eggs.
Wash, dry and pick over the pine kernels and put them through the
macerating machine. Skin and well mash the tomatoes. Grate finely the
onion. Mix all together and beat to a smooth batter. Whisk the eggs to a
stiff froth and add to the mixture. Pour into a greased pie-dish. Bake in
a moderate oven until a golden-brown colour. It should "rise" like a cake.
It may be eaten warm with brown gravy or tomato sauce, or cold with salad.
16. STEWED NUTTOLENE.
Slice one half-pound nuttolene into a baking dish, adding water enough to
cover nicely. Place it in the oven, and let it bake for an hour. A piece
of celery may be added to give flavour, or a little mint. When done,
thicken the water with a little flour, and serve.
17. WELSH RAREBIT.
Cheese, butter, bread, pepper.
Cut thin slices of cheese and put them with a little butter into a
saucepan. When well melted pour over hot well-buttered toast. Dust with
pepper. Put into a very hot oven for a few minutes and serve.
18. YEAST BREAD.
7 lbs. flour, salt to taste (about 3/4 ounce), 1 ounce yeast, 1-1/2 quarts
of warm water.
Put the flour into a pan or large basin, add salt to taste, and mix it
well in. Put the yeast with a lump of sugar into a small basin, and pour a
little of the _warm_ water on to if. Cold or hot water kills the yeast.
Leave this a little while until the yeast bubbles, then smooth out all
lumps and pour into a hole made in the middle of the flour. Pour in the
rest of the warm water, and begin to stir in the flour. Now begin kneading
the dough, and knead until the whole is smooth and damp, and leaves the
hand without sticking, which will take about 15 to 20 minutes. Time spent
in kneading is not wasted.
Set the pan in a warm place, covered with a clean cloth. Be careful not to
put the pan where it can get too hot. The fender is a good place, but to
the side of the fire rather than in front. Let it rise at least an hour,
but should it not have risen very much--say double the size--let it stand
longer, as the bread cannot be light if the dough has not risen
sufficiently.
Now have a baking-board well floured, and turn all the dough on to it.
Have tins or earthenware pans, or even pie-dishes well greased. Divide the
dough, putting enough to half fill the pans or tins. Put these on the
fender to rise again for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake in a hot oven, about
350 degrees (a little hotter than for pastry).
Bake (for a loaf about 2 lbs. in a moderate oven) from 30 to 40 minutes.
Of course the time depends greatly on the size of the loaves and the heat
of the oven.
The above recipe produces the ordinary white loaf. Better bread would, in
my opinion, result from the use of a very fine wholemeal flour such as the
"Nu-Era," and the omission of salt.
XIV.--UNFIRED FOOD.
The true unfired feeder is an ideal, _i.e.,_ he exists only in idea, at
least so far as my experience goes! To be truly consistent the unfired
feeder should live entirely on raw foods--fruit, nuts and salads. But most
unfired feeders utilise heat to a slight extent, although they do not
actually cook the food. In addition, most of them use various breadstuffs
and biscuits which, of course, are cooked food. "Unfired" bread is sold by
some health food stores, and is a preparation of wheat which has been
treated and softened by a gentle heat.
Cereals should never be eaten with fruit, but may be eaten with salads and
cheese. The mid-day meal of the unfired feeder should consist of nuts or
cheese and a large plate of well-chopped salad with some kind of dressing
over it; olive oil and lemon-juice or one of the nut-oils and lemon-juice.
Orange-juice or raw carrot-juice may be used if preferred. When extra
nourishment is desired a well-beaten raw egg may be mixed with the
dressing. Fresh cream may also be used as dressing.
Fruit is best taken at the evening meal, from 1-1/2 to 2 lbs. Nothing
should be taken with it except a little nut-cream or fresh cream and white
of egg.
Distilled water is a great asset to the unfired feeder, because it softens
dried fruits so much better than hard water. It can be manufactured at
home, or the "Still Salutaris" bought through a chemist or grocer. The
"Still Salutaris" water is about 1/3 per gallon jar. If the water is
distilled at home, a "Gem" Still will be needed. (The Gem Supplies Co.,
Ltd., 67, Southwark Street, London S.E.). It is best to use this over a
gas ring or "Primus" oil stove. The cost of the water comes out at about
one penny per gallon, according to the cost of the fuel used.
