A

S we prepare copy for the AugustSeptember number of AMERICAN COOKERY, the word from the United States Food Administration is, "limit the meat (including chicken) for each individual in your family to two pounds per week. This two pounds is the weight of the meat or fowl as purchased and thus includes bones and other refuse; limit the consumption of sugar to three pounds per month for each individual and wheat flour, if it be eaten at all, to six pounds per month. If possible cut out all use of wheat flour till the new crop is harvested."

In some sections, at least, rye is harvested in August and rye flour is available soon after. In New England many families for generations have made bread from new rye late in August and early in September. The rye, ground between huge stones in a mill run by water power, was used with little or no admixture of wheat, and was thought to be the sweetest tasting bread that could be made. Mixed at noon with yeast from the "distillery," the bread was baked and cooled in time for the six o'clock supper, where it appeared with berries, smoked fish or cottage cheese. We are inclined to think that even now, with different facilities for grinding the grain and leavening the loaf, that rye bread might be made successfully without wheat, save for flouring the board during molding, if the quantity of yeast be increased enough to insure quick rising, i. e., a full cake to two cups of liquid, the bread being mixed in the morning.

We have given Baba among the Seasonable Recipes. Baba - a cake or pudding as you will originated in Poland, and was made originally of rye flour. It makes a hearty, satisfying dessert. One loaf will serve eight or ten individuals. Any left over is good reheated.

Most households have, by now, so ordered their meals that no inconvenience is experienced in curtailing the meat supply. The articles substituted for meat will vary with the occupation, but, in any event, too much cannot be said of the importance of keeping up the milk supply. Vegetables and fruit, so plentiful and valuable at this time, need to be supplemented by some form of food rich in protein, to provide a balanced meal; cheese is but milk in another form; combine milk, cheese and eggs with corn, onions, spinach, cauliflower in soufflés, timbales and custards and satisfaction will surely follow; for the cycle is complete, and the meal is balanced. The complaint is made that "made dishes" do not "stand by one." Everything depends on the composition of those "made dishes." If food is to "stand by one," it must contain some proportion of protein to be digested in the stomach. Milk, cheese and eggs are among the choicest forms of protein, and in comparison with meat are not as expensive as a casual glance would seem to indicate.

Formerly most housekeepers planned their meals a day at a time. With the existing food regulations in force, planning the meals for a week at a time simplifies the work and enables one to make

the supplies last through the week. Sit down with pencil and paper and multiply the number of pounds, each, of meat, sugar and flour to which each person is entitled for the week by the number of persons in the family; deduct the quantity of sugar that must be reserved for tea, coffee, cereals and fruit, meanwhile thinking up ways in which this quantity may be lessened (cheese, dates, figs, etc., with cereal; fried cereal, mush with molasses or syrup, etc.), then plan to use the rest of the sugar in the way most satisfactory to your family. Plan out these ways and adhere to them, unless improvement suggests itself.

Vary the selection of meat from week to week; at least once in a month choose leg of lamb (yearling), this in a family of four or five persons will furnish nearly all the meat allowable in the week, but it

Do You Eat

IT is a patriotic duty to eat properly,

according to Mrs. Alice Peloubet Norton. This means eating regularly, slowly, and cheerfully, with emphasis on the smile that accepts all forms of war bread and sweetless desserts without grumbling.

"Eat properly; that is a patriotic a patriotic duty. Let only an emergency interfere, and don't let that emergency occur often. We ought to boast that we can accomplish our work so that we have time for our meals, and if we take time for our meals we can accomplish more work. It seems to me that there has never been a time when it is so necessary for every one to be at his best, mentally and physically, and to have poise both of mind and of body. Half eaten, hurried meals do not make for poise.

"Today one of the things we need is speed, but we get more speed when we can think clearly, and we think clearly when our bodies are well. It is only the genius who can keep busy every minute, without meals and proper rest, and still

"spends well," and half a cup, chopped or cut in thin bits, and added with broth from the bones to a dish of squash or egg-plant, cooked with onions, tomatoes, cheese and rice (cook the rice in the broth) will furnish one hearty meal of one dish. (See Egg-plant with Rice, Seasonable Recipes). Liver, tripe, tongue, heart and kidneys may be used outside. of the stipulated allowance. Thus with fresh fish, eggs, cheese and milk to fall back upon, keeping within the meat allowance should not phase any one. Remember that it takes more effort on your part to feed your family now than it did a few years ago. If you are not spending more time in your kitchen than formerly, and, especially, if you have children, and are not using more milk than formerly, you must take care lest your family be not nourished adequately.

