double boiler, and when vigorously boiling stir into it carefully, a
little at a time, so as not to check the boiling, one scant cup of
Graham flour which has been rubbed perfectly smooth in a cup of warm,
not hot, water. Stir until thickened, then place in the outer boiler and
cook for an hour or longer. When done, strain if necessary, season with
salt if desired, and a half cup of sweet cream.
GRAHAM GRITS GRUEL.--Cook three heaping tablespoonfuls of Graham
grits in a quart of boiling water, as directed in the chapter on Grains,
for three hours. Turn through a soup strainer to remove any lumps,
season with half a cup of cream, and salt if desired. Well cooked Graham
grits may be made into gruel by thinning with water or milk, straining
and seasoning as above.
GRUEL OF PREPARED FLOUR.--Knead a pint of flour with water into a
ball, and tie firmly in a linen cloth; put it into a granite-ware basin
or kettle, cover with boiling water, and boil slowly, replenishing with
boiling water as needed, for twelve hours. Put it before the fire to
dry. Afterward remove the cloth, and also a thick skin which will have
formed over the ball. Dry the interior again. When needed for use, rub a
tablespoonful of the prepared flour smooth with three spoonfuls of cold
milk, and stir it into a pint of boiling milk. Cook from three to five
minutes. Season with salt if desired.
INDIAN MEAL GRUEL.--Make a thin paste of one teaspoonful of flour,
two tablespoonfuls of best cornmeal, and a little water. Stir this into
a quart of boiling water, or milk and water in equal proportions, as
preferred. Boil until the meal has set, stirring constantly; then turn
into a double boiler and cook for an hour and half or two hours. Season
with salt, and strain. If too thick, thin with milk or cream.
LEMON OATMEAL GRUEL.--The United States Dispensary recommends the
following method of preparing oatmeal gruel for fever patients; "Rub one
heaping tablespoonful of fine oatmeal smooth in a little cold water;
stir this into three pints of boiling water. Cook until the quantity is
reduced to two pints; then strain, and let it cool and settle. When it
is quite cold, pour the clear gruel from the sediment, add the juice of
a lemon, and sugar to sweeten slightly. If desirable to serve it warm,
reheat before adding the lemon juice." Freshly cooked oatmeal may be
thinned with boiling water, strained and seasoned in the same manner.
MILK OATMEAL GRUEL.--Take a pint of milk and one of water, and heat
to boiling. Stir in three heaping table spoonfuls of oatmeal, and cook
in a double boiler for two or three hours.
MILK PORRIDGE.--Take one pint of milk and the same quantity of
water, and heat to boiling. Stir in two heaping tablespoonfuls of
cornmeal or Graham grits, boil, stirring continuously, until the meal
has set, then turn into a double boiler and cook for two hours or
longer. Season with salt, and a tablespoonful of sweet cream if allowed.
OATMEAL GRUEL.--Into one quart of boiling water stir two heaping
tablespoonfuls of fine oatmeal; let it boil until it thickens, stirring
all the time; then turn into a double boiler and cook for three and a
half or four hours. Strain before serving. A little cream may also be
added, unless contra-indicated by the patient's condition.
OATMEAL GRUEL NO. 2.--Pound one half cup of coarse oatmeal until it
is mealy. The easiest way to do this is to tie the oatmeal in a coarse
cloth and pound it with a wooden mallet. Put it in a pint bowl, and fill
the bowl with cold water. Stir briskly for a few moments until the water
is white, then allow the meal to settle. Pour off the water, being
careful to get none of the sediment. Fill the bowl a second time with
cold water, stir thoroughly, let settle, and pour off the water as
before. Do this the third time. Boil the liquid one half hour, strain,
and serve hot. If very thick, a little cream or milk may be added.
OATMEAL GRUEL NO, 3.--Add to one cup of well-cooked oatmeal while
hot two cups of hot milk, or one cup of hot milk and one of hot water.
