it into a pint of boiling water, and cook for ten or fifteen minutes.
Drain off all the hot water and put into cold water for a few minutes.
Turn into a colander and drain again; add three pints of milk, salt to
taste, and heat to boiling. Have the yolks of three eggs well beaten,
and when the soup is boiling, turn it gradually onto the eggs, stirring
briskly that they may not curdle. Return to the kettle, reheat nearly to
boiling, and serve at once.
VERMICELLI SOUP NO. 2.--Cook a cupful of sliced vegetable oysters,
a stalk or two of celery, two slices of onion, a parsnip, and half a
carrot in water just sufficient to cover well. Meanwhile put a cupful of
vermicelli in a quart of milk and cook in a double boiler until tender.
When the vegetables are done, strain off the broth and add it to the
vermicelli when cooked. Season with salt and a cup of cream. Beat two
eggs light and turn the boiling soup on the eggs, stirring briskly that
they may not curdle. Reheat if not thickened, and serve.
WHITE CELERY SOUP.--Cut two heads of celery into finger lengths,
and simmer in a quart of milk for half an hour. Remove the pieces of
celery with a skimmer. Thicken the soup with a tablespoonful of
cornstarch braided with a little milk, add salt if desired, and a teacup
of whipped cream.
TABLE TOPICS.
Soup rejoices the stomach, and disposes it to receive and digest
other food.--_Brillat Savarin._
To work the head, temperance must be carried into the
diet.--_Beecher._
To fare well implies the partaking of such food as does not disagree
with body or mind. Hence only those fare well who live
temperately.--_Socrates._
The aliments to which the cook's art gives a liquid or semi-liquid
form, are in general more digestible.--_Dictionaire de Medicine._
In the most heroic days of the Grecian army, their food was the
plain and simple produce of the soil. When the public games of
ancient Greece were first instituted, the _athleta_, in accordance
with the common dietetic habits of the people, were trained entirely
on vegetable food.
The eating of much flesh fills us with a multitude of evil diseases
and multitudes of evil desires.--_Perphyrises, 233 A.D._
No flocks that range the valley free
To slaughter I condemn;
Taught by the Power that pities me,
I learn to pity them.
But from the mountain's grassy side
A guiltless feast I bring;
A scrip with herbs and fruits supplied
And water from the spring.
--_Goldsmith._
BREAKFAST DISHES
A good breakfast is the best capital upon which people who have real
work to do in the world can begin the day. If the food is well selected
and well cooked, it furnishes both cheer and strength for their daily
tasks. Poor food, or good food poorly prepared, taxes the digestive
powers more than is due, and consequently robs brain and nerves of
vigor. Good food is not rich food, in the common acceptation of the
term; it is such food as furnishes the requisite nutriment with the
least fatigue to the digestive powers. It is of the best material,
prepared in the best manner, and with pleasant variety, though it may be
very simple.
"What to get for breakfast" is one of the most puzzling problems which
the majority of housewives have to solve. The usually limited time for
its preparation requires that it be something easily and quickly
prepared; and health demands that the bill of fare be of such articles
as require but minimum time for digestion, that the stomach may have
chance for rest after the process of digestion is complete, before the
dinner hour. The custom of using fried potatoes or mushes, salted fish
or meats, and other foods almost impossible of digestion, for breakfast
dishes, is most pernicious. These foods set completely at variance all
laws of breakfast hygiene. They are very difficult of digestion, and the
thirst-provoking quality of salted foods makes them an important
auxiliary to the acquirement of a love of intoxicating drinks. We feel
very sure that, as a prominent temperance writer says, "It very often
happens that women who send out their loved ones with an agony of prayer
that they may be kept from drink for the day, also send them with a
breakfast that will make them almost frantic with thirst before they get
to the first saloon."
The foods composing the breakfast _menu_ should be simple in character,
well and delicately cooked, and neatly served. Fruits and grains and
articles made from them offer the requisites for the ideal breakfast.
These afford ample provision for variety, are easily made ready, and
easily digested, while at the same time furnishing excellent nutriment
in ample quantity and of the very best quality. Meats, most vegetables,
and compound dishes, more difficult of digestion, are better reserved
for the dinner bill of fare. No vegetable except the potato is
especially serviceable as a breakfast food, and it is much more readily
digested when baked than when prepared in any other manner. Stewing
requires less time for preparation, but about one hour longer for
digestion.