Distilled Water should never be put into metal saucepans or kettles, as it
is a very powerful solvent. A small enamelled kettle or saucepan should be
used for heating it, and it should be stored in glass or earthenware
vessels only. It should not be kept for more than a month, and should
always be kept carefully covered.
For salads it is not necessary to depend entirely upon the usual salad
vegetables, such as lettuce, endive, watercress, mustard and cress. The
very finely shredded hearts of raw Brussel sprouts are excellent, and even
the heart of a Savoy cabbage. Then the finely chopped inside sticks of a
tender head of celery are very good. Also young spinach leaves, dandelion
leaves, sorrel and young nasturtium leaves. The root vegetables should
also be added in their season, raw carrot, turnip, beet, onion and leek,
all finely grated. A taste for all the above-mentioned vegetables, eaten
raw, is not acquired all at once. It is best to begin by making the salad
of the ingredients usually preferred and mixing in a small quantity of one
or two of the new ingredients. For those who find salads very difficult to
digest, it is best to begin with French or cabbage lettuce and skinned
tomatoes only, or, as an alternative, a saucerful of watercress chopped
very finely, as one chops parsley.
1. COTTAGE CHEESE.
Allow the juice of two medium-sized lemons to 1 quart of milk. Put the
milk and strained lemon-juice into an enamelled pan or fireproof casserole
and place over a gas ring or oil stove with the flame turned very low.
Warm the milk, but do not allow it to boil. When the milk has curdled
properly the curds are collected together, forming an "island" surrounded
by the whey, which should be a clear liquid. Lay a piece of cheese-cloth
over a colander and pour into it the curds and whey. Gather together the
edges of the cloth and hang up the curds to drain for at least thirty
minutes. Then return to the colander (still in cloth) and put a small
plate or saucer (with a weight on top) on the cheese. It should be left
under pressure for at least one hour. This cheese will keep two days in
cold weather, but must be made fresh every day in warm weather. The milk
used should be some hours old, as quite new milk will not curdle. The
juice from one lemon at a time should be put into the milk, as the staler
the milk the less juice will be needed. _Too much_ juice will prevent
curdling as effectually as too little.
This cheese is greatly improved by the addition of fresh cream. Allow two
tablespoonsful of cream to the cheese from one quart of milk. Mash the
cheese with a fork and lightly beat the cream into it.
_Note_. Cheese-cloth, sometimes known as cream-cloth, may be bought at
most large drapers' shops at from 6d. to 8d. per yard. One yard cuts into
four cloths large enough for straining the cheese from one quart of milk.
Ordinary muslin is not so useful as it is liable to tear. Wash in warm
water (no soap or soda), then scald well.
2. DRIED FRUITS.
These should be well washed in lukewarm water and examined for worms'
eggs, etc. Then cover with distilled water and let stand for 12 hours or
until quite soft and swollen. Prunes, figs, and raisins are all nice
treated in this way.
3. EGG CREAM.
2 tablespoons fresh cream, the white of 1 egg.
Put the white of egg on to a plate and beat to a stiff froth with the flat
of a knife. (A palette knife is the best.) Then beat the cream into it.
This makes a nourishing dressing for either vegetable salad or fruit
salad. Especially suitable for invalids and persons of weak digestion.
4. PINE-KERNEL CHEESE.
Wash the kernels and dry well in a clean cloth. Spread out on the cloth
and carefully pick over for bad kernels or bits of hard shell. Put through
the macerator of the nut-butter mill. Well mix with the beaten pulp of a
raw tomato (first plunge it into boiling water for a few minutes, after
which the skin is easily removed). Raw carrot juice, or any other
vegetable or fruit juice pulp may also be used.
5. RAW CARROT JUICE.
Well scrub a medium sized carrot and grate it to a pulp on an ordinary
tinned bread grater. Put the pulp into a cheese cloth and squeeze out the
juice into a cup.
6. TWICE BAKED BREAD.
Cut moderately thin slices of white bread. Put into a moderate oven and
bake until a golden colour.
