My mother, and my grandmother, too, always planned the week end meals so that there would be enough for dinner on Monday and Tuesday. And often we enjoyed the leftover dishes more than we did the original pot-au-feu or braised veal! Of course, in France every mother's daughter was taught how to turn yesterday's meat or chicken into a succulent meal, for no true Frenchwoman would countenance the sort of waste so common in American kitchens.
Maman had an old-fashioned clay baking dish, round and shallow and yel-low-brown in color, that she liked to use for leftover dishes. In it she used to make a wonderful hachis bourbannaise, crusty on the bottom and well browned on top, or a veal pie, juicy and savory under a flaky golden crust, or sliced meat smothered in a piquant sauce. Maman never dreamed, as I watched her work and asked a small boy's questions. that years later these same dishes would be prepared in the great kitchens of the old Ritz-Carlton.
You may wonder that the chef of a luxury hotel should concern himself with the problems of kitchen waste and leftovers, but he must, in lush periods as well as in lean. There are opulent times when it would seem that the chef need never give a thought to food costs or labor casts, but they come less frequently and never last as long as the times when food prices go up and labor is hard to come by and high in price. A reputable restaurant never allows the quality of the food it serves to be impaired, even when costs mount and circumstances permit no increase, or very little, in the prices on the menu. So the chef must do two things: He has to watch the market carefully and buy as prudently as possible, and he must check his kitchen staff all along the line so that none of the precious food is wasted.
Two wars and the restrictions they made necessary, the terrible depression years, the era when more guests faded from sight with every drop in the stock market, and the problems of the postwar years—during all these difficult times the standards of the old Ritz-Carlton were never relaxed. And the tricks we used then served us well in good times. too. because they helped to enlarge our repertoire of delicious meals in which imagination and invention took the place of extravagant use of ingredients and time.
Is it any wonder then that I am shocked and grieved to learn about the wasteful habits of American kitchens, particularly in these days of high food prices? So much valuable food is wasted in preparation, so much more is thrown away when it could be used to make another meal … and. what is more important, to make another delicious meal.
First, how to avoid waste in preparation? Simple enough. Make it a rule to use everything—even parts that seem of no use—to add character and flavor to your cooking. Use mushroom peelings and stems instead of whole mushrooms to flavor sauces such us velouté and bechamel, or in a cream soup. Cook the trimmings in the sauce and then strain them out. Celery tops, tomato skins, the coarse green part of leeks should all go into the stock pot or the soup kettle. The green of leeks adds a delicious flavor to split pea soup or to puree of fresh pea soup. Young pea pods enhance the flavor of the soup, as well as its color. Chop up the tough ends of asparagus for cream of asparagus soup. Cook the outside leaves of lettuce, romaine, escarole, and other greens like spinach, to serve with gravy—almost everything edible has some use.
To make successful leftover dishes. your ingredients must include a larger amount than usual of imagination and ingenuity. Your sense of taste and feeling for food play an important part. Leftovers vary greatly in size, weight, and the length of their first cooking. If the recipe calls for about 1 pound of meat, for instance, and you have 1 ¼ pounds, or only ¾ pound, you must adjust the other ingredients and seasonings accordingly. Or you may add a little cooked rice, or some leftover vegetables, or bread crumbs, and so originate a new recipe.
I have said it before, but I must repeat that it is poor practice to cook meat or poultry for a second time, except if it is chopped finely for a hash. Leftover cooked meat should never be used for a stew, or heated by roasting again in the oven. To heat leftover meat, make the sauce, put the meat in the hot sauce, and bring it just to the boiling point without actually letting it cook.
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