As an introduction to the morning meal, fresh fruits are most desirable,
particularly the juicy varieties, as oranges, grape fruit, melons,
grapes, and peaches, some one of which are obtainable nearly the entire
year. Other fruits; such as apples, bananas, pears, etc., though less
suitable, may be used for the same purpose. They are, however, best
accompanied with wafers or some hard food, to insure their thorough
mastication.
For the second course, some of the various cereals, oatmeal, rye, corn,
barley, rice, or one of the numerous preparations of wheat, well cooked
and served with cream, together with one or more unfermented breads
(recipes for which have been given in a previous chapter), cooked
fruits, and some simple relishes, are quite sufficient for a healthful
and palatable breakfast.
If, however, a more extensive bill of fare is desired, numerous
delicious and appetizing toasts may be prepared according to the recipes
given in this chapter, and which, because of their simple character and
the facility with which they can be prepared, are particularly suitable
as breakfast dishes. The foundation of all these toasts is _zwieback_,
or twice-baked bread, prepared from good whole-wheat or Graham fermented
bread cut in uniform slices not more than a half inch thick, each slice
being divided in halves, placed on tins, or what is better, the
perforated sheets recommended for baking rolls, and baked or toasted in
a slow oven for a half hour or longer, until it is browned evenly
throughout the entire slice. The zwieback may be prepared in
considerable quantity and kept on hand in readiness for use. It will
keep for any length of time if stored in a dry place.
Stale bread is the best for making zwieback, but it should be good,
light bread; that which is sour, heavy, and not fit to eat untoasted,
should never be used. Care must be taken also not to scorch the slices,
as once scorched, it is spoiled. Properly made, it is equally crisp
throughout, and possesses a delicious, nutty flavor.
Its preparation affords an excellent opportunity for using the left-over
slices of bread, and it may be made when the oven has been heated for
other purposes, as after the baking of bread, or even during the
ordinary cooking, with little or no additional heat. If one possesses an
Aladdin oven, it can be prepared to perfection.
Zwieback may also be purchased in bulk, all ready for use, at ten cents
a pound, from the Sanitarium Food Co., Battle Creek, Mich., and it is
serviceable in so many ways that it should form a staple article of food
in every household.
For the preparation of toasts, the zwieback must be first softened with
some hot liquid, preferably thin cream. Heat the cream (two thirds of a
pint of cream will be sufficient for six half slices) nearly to boiling
in some rather shallow dish. Put the slices, two or three at a time, in
it, dipping the cream over them and turning so that both sides will
become equally softened. Keep the cream hot, and let the slices remain
until softened just enough so that the center can be pierced with a
fork, but not until at all mushy or broken. With two forks or a fork and
a spoon, remove each slice from the hot cream, draining as thoroughly as
possible, and pack in a heated dish, and repeat the process until as
much zwieback has been softened as desired. Cover the dish, and keep hot
until ready to serve. Special care should be taken to drain the slices
as thoroughly as possible, that none of them be wet and mushy. It is
better to remove them from the cream when a little hard than to allow
them to become too soft, as they will soften somewhat by standing after
being packed in the dish. Prepare the sauce for the toast at the same
time or before softening the slices, and pour into a pitcher for
serving. Serve the slices in individual dishes, turning a small quantity
of the hot sauce over each as served.
_RECIPES._
APPLE TOAST.--Fresh, nicely flavored apples stewed in a small
quantity of water, rubbed through, a colander, sweetened, then cooked in
a granite-ware dish in a slow oven until quite dry, make a nice dressing
for toast. Baked sweet or sour apples rubbed through a colander to
remove cores and skins, are also excellent. Soften slices of zwieback in
hot cream, and serve with a spoonful or two on each slice. If desired,
the apple may be flavored with a little pineapple or lemon, or mixed
with grape, cranberry, or apricot, thus making a number of different
toasts.
APRICOT TOAST.--Stew some nice dried apricots as directed on page
191. When done, rub through a fine colander to remove all skins and to
render them homogeneous. Add sugar to sweeten, and serve as a dressing
on slices of zwieback which have been previously softened in hot cream.
One half or two thirds fresh or dried apples may be used with the
apricots, if preferred.
ASPARAGUS TOAST.--Prepare asparagus as directed on page 255. When
tender, drain off the liquor and season it with a little cream, and salt
if desired. Moisten nicely browned zwieback in the liquor and lay in a
hot dish; unbind the asparagus, heap it upon the toast, and serve.