Beat all thoroughly together, add a little salt if desired, strain, and
serve.
PEPTONIZED GLUTEN GRUEL.--Prepare the gruel as directed for Gluten
Gruel No. 1. Strain if needed, cook to lukewarm, and turn it into a
pitcher, which place in a dish containing hot water even in depth with
the gruel in the pitcher; add the peptonizing fluid or powder, stir
well, and let it stand in the hot water bath for ten minutes. The
temperature must not be allowed to rise over 130°. Put into a clean dish
and serve at once, or place on ice till needed. Other well-cooked gruels
maybe peptonized in the same way.
RAISIN GRUEL.--Stone and quarter two dozen raisins and boil them
twenty minutes in a small quantity of water. When the water has nearly
boiled away, add two cups of new milk. When the milk is boiling, add one
heaping tablespoonful of Graham or whole-wheat flour which has been
rubbed to a thin paste with a little cold milk. Boil until thickened,
stirring all the time; then turn into a double boiler and cook for
twenty minutes or half an hour. Season with salt and serve.
RICE WATER.--Wash half a cup of rice very thoroughly in several
waters. Put it into a saucepan with three cups of cold water and boil
for half an hour. Strain off the rice water, season with salt if
desired, and serve.
PREPARATIONS OF MILK.
MILK DIET.--An almost exclusive milk diet is sometimes a great
advantage in cases of sickness. It is usually necessary to begin the use
of the milk in moderate quantities, gradually withdrawing the more solid
food and increasing the quantity of milk. In the course of a week, all
other food should be withdrawn, and the quantity of milk increased to
three or four quarts a day. Milk is easily digested, and hence may be
taken at more frequent intervals than other food.
_RECIPES._
ALBUMINIZED MILK.--Shake together in a well-corked bottle or glass
fruit can, a pint of fresh milk and the well-beaten whites of two eggs,
until thoroughly mixed. Serve at once.
HOT MILK.--Hot milk is an excellent food for many classes of
invalids. The milk should be fresh, and should be heated in a double
boiler until the top is wrinkled over the entire surface.
JUNKET, OR MILK CURD.--Heat a cup of fresh milk to 85°, add one
teaspoonful of the essence of pepsin, and stir just enough to mix
thoroughly. Let it stand until firmly curded, and serve.
KOUMISS.--Dissolve one fourth of a two-cent cake of compressed
yeast, and two teaspoonfuls of white sugar, in three tablespoonfuls of
lukewarm water. Pour this into a quart bottle and add sufficient fresh,
sweet milk to nearly fill. Shake well, and place in a room of the
temperature of 70° to 80° F., and allow it to ferment about six hours.
Cork tightly and tie the cork in. Put in a cool place, act above 60° and
let it remain a week, when it will be ready for use. In making koumiss
be sure that the milk is pure, the bottle sound, and the yeast fresh.
Open the bottle with a champagne tap. If there is any curd or thickening
resembling cheese, the fermentation has been prolonged beyond the proper
point, and the koumiss should not be used.
MILK AND LIME WATER.--In cases where milk forms large curds, or
sours in the stomach, lime water prepared in the following manner may be
added to the milk before using:--
Into a gallon jar of water, put a piece of lime the size of one's fist.
Cover the jar and let the lime settle over night. In the morning, draw
the water off the top with a syphon, being careful not to move the jar
so as to mix again the particles of lime with the water.
Two tablespoonfuls of the lime water is usually sufficient for a pint
of milk.
PEPTONIZED MILK FOR INFANTS.--One gill of cows' milk, fresh and
unskimmed; one gill of pure water; two tablespoonfuls of rich, sweet
cream; two hundred grains of milk sugar, one and one fourth grains of
_extractum pancreatis_; four grains of sodium bicarbonate. Put the above
in a clean nursing bottle, and place the bottle in water so warm that
the whole hand cannot be held in it longer for one minute without pain.
