* MAKE FATS GO FURTHER * 
TABLE FATS 
Get the fats you use as spreads for bread out of 
their storage place long enough ahead of serving 
time to soften them enough to spread easily. Don't 
let them melt or they'll soak in. 
Serve table fats in pats half to three-fourths the 
usual size to cut down plate waste. Good fat-saving 
manners in wartime decree "direct from serving 
plate to toast." 
Spread the spreads by mixing them with salad 
dre'ssing, nut butters, chopped orange peel, or green 
vegetables. Or whip them up with gelatin and 
milk, or milk alone; but use them promptly — they 
soon get a "cheesy" taste. Remember you have 
no more fat than you had before — you are only 
making it go further. 
For variety, some families use drippings from 
cooked meat or rendered poultry fat, flavored with 
salt and a little chopped onion if desired, instead of 
the common spreads for bread. 
Be thrifty with salad dressings. Add them at 
the last minute, at the table if possible. That way 
the dressing won't settle out and be left uneaten. 
Try cooked salad dressing with flour as a thickener 
to help spread the fat. 
When you make a French dressing, remember not 
to be a "spendthrift of oil." 
FATS FOR COOKING 
Favor recipes using little fat. Work out ways to 
cut down the fat in your favorite recipes. 
Stress methods of cooking in which fat used is 
served with the food instead of drained off. Many 
families are crossing deep-fat frying off their lists 
for the duration. They bake or pan-fry croquettes — 
cook fritters in a little shallow fat. If you do 
deep-fat fry, don't overheat the fat and be sure to 
save every bit. Strain it, store it carefully, and use 
it again and again. 
Keep the heat low as you melt fat for sauce or 
pan frying and never let it reach the smoking point. 
If you must deep-fat fry, old-time signal to start 
cooking is when a cube of bread browns in 20 seconds 
for potatoes; in 40 seconds for croquettes and fish 
balls; and in 60 seconds for doughnuts and fritters. 
More accurate guide is a thermometer for deep-fat 
frying. 
Measure Accurately 
Waste no fats by using more than necessary in 
any recipe. This can result in greasy gravies and 
sauces, oily pastries, poor biscuits, and falling cakes. 
Fats are not easy to measure. Here's the way 
some cooks measure less than a cupful. To measure 
V 3 cup of fat, first fill a measuring cup % full of 
water. Add fat and push it under the water until 
the water comes to the level of the cup top. Pour 
out the water and you have an accurate % cup of fat. 
One Fat for Another 
For all practical cooking purposes, fats may be 
substituted measure for measure in most recipes, 
except those rich with fat such as pastries. Only 
when a large amount of fat is used does the slight 
difference in their make-up matter. Lard, oils, and 
the cooking fats sold under many brand names, for 
instance, are 100-percent fat; butter and oleo- 
margarine are about 80-percent fat. 
When using an unsalted fat instead of a salted 
one, be sure to add salt. 
When oil is used instead of a firm fat in pastries, 
mix the oil with the water before you combine it 
with the flour. When you use oil in cakes, mix it 
with the other liquid ingredients. 
Almost any fat or oil may be used for pan frying 
if you are careful with the heat. The most im- 
portant thing to remember is that fats vary as to 
the amount of heat they can stand. 
.\o Smoking 
Too much heat will spoil fat and food cooked in 
it. When fat reaches the smoking point it begins 
to break down chemically and gives off fumes with 
a sharp odor that irritate your nose and throat. 
Food fried in smoking fat may have an unhappy 
effect on the digestive tract. Fats that have reached 
the smoking point also will get rancid more quickly 
if you save them to use again. Be extra careful 
when frying with fats that have a low smoking 
point. Among the fats that smoke quickly are 
butter, oleomargarine, drippings, and olive oil. 
Cook all meat at a moderate temperature for the 
sake of the fat as well as for the protein in the lean 
part. 
Last-Minute Seasoning 
Add the fat for flavoring cooked vegetables either 
just before the vegetables come off the stove or 
after you have them in a serving dish. You can 
get more seasoning effect from less fat that way. 
Lse Every Bit 
Rinse the fat out of cooking pans with a little hot 
water and add to your soup kettle or use in sauce 
or gravy. 
Save the wrappings that come off fats. Melt or 
scrape off any that clings to wrappings. Or use it 
to grease pans, or rub over the crust of your home- 
baked bread. 