Granose biscuits warmed in the oven until crisp serve the same purpose as
twice-baked bread, _i.e.,_ a cereal food in which the starch has been
dextrinised by cooking. But the biscuits being soft and flaky can be
enjoyed by those for whom the twice-baked bread would be too hard.
XV.--WEIGHTS AND MEASURES AND UTENSILS.
If possible sieve all flour before measuring, as maggots are _sometimes_
to be found therein; also because tightly-compressed flour naturally
measures less than flour which has been well shaken up.
1 lb. = 16 ozs. = 3 teacupsful or 2 breakfastcupsful, closely filled, but
not heaped.
1/2 lb. = 8 ozs. = 1 breakfastcupful, closely filled, but not heaped.
1/4 lb. = 4 ozs. = 1 teacupful, loosely filled.
1 oz. = 2 tablespoonsful, filled level.
1/2 oz. = 1 tablespoonful, filled level.
1/4 oz. = 1 dessertspoonful, filled level.
4 gills = 1 pint = 3-1/2 teacupsful, or nearly 2 breakfastcupsful.
1 gill = 1 small teacupful.
10 unbroken eggs weigh about 1 lb.
1 oz. butter = 1 tablespoon heaped as much above the spoon as the spoon
rounds underneath.
USEFUL UTENSILS.
BAKING DISHES.--Earthenware are the best.
BREAD GRATER.--The simple tin grater, price 1d., grates bread, vegetables,
lemon rind, etc.
BASINS.--Large for mixing, small for puddings, etc.
EGG SLICE.--For dishing up rissoles, etc.
EGG WHISK.--The coiled wire whisk, price 1d. or 2d., is the best.
FOOD CHOPPER.--See that it has the nut-butter attachment.
FRYING BASKET and stew-pan to fit.
FRYING AND OMELET PANS.--Cast aluminium are the best.
GEM PANS.
JARS.--Earthenware jars for stewing.
JUGS.--Wide-mouthed jugs are easiest to clean.
JELLY AND BLANC MANGE MOULDS.
LEMON SQUEEZER.--The glass squeezer is the best.
MARMALADE CUTTER.
NUT MILL.
NUTMEG GRATER.
PALETTE KNIFE.--For beating white of egg, scraping basins, etc.
PASTE BOARD and ROLLING PIN.
PESTLE and MORTAR.
PRESERVING PAN.--Copper or enamelled.
RAISIN SEEDER.
SAUCEPANS.--Cast aluminium are the best.
SCALES AND WEIGHTS.
SIEVES.--Hair and wire.
STILL.--For distilling water.
STRAINERS.
TINS.--Cake tin, qr. qtn. tin, vegetable and pastry cutters.
XVI.--MENUS.
The menus given below do not follow the conventional lines which ordain
that a menu shall include, at least, soup, savoury and sweet dishes. The
hardworking housewife can afford neither the time nor the material to
serve up so many dishes at one meal; and the wise woman does not desire to
spend any more time and material on the needs of the body than will
suffice to keep it strong and healthy. Lack of space will not allow me to
include many menus. I have only attempted to give the barest suggestions
for two weeks. But a study of the rest of the book will enable anyone to
extend and elaborate them. Three meals a day are the most that are
necessary, and no woman desires to cook more than once a day. If possible
the cooked meal should be the mid-day one. Late dinners may be
fashionable, but they are not wholesome. If the exigencies of work make
the evening meal the principal one, let it be taken as early as possible.
WARMING UP.
It often happens that while the father of a family needs his dinner when
he comes home in the evening, it is necessary to provide a mid-day dinner
for the others, especially if children are included. Many housewives thus
go to the labour of preparing a hot dinner twice a day, but this may be
avoided if the following directions are carefully carried out:--Prepare
the mid-day meal as if the father were at home, and serve him first. Put
his portion--savoury, vegetables and gravy--in one soup plate, and cover
it immediately with another. Do the same with the pudding, and put both
dishes away in the pantry. A good hour before they are wanted put into a
warm oven. (If a gas oven is used, see that there is plenty of hot water
in the floor pan.)