Keep the milk at this temperature for exactly twenty minutes. Prepare
fresh just before using.
BEEF-TEA, BROTHS, ETC.
Beef tea and meat broths are by no means so useful as foods for the sick
as is generally supposed. The late Dr. Austin Flint used to say of these
foods, that "the valuation by most persons outside of the medical
profession, and by many within it, of beef tea or its analogues, the
various solutions, most of the extracts, and the expressed juice of
meat, is a delusion and a snare which has led to the loss of many lives
by starvation.
"The quantity of nutritive material in these preparations is
insignificant or nil, and it is vastly important that they should be
reckoned as of little or no value, except as indirectly conducive to
nutrition by acting as stimulants for the secretion of the digestive
fluids, or as vehicles for the introduction of the nutritive substances.
Furthermore, it is to be considered that water and pressure not only
fail to extract the alimentary principles of meat, but that the
excrementitious principles, or the products of destructive assimilation,
_are_ thereby extracted."
Vegetable broths prepared from grains and legumes possess a much higher
nutritive value, while they lack the objectionable features of meat
broths.
_RECIPES._
BEEF EXTRACT.--Take a pound of lean beef, cut it up into small
dice, and put into a glass fruit jar. Screw on the cover tightly, put
the jar into a vessel filled with cold water to a depth sufficient to
come to the top of contents of the jar, and set over a slow fire. As
soon as the water boils, set where it will keep just boiling, but no
more; and cook for an hour or an hour and a quarter. Then strain,
season, and serve. If preferred, a double boiler may be used for the
preparation of the extract.
BEEF JUICE.--Cut a thick slice of round steak, trim off every
particle of fat, and broil it over a clear fire just long enough to heat
it throughout. Next gash it in many places with a sharp knife, and with
the aid of a beef-juice press or lemon squeezer, press out all the juice
into a bowl set in hot water, salt but very slightly, remove all
globules of fat, and serve. This may also be frozen and given the
patient in small lumps, if so ordered.
BEEF TEA.--Take a pound of fresh, lean, juicy beef of good
flavor,--the top of the round and the back and middle of the rump are
the best portions for the purpose,--from which all fat, bones, and
sinews have been carefully removed; cut into pieces a quarter of an inch
square, or grind in a sausage-cutter. Add a quart of cold water, and put
into a clean double boiler. Place over the fire, and heat very slowly,
carefully removing all scum as it rises. Allow it to cook gently for two
or three hours, or until the water has been reduced one half. Strain,
and put away to cool. Before using, remove all fat from the surface, and
season. In reheating, a good way is to place a quantity in a cup, and
set the cup into hot water until the tea is sufficiently hot. This
prevents waste, and if the patient is not ready for the tea, it can be
easily kept hot.
BEEF TEA AND EGGS.--Beat the yolk of an egg thoroughly in a teacup
and fill the cup with boiling beef tea, stirring all the while. Season
with a little salt if desired.
BEEF BROTH AND OATMEAL.--Rub two tablespoonfuls of oatmeal smooth
in an equal quantity of cold water, and stir into a quart of boiling
beef broth. Cook in a double broiler for two hours, strain, and season
with salt and a little cream if allowed. Or, thin well-cooked oatmeal
mush with beef-tea; strain, reheat, season, and serve.
BOTTLED BEEF TEA.--Cut two pounds of round steak into small dice,
rejecting all skin and fat. Put it into a glass fruit jar with one cup
of cold water. Cover the can sufficiently tight to prevent any water
from boiling in, and place it on a wisp of straw or a muffin ring in a
kettle of cold water. Heat very gradually, and keep it just below the
boiling point for two or more hours; or, place the can in a deep dish of
hot water, and cook in a moderate oven for three hours. Allow the meat
to cook thus four or five hours, or until it appears white, by which
time it will have discharged all its juice. Turn the liquor off, strain
through a piece of muslin or cheese cloth laid in a colander, and cool;
then if any fat has been left, it will harden on the top, and can be
removed. When needed for use, reheat, season, and serve.
