Imperial Valley Press

CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edson

All signs now point to the fact
that this business of meat ration-
ing is going to be more fun than
any mathematical pastime yet.

Worrying about Joe DiMaggio's bat-
ting average, Notre Dame's odds,
the bangtails, your golf handicap,
the numbers racket, your weight,
your age, your income tax, your
draft number, your waist, your
hips—all these will be simple com-
pared with figuring how you are
going to eat your two and a half
pounds per week, no more but
maybe less. Old folks should get
half allowance, infants and vege-
tarians, none.

You have until February to
figure this out. The government
gals and guys who run ration-
ing won't be able to figure it
out for you before that, either.

But you can do this voluntarily
now to get in practice.

The people who are worrying
about such things have already
coined a slogan to spur you on-
ward but downward. It's kinda
suggestive, but it fits. It's "Share
the Meat!" and it has three kick-
ners on the end:

It's patriotic to share.
It's fair to share.
It's wise to share.

The sharing business is arrived
at from several sources. Somebody
made a survey in 1936 and found
that families with incomes of less
than $500 a year averaged only
11 pounds of meat per person
per week, while families with in-
comes of more than $5000 a year
averaged five pounds per person
per week. Families with incomes
between $500 and $5000 a year are
apparently all right

SOME MORE, SOME LESS

So the idea is to make the fam-
ily of I. Gottbucks eat only half
as much meat, while the family
of I. Got Plenty of Nothin' will be
encouraged to eat more meat to
provide more nutrition and more
muscle for more war work.

The sharing theme comes in
also in the furnishing of more
meat to the Army and Navy
which need it, and to the United
Nations people who are having
to get along on a pound a week
or less.

But it is in figuring things out
so that you won't overeat on your
2½ pounds a week that the fun
will come in. There must be no
cheating. Two and a half pounds
is 40 ounces. If you work a five-
day week and figure on eating
meat only on working days or go-
ing in for two meatless days a
week, that's half a pound a day.
Divide it by seven and you come
out with a scant six ounces a day.

If you pack a bologna sandwich
in your lunch, that counts too. If
you buy your lunch at a restau-
rant, the meat you buy there must
be included in your 2 pounds, so
consequently you may soon expect
to encounter the amazing spectacle
of finding restaurants listing on
their menus the weights of the
meat portions served. For in-
stance, there might be an item
reading:

Pork chop, breaded Bercy aux
gratin, aux beurre, 3.45 oz.
Club sandwich, chicken 1.0 oz.,
bacon 0.0000000001 oz.

The idea is that you must keep
score for the week, on your cuff
or inside your paper match cover,
and try to come out even at Sat-
urday midnight with exactly 2½
ounces consumed.

COMES SUBSTITUTES

But it is in figuring out substi-
tutes for meat that the home eco-
nomists will reach their all-time
hysterical high.

Good red meat contains pro-
tein, iron, thiamin or Vitamin
B1, and niacin. Normally a
fourth of the protein, a fourth
of the iron, a fifth of the thia-
min and a half of your niacin
come from meat. Cut down on
the meat ration and you have
to get those four essentials to
diet from other things. Here
is where the ersatz menu mak-
ers will come in, and if they
carry their art to the logical
conclusion you may expect the
hashhouse menus to offer you
something like.

Peanut butter soup, a la Loy-
isianne
15c
(Meat protein equivalent 0.0375
oz.)

Yes, peanuts, dry beans, eggs,
fish, poultry, cheese, milk and soy-
beans are rich in proteins. iron
you can get from whole-grain ce-
reals, thiamin and niacin from
more fruits and vegetables if you
can get the fruits and vegetables.

But the main doctrine which the
kitchen scientists want to put
over in this "Share the Meat"
campaign is to Spread the Flavor.

The things one veal knuckle is
going to be called upon to do in
this war are simply beyond be-
lief. You are apt to get it first
as a roast, then sliced cold, then
with cabbage in a boiled dinner,
then to become meat balls with
spaghetti, next in a stew, next in
soup, and finally, when you're just
getting used to the flavor, it will
be ground up with soybeans or
something and served as soybean
loaf.

Speaking of soybeans, have you
ever tried a soyburger? Soybean
meal, ground up and made into a
roll that looks like sausage.

How do you think you're going
to like it. You're going to like it.