Patriotically?

work effectively. Many persons set such

a pace that by the end of the day they are excited and hysterical. When an emergency comes they cannot meet it. They fail when they are most needed. Their nerves may break down under the strain they have imposed upon themselves. In America we often say, 'I am so busy.' We say so much about it that we make ourselves feel hurried just by talking. And after all, the 'busy' is very much in our own attitude.

"It is worth while occasionally even to sit still and hold one's hands. We need more of the serenity and peace that come with quiet. Instead of speeding up, we actually lose time if we don't get a certain amount of recreation. Even President Wilson goes golfing.

"Smile while you eat. Don't grumble about the food. The mental and spiritual attitude counts. counts for for digestibility. If you go to a lunch room and complain about the food, or go home and complain about the food, that whole spirit is unfavorable to digestion."

I AM trying to

Economy by

Serving no butter when we have gravy or plenty of sauce. The children prefer the latter to butter on baked or boiled .potatoes.

Using a spatula to scrape every vestige of food from the cooking utensils.

Boiling potatoes, carrots and similar vegetables in their jackets and peeling them afterwards.

Using a potato knife, a round blade with a sharpened slit, which may be purchased for a dime, and which enables one to pare apples or vegetables with great speed, yet have the paring always of the same thinness.

Serving no sweets at any of my little parties, substituting sandwiches or wafers. made of graham bread or other grains beside wheat.

Serving celery-leaf soup as often as we have celery. To make it, cut with a pair of scissors all the leaves from two stalks of celery. Add to it any leftover mashed or riced potato, or three raw ones diced, and three diced onions. Cover with water and simmer until tender. Thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour and one pint of milk and season with salt, pepper and oleomargarine.

In Fuel Economy by

Cooking things in quantities to last several meals. Sauces, soups, vegetables, and many kinds of meat come under this class.

Using the steam cooker as much as possible, thereby saving food as well as fuel. A whole meal may be cooked over one burner without any loss of food value, and odds and ends of things may be canned while the meal is being cooked. It is a boon to the small householder with a little garden, where the surplus for canning is only a quart or two at a time. It saves dishwashing, too, as the food may

then one has a little more time for Red Cross sewing.

Introducing moisture into the rooms. adjacent to the kitchen by means of a kettle of water kept boiling on the range. Less coal is required to heat the rooms and there is always hot water on hand for starting the steamer or other purposes without the waste of heating it.

Weighing the oil lamps that are not transparent as I fill them, thereby saving quarts of oil each year, as I invariably run them over in the old way. I set the lamp on the scales and watch the hand, having previously ascertained the weight of the filled lamp.

Other little Economies in needed things: The use of sewing scraps, or old rags, in the kitchen, instead of the paper towels I formerly kept hanging above the sink for wiping greasy dishes before consigning them to the dishwater or wiping up anything spilled. I made a gingham bag to match my kitchen curtains, shaping it like a bucket with a stiff round bottom and large open top easy of access, and into it are thrown all bits of tissue paper and cloth that are of no further use.

Baling all waste paper and saving it for the rag-man. We cover the inside of a soap box with heavy paper or an old cloth, then lay long stout cords both lengthwise and crosswise of the box, leaving the ends long enough to tie over the top when the box is filled.

Making soft soap for shampoos and all sorts of cleaning. I throw all scraps and thin cakes of soap into bags to dry outtoilet soaps in one and kitchen soaps in another. When filled I take a mallet and pound them, then boil the powder with twice as much water, pour ing the toilet jelly into cold cream jars and the other into a large jar that sits on the sink.

Alabamy man," comes the singsong, yet melodious cry through the hot summer air. I look out to see the incongruous cart poking its way among the motor cars and trucks in the city street just to note what the dusky collector of odds and ends had managed to bargain for at basement doors. Piles of newspapers, the skeleton of an old range, and some worn straw matting were the sole burden of the slowly moving vehicle.

It is queer how thoughts will run back on even your busiest day. I was a tiny little girl again and the red cart of the itinerant tin-peddler had driven into the yard of a New England village home. Mother brought two bags of rags from the attic stairway, where they had hung on their respective nails for months. The white rags had all been washed before storing in the long narrow bag, while the colored scraps that were in the short wide bag were just as clean; New England housekeeping was honest even to the depths of the rag bag.

