Left-Over Grains

Left-over grains, if well kept, may be reheated in a double boiler without the addition of water, so as to be quite as palatable as when freshly cooked. Small quantities of them may also be utilized for preparing various kinds of desserts where the ingredients require previous cooking. Bice, barley, pearled wheat, and other whole grains may be satisfactorily used in soups in which a whole grain is required; oatmeal, rolled oats, corn-meal, grits, etc., with the addition of a little milk and cream, may be made into delicious gruels; they may be also used advantageously in the preparation of vegetable soups, many of which are even improved by the addition of a few spoonfuls of well-kept cooked oatmeal or rolled oats.

Left-Over Vegetables

Left-over portions of most varieties of vegetables can be best utilized for soups. Cold mashed potato may be made into potato cakes as directed in the chapter on vegetables, where also may be found many other recipes suited to the use of these left-over foods.

Left-Over Meats

Most cook-books offer numerous recipes for croquettes, hashes, and fried dishes prepared from remnants of meat and fish, which, although they serve the purpose of using up the fragments, are not truly economical, because they are generally far from wholesome. Fragments of this character are usually more digestible served cold as a relish or utilized for soups and stews, than compounded into fancy dishes.

Left-Over Milk

Small quantities of unsterilized milk or cream left over should always be carefully scalded, then cooled at once to a temperature of 60° F., and put in a cool place where they will keep sweet and fresh until the next meal.