METHOD OF WORK.

Review the foods discussed in the previous lessons and sum up the classification of foods, being sure that the pupils can name common examples of each. Discuss simple combinations for the different meals, using dishes already prepared in the course and creating an interest in other recipes to be prepared in the succeeding lessons.

LESSON VIII. THE PLANNING AND SERVING OF MEALS.
SUBJECT MATTER.

Experience has shown that some foods are more acceptable at one time of day than other foods, and that foods are more pleasing in certain combinations than in others. The choice of food will also depend upon the season of the year. For example, a breakfast is made up of simple foods that are not highly seasoned nor subjected to elaborate methods of cooking. A fruit, a cereal, and bread, with possibly eggs or meat, are served at breakfast. A beverage, usually hot, is added to breakfast by most people.

Fundamentally, dinner consists of a hot meat or other protein dish with one or two vegetables. Soup, salad, and a sweet dessert are often served with the dinner. The soup is served before the meat course and the salad and dessert follow the meat course. The dessert may be a fruit, a cooky, or other pastry, a pudding or a frozen dish. Lunch or supper may be a very simple meal, consisting of a soup with crackers, one protein dish (eggs, milk, or meat) with bread and stewed fruit, or a salad with a simple dessert.

See Farmers' Bulletins: No. 717, Food for young children; No. 808, How to select foods; No. I, What the body needs.

1 Eggs should be omitted from the breakfast menu if they are not easily obtainable.

The table should always be neatly set with individual places arranged for each one who is to partake of the meal. Each place should be wide enough for a plate with a knife and spoon at the right and a fork at the left. A tumbler should be placed at the point of the knife and a napkin at the left of the fork. Everything placed on the table should be perfectly clean, the napkin should be neatly folded, and all the articles should be uniformly arranged to give a neat appearance to the table. A flower or plant in the center of the table will add to its attractiveness. Salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar, and anything of the sort that may be needed with the meal should be arranged near the center of the table where it can be easily reached. Fresh water should be poured into the tumblers just before the meal is served. The bread, butter, etc., can be placed on the table several minutes before the meal is announced, but the hot dishes should be placed immediately before the family is seated.

PRELIMINARY PLAN.

If Lesson VI, entitled "Setting and Clearing the Table" (as outlined in the course on the care of the home), has been given, this lesson can be devoted to what to serve and how to serve it, or this lesson can precede the lesson on table service. The manner of serving can be demonstrated in the next lesson in connection with the course in the care of the home.

Simple equipment for family service will be required if the form of serving is to be taken up. For class practice a table for four can be arranged. This will necessitate a table cover, five or more dinner plates, four butter dishes or plates, four tumblers, four cups and saucers, four knives, four forks, four teaspoons, four napkins, a platter, one serving spoon, and one serving fork.

METHOD OF WORK.

Discuss meal service both from the standpoint of choice and combination of foods and from the method of service. Have the class plan one meal, then go through the form of serving that meal at a table. In the absence of a table the top of the desks can be used for a table. Later in the course the teacher should plan to combine this lesson with a cooking lesson and have the food served. In each cooking lesson suggestions for the service of the food should be made and each cooked dish should be carefully served. Interest in this lesson may be increased by allowing the children to make original menus, and if they are having some lessons in drawing, simple menu cards may be planned and executed.

LESSON IX. MILK.

Care, Cost, and Food Value of Milk. Value and Use of Sour Milk-Cottage Cheese, Clabber. Rice or Cornstarch Pudding (Plain, Caramel, or Chocolate).

SUBJECT MATTER.

Milk contains all the foodstuffs which the body requires, and therefore is capable of sustaining life for comparatively long periods. It is one of the most important protein foods, but it contains so small a per cent of carbohydrate (milk sugar) that for the adult it must be supplemented with carbohydrate foods. For the baby, milk is a perfect food, and it is a valuable adjunct to the diet of all children. One quart of milk should be allowed for the diet of each child daily after the twelfth month. The diet of the adult can well be supplemented by the use of milk. The greatest care should be exercised to protect milk from dust and dirt, for it is easily contaminated and may be the means of carrying disease germs to the body. The changes which milk undergoes when souring do not render it harmful to the body. For many people buttermilk is more easy of digestion than sweet milk, because of the changes produced by souring and the absence of fat. Sour milk is of value in cooking, producing a tender bread which can readily be made light by the addition of soda-one teaspoon of soda to 1 pint of sour milk that has clabbered.

In the preparation of cheese, the whey is separated from the curds, thus extracting most of the water, sugar, and salts, and leaving a substance rich in protein and fat. Cheese is of value in cooking, for it increases the food value of those foods to which it is added.

-PRELIMINARY PLAN.

