The following menus have been obtained from housewives who were glad to share in an effort toward better understanding between foreign-born groups and agencies either of adjustment or for case work. This small body of material is illustrative of the kind of information that is easily available to the agency and that would illumine the treatment of the families under care.
The menus given are those actually used by housewives of different nationalities during the periods indicated. A list of recipes will be found in another volume of this Study.[82]
BOHEMIAN
These menus were given by a Bohemian woman whose methods of cooking have changed very little in America. She has learned new ways of preserving vegetables and fruits, but uses those methods only when they seem to her more inexpensive than her earlier practices. In other respects the diet is said to be typical of the diet of a Bohemian family of moderate income in Moravia.
Breakfast
Oatmeal with milk.
Coffee, bread with butter or jelly.
There is always fruit in the house and the child of five is given bread and jelly at ten o'clock in the morning.
Lunch
Usually a meatless soup is served for lunch, or a simple dish of rice or vegetables. Eggs cooked in various ways, milk, bread, butter, and jelly, and baked porridge called "kashe" made from farina, rice or millet, cooked with milk and sugar and butter, are also used at lunch.
Dinner
The dinner menus do not vary much. Soup made from meat stock is eaten every week day except Wednesday, when there is roast meat and no soup. On Sunday both soup and a roast are served. The meat from the soup is served with a variety of sauces and gravies. Dumplings are used often when Americans would serve potatoes. Rice and noodles are also used instead of potatoes. Such vegetables as beans, spinach, carrots, cabbage, kohl-rabi, sauerkraut, and salads are sometimes eaten with the meat instead of the sauce with dumplings. The following are typical menus:
Soup.
Meat with sauce and dumplings.
Apple sauce or preserves.
Coffee. Bread and butter.
Soup.
Meat with sauce and potatoes.
Stewed fruit.
Coffee with homemade raised tarts.
Soup.
Meat, beans, sauerkraut.
Apple sauce.
Coffee. Bread and butter.
CROATIAN
The following menus represent the diet of a Croatian family of moderate income. The family came from a village near Zara, and the influence of the Italian customs upon the food habits of the Dalmatians is indicated in the use of polenta.
August 6, 1919:
Breakfast—5 a.m.
One cup of coffee with one or two slices of bread. Coffee is made very strong, the cup filled two thirds full of hot milk; the coffee and some cream added.
Second Breakfast—9 a.m.
A soft-boiled egg, with bread.
One cup of coffee.
The custom of having a second breakfast is Croatian. In this family it has been possible to keep it up in this country because the hours for a street-car conductor can be arranged to allow it.
Dinner—12.30 p.m.
Beef soup with dumplings.
Soup meat with sauce.
Mashed potatoes (browned).
Bread. Coffee.
Supper—7 p.m.
Soup with rice (from same stock as was used at noon).
Cabbage.
Bread. Coffee. Fruit.
August 7, 1919:
Breakfast
Early breakfast is always the same. The second breakfast varies little; sometimes bread and cheese or bread and meat sandwiches are eaten instead of the soft-boiled eggs.
Dinner
Goulash.
Polenta.
Lettuce salad.
Coffee.
Supper
Spaghetti with tomato sauce.
Celery.
Bread. Coffee.
ITALIAN (Sicilian)
The following menus represent the diet of a Sicilian family from Palermo. They have been in America over twenty years, but their diet has changed little. There are ten persons in the family—the mother and two unmarried daughters, a married daughter, her husband and four children. The children are seven, five, and three years, and ten months. Food for the children is prepared separately. For breakfast they have cereal, milk, bread, and stewed fruit; for lunch, rice or potato, bread, milk, and the green vegetables cooked for the family if not cooked with tomato sauce. For supper the children have bread and milk. It is not common in Italian families to make so much difference in the diet for children; they are usually fed on the highly seasoned dishes the family eat, but in this family the mother prepared special food for her children, and her daughter is doing the same and planning their diet even more carefully.
Summer menus:
Monday, August 11, 1919:
Breakfast
Coffee or chocolate.
Toast. Italian cookies.
For children, bread and milk or oatmeal and milk.
The coffee is made strong, but is served with hot milk—the cup half or two thirds filled with milk before coffee is poured in. Very often nothing is eaten with the coffee.
Luncheon—Noon
Cold sliced meat (left from Sunday).
Tomato and lettuce salad.
Bread. Fruit.
Dinner
Spaghetti with tomato sauce.
Stuffed peppers.
Bread. Fruit.
Tuesday, August 12, 1919:
Breakfast
Same every morning.
Luncheon
Stew made of long, slender squash, potatoes, onions.
Bread. Fruit.
Dinner
Broiled veal.
Fried potatoes.
Fresh tomatoes with French dressing.
Boiled string beans.
Bread. Fruit.
Wednesday, August 13, 1919:
Luncheon
Boiled greens with olive oil.