When quite hot the food should not be in the least dried up. This is
ensured by having the oven warm, but not hot, warming up the food slowly,
and, in the first place, covering closely with the soup plate while still
hot, so that the steam does not escape. I have eaten many dinners saved
for me in this way, and should never have known they were not just cooked
if I had not been told. Of course, a boiled plain pudding or plum pudding
can be returned to its basin and steamed and extra gravy saved and
reheated in the tureen.
SUNDAY AND MONDAY.
The cook needs a day of rest once a week as well as other people. And this
should be on a Sunday if possible, so that she may participate in the
recreations of the other members of her family. This is more easily
attainable in summer than in winter, for in hot weather many persons
prefer a cold dinner. But even in winter, soups, vegetable stews, nut
roasts, baked fruit pies, and boiled puddings can all be made the day
before. They will all reheat without spoiling in the least.
Monday is the washing-day in many households, and no housewife wants to
cook on that day. In flesh-eating households cold meat forms the staple
article of diet. The vegetarian housewife cannot do better than prepare a
large plain pudding on the Saturday, boil it for two hours, put it away in
its basin, and boil it two hours again on Monday; with what is left over
from Sunday, this will probably be sufficient for Monday's dinner.
BREAKFASTS.
A sufficient breakfast may consist simply of bread and nut butter, with
the addition of an apple or other fresh fruit. A good substitute for tea
and coffee is a fruit soup. Where porridge and milk are taken, this would
probably not be needed. Eggs, cooked tomatoes, marmalade, and grated nuts
are all welcome additions.
HIGH TEAS.
If tea is taken, let it be as weak as possible. Do not let it stand for
more than three minutes after making, but pour it immediately off from the
leaves into another pot. See that the latter is hot.
Some of the simpler savoury dishes (omelets, etc.) may be taken at this
meal if desired. Also lentil and nut pastes, salads, Wallace cheese,
raisin bread, oatcake, sweet cakes and biscuits, jams, etc.
DINNERS.
SUNDAY.--Hot nut roast and brown gravy; steamed potatoes and cabbage;
fruit tart and custard.
MONDAY.--Cold nut roast and salad; bubble and squeak; plain pudding and
golden syrup.
TUESDAY.--Haricot rissoles and tomato sauce; baked potatoes; milk pudding
and stewed fruit, or apple and tapioca pudding.
WEDNESDAY.--Lentil soup; jam roll.
THURSDAY.--Lentil soup; fig pudding.
FRIDAY.--Hot pot; roasted pine kernels; steamed potatoes and cauliflowers;
railway pudding.
SATURDAY. Irish stew; boiled rice and stewed prunes.
SUNDAY. Vegetable stew; batter pudding; steamed potatoes and cauliflower;
summer pudding.
MONDAY. Stewed lentils; baked tomatoes or onions, and sauté potatoes; milk
pudding and stewed fruit.
TUESDAY.--Stewed celery or other vegetable in season; roasted pine
kernels; mashed potatoes; apple dumplings.
WEDNESDAY.--Barley broth; treacle pudding.
THURSDAY.--Barley broth; Bombay pudding.
FRIDAY.--Macaroni and tomatoes; chip potatoes; nut pastry.
SATURDAY.--Toad-in-the-hole; baked potatoes; jam tart.
NOTE. The same soup is indicated on two consecutive days in order to save
labour. Few persons object to the same dish twice if it is not to be
repeated again for some time. And unless the family be very large, it is
as easy to make enough soup for two days as for one.
INDEX.