Grandmother, with her fine-sewing spectacles raised hastily over her forehead, was hurrying to sort some belated rags, but the tin-peddler was in no rush. He had the harmless gossip of the farming section to relate, and was eager to get village news to take further along when the trading should be completed. Out from the front of the cart he brought the steelyards (prounounced stilyds) and carefully weighed the bags and their contents, then he weighed each bag alone. After much figuring he arrived at the sum due, which, if the white rags predominated, would generally make an amount sufficient to add a good bit to the kitchen furnishings.

Now came the time for which I had waited. Each side of the cart was lifted and fastened up; little cupboards and

envy of the modern kitchenette cook. Wooden pails, tubs and mop handles were hung here and there, brooms stood attention at the back, some bulky articles swung below, others rested on top, and were kept from falling off by a little rail. The wonder was that the old white horse could draw the whole affair over the rough, hilly roads, but then one remembered that he had long respites, while the bartering of rags for utensils went on. It took a deal of thought to make the exchange without the help of a few copper cents from one party or the other.

I was lifted up to look within the wagon and see the shining milk pans, dinner pails. with covers, oil cans and the tapering tin kettles with bails that could be set well down in the stove. For some reason these were called camp kettles, and were a great improvement over the iron dinner pot, then in general use. There were leaf cookie cutters and mixing spoons, lamp wicks and candlesticks, tin rattles for the babies, and red and blue drinking cups in the long, narrow boxes on the sides, which were indeed miniature ten cent stores. In another compartment were a few thick glass tumblers and lamp chimneys that the worst jolting could never break.

When the trade was finished, if there had been a fairly large transaction, a tin teaspoon, or a small scalloped tin was likely to be given to me as a sort of lågniappe. Then came the closing of various lids and doors of the van, the last exchange of pleasantries and weather predictions and the equipage went rattling out of the yard with all the pomp of a coach and four.

The telephone rings and a voice asks, if I am ready to push that war-on-waste work in the club, and do I know, if house

keepers saved their rags now, who would buy them. I nearly replied, "You know Mr. Smith does not come for another six months," but realized that this is another day, just in time to say that we

I

WENT to my friend the miller and found him in a complacent, if not cheerful mood.

Of course, the first question was the wheat question; the next was that of wheat substitutes.

out flour combines, but are making straight brands of other cereals than -wheat.

On the Pacific Coast, at least, there seemed no danger of a shortage.

The wheat crop on the coast, as well as all over the country, promised well.

There appeared to be a good chance of harvesting that billion bushels which has been the hope of the nation.

At our back door stands Australia, with three years' crops of wheat unmarketed.

It is only a question of ships to bring it here to obtain unlimited supplies from that quarter.

Big ship loads are arriving almost daily from that far country, and are being milled here for general distribution.

My friend, the miller, informed me that wheat substitutes were playing a strong part in the conservation game.

Whole-wheat flour is the only pure wheat flour being milled today on the Pacific Coast.

The popular substitutes being used were barley, rice, Indian corn, Egyptian corn, millo maize, etc.

Of barley, California alone produces annually between 35,000,000 and 45,000,000 bushels. So here is a substitute of no small importance.

California also raises more than five million bushels of rice each year, which comes in handy just at this time.

Now the millers are not only turning

One Oakland pie manufacturer has discovered the fact that white corn flour makes excellent pie crust, and now he is using it altogether in his business. He says that the new flour makes sweeter and more crisp pie crust than pure wheat flour; and it don't require so much fat for shortening.

War bread is becoming quite popular in California. Barley flour is the general substitute employed; and while the bread is somewhat darker, it is of a finer and closer texture than pure wheat bread.

Then it is more moist and has a better keeping quality; also it has a stronger flavor, which the people are coming to like. They further declare that the new bread is more healthful and nourishing.

I went to my friend the baker, and he also appeared to be in a very cheerfull frame of mind.

He informed me that in all his bread' he was using 30 per cent substitutes for wheat flour.

In all pastry he was using 50 per cent. substitutes, which were of the same varieties as those used in making bread.

The only fault he had to find was that all of the substitutes were higher in cost. than pure wheat flour; and he thought that they should be brought down to the same level in justice to the baking trade..