Perhaps there is no one thing more often wasted in the average household than fat, yet this is essential to our health, and we pay high prices for it in cream, olive oil, and butter, when cheaper forms might be substituted in some cases.

The fat trimmed from meats is too often left at the market or thrown away after cooking, instead of clarifying it according to the directions on page 73. This, when properly prepared, would be far superior to the lard and cooking butter often bought for culinary purposes.

The flank fat from beef, or "cod fat,' as some market-men call it, is much softer than suet, and, if carefully prepared, is to be preferred to cooking-butter for making ordinary cookies, gingerbread, pastry, etc. This clarified fat usually costs less than ten cents a pound, even after the weight of the scraps is deducted.

When a housekeeper has not time to prepare such fat, she may buy uncolored oleomargarine at about half the price of table butter, or in the vicinity of fifteen cents a pound. (Colored butterine is taxed ten cents a pound.) Many preparations of cotton seed oil are on the market, which are satisfactory when fresh for frying and for use in doughs.

One must use discretion in combining fats for different uses. It is not desirable to use smoked fat like that from bacon, or highly seasoned fat, such as comes from sausages, for frying doughs, but these should be kept each by itself and used for warming potatoes and other vegetables.

The hard suet and soft chicken oil clarified together give an excellent compound, which may be substituted for butter in tomato sauce and some soups, as well as in many doughs.

In the same way all bits of meat and bone should be used for stock, alone, or combined with vegetables. Where meat is served once or twice daily in a house, there is rarely need of buying any especially for soups.