CHICKEN BROTH.--Take a well dressed, plump spring chicken, cut it
into half-inch pieces, cracking well all the bones; add cold water,--a
quart to the pound of meat and bones,--and cook the same as beef-tea.
Allow the broth to cool before using, and carefully skim off all
particles of fat before reheating. If allowed, a tablespoonful of
steamed rice may be added to the broth, or a well-beaten egg may be
stirred in while hot just before serving. Heat until the whole becomes
thickened, but do not boil.
If preferred, the broth may be prepared by using only the white portion
of the chicken in connection with lean beef. This is liked better by
some to whom the strong flavor of the chicken is not pleasant. Or,
prepare equal quantity of rich milk, season with salt, reheat, and
serve. The broth may be flavored with celery if allowed.
MUTTON BROTH.--Cut a pound of perfectly fresh, lean mutton or
lamb--the scrags of neck are best--into small dice. Add a quart of cold
water, and simmer gently for two or three hours. Strain, and when cold
skim off all fat. Reheat when needed for use.
If preferred, a tablespoonful of rice which has been soaked for an hour
in a little warm water, or a tablespoonful of cooked barley, may be
simmered in the broth for a half hour before serving. Season with salt
as desired.
VEGETABLE BROTH.--Put a cupful of well washed white beans into a
quart of cold water in a double boiler, and cook slowly until but a
cupful of the liquor remains. Strain off the broth, add salt, and serve
hot. If preferred, a few grains of powdered thyme may be added as
flavoring.
VEGETABLE BROTH NO. 2.--Pick over and wash a cup of dried Scotch
peas, and put to cook in a quart of cold water, cook slowly in a double
boiler or in a kettle placed on the range where they will just simmer,
until but a cupful of liquid remains. Strain off the broth, add salt and
one third of a cupful of the liquor, without pulp, from well-stewed
tomatoes. Serve hot.
MIXED VEGETABLE BROTHS.--Broths may be prepared as directed from
both black and white beaus, and combined in the proportion of one third
of the former to two thirds of the latter; or a broth of lentils may be
used instead of the black bean.
_RECIPES FOR PANADA._
BROTH PANADA.--Use beef or chicken broth in place of water, and
proceed the same as in Egg Panada, omitting the egg.
CHICKEN PANADA.--Take a cupful of the white meat of chicken,
pounded to a paste in a mortar, and half a cup of whole-wheat crust or
zwieback crumbs. Add sufficient chicken broth to make a thick gruel.
Season with salt, boil up for a few minutes, and serve hot.
EGG PANADA.--Put two ounces of light, whole-wheat crusts into a
pint of cold water in a granite-ware stewpan; simmer gently for three
quarters of an hour, stirring occasionally. Season with a spoonful of
sweet cream and a little salt, then stir in the well-beaten yolk of an
egg, and serve.
MILK PANADA.--Heat a pint of milk to boiling, then allow it to
cool. Add two ounces of nice, light, whole-wheat crusts, and simmer for
half an hour, stirring frequently. Season with a little sugar, if
allowed. Granola may be used in place of the crusts, if preferred.
RAISIN PANADA.--Boil a half cup of raisins in a half pint of water.
Break a slice of zwieback into fragments in a bowl. Add a well-beaten
egg and a teaspoonful of sugar. Pour in the raisins, water and all, and
beat very thoroughly.
GRAINS FOR THE SICK.
For invalids able to digest solid food, rice, cracked wheat, Graham
grits, oatmeal, barley, farina and other grains may be prepared and
cooked as previously directed in the chapter on Grains.
The various cooked preparations of grains--granola, wheatena, avenola,
wheat gluten and gluten meal--manufactured by the Sanitarium Food Co.,
Battle Creek, Mich., form excellent articles of diet for many invalids,
when served with hot milk or cream, or prepared in the form of mush.
