MEAT RATIONING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 56, 14 March 1944, Page 7

MEAT RATIONING

COUPONLESS ET CETRAS LKNTKX FAR!-: (Copied.) The question of liow to make the meat ration "spin out" i.s exercising Llie minds of most housewives just now. Most of our troubles in connection therewith are purely antici- , patory. When once we get underway we .shall doubtless manage, cjlitie well. Lots of other things are rationed, and nobody seems to be any worse oil' than they were be-* lore. From the trade end of the proposition it would appear that consumption must, drop considerably, and there will be less killing. This, in turn, will complicate the couponfree liver-kidney-brain situation somewhat. Hut who wants brains'? Everything i. l ? being "managed" so thoroughly for the rest of as and our retailers are so obliging in the way they run our ration books, that we. hardly need to think at all. So who wants brains? 1 wonder whether the "Minister of Foodstull's*' knew that he was rationing meat at the beginning of Lent. This will simplify matters considerably for some people who have meatless days during this period of fasting. This "meatless day" idea ought to catch on now, for purely economic reasons, although I am of the opinion that for therapeutic, as well as for economic and spiritual reasons, there's much to be said for eating less meat. Bernard Shaw hasn't eaten any meat, for over 40 years, and at tS7 he has one of the keenest brains in England to-day. On the other side of the picture again, I am reminded of the old ploughman -who told David Thoreau that a man needed meat to make good bones. Whereupon the. same old ploughman harnessed up his team of draught marcs who, with their Aegetablc made bones, dragged his plough over the roughest country Avitli comparative ease. Rousseau contended that, "great eaters of meat are in general more cruel and ferocious thaii.othcr men," for, said he, "the cruelty of the Efiglish is known." It is strange what opinions others have of us. An Englishman likes his roast beef all right, but it takes a foreigner to discern anything innately cruel about him. 1 would rather say that the roast beef of old England has made for stamina, and if so, wc can well go without our full issue in order to help those whose need is greater than our own. Et Ceteras ! But to return to the etceteras. Tin \se will be rushed. Liver andl bacon (a favourite dish of mine) will be coming into its own at last. It's good for pale-faced, people, so long as it isn't too well cooked, and as for devilled kidneys! But alas! V slice]) only has two, and an ox has no more, and what are they among so many? Still, there are those old hens down the backyard. They might be tender when boiled for a few hours, and rabbits are not to be scoffed at. And then of course there's fish- - when obtainable. Anyhow I have a menu mapped out for the first week. On Sunday we will have the usual roast, and what's left over will do for Monday. Tripe and. onions (had a good crop this year) will make its appearance on Tuesday and Wednesday will be one of our meatless days. On Thursday we will sit down to liver and bacon with a nice thick gravy, and a spot of mustard if we're lucky. On Friday we'll have fish, and on Saturday sausages. And I haven't mentioned sheep's heart. It's very nice stuffed with .seasoning, although of course a sheep has only one.