Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1920-05-06

Tried Out in Our Army-Produee
Meals With Speed Of PrestIdIgitator.
Gone are the good old days when a
woman is expected to spend four hours
in kitchen, wrestling with the prob
lens of some new dish and struggling
with the unintelligible jargOn of the
cookbook. No longer need a man wait
IN vain for his matutinal hash, only
to discover after q goodly interval that
wife just couldn't put the old chop
ping machine together and there must
he a piece missing, or something. All
this is as dead as the dodO.
The resources of food specialists.
dietitiuns, French chefs and medical
men have been combined in a come
Out-of. the-kitchen campaign for the
housekeeper, enabling her to produce
meals with almost, If not quite, the
speed of the prestidigitatOr producing
rabbits out Of the traditional hat. Just
add hot water and boil u few minutes
Is the story.
And cheap-well, here's an example
of the cost. Uncle Sam figured that
he could give his dOughboys full dish
Of vegetable soup and u fine ample pOr-
ton Of cOrned beef hash by using this
new process instantaneous food, for
the vast outlay of 3 cents per dough-
boy.
William Edward Fitch. late Major
u. $. NJ. c.. and NJ. d. in his own
right, has devoted lot of hard work
to the. new product. He will prepare
q cup of clam broth. while the inter-
ested listener Is trying to read the
title Of one Of the Doctors works.
"Dietotherapy, Chemistry Of Digestion,
classification and Analysis Of Foods.
Complete In three volumes. Publish.
ed with the Permission Of the Surgeon
General of the Army" is part of the
title. But the clam broth is ready.
Like Freshly Prepared Food.
First the major produced manila
envelope, something like the average
workers pay envelOpe-decidedly
small. Opening it, he displayed about
tablespoonful of fragments of brown
ish, dried substances. This and lit
tie water boiled for less than five min
utes produce the clam broth. The in.
vestigntOr Is asked to taste the sub
stance which Is strained off, and will
find slices Of clans, celery and other
usual ingredients and nothing to in
dicate that they are any different from
fresh food. If you should stop and
read two titles, the major explains, the
consequent heightened time of boiling
does not spoil the broth. If curiosity
is aroused as to why 1t was neces-
sary to have the surgeon generals
permission, the answer Is contained
In the fact that about $50 pages of
the work deal with army rations, food
economics In the war, etc.
but TO return to the clam broth. The
major Is inquiring how you like 1t.
He is also saying that usually the
chef prepares 1t, but that he has gone
home. Honesty compels the admis-
sion that, chef or no chef, 1t has not
seemed to suffer.
Everything is retained" says the
major. food value, flavor, etc. The
foods are put up In little cardboard
cartons. or in paper envelopes. There
are no tins and no glass. Moreover,
no artificial personalities are used,
even the sO-called most harmless ones.
The package may be opened and part
Of the contents used. The balance
may he set aside and used next week,
next month or next year, and 1t will
be as good as when first opened.
Food Products Keep Indefinitely.
"Here is some lamb stew. now"
continues the dietary expert, placing
Oh the table something resembling
somewhat a section of brown nut
candy. ut will keep indefinitely, IL
the mice will let 1t alone. l see one
has been nibbling here at this end.
This is very old, but all would have
10 90 is put II in water AMI let it boil
for about twenty minutes and 1t would
he most appetizing stew. 1t has,
combined with lamb, onions, potatoes,
and other vegetables, also seasoning.
"rhe soups containing a quantity
Of vegetables can stand about fifteen
Minutes boiling and the meat prod
ucts twenty to twenty-five minutes.
SOUPS. thirty-One creamed soups,
twenty vegetable products, twenty fish
prOducts-fish cakes for instance
ana twenty-five meat products. Corn
ed beef hash, chicken hash, roast beef
hash. lamb stew, Goldfish cakes, cream
ed fish and lobster a la Newburg are
included in the list of dishes prepared
by the new process.
ut is not dehydrating process and
II bears no resemblance to the canning
process Rotulfsm. Of which one Is
hearing SO much these days In connec-
tion with the fatal olive poisoning
caseS. and ptomaine poisoning, are
both Impossible with this process. The
flavor H. not lost as in canning. Al
IN" nutritive and palatable qualities
OF the fresh food are retained"
To the newlywed Innocent Of the
art OF cookery the new instantaneous
food IL boon. According to the ma
5Or. II il all prepared the same way
ii is jusi put in water. Soup Is wet.
=" the water ia saved. COrned beef
hash IN comparatively dry, so most Of
the mTiteY Is allowed to evaporate pass
ing 0f. IN the form of steam. If 1t
Is hu''hy's birthday, or time to ask
for an Easter hat, wife may treat the
hash 20 a little frying-ap in q pan,
making 1t a Drowned hash--but Il isn't
necessary at all.