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Even those who are by no means decided vegetarians may be glad to pass
over a dinner occasionally without meat. It is perhaps not too much to
say that every housekeeper ought to be able to provide a meal
without the aid of meat. We do not mean by this simply the cooking of
vegetables or the preparations of puddings, but the presentation of
dishes intended to take the place of flesh, such as soups and
broths made without meat, vegetable stews, lentil fritters and other
healthful and nutritious dishes. A vegetarian menu is not so simple
as it sounds. It requires knowledge and discrimination on the
housekeeper's part to serve a solid meal without flesh or fowl.
Now that meat is so dear it is the favorable moment to try a vegetable
diet for a time. One mistake to be avoided in this catering is the
putting down of too many dishes of a pulpy character--food which
is soft is excellent with other things, but alone it is neither
satisfying nor very nourishing, at least to a person of strong
digestion. All of them should not be white, for instance, and the same
rule holds good in other things besides color. A nice dish for this
kind of diet is a vegetable curry, in which all the vegetables are
treated like meat and turned out crisp; all the vegetables, too, must
be fresh and young for this method of serving, so that anything like
stringiness is absolutely impossible.
Crisco is entirely vegetable.