Almonds, Roasted
Apple, Charlotte
Dumpling
Sandwich
and Tapioca
Apples, Stewed
Artichoke
Asparagus
Barley Broth
Cream of
Barley Water
Batter Pudding
Beef Tea Substitute
Beet
Beverages
Blancmange
Bombay Pudding
Bread, Cold Water
Egg
Gem
Hot Water
Raisin
Shortened
Twice Bated
Bread and Fruit Pudding
Broad Beans
Broccoli
Biscuits
Browning for Gravies and Sauces
Brussels Sprouts
Bubble and Squeak
Buttered Eggs
Rice and Peas
Cabbage
Cake Mixture
Cherry
Cocoanut
Corn, Wine and Oil Cakes
Lemon
Cake, Madeira
Manhu
Seed
Short
Sponge
Sultana
Sussex (without eggs)
Cakes, Small
Carrot
Juice (Raw)
Casserole Cookery
Cauliflower
Celeriac
Celery
Soup
Cheese
Chestnut, Boiled
Pie
Rissoles
Savoury
Soup
Chocolate Jelly
Cocoanut Biscuits
Cornflour Shape
"Corn, Wine and Oil" Cake
Cucumber
Currant Sandwich
Curries
Curry Powder
Curried Eggs
German Lentils
Vegetables
Custard, Boiled
Hogan
Date Pudding
Devilled Eggs
Distilled Water
Dried Fruits
Egg Boiled for Invalids
Egg Bread
Egg, Cream
Buttered
Curry
Devilled
Poached on Tomato
Sauce
Scrambled with Tomato
Fancy Biscuits
Fig Pudding
French Beans
French Soup
Fruit Nut Filling
Fruit Salad
Fruit Soup
Gem Bread
German Lentil Curry
Ginger Nuts
Gravy, Brown and Thick
Green Peas
Haricot Beans, Boiled
Rissoles
Soup
Hogan Custard
Hominy, Boiled
(Manhu) Pudding
Hot Pot
Irish Stew, Vegetarian
Jam
Vegetable Marrow
Without Sugar
Roll
Sandwich
Jelly, Chocolate
Orange
Raspberry and Currant
Leek
Lemon Cordial
Curd
Sauce
Short Cake
Lentil and Leek Pie
Paste
Rissoles
Soup
Lentils, Stewed
Lime Juice Cordial
Macaroni Cheese
Soup
and Tomato
Macaroons
Manhu Health Cake
Marmalade
Meat Substitutes
Menus
Milk Pudding
Mincemeat
Mushroom and Tomato
Nettle
Nut Cookery
and Lentil Roast
Roast, Royal
Paste
Pastry
Rissoles
Roast
Nuttolene, Stewed
Oatcake
Oatmeal Biscuits
Gruel
Omelet, Plain
Savoury
Sweet
soufflé
Onions, Baked--Fried--Steamed
Orange Cordial
Jelly
Parkin
Parsley Sauce
Parsnips
Pastry, to make
Pastry, Nut
Puff
Short
Pea Soup
Pine Kernels, Roasted
Pine Kernel Cheese
Plain Pudding
Plum Pudding (Christmas)
Poached Eggs on Tomato
Potatoes Baked, Chips, Fried, Mashed, Sauté, Steamed
Potato Soup
P.R. Soup
Protose Cutlets
Salad
Radish
Railway Pudding
Raisin Loaf
Raspberry and Currant Jelly
Rice, Boiled
and Egg Fritters
Savoury
Buttered and Peas
Risotto
Sago Soup
Sago Shape
Salad
Sauce, Brown
Egg
Lemon
Parsley
Tomato
White
Savoury Dishes
Scarlet Runner
Scones, Sultana
Sea Kale
Soup, Barley
Celery
Chestnut
Convalescent's
Soup, French
Fruit
Haricot
Lentil
Macaroni
Pea
Potato
P. R.
Sago
Tomato
Vegetable Stock
Spinach
Stock
Summer Pudding
Sunday and Monday
Swede
Tomato
Sauce
Soup
Stuffed
Toad-in-the-hole
Turnip
Treacle Pudding
Trifle
Unfired Food
Useful Utensils
Vegetable Curry
Marrow
Stuffed
and Nut Roast
Pie
Stew
Stock
Vegetables, to Cook
Wallace Cheese
Warming Up
Weights and Measures
Welsh Rarebit
Xmas Pudding
Yeast Bread
Yorkshire Pudding (see Batter)
Concerning Advertisements.
The Publisher of the "Healthy Life Cook Book" desires to make the
advertisement pages as valuable and helpful as the subject-matter of the
book. To this end, instead of following the usual plan of first "catching"
the advertisement, and then requesting the author of the book to "puff"
it, he only solicits advertisements from those firms that the author
already deals with and here conscientiously recommends.
