food which accrue in every household. Few cooks can make such perfect calculation respecting the desires and needs of their families as to provide just enough and no more, and the improvident waste of the surplus thus prepared, is in many homes fully equal to one half the first cost of the meal. Scarcely anything need ever be wasted—certainly nothing which was at first well cooked. There are ways of utilizing almost every kind of cooked food so that it will be quite as appetizing and nutritious as when first prepared.
All left-over foods, as grains, vegetables, or others of a moist character, should be removed to clean dishes before putting away. Unless this precaution is observed, the thin smears and tiny bits about the edges of the dish, which become sour or moldy much sooner than the larger mass, are apt to spoil the whole. They should also be set on ice or be kept in a cool, dry place until needed. Left-over foods of any kind, to be suitable again for use, must be well preserved. Sour or moldy fragments are not fit for food.
Uses of Stale Bread.—If properly made from wholesome and nutritious material and well preserved, there are few other foods that can be combined into more varied and palatable dishes than left-over bread. To insure the perfect preservation of the fragments, the loaf itself should receive good care. Perfectly sweet, light, well-baked bread has not the same propensity to mold as a poorer loaf; but the best of bread is likely to become musty if its surroundings are not entirely wholesome. The receptacle used for keeping the loaves should be frequently washed, scalded, and well dried. Crumbs and fragments should be kept in a separate receptacle and as thoroughly cared for. It is well in cutting bread not to slice more than will be needed, and to use one loaf before beginning on another. Bread grows stale much faster after being cut.
Whole or half slices of bread which have become too dry to be palatable may be utilized for making zwieback, directions for the use and preparation of which are given on [page 289].
Broken pieces of bread not suitable for zwieback, crusts, and trimmings of the loaf make excellent croutons, a most palatable accompaniment for soups, gruels, hot milk, etc. To prepare the croutons cut the fragments as nearly uniform in size as possible,—half-inch cubes are convenient,—and place them on tins in a warming oven to dry. Let them become crisply dry, and lightly browned, but not scorched. They are preferable to crackers for use in soups, and require so little work to prepare, and are so economical withal, that one who has once tried them will be likely to keep a supply on hand. The crumbs and still smaller fragments may be utilized for thickening soups and for various dressings and puddings, recipes for many of which are given in preceding chapters.
If crumbs and small bits of bread accumulate more rapidly than they can be used, they may be carefully dried, not browned, in a warming oven, after which put them in a mortar and pound them, or spread them upon an old bread board, fold in a clean cloth and roll them with a rolling pin until fine. Prepared thus, stored in glass fruit cans and put away in a dry place, they will keep almost indefinitely, and can be used when needed. For preparing escalloped vegetables of all kinds, these prepared crumbs are excellent; they give a fine, nutty flavor to the dish, which fresh crumbs do not possess.
Left-over Grains.—Left-over grains, if well kept, may be reheated in a double boiler without the addition of water, so as to be quite as palatable as when freshly cooked. Small quantities of left-over grains can be utilized for preparing various kinds of desserts, where the ingredients require previous cooking. Rice, barley, pearl wheat, and other whole grains can be satisfactorily used in soups in which a whole grain is required; oatmeal, rolled oats, corn meal, grits, etc., with the addition of a little milk and cream, may be made into delicious gruels; they may also be used advantageously in the preparation of vegetable soups, many of which are even improved by the addition of a few spoonfuls of well-kept cooked oatmeal or rolled oats. The left-over grains may also be utilized in a variety of breads, directions for the preparation of which are given in the chapter on Bread.
Left-over Vegetables.—Left-over portions of most varieties of vegetables can be best utilized for soups as stated on [page 275]. Cold mashed potato may be made into potato cakes as directed on [page 237] of the chapter on Vegetables, where will also be found many other recipes, suited to the use of these left-over foods.
Left-over Meats.—Most cook books offer numerous recipes for croquettes, hashes, and fried dishes prepared from remnants of meat and fish, which, although they serve the purpose of using up the fragments, are not truly economical, because they are generally far from wholesome. Most fragments of this character are more digestible served cold as a relish, or utilized for soups and stews, than compounded into fancy dishes requiring to be fried and highly seasoned or served with rich sauces.