BANANA TOAST.--Peel and press some nice bananas through a colander.
This may be very easily done with a potato masher, or if preferred a
vegetable press may be used for the purpose. Moisten slices of zwieback
with hot cream and serve with a large spoonful of the banana pulp on
each slice. Fresh peaches may be prepared and used on the toast in the
same way.
BERRY TOAST.--Canned strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries
may be made into an excellent dressing for toast.
Turn a can of well-kept berries into a colander over an earthen dish, to
separate the juice from the berries. Place the juice in a porcelain
kettle and heat to boiling. Thicken to the consistency of cream with
flour rubbed smooth in a little water; a tablespoonful of flour to the
pint of juice will be about the right proportion. Add the berries and
boil up just sufficiently to cook the flour and heat the berries; serve
hot. If cream for moistening the zwieback is not obtainable, a little
juice may be reserved without thickening, and heated in another dish to
moisten the toast; of if preferred, the fruit may be heated and poured
over the dry zwieback without being thickened, or it may be rubbed
through a colander as for Apricot Toast.
BERRY TOAST NO. 2.--Take fresh red or black raspberries,
blueberries, or strawberries, and mash well with a spoon. Add sugar to
sweeten, and serve as a dressing on slices of zwieback previously
moistened with hot cream.
CELERY TOAST.--Cut the crisp white portion of celery into inch
pieces, simmer twenty minutes or half an hour, or until tender, in a
very little water; add salt and a cup of rich milk. Heat to boiling, and
thicken with a little flour rubbed smooth in a small quantity of milk--a
teaspoonful of flour to the pint of liquid. Serve hot, poured over
slices of zwieback previously moistened with cream or hot water.
CREAM TOAST.--For this use good Graham or whole-wheat zwieback. Have
a pint of thin sweet cream scalding hot, salt it a little if desired,
and moisten the zwieback in it as previously directed packing it
immediately into a hot dish; cover tightly so that the toast may steam,
and serve. The slices should be thoroughly moistened, but not soft and
mushy nor swimming in cream; indeed, it is better if a little of the
crispness still remains.
CREAM TOAST WITH POACHED EGG.--Prepare the cream toast as
previously directed, and serve hot with a well-poached egg on each
slice.
CHERRY TOAST.--Take a quart of ripe cherries; stem, wash and stew
(if preferred the stones may be removed) until tender but not broken;
add sugar to sweeten, and pour over slices of well-browned dry toast or
zwieback. Serve cold.
GRAVY TOAST.--Heat a quart and a cupful of rich milk to boiling,
add salt, and stir into it three scant tablespoonfuls of flour which has
been rubbed to a smooth paste in a little cold milk. This quantity will
be sufficient for about a dozen slices of toast. Moisten slices of
zwieback with hot water and pack in a heated dish. When serving, pour a
quantity of the cream cause over each slice.
DRY TOAST WITH HOT CREAM.--Nicely prepared zwieback served in hot
saucers with hot cream poured over each slice at the table, makes a most
delicious breakfast dish.
GRAPE TOAST.--Stem well-ripened grapes, wash well, and scald
without water in a double boiler until broken; rub through a colander to
remove sends and skins, and when cool, sweeten to taste. If the toast is
desired for breakfast, the grapes should be prepared the day previous.
Soften the toast in hot cream, as previously directed, and pack in a
tureen. Heat the prepared grapes and serve, pouring a small quantity
over each slice of toast. Canned grapes may be used instead of fresh
ones, if desired.
LENTIL TOAST.--Lentils stewed as directed for Lentil Gravy on page
226 served as a dressing on slices of zwieback moistened with hot cream
or water, makes a very palatable toast. Browned flour may be used to
thicken the dressing if preferred.
PRUNE TOAST.--Cook prunes as directed on page 191, allowing them to
simmer very slowly for a long time. When done, rub through a colander,
and if quite thin, they should be stewed again for a time, until they
are about the consistency of marmalade. Moisten slices of zwieback with
hot cream, and serve with a spoonful or two of the prune dressing on
each. One third dried apple may be used with the prune, if preferred.
PEACH TOAST.--Stew nice fresh peaches in a small quantity of water;
when tender, rub through a colander, and if quite juicy, place on the
back of the range where they will cook very slowly until nearly all the
water has evaporated, and the peach is of the consistency of marmalade.