Fresh tomatoes.
Bread. Cheese.
Fruit.
Dinner
Macaroni with peas.
Diced potatoes with tomato sauce.
Breaded asparagus.
Fruit.
Thursday, August 14, 1919:
Luncheon
Breaded fried liver.
Sauce for meat made of vinegar, sugar, chopped orange rind, and bay leaves.
Boiled greens with olive oil.
Bread. Fruit.
Dinner
Macaroni À la Milanese
Sauce of finocchi, bread crumbs, anchovi.
Potato cakes.
Fruit.
Friday, August 15, 1919:
Luncheon
Egg tamale.
String beans, French dressing.
Bread. Fruit.
Dinner
Fried fish.
Fresh tomatoes.
Cucumbers. Bread. Fruit.
Saturday, August 16, 1919:
Luncheon
Potatoes and eggs.
Greens with vinegar.
Bread. Fruit.
Dinner
Broiled steak.
Corn. Potatoes.
Salad. Bread. Fruit.
Sunday, August 17, 1919:
Breakfast
Coffee. Italian pastry.
Dinner
Homemade macaroni with tomato sauce.
Veal pot roast.
Corn. Eggplant. Bread.
Fruit salad.
The menus given are typical of the diet during the summer. A great variety of vegetables is used.
Winter menus:
Monday:
Breakfast
Coffee or chocolate.
Bread, toast, or Italian cookies.
Luncheon
Stew of spinach, lentils, and onions.
Baked apples. Bread. Coffee.
Dinner
Macaroni with tomato sauce.
Meat (left over from Sunday).
Bread. Coffee or wine.
Tuesday:
Breakfast is always the same.
Luncheon
Egg tamale (egg, cheese, and bacon).
Baked potatoes.
Bread. Fruit.
Dinner
Soup with macaroni.
Meat with vegetables, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, etc.
Bread. Fruit.
Wednesday:
Luncheon
Salmon, lemon juice.
Spinach with olive oil.
Bread. Fruit.
Dinner
Macaroni with navy beans.
Fried eggplant, with tomato sauce and cheese.
Bread. Fruit.
Thursday:
Luncheon
Soft-boiled eggs.
Fried green tomatoes.
Bread. Baked apples.
Dinner
Breaded pork chops.
Potatoes. Spinach.
Fruit Salad. Bread.
Friday:
Luncheon
Egg omelet.
Chocolate. Bread.
Stewed fruit.
Dinner
Fish with tomato sauce.
Stuffed green peppers.
Bread. Fruit.
Saturday:
Luncheon
Broiled liver.
Lettuce salad. Bread.
Fruit.
Dinner
Lima beans with celery, onions, and tomatoes.
Stuffed artichokes.
Bread. Coffee. Fruit.
Sunday:
Breakfast
Coffee and Italian fried cakes.
Dinner
Macaroni with tomato sauce and chopped meat.
Pot roast. Peas.
Ice cream.
Supper
Rice cooked in milk with egg.
Cake. Coffee.
SLOVENIAN
Menus given by a Slovenian woman show the diet of a family of moderate income whose food habits have not been modified in America. Certain European customs are observed; no desserts are served, and no baking powder is used. Sweet cookies, raised with yeast, and fresh fruit, are given to children who are allowed candy, so that they may not feel deprived of sweets when they see other children eating candy at school. The older children have learned to prepare new "American" dishes at school, but these are not used at home, as the whole family prefer the Slovenian diet.
Breakfast
Coffee, bread and butter.
(Breakfast is always the same.)
10 a.m.
An egg, a sandwich, or a cup of milk for parents.
Fruit for children.
Lunch
1. Rice cooked with mushrooms, celery, onions, and spice. In cold weather fifteen cents' worth of pork is cooked with the rice. Water with fruit juice to drink, or the water from cooked fruit.
2. Buckwheat cakes, eaten with cooked dried fruit or jelly.
3. Barley and beans cooked together. Colored beans are used, and must be tried to see whether they will cook in the same time as the barley. Olive oil, bacon or sausage, and a little garlic are added.
4. Millet (kasa) cooked in milk with sugar, then baked in the oven fifteen minutes and served with milk.
5. French toast.
6. Corn-meal mush, fried, with sauerkraut. "A good quality of corn meal is used, bought in Italian districts." Boiling water is poured very slowly into a dish of meal, and allowed to stand twenty minutes. Mush is fried in butter, eaten with sauerkraut, cooked dried fruit or honey.
7. Noodles with Parmesan cheese.
8. Noodles with baked apples.
3 p.m.
Coffee, bread with butter or jelly.
(Coffee is very weak for children; a great deal of milk is added.)
Dinner
1. Beef soup with farina dumplings.
Meat (from the soup) eaten with a relish.
Potatoes. Turnips. Bread.
2. Vegetable soup.
Roast meat.
Vegetables.
Bread. Water.
