Eat this Column

This column is intended as my own view of food and its role beyond the simple expedient of staying alive. Since lack of means is the most outstandingly common feature of the readers of this journal I hope to be of some assistance in suggesting ways of ensuring that you may eat cheaply and yet not have your palates the of boredom before the end of the year and the return to the parental mansion and mothers cooking.

Since this column must restrict itself to cheap food it is essential that no source of foodstuffs should go unnoticed. Many dishes can be created that are both easier and more interesting than the students staple of chops and mince. Perhaps rather than ramble on in this vein it would be best to begin by giving a recipe to illustrate my point.

One thing however that must be remembered before I do that is the the need for attention to be paid to the store cupboard for it is in the addition of herbs spices and other flavouring agents that a flacid flavored dish becomes interesting. To invest in these things and perhaps a little wine will enable you to cook great food from unpromising materials. To prepare one dish meals in advance so that only heating is required to bring them to readiness is to give yourself more chance to use cheaper cuts of meat to advantage, to give them the cooking time they need, if they are to be palatable.

If French or Italian names are given to the recipes here it is not food snobbery that prompts their use but simply an acknowledgement of my source for that recipe.

Most important is must be remembered that re-sipes should not be regarded as sacrosanct they are guides, using culinary rules; they themselves are not the rules.

Gulyas

This is perhaps the most abused dish in the world (one needs only to taste the Goulash 52 cents served in the cafeteria) It should however be an extremely rich dish of beef or veal cooked with onions, paprika and herbs in salted pork or bacon fat. The sauce should not be a disguise for unsavory meat nor should it be regarded as a stew in which floats gristly leftovers.

This dish improves with a days keeping before serving and it is also easier prepared beforehand for it requires at least two hours cooking.

Take two pounds of stewing steak, ½ pound of bacon, -ask the butcher for bacon end- 30z of lard, 1 oz paprika, 2 tablespoons of flour, salt, 1 lb of potatoes, 1 pint of stock or water, 1 lb of tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, parsely rosemary and thyme, a bay leaf and a little vinegar.

Melt the fat in a casserole and brown the sliced onions. Cube the meat and roll in the seasoned flour and then in the paprika. Brown the meat and add the peeled tomatoes after a few moments add the vinegar, sprinkle the rest of the flour and paprika and add the stock and the herbs Cover and cook for two hours in a slow oven. Then add the potatoes which have already been partly boiled. Cook for a further ½ hour and serve with some green vegetables.

Beer is a perfect companiment to this dish and it could be improved by the addition of red wine instead of vinegar. (About a glass). For veal gulyas use white wine instead of vinegar and add (If you are rich) a few mushrooms.

Dont Eat Shit.