The Metropolitan Life Cook Book | Metropolitan Life Insurance Company

With our desire to conform to suggestions of food administrators and in the hope that we can reduce the cost of living, all of us are paying more attention to the food that we eat. With this thought in mind, and with the hope that we might be of assistance to policy-holders, we have issued this book. We hope that you will find it useful and helpful.

Chapters

1. Preface
   "The Metropolitan Life Cook Book - Printed and Distributed by the METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY. For the use of its Industrial Policy-holders 1918 With our desire to conform to suggestions of food administrators and in the hope that we can reduce the cost of living, all of us are pay..."
2. Our Daily Meals
   "We all know that to live we must have food, but we do not all realize that we must eat the right kinds of food to be at our best and to work efficiently. It is true that a great many families are not well nourished, not because they do not spend enough money for food, but because they do ..."
3. Measurements
   "Much good food is spoiled in cooking. In order to have good results in cooking, reliable recipes should be followed accurately. Correct measurements are absolutely necessary to insure successful results. A FEW GENERAL RULES Sift flour, meal, powdered sugar, confectioners' sugar ..."
4. Breakfast Dishes - Fruit, Cereal Mixtures, Milk
   "Europeans are in the habit of serving much simpler breakfasts than Americans. The breakfast should be filling and satisfying to start the day well. A few well-cooked dishes served at one time always make a more wholesome meal than when a great variety is served. It is a good plan to serve..."
5. Toast
   "Toast is considered easy of digestion and is always palatable. How to Make Toast. - Cut stale bread into ¼-inch slices, put slices in a wire toaster, lock toaster and hold over or under the heat, holding it some distance from the fire that it may dry gradually, and then brown as desired...."
6. Cereal Flour And Meal Mixtures - Batters And Doughs
   "From cereals we have flour and meals which can be used in a number of ways to make wholesome and palatable dishes. Flour is used in batter and dough mixtures, and as mixtures of flours and batters alone when cooked would be hard and difficult of digestion, different leavens, such as baking-powder..."
7. General Directions For Making Muffins
   "Measure, mix and sift the dry ingredients. Add well-beaten egg, milk and fat, melted. Mix thoroughly. Half fill well-greased muffin tins and bake in a hot oven 20 to 30 minutes. By measuring dry ingredients first, then liquids and fats, only 1 cup need be used for measurin..."
8. Bread And Bread Making
   "In most households bread is the chief cereal food served, and is often called the "Staff of Life." It is most important that the bread should be well made, light and crusty, that it may be wholesome, nutritious and palatable. When well made it is a food of which we do not tire. ..."
9. Beverages - Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, Chocolate
   "Children and young people who have not stopped growing should not drink any tea or coffee. Tea and coffee should never be taken on an empty stomach, unless as a medicine. TEA To Make Tea. - Allow one teaspoon of tea to each cup of boiling water. Scald the teapot with boiling wat..."
10. Soups
    "Left-overs of meat, fish, vegetables and cereals can be used advantageously in making soups. The heavy vegetable pulp soups, such as split pea or bean soup, the cream of vegetable soups and the milk chowders are rich in food value. The thin meat stocks are valuable chiefly as appetizers. The plai..."
11. Fish
    "If more fish and less meat were used in the daily meals, it would help to reduce the cost of living. Fish contains the same food value as meat at a much smaller cost, and furnishes a food that not only tastes good, but is easily digested. Whitefish, haddock, halibut, cod, flounder, smelts..."
12. Meat
    "In the average household there is perhaps no other food that calls for more thought in selection and preparation than meat. In no other country has meat been used so generously as in America. With the present high cost of meat, American housewives are buying less meat than formerly, and a..."
13. Poultry - Roast Chicken
    "Select a chicken with firm flesh, yellow skin and legs. Dress, clean, stuff and tie wings and legs close to body of chicken. Place on its back on a rack in a dripping pan (or on thin slices of salt pork fat or chicken fat in a pan a trifle larger than the chicken). Rub the entire ..."
14. Fat
    "Save every scrap of fat that comes with the meat and render it. TO RENDER FAT TO USE FOR COOKING Fat connected with tissue must be "tried out." The fat should be finely chopped and heated over water and strained. Done in this way there is no danger of burning and a whi..."
15. Meat Substitutes - Eggs
    "Eggs are cheaper than meat. A fresh egg has a thick, rough shell. Nine medium-sized eggs, as a rule, weigh a pound. Eggs and egg dishes should be cooked at a low temperature. GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR COOKING EGGS Have ready a saucepan containing boiling water. A general rule is to..."
16. Vegetables
    "Vegetables should be used generously in our daily meals. They are chiefly valuable for the pure water and mineral matter they contain, which act as a tonic in our bodies. They contain cellulose or wood fiber, which stimulates the digestive organs to carry on their work. The cellulose stimulates t..."
17. Salads
    "Simple salads consist of fresh vegetables which require no cooking, such as the salad greens, which include leaf lettuce, head lettuce, romaine, lettuce, endive, chickory, escarole, sorrel and watercress, and vegetables such as onions, cabbage, celery, cucumber and tomatoes. Any of these may be s..."
18. Desserts
    "Milk and egg desserts are rich in food value. Milk and eggs supply practically all the needs of the body. YELLOW CUSTARD 4 cups scalded milk 4 eggs (if baked in individual cups) 6 eggs (if baked in a large mold) ½ cup sugar ¼ teaspoon salt Few grains nu..."
19. Frozen Mixtures
    "Ice and salt form a freezing mixture several degrees below the freezing point of water. Salt melts the ice, withdrawing heat from the contents of the can, and the melting ice dissolves the salt. The smaller the pieces of ice, the more quickly the change to liquid, and the more salt used, the more..."
20. Cakes
    "Cakes should be regarded as confection and eaten as such. WAR CAKE 1 cup molasses 1 cup corn syrup 1 ½ cups boiling water 2 cups raisins 2 tablespoons fat 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon cloves ½ teaspoon nutmeg 3 cups fl..."
21. Cookies- Peanut Cookies
    "2 tablespoons fat ¼ cup sugar 1 egg, well-beaten ½ cup flour 1 teaspoon baking-powder ½ teaspoon salt 2½ tablespoons milk 1 cup chopped peanuts ½ teaspoon lemon juice Cream the fat, add sugar gradually, add well-beaten egg. Mix and sift baking-powder, salt and flour; ..."
22. Pastry
    "Pastry, if it is to be served at all, should be light, tender and flaky. It is then more easily digested. Winter wheat flour, called pastry flour, should be used as it makes the pastry more tender than bread flour. Less shortening is required when pastry flour is used. The lightne..."