18 BULLETIN 469, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF 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 over fat 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 land 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. 