Several recipes for their use have already been given in preceding
chapters; the following are a few additional ones:--
_RECIPES._
GLUTEN MUSH.--Heat together a cup of thin cream and three cups of
water; when boiling, sift in lightly with the fingers, stirring
continuously meanwhile, enough wheat gluten to make a mush of the
desired consistency. Boil up once and serve. A few blanched or roasted
almonds may be stirred in just before serving, if desired.
TOMATO GLUTEN.--Heat a pint of stewed tomato, which has been rubbed
through a fine colander to remove the seeds, to boiling, add salt to
season, and three tablespoonfuls of gluten meal. Boil together for a
moment until thickened, and serve hot.
TOMATO GLUTEN NO. 2.--Prepare the same as the preceding, using five
tablespoonfuls of the gluten meal, and seasoning with two tablespoonfuls
of rather thick, sweet cream.
MEATS FOR THE SICK.
All meats for the sick should be prepared in the very simplest way,
served with the plainest possible dressing, and without the use of
condiments other than salt.
_RECIPES._
BROILED STEAK.--Take a half pound of round steak and a slice of
tenderloin; wipe well with a clean, wet cloth. Have a clear fire; place
the meat in an open wire broiler or on a gridiron over the coals, and
cook, turning as often as you can count ten, for four or five minutes,
if the slices are about one inch thick; then with a lemon squeezer
squeeze the juice from the round steak over the tenderloin, season with
a little salt, and serve at once on a hot plate.
CHICKEN.--For an invalid, the breast of a tender chicken broiled
quickly over hot coals is best. For directions for broiling chicken see
page 406.
CHICKEN JELLY.--Dress a small chicken. Disjoint, break or pound the
bones, and cut the meat into half-inch pieces. Remove every particle of
fat possible. Cover with cold water, heat very slowly, and simmer gently
until the meat is in rags, and the liquid reduced about one half. Strain
off the liquor, cool, and remove all the fat. To make the broth more
clear, add the shell and white of an egg, then reheat slowly, stirring
all the time until hot. Strain through a fine cloth laid inside of a
colander. Salt and a little lemon may be added as seasoning. Pour into
small cups, and cool.
MINCED CHICKEN.--Stew the breast of a young chicken until tender;
mince fine with a sharp knife. Thicken the liquor in which it was stewed
with a little flour, add salt and a little cream if allowed, then the
minced chicken, and serve hot on zwieback, softened with cream as
directed in the chapter on Breakfast Dishes.
MUTTON CHOP.--Select a chop containing a large tenderloin: cut
thick, and broil for eight or ten minutes as directed for beef steak.
Season lightly with salt, and serve hot.
MINCED STEAK.--Mince some nice, juicy steak with a chopping knife,
or in a sausage-cutter, rejecting as much of the fiber as possible; make
into small cakes and broil the same as steak. Salt lightly when done,
and for dressing use a little beef juice prepared as directed on page
427. It may be thickened with a little flour as for gravy, if preferred.
SCRAPED STEAK.--Take a small piece of nice, juicy steak, and with a
blunt case-knife or tablespoon, scrape off all the pulp, being careful
to get none of the fibers. Press the pulp together in the form of
patties, and broil quickly over glowing coals. Salt lightly, and serve
hot. It is better to be as rare as the patient can take it. Instead of
butter, turn a spoonful or two of thick, hot beef juice over the steak,
if any dressing other than salt is required.
EGGS FOR THE SICK.
_RECIPES._
FLOATED EGG.--Separate the white from the yolk, and drop the yolk,
taking great care not to break it, into boiling, salted water. Cook
until hard and mealy. In the meantime, beat the white of the egg until
stiff and firm. When the yolk is cooked, remove it from the water with a
skimmer. Let the water cease to boil, then dip the beaten white in
spoonfuls on the top of the scalding water, allowing it to remain for a
second or two until coagulated, but not hardened. Arrange the white in a
hot egg saucer, and place the cooked yolk in the center, or serve on
toast. This makes a very pretty, as well as appetising dish, if care is
taken to keep the yolk intact.