Add sugar to sweeten, and serve the same as prunes, on slices of
zwieback previously moistened with hot cream. Canned peaches may be
drained from their juice and prepared in the same manner. Dried or
evaporated peaches may also be used. Toast with dried-peach dressing
will be more delicate in flavor if one third dried apples be used with
the peaches.
SNOWFLAKE TOAST.--Heat to boiling a quart of milk to which a half
cup of cream, and a little salt have been added. Thicken with a
tablespoonful of flour rubbed smooth in a little cold milk. Have ready
the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff froth; and when the sauce is
well cooked, turn a cupful of it on the beaten egg, stirring well
meanwhile so that it will form a light, frothy mixture, to which add the
remainder of the sauce. If the sauce is not sufficiently hot to
coagulate the albumen, it may be heated again almost to the boiling
point, but should not be allowed to boil. The sauce should be of a
light, frothy consistency throughout. Serve as dressing on nicely
moistened slices of zwieback.
TOMATO TOAST.--Moisten slices of zwieback in hot cream, and serve
with a dressing prepared by heating a pint of strained stewed tomato to
boiling, and thickening with a tablespoonful of corn starch or flour
rubbed smooth in a little cold water. Season with salt and a half cupful
of hot cream. The cream may be omitted, if preferred.
VEGETABLE OYSTER TOAST.--Cook a quart of cleaned, sliced vegetable
oysters in a quart of water until very tender; add a pint and a half of
rich milk, salt to taste, and thicken the whole with two tablespoonfuls
of flour rubbed to a smooth paste with a little milk. Let it boil for a
few minutes, and serve as a dressing on slices of well-browned toast
previously moistened with hot water or cream.
_MISCELLANEOUS BREAKFAST DISHES._
BREWIS.--Heat a pint of rich milk to boiling, remove from fire, and
beat into it thoroughly and quickly a cup of very fine stale rye or
Graham bread crumbs. Serve at once with cream.
BLACKBERRY MUSH.--Rub a pint of canned or fresh stewed and
sweetened blackberries, having considerable juice, through a fine
colander or sieve to remove the seeds. Add water to make a pint and a
half cupful in all, heat to boiling, and sprinkle into it a cupful of
sifted Graham flour, or sufficient to make a mush of desired thickness.
Cook as directed for Graham Mush, page 90. Serve hot with cream.
DRY GRANOLA.--This prepared food, made from wheat, corn, and oats,
and obtainable from the Sanitarium Food Co., Battle Creek, Mich., forms
an excellent breakfast dish eaten with cold or hot milk and cream.
Wheatena, prepared wholly from wheat; Avenola, made from oats and wheat;
and Gofio, made from parched grains, all obtainable from the same firm,
are each delicious and suitable foods for the morning meal.
FRUMENTY.--Wash well a pint of best wheat, and soak for twenty-four
hours in water just sufficient to cover. Put the soaked wheat in a
covered earthen baking pot or jar, cover well with water, and let it
cook in a very slow oven for twelve hours. This may be done the day
before it is wanted, or if one has a coal range in which a fire may be
kept all night, or an Aladdin oven, the grain may be started in the
evening and cooked at night. When desired for use, put in a saucepan
with three pints of milk, a cupful of well-washed Zante currants, and
one cup of seeded raisins. Boil together for a few minutes, thicken with
four tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed smooth in a little cold milk, and
serve.
MACARONI WITH RAISINS.--Break macaroni into inch lengths sufficient
to fill a half-pint cup. Heat four cups of milk, and when actively
boiling, put in the macaroni and cook until tender. Pour boiling water
over a half cup of raisins, and let them stand until swelled. Ten or
fifteen minutes before the macaroni is done, add the raisins. Serve hot
with or without the addition of cream. Macaroni cooked in the various
ways as directed in the chapter on Grains, is also suitable for
breakfast dishes.
MACARONI WITH KORNLET.--Break macaroni into inch lengths and cook
in boiling milk and water. Prepare the kornlet by adding to it an equal
quantity of rich milk or thin cream, and thickening with a little flour,
a tablespoonful to the pint. When done, drain the macaroni, and add the
kornlet in the proportion of a pint of kornlet mixture to one and one
half cups of macaroni. Mix well, turn into an earthen dish, and brown in
a moderate oven. Left-over kornlet soup, if kept on ice, may be utilized
for this breakfast dish, and the macaroni may be cooked the day before.