T. J. Bilson & Co.
I have dealt with this firm for some years with perfect satisfaction. They
stock all the goods mentioned in this book, and I should like to draw
special attention to their unpolished rice and seedless raisins, both of
which are exceptionally good. To those about to invest in a Food-Chopper I
would recommend the 5/- size. The other is inconveniently small.
Emprote.
Emprote and the other proteid foods produced by the Eustace Miles Proteid
Foods Ltd., is a valuable asset to the vegetarian beginner, who too often
tries to subsist upon a dietary deficient in assimilable proteid.
Energen.
The Energen Foods are another very useful asset to the vegetarian
suffering from deficiency of proteid in his dietary and those who are
unable to digest starchy foods.
Food Reform Restaurant.
I have often enjoyed meals at the above restaurant. They cater, and cater
well, for the ordinary Vegetarian, but with a little care in the selection
of the menu, abstainers from salt, fermented bread, etc., can also obtain
a satisfactory meal.
"The Healthy Life."
I cannot "conscientiously" recommend _The Healthy Life_, as I happen to be
one of its Editors and therefore might be biassed. I may, however, mention
the valuable work contributed to it by Dr. Knaggs and Mr. Saxon.
"Herald of Health."
This Magazine may be said to be the pioneer among "food-reform" papers and
I owe to it my own introduction to most of the more advanced ideas about
food-reform. It never fails to be interesting and instructive.
The Home Restaurant.
The Home Restaurant is run throughout by women and may therefore be said
to represent the Women's Movement in Food-Reform! I would especially
recommend its homemade cakes and biscuits.
Mrs. Hume--Loughtonhurst.
I have spent several holidays with Mrs. Hume and enjoyed them thoroughly.
She provides an excellent vegetarian menu and will make unfermented bread
and procure distilled water for those food-reformers who desire them.
I. H. Co.
I continually recommend the saltless "Granose" as a dextrinised cereal.
The International Health Association is a most useful institution to both
extremes of the food reform movement. The unfired feeder enjoys Granose
Biscuit with his salad, while the beginner who thinks longingly of his
flesh food is consoled by Protose and Nuttolene.
Keen, Robinson & Co.
Robinson's Barley is excellent for making barley water quickly, and the
groats are very much to be preferred to the ordinary loose fine oatmeal
which inevitably contains a quantity of dust, and through exposure
acquires a bitter taste. Robinson's Groats is specially prepared oatmeal
put up in tins.
Manhu Food Co., Ltd.
The cereal foods of this Company are particularly valuable to those whose
digestive powers are weak. Being rolled or flaked they are very easily
cooked. In some of the foods the starch has been changed so that sufferers
from diabetes may use them.
Mapleton's Nut Foods.
Their Nutter is quite the best vegetable cooking fat on the market. An
objection to vegetable cooking fats, often cited by cooks, is their
hardness, which makes them difficult to use for pastry. But Nutter is as
soft as ordinary butter. The nut table butters are also very good,
especially the uncoloured varieties labelled "Wallaceite."
National Anti-Vaccination League.
At first sight it may not seem that anti-vaccination has anything in
common with Food Reform. But anti-vaccination is concerned with healthy
living of which pure feeding is a part. The above League is doing a great
educational work.
Pitman Health Food Co.
This firm is extremely enterprising and is managed by a most enthusiastic
Food Reformer. The several varieties of their "Vegsal" soups are very good
and particularly useful to the cook who is pressed for time.
Salutaris Water Co., Ltd.
Salutaris Water is pure distilled water the use of which is, in my
opinion, of very great importance. This subject is discussed at length in
my little book "Distilled Water."
G. Savage & Sons.
This firm has done and is doing a special and excellent work for Food
Reform. Besides being an up-to-date stores, they are the proprietors of
many very good preparations such as then "Nu-Era" wholemeal flour and
unpolished rice, Minerva olive oil, powder-o-nuts (rissole mixture), etc.
They pay carriage on 5/- orders and upwards.
Shearns.
The founder of the fruit stores was known as the "Fruit King," and the
present proprietor maintains the same standard of excellence. In addition
he has established a health stores and restaurant. And I am pleased to
note that he has made arrangements to supply the special kitchen utensils
needed by the Food Reform cook.
Wallace P.R. Foods.