The constituent elements, ingredients and cooking methods employed in preparing 6, 000 menus for school lunches were studied by “Analysis of relativity of elementary technologies”. The following results were obtained.
1) As for the constituent pattern of menus, 18.3% consisted of one each main dish and side dish with staple food, 27.8% additionally included 2 to 3 side dishes, 12.8% additionally included soup, and 25.3% included dessert.
2) Bread was served as staple food with a slightly more frequency than rice, and the main dishes consisted of meat, fish, peas and beans, and egg in this order. The number of food items served per one meal ranged between 13.5 and 18.1, and the number of dishes 2.22 and 2.81.
3) As proteins served in the lunches, chicken was served most often, followed by chicken egg, pork, fried tofu—bean curd and ham. As green vegetables, carrot was served most followed by spinach, parsley, sweet pepper and tomato. Other vegetables served were onion, cabbage, cucumber, green onion and bean sprout.
4) The combination of onion and carrot was most frequently served (3, 108 times) at the relativity of 0.4060, followed by the combinations of potato and carrot, potato and onion, and carrot and pork. As regards the seasonings, the tendency observed was that salt and pepper was often used with vegetable oil, and soy sauce with sugar.
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