Green corn pulp may be used in place of the kornlet.
PEACH MUSH.--Prepare the same as Blackberry Mush using very thin
peach sauce made smooth by rubbing through a colander. Freshly stewed or
canned peaches or nicely cooked dried peaches are suitable for this
purpose. Apples and grapes may be likewise used for a breakfast mush.
RICE WITH LEMON.--Wash a cup of rice and turn it into three pints
of boiling water, let it boil vigorously until tender, and turn into a
colander to drain. While still in the colander and before the rice has
become at all cold, dip quickly in and out of a pan of cold water
several times to separate the grains, draining well afterward. All
should be done so quickly that the rice will not become too cold for
serving; if necessary to reheat, place for a few moments in a dish in a
steamer over a kettle of boiling water. Serve with a dressing of lemon
previously prepared by cutting two fresh lemons in thin, wafer-like
slices, sprinkling each thickly with sugar, and allowing them to stand
for an hour or more until a syrup is formed. When the rice is ready to
serve, lay the slices of lemon on top of it, pouring the syrup over it,
and serve with a slice or two of the lemon for each dish.
TABLE TOPICS.
The lightest breakfast is the best.--_Oswald._
A NEW NAME FOR BREAKFAST.--"Tum, mamma, leth's go down to tupper,"
said a little toddler to her mother, one morning, recently.
"Why, we don't have supper in the morning," replied the mother.
"Den leth's do down to dinner," urged the little one.
"But we don't have dinner in the morning," corrected the mother.
"Well, den, leth's do down any way," pleaded the child.
"But try and think what meal we have in the morning," urged mamma.
"I know," said the toddler, brightening up.
"What meal do we have in the morning?"
"Oatmeal. Tum on; leth's do."--_Sel._
Seneca, writing to a friend of his frugal fare which he declares
does not cost a sixpence a day, says:--
"Do you ask if that can supply due nourishment? Yes; and pleasure
too. Not indeed, that fleeting and superficial pleasure which needs
to be perpetually recruited, but a solid and substantial one. Bread
and polenta certainly is not a luxurious feeding, but it is no
little advantage to be able to receive pleasure from a simple diet
of which no change of fortune can deprive one."
Breakfast: Come to breakfast!
Little ones and all,--
How their merry footsteps
Patter at the call!
Break the bread; pour freely
Milk that cream-like flows;
A blessing on their appetites
And on their lips of rose.
Dinner may be pleasant
So may the social tea,
But yet, methinks the breakfast
Is best of all the three.
With its greeting smile of welcome,
Its holy voice of prayer,
It forgeth heavenly armor
To foil the hosts of care.
--_Mrs. Sigourney._
Health is not quoted in the markets because it is without
price.--_Sel._
It is a mistake to think that the more a man eats, the fatter and
stronger he will become.--_Sel._
DESSERTS
Custom has so long established the usage of finishing the dinner with a
dessert of some kind, that a _menu_ is considered quite incomplete
without it; and we shall devote the next few pages to articles which may
be deemed appropriate and healthful desserts, not because we consider
the dessert itself of paramount importance, for indeed we do not think
it essential to life or even to good living, but because we hope the
hints and suggestions which our space permits, may aid the housewife in
preparing more wholesome, inexpensive dishes in lieu of the indigestible
articles almost universally used for this purpose.
We see no objection to the use of a dessert, if the articles offered are
wholesome, and are presented before an abundance has already been taken.
As usually served, the dessert is but a "snare and delusion" to the
digestive organs. Compounded of substances "rich," not in food elements,
but in fats, sweets, and spices, and served after enough has already
been eaten, it offers a great temptation to overeat; while the elements
of which it is largely composed, serve to hamper the digestive organs,
to clog the liver, and to work mischief generally. At the same time it
may be remarked that the preparation of even wholesome desserts requires
an outlay of time and strength better by far expended in some other
manner. Desserts are quite unnecessary to a good, healthful, nutritious
dietary. The simplest of all desserts are the various nuts and delicious
fruits with which nature has so abundantly supplied us, at no greater
cost than their harmful substitutes, and which require no expenditure of
time or strength in their preparation. If, however, other forms of
dessert are desired, a large variety may be prepared in a simple manner,
so as to be both pleasing and appetizing.
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS.