* MAKE FA TS 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 
dressing, 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. 
.\i> 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. 
Keep the heat low as you melt fat for sauce or 
pan frying and never let it reaGh 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 
'A 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. 
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. 
Use 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. 
Overheating is the quickest way to spoil 
any fat. 
Improper storage spoils fat. Best way 
to keep fats is in a closely covered con- 
tainer, in a dark place, and away from 
strong-flavored and strong-scented foods. 
Most fats need to be kept very cool, 
although there are some cooking fats 
on the market that keep well at room 
temperature. 
Fats saved over from cooking spoil more 
quickly than new fat. So keep them extra 
cold and use as soon as possible. 
Keep a check on fats to be sure they 
are not getting rancid. 
Flavorful fats, such as butter, are least 
abundant of all. So when you use your 
share of these, be sure to put it where the 
flavor will count most with your family. 
In these days of limited fat supply, dishes 
rich with fat are out of step with the times. 
All waste fat should be salvaged. Any 
fat you can't use as a spread or in cooking 
should be strained into the salvage can 
and turned in for salvage. This fat ends 
up in munitions or is put to other industrial 
uses that speed up the war program. 
USE THE FATS YOU SAVE 
Keep Fats Usable 
Save all drippings from cooked poultry and meats. If you intend to use them 
soon to add flavor to some dish, pour the drippings "as is" into a glass or jar and 
a dearth y ° U *"* SaV ' ng them f ° r ' ater Use ' Strain the dr 'PP in K s through 
m „ ll U haVe pa .' d for ^ he fat on the meat y° u bu y- so b"ng it home. If there's 
more than enough to cook with the meat, cut off the extra. Some of the trimmings, 
such as good-flavored beef fat or ham fat, can season dishes in the same ways as 
you use salt pork. For instance, try it with baked or boiled beans. Other trim- 
mings need to be rendered or "tried out" before you use them. Some need to be 
clarified, in addition. 
Strain and store fat left over from frying. If necessary, clarify it, also. 
If you like, put several kinds of drippings or left-over fats in one jar. Always 
check to make sure the fat you have saved is not turning rancid before you pour 
new fat on old. Never use rancid fats for food. It is unpleasant to taste and 
unwholesome. 
Bow To Render Fats 
To render a fat is to heat it slowly so that the fat melts and separates from the 
connective tissue. You can render several kinds of fat together if you wish. 
Grind or cut into fine pieces fat trimmed from meat. Put it in a double boiler 
or in a saucepan that can be set in hot water. Or, if you have the oven going, set 
the pan in a slow oven. As soon as the fat is melted, strain it through a clean 
cloth to remove any particles of connective tissue. When it cools, store it in a 
cool place. 
Save the pieces you strain out. These cracklings are good in muffins and 
other hot breads. 
Row To Clarify Used Fats 
The purpose of clarifying used fats is to take out bits of other food and improve - 
the flavor. 
Solid fail park, bet-i, lamb. Pour hot water over the fat. Add 1 cup water 
for each cup fat. Heat this mixture slowly for 10 minutes. Stir well. Strain through 
a clean cloth. Chill. When the layer of fat, which comes to the top, is hard, pour 
off the water. Then scrape off any dark material that may be clinging to the under- 
side of the fat. Get as much water as possible out of the fat. Use promptly. Clari- 
fied fats will not keep indefinitely. 
Salt latt (poultry) and oil*. To clarify oils and fats that are very soft at room 
temperature, add thin slices of raw potato (4 or 5 slices to a cup of fat) and cook 
slowly over low heat for about 20 minutes. Strain the fat through a clean cloth 
and cool. 
Some Good Uses for Saved Fats 
All left-over fat can be saved to use again, unless it is too strong in flavor or 
scorched. 
Saved fats may include drippings from roast or broiled meat or from poultry 
rendered trimmings of pork, beef, poultry— good-flavored fats saved from frying. 
Number 1 use is gravy. Use saved fat also in sauces for scalloped dishes. Or add it to soups. 
Flavor vegetables with it. Add to plain boiled vegetables, mash with potatoes, mix with a 
little vinegar and use as the dressing for wilted lettuce, top off a baked potato with it, use for 
panning cabbage, squash, and other vegetables. 
Add during cooking to meat that hasn't enough fat of its own. 
Make it the fat in piecrust, cake, gingerbread, waffles, muffins, biscuits, stuffing for poultry or 
meat, macaroni, and other cereal dishes. 
"Butter" bread crumbs in it. 
To mask the flavor of lamb, mutton, and other such fats, combine with onions or mixed veg- 
etables in soup, or use as the shortening in crust for meat pie or in spice cake, gingerbread, or 
orange cakes or cookies. 