GLUTEN MEAL CUSTARD.--Beat together thoroughly, one pint of rich
milk, one egg, and four tablespoonfuls of gluten meal. Add a little salt
if desired, and cook with the dish set in another containing boiling
water, until the custard has set. Or, turn the custard into cups, which
place in a dripping pan partly filled with hot water, and cook in a
moderate oven until the custard is set.
GLUTEN CUSTARD.--Into a quart of boiling milk stir four
tablespoonfuls of wheat gluten moistened with a little of the milk,
which may be reserved for the purpose. Allow it to cook until thickened.
Cool to lukewarm temperature, and add three well-beaten eggs, and a
trifle of salt, if desired. Turn into cups, and steam over a kettle of
boiling water until the custard is set.
STEAMED EGGS.--Break an egg into an egg saucer, sauce-dish, or
patty pan, salt very slightly, and steam until the white has just set.
In this way, it will retain its shape perfectly, and not be mixed with
the few drops of water so annoying to invalids, and so hard to avoid in
dishing a poached egg from water.
SOFT CUSTARD.--Boil some milk, then cool it to 180°, add three
whipped eggs to each quart of milk, and keep at the temperature of 180°
for fifteen or twenty minutes. The object is to coagulate the eggs
without producing the bad effect of exposure to a high temperature.
RAW EGGS.--Break a fresh egg into a glass, add a tablespoonful of
sugar, and heat to a stiff froth; a little cold water may be added if
liked.
WHITE OF EGG.--Stir the white of an egg into a glass of cold
water, or water as warm as it can be without coagulating the egg, and
serve.
WHITE OF EGG AND MILK.--The white of an egg beaten to a stiff froth
and stirred into a glass of milk, forms a nourishing food for persons of
weak digestion.
REFRESHING DRINKS AND DELICACIES FOR THE SICK.
In many fevers and acute diseases, but little food is required, and that
of a character which merely appeases hunger and quenches thirst, without
stimulation and without affording much nourishment.
Preparations from sago, tapioca, and other farinaceous substances are
sometimes serviceable for this purpose. Oranges, grapes, and other
perfectly ripened and juicy fruits are also most excellent. They are
nature's own delicacies, and serve both for food and drink. They should
not, however, be kept in the sick room, but preserved in some cool
place, and served when needed, as fresh and in as dainty a manner as
possible. Like all food provided for the sick, they should be arranged
to please the eye as well as the palate. The capricious appetite of an
invalid will often refuse luscious fruit from the hand of a nurse, which
would have been gladly accepted had it been served on dainty china, with
a clean napkin and silver.
The juice of the various small fruits and berries forms a basis from
which may be made many refreshing drinks especially acceptable to the
dry, parched mouth of a sick person.
Fruit juices can be prepared with but little trouble. For directions see
page 209.
Beverages from fruit juices are prepared by using a small quantity of
the juice, and sufficient cold water to dilute it to the taste. If it is
desirable to use such a drink for a sick person in some household where
fruit juices have not been put up for the purpose, the juice may be
obtained from a can of strawberries, raspberries, or other small fruit,
by turning the whole into a coarse cloth and straining off the juice; or
a tablespoonful of currant or other jelly may be dissolved in a tumbler
of warm water, and allowed to cool. Either will make a good substitute
for the prepared fruit juice, though the flavor will be less delicate.
The hot beverages and many of the cold ones given in the chapter on
Beverages will be found serviceable for the sick, as will also the
following additional ones:--
_RECIPES._
ACORN COFFEE.--Select plump, round, sweet acorns. Shell, and brown
in an oven; then grind in a coffee-mill, and use as ordinary coffee.