Boycotting the butchers may be an effective way of temporarily lowering
the price of meat, but to make it permanently cheaper another method
must be followed: we must eat less and thus decrease the demand.
This we can do _without depriving ourselves of any of the coveted
pleasures of the table_. We like to eat meats because we enjoy their
Flavors; but it is possible and easy to enjoy these same Flavors in
a way which makes our meals not only more economical but also more
nutritious.
This method has long been in use, but not to such an extent as it
should be. It consists in _extending the flavor of meat_ to other
material which costs less but has a higher nutritive value.
The most valuable pages of the Bulletin referred to in the last section
are those exemplifying the diverse methods of thus extending the flavor
of meat. The recipes are preceded by these illuminating words:
"Common household methods of extending the meat flavor through a
considerable quantity of material which would otherwise be lacking in
distinctive taste are to serve the meat with dumplings, generally in
the dish with it, to combine the meat with crusts, as in meat pies or
meat rolls, or to serve the meat on toast and biscuits. Borders of
rice, hominy, or mashed potatoes are examples of the same principles
applied in different ways. By serving some preparation of flour, rice,
hominy, or other food rich in starch with the meat we get a dish which
in itself approaches nearer to the balanced ration than meat alone and
one in which the meat flavor is extended through a large amount of the
material."
Dr. Wiley, in discussing this aspect of the question, goes so far as to
express the conviction that "the meat eating of the future may not be
regarded so much as a necessity as it has in the past, but that _meats
will be used more as condimental substances than as staple foods_."
Meats as condiments rather than as foods! _There_ is a revolutionary
doctrine for you!--a doctrine subversive of all the beliefs and
practices of the past! Yet it is a doctrine which meat-eaters may
accept calmly in view of the fact that what delights them in meat is
its Flavor, and that even with a minimum quantity of meat this flavor
can be preserved, developed, and extended in the diverse ways hinted at
in the preceding pages.
In view of this truth, meat-eaters should ponder what Dr. Wiley says in
favor of our eating less meat than we do and using it as a condiment:
"In all meat, for instance, that costs twenty-five cents a pound, such
as steaks, there is over one-third or a half of it which is inedible,
so that the edible portion really costs double the amount. On the
contrary, when a pound of flour or maize is purchased, the price of
which is perhaps only one-eighth that of meat, the whole of it is
edible. Thus, from the mere point of economy as well as nutrition, the
superiority of cereals and other vegetable products is at once evident.
On the one hand, a cereal is almost a complete food containing all the
elements necessary to nutrition, and it costs only a few cents a pound.
On the other hand, a steak or roast is only a partial food and it costs
much more than cereals."