The teacher should make inquiries a few days in advance to be sure that 1 quart of sour milk can be secured, and when it is brought, she should examine it to see that it is in proper condition to make cottage cheese. She should arrange to have about 1 quart of sweet milk brought and such other supplies as are necessary for the pudding. Opportunity can be found to discuss the use of left-over cereal by the preparation of the rice pudding, if the teacher provides some cold cooked rice for the lesson. In the absence of cold rice, the cornstarch pudding can be prepared.

RECIPES.

Cottage Cheese.

Heat sour milk slowly until the whey rises to the top, pour the whey off, put the curd in a bag and let it drip for six hours without squeezing. Put the curd into a bowl and break fine with a wooden spoon; season with salt, and mix into a paste with a little cream or butter. Mold into balls, if desired, and keep in a cold place. (It is best when fresh.)

See Farmer's Bulletin No. 363, The Use of Milk as Food; No. 487, Cheese and its Economical Uses in the Diet.

cup boiled rice.

2 cups milk.

2 eggs.

Rice Pudding.

cup sugar.
teaspoon salt.
teaspoon vanilla.

Scald the milk and add the rice, heat until rice is soft; add well-beaten yolis cf eggs, sugar, and salt; cook three minutes, over water; remove from fire; add the wellbeaten whites and flavoring, and serve cold. Serves 8.

Combine sugar and cornstarch thoroughly. Add one cup cold milk and stir until smooth. Heat remainder of the milk, add cornstarch mixture slowly and stir until it begins to thicken. Continue cooking over hot water 20 minutes. Beat egg well, add hot pudding slowly, strain, and cool. Serve with milk or cream and sugar. (Egg may be omitted, if desired.) Serves 8. For chocolate cornstarch pudding, use cup sugar additional and two squares Baker's chocolate. Melt chocolate carefully, add sugar, and add to cornstarch mix

ture.

For caramel cornstarch pudding, use two cups brown sugar and one cup boiling water. Heat sugar until it becomes a light-brown liquid; add boiling water and stir until sugar is all dissolved. Let cool; then add to cornstarch mixture.

METHOD OF WORK.

As soon as class meets demonstrate the method of making cottage cheese. Show separation of curd and whey by adding vinegar or lemon juice to sweet milk. While cheese is draining, make assignments and have the rice or cornstarch pudding made.

Emphasize the use of protein foods in this lesson and in those following.

Discuss food value of milk and its use in cooking. Discuss the food value and purposes for which skimmed milk and sour milk can be used in cooking.

Use the cottage cheese and the pudding for the school lunch.

LESSON X. SOUPS.

Cream Soups. Cream of carrot, potato, or onion soup, green pea soup or cowpea soup. Toast, croutons, or crisp crackers to serve with soup.

SUBJECT MATTER.

Cream soups. The strained pulp of cooked vegetables, greens, or cercals, with an equal portion of thin white sauce, is the basis for cream soups.

A binding of butter and flour is used to prevent a separation of the thicker and the thinner parts of soup. This is combined as for white sauce and poured into the rest of the hot liquid just before the soup is to be served. The soup should not be allowed to boil after the vegetable pulp and milk have been combined, but kept hot over hot

water. The acid present in nearly all vegetables is very apt to produce a curdling in the milk if too high a temperature is maintained after they are combined.

Two tablespoons of flour to each quart of soup is a good proportion to observe for thickening all vegetable soups that are not of a starchy nature; half that amount will be sufficient for soup prepared from a very starchy vegetable.

Attractive cream soups can be prepared from left-over vegetables and a combination of flavors may give good results.

Accompaniments. Crisp crackers, croutons, soup sticks, or bread sticks are served as accompaniments with cream soups and are valuable because they necessitate thorough mastication, thus inducing the flow of the saliva and aiding in the digestion of the starchy ingredients of the soup.

PRELIMINARY PLAN.

The teacher should secure a vegetable that the girls have for use in their own homes as a basis for the soup, and crackers or bread to serve with the soup.

If dried peas are used, they should be put to soak the night before and put on to cook early in the morning.

It will be well to have the cooking of the carrots begun before the lesson period. If the carrots are cut up in small pieces, they will cook more quickly.

Cook carrots until very tender in enough boiling water to cover, then rub all through a strainer with a wooden spoon.

Heat butter, add flour and then the carrot mixture, and when it boils well, add hot milk and seasonings. Serve at once. Serves 6.

Heat the milk over hot water. Add the chopped onions. Boil the potatoes until soft; drain, mash, and add the hot milk. Strain. Melt the butter, add the flour and seasonings and the potato mixture slowly. Cook 5 minutes; add the chopped parsley and serve at once. Serves 4.

3 large onions.

Cream of Onion Soup.

3 tablespoons butter.

cup flour.

2 teaspoons salt.
teaspoon pepper.

1 quart milk or water.

Chop or slice onions, add the hot butter, and fry to a red brown. Add flour and seasonings and cook until slightly brown. Add hot liquid and cook to a creamy consistency. Strain, reheat, and serve.

Serves 8.