Money-Saving Main Dishes — Reading Notes

money-saving MAIN DISHES

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Home and Garden Bulletin No. 43

Page What shall we have for dinner 3 Meat 6 Poultry 15 Cooked and canned meats and poultry 18 Fish 23 Eggs 28 Cheese and milk 33 Dry beans and peas 36 Bread and other cereal foods 40 Lunch-box main dishes 44

Human Nutrition Research Division and Consumer and Food Economics Research Division Agricultural Research Service US. Department of Agriculture Washington 25, DC February 1955 Slightly revised October 1962

This bulletin is a revision of and supersedes Leaflet No. 289.

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, US. Government Printing Office Washington 25, DC.—Price 20 cents

What shall we have for dinner ...

This is easy to answer after you have decided on the main dish.

The main dish is especially important in meal planning. It is the hub around which the rest of the meal is built, and often it carries a large proportion of the cost of the meal. Usually the main dish is the main source of protein—so essential to building and repairing body tissues.

In this booklet are recipes and suggestions for about 150 main dishes—easy to make, hearty, and economical. Most of the dishes give four liberal servings; a few provide more.

Most of these main dishes furnish about a fourth of the day’s needs for protein. For those that provide less, additional protein foods are specified in the menu suggestion following the recipe. Or you may prefer to increase the amount of protein-rich food in the main dish—by adding more meat, for instance, to a main-dish soup, salad, or casserole. The rest of the day’s protein will come from milk used as a beverage, and from cereals, bread, and other foods eaten as part of the day’s meals.

You get top-rating proteins (as well as other important nutrients) in foods from animal sources, as in meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, cheese. Some of these protein foods are needed each day; and it is an advantage to include some in each meal.

Next best for proteins are soybeans and nuts and dry beans and peas. When these or grain products are featured in main dishes, try to combine them with a little top-rating protein food, if you can.

No one food is exactly like any other food and no food is complete in all nutrients. Milk products are high in calcium; meats are low. Meat, poultry, eggs, and beans are good sources of iron; milk is low in it. One kind of B vitamin abounds in meats, another in milk, and a third in whole grains. The best way to be sure of a good diet is to use a variety of main dishes and wide choices of other foods to complete the meal.

Main-dish Proteins From a Variety of Sources

To supply a fourth of the day’s protein requirement, a main dish for a family of four must contain about 2 ounces of protein. Although this averages ½ ounce (15 grams) per person, it will not necessarily be divided equally among the family members—men and teen-age boys and girls will need somewhat more; women and younger children, somewhat less. There follows a list of foods commonly used in main dishes, together with the quantity needed to provide the ½ ounce of protein.

Approximate Amounts of Some Foods That Provide About ½ Ounce (15 grams) Protein

Meat: Cuts with only small amounts of 3 ounces bone or visible fat (as beef stew meat, veal cutlet, rolled rib roast, round steak, boned rump roast, tongue) Cuts with moderate amount of bone 4 ounces and visible fat (as standing rib roast, rump roast with bone, lamb shoulder roast, pork chops) Cuts with much fat or bone (such 5 ounces or more as bacon, pork sausage, spareribs) Luncheon-meat mixtures (as bologna, 3½ ounces frankfurters) Chicken (as roasters, stewing hens): Whole, dressed (with head, feet, 4 to 5 ounces bone, viscera weighed in) Ready-to-cook (head, feet, viscera 3 to 4 ounces removed) Canned or boneless, lean 2 ounces Turkey: Whole, dressed (with head, feet, 4 ounces bone, viscera weighed in) Ready-to-cook (head, feet, viscera 3½ ounces removed) Fish, canned or boneless (as salmon, 2½ ounces tuna) Eggs, in shell 4½ ounces (2 large or 2½ medium-size) Milk: Fresh, whole or skim, or buttermilk 14½ ounces (1¾ cups) Evaporated 7 ounces (⅞ cup) Dry, nonfat 1½ ounces (5½ tablespoons) Cheese: Cheddar 2 ounces (½ cup, grated) Cottage 2½ ounces (5 tablespoons) Peanut butter 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) Dry beans, except soybeans (as lima, 2½ ounces (about ⅓ cup) navy, kidney) Soybeans, dry 1½ ounces (about 3 tablespoons)

As you plan your main dishes, do your overall menu planning too, keeping in mind the different kinds of foods that are needed for an adequate diet. Plan to serve foods from each of these four groups every day:

• Milk group—milk in all forms (fluid whole or skim, evaporated, dry, buttermilk). For children, the equivalent of 3 or more cups of fluid milk daily; for teenagers, 4 or more cups; for adults, 2 or more cups.