500 Delicious Dishes from Leftovers

Edited by Ruth Berolzheimer, Director, Culinary Arts Institute; Published in 1952 by Consolidated Book Publishers, Chicago

Rare indeed is the day when a modern housewife could not find in her refrigerator all sorts of odds and ends in the way of food.

 Indeed.

Mr. Big Food has begun working on putting some recipes from the Encyclopedia of Cooking into The Big Food Manual. When he told me the next up in this series of cookbooks was "leftovers," I didn't understand. But I do now. Continuing from above,

And it is these leftovers that challenge the imagination of the alert homemaker. She has learned the importance of their utilization for food value as well as economy. She knows, for instance, that the liquids from cooked or canned vegetables are full of vitamins and minerals; and so they go into cocktails or soups instead of down the sink. She has become aware of the value of saving everything from pea pods to grapefruit and melon rinds and of preparing and presenting them at the table with eye and appetite appeal. 

I'm not sure what's to be done with the leftover melon rind, but here is a small sampling of what to do with "leftover tidbits."

• Mashed potato balls: leftover mashed potatoes and a lonely egg yolk + dab of butter, baked at 400*
• Cheese puffs: rounds of bread toasted on one side, buttered on the other; leftover cheese + egg yolk + stiff egg white; spread on buttered side, broil
• Lemon sherbet: water + sugar + lemon juice + leftover egg whites
• Curds and cream: sour milk + nutmeg + heavy sweet cream + sugar. You can use a colander lined with cheesecloth if you do not have a curd press.
• Prune whip pie: "Use leftover prunes for prune whip pie and the apricots left from lunch to garnish the dinner chop plate."

There are 495 more delicious dishes from leftovers in this little pamphlet type cookbook.

What's more, there are 23 more volumes in the Encyclopedia of Cooking series! 

250 cakes

250 pastries

250 soups

200 dishes for children

500 salads

et cetera

Volume 23 is "Facts About Food. A complete handbook of 2,000 culinary facts that belong in every kitchen." Volume 24 is "Menus," 3 X 365 of them. 

Crappy old stuff. I love it. (Although I think I'll pass on the curds and cream, thank you.)