18 BULLETIN 460, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



much of the butter is lost unless the water in which the vegetables 

 are boiled is served with them. Instead of adding butter to vegeta- 

 bles many people cook fat ham, bacon, or salt pork with them and 

 relish the characteristic flavor thus imparted. As another example 

 of the economical use of butter in cookery may be cited the frying 

 (sauteing) of eggs, rice cakes, etc., in a mixture of butter, to con- 

 tribute flavor, and some such fat as lard or drippings to give a suffi- 

 cient quantity of fat for the cooking process. Also, part butter (or 

 cream) and part lard is frequently used in shortening pie crust, 

 biscuits, etc. A mixture of equal parts of carefully rendered beef 

 suet, lard, and butter, known as " butterschmaltz," is used in some 

 regions of the country for shortening purposes in place of table 

 butter. 



Since shortening fats are used to secure texture more often than 

 for their distinctive flavor, it is possible to utilize a greater variety of 

 fats for this purpose than for table use. Oftentimes a home-rendered 

 fat may be economically substituted for butter, lard, or vegetable fats 

 for shortening purposes. For instance, beef-brisket fat is softer than 

 suet and, if well rendered, can be used to make gingerbread, spice 

 cake, and similar dishes in which the spice or molasses used masks 

 the flavor of the fat. A possible economy, more common some years 

 ago than now, is the use of chopped, unrendered suet for shortening 

 in such foods as suet puddings, or the use of finely chopped salt pork 

 for a similar purpose in some spice cakes. Occasionally cheese can 

 be used both as a shortening and to give flavor, as in making Brown 

 Betty, cheese biscuits, etc., as is mentioned in another bulletin of the 

 Department. 1 



The use of too much fat for shortening is not only extravagant 

 but may be unhealthy, because the frequent ingestion of large quan- 

 tities of very fat foods often produces digestive disturbances. All 

 that a dish requires to be of standard quality should be used, but no 

 more. It is just as possible for food to be overfat or overshort as 

 it is to be oversweet, and in the preparation of cakes, batters, etc., 

 recipes which call for an unusually large quantity of fat should be 

 avoided for the sake of health as well as economy. Another possible 

 economy is the selection of a food which requires little or no fat in 

 its preparation in place of a similar kind of food rich in it, when 

 some other ingredient of the meal supplies a generous amount of fat. 

 For instance, sponge cake instead of pound cake, or beaten biscuit 

 instead of butter cakes, might well be selected when very fat meats 

 or other fat dishes form a part of the meal. 



In frying, fat serves principally as a medium for transmitting the 

 heat needed for cooking. The. flavor is modified also, as is evident 



1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. 487. 



