While many of the salads—lobster salad for instance—are not suitable for a hospital dietary, when viewed either from the standpoint of economy or digestibility, yet delicious salads may be made of very common articles without any extra expense. A salad composed of apples, celery, a few nuts and a little French dressing could scarcely be considered an expensive dish at any season, and yet such a simple combination would add a relish to an otherwise commonplace meal. A bean salad is both dainty and nutritious. Many such delightful combinations will suggest themselves to the housekeeper whose heart is in her work, and who is really mistress of her art, and these all go to make up the difference between variety and monotony. CHAPTER IX. [Sidenote: Diet Lists and Blanks] For the housekeepers’ guidance in preparing meals for the patients, a diet list showing the number of patients to be provided for and the classes of diets required, needs to be prepared. The duty of preparing this list usually devolves upon the head nurses in charge of the wards and the lists should be sent in either at night or early in the morning of each day. Special articles for individual patients will usually be prepared in the diet kitchen, and may or may not be placed on the diet sheet sent to the general kitchen. In large institutions where there is a pantry on each floor in which special diets are prepared, special requisition blanks are used in many hospitals in procuring the supplies. The amount of eggs, milk and beef juice and the various articles that are expensive and perishable, are estimated by the person in charge, and the requisition is signed by the superintending nurse before it is sent to the kitchen or store room. Such a requisition blank is usually about the size of a doctor’s prescription blank, and they are most convenient when prepared in blocks similar to letter pads. The housekeeper will, of course, superintend the carving of meats and the dispensing of food from the main kitchen. This is one of the most important of her duties and many a dollar can be saved or lost by neglect or attention at this point. Proper carving of meats results in a substantial saving in the course of a year. Dr. W. Gilman Thompson says that an “undesirable tendency among American hospital dietaries is to include too much meat. Not over four ounces of cooked meat (without bone) should be allowed in the meal for men.” Unless specially ordered meat should never be served more than twice a day in a hospital and once for the average patient is sufficient. [Sidenote: Serving of Food]