_Ingredients._—4 eggs, the weight of 2 in Parmesan or good Cheshire
cheese, the weight of 2 in butter; pepper and salt to taste.
_Mode._—Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs; beat the
former in a basin, and grate the cheese, or cut it into _very thin_
flakes. Parmesan or Cheshire cheese may be used, whichever is the most
convenient, although the former is considered more suitable for this
dish; or an equal quantity of each may be used. Break the butter into
small pieces, add to it the other ingredients, with sufficient pepper
and salt to season nicely, and beat the mixture thoroughly. Well whisk
the whites of the eggs, stir them lightly in, and either bake the
fondue in a soufflé-dish or small round cake-tin. Fill the dish only
half full, as the fondue should rise very much. Pin a napkin round the
tin or dish, and serve very hot and very quickly. If allowed to stand
after it is withdrawn from the oven, the beauty and lightness of this
preparation will be entirely spoiled. _Time._—From 15 to 20 minutes.
_Average cost_, 10_d._ _Sufficient_ for 4 or 5 persons. _Seasonable_ at
any time.
FONDUE, Brillat Savarin’s (an excellent Recipe).
_Ingredients._—Eggs, cheese, butter, pepper and salt. _Mode._—Take the
same number of eggs as there are guests; weigh the eggs in the shell,
allow a third of their weight in Gruyère cheese, and a piece of butter
one-sixth of the weight of the cheese. Break the eggs into a basin,
beat them well; add the cheese, which should be grated, and the butter,
which should be broken into small pieces. Stir these ingredients
together with a wooden spoon; put the mixture into a lined saucepan,
place it over the fire, and stir until the substance is thick and
soft. Put in a little salt, according to the age of the cheese, and a
good sprinkling of pepper, and serve the fondue on a very hot silver or
metal plate. Do not allow the fondue to remain on the fire after the
mixture is set, as, if it boils, it will be entirely spoiled. Brillat
Savarin recommends that some choice Burgundy should be handed round
with this dish. We have given this recipe exactly as he recommends it
to be made; but we have tried it with good Cheshire cheese, and found
it answer remarkably well. _Time._—About 4 minutes to set the mixture.
_Average cost_, for 4 persons, 10_d._ _Sufficient._—Allow 1 egg, with
the other ingredients in proportion, for 1 person. _Seasonable_ at any
time.
FOOD FOR INFANTS, and its Preparation.
The articles generally employed as food for infants consist of
arrowroot, bread, flour, baked flour, prepared groats, farinaceous
food, biscuit-powder, biscuits, tops-and-bottoms, and semolina, or
manna croup, as it is otherwise called, which, like tapioca, is the
prepared pith of certain vegetable substances. Of this list the least
efficacious, though, perhaps, the most believed in, is arrowroot, which
only as a mere agent, for change, and then only for a very short time,
should ever be employed as a means of diet to infancy or childhood.
It is a thin, flatulent, and innutritious food, and incapable of
supporting infantine life and energy. Bread, though the universal
_régime_ with the labouring poor, where the infant’s stomach and
digestive powers are a reflex, in miniature, of the father’s, should
never be given to an infant under three months, and, even then, however
finely beaten up and smoothly made, is a very questionable diet. Flour,
when well boiled, though infinitely better than arrowroot, is still
only a kind of fermentative paste, that counteracts its own good by
after-acidity and flatulence.
Baked flour, when cooked into a pale brown mass, and finely powdered,
makes a far superior food to the others, and may be considered as a
very useful diet, especially for a change. Prepared groats may be
classed with arrowroot and raw flour, as being innutritious. The
articles that now follow on our list are all good, and such as we
could, with conscience and safety, trust to the health and development
of any child whatever.
We may observe in this place, that an occasional change in the
character of the food is highly desirable, both as regards the health
and benefit of the child; and, though the interruption should only last
for a day, the change will be advantageous.
The packets sold as farinaceous food are unquestionably the best
aliment that can be given from the first to a baby, and may be
continued, with the exception of an occasional change, without
alteration of the material, till the child is able to take its regular
meals of animal and vegetable food. Some infants are so constituted as
to require a frequent and a total change in their system of living,
seeming to thrive for a certain time on any food given to them, but if
persevered in too long, declining in bulk and appearance as rapidly
as they had previously progressed. In such cases, the food should be
immediately changed, and when that which appeared to agree best with
the child is resumed, it should be altered in its quality, and perhaps
in its consistency.
For the farinaceous food there are directions with each packet,
containing instructions for the making; but, whatever the food employed
is, enough should be made at once to last the day and night; at first,
about a pint basinful, but, as the child advances, a quart will hardly
be too much. In all cases, let the food boil a sufficient time,
constantly stirring, and taking every precaution that it does not get
burnt, in which case it is on no account to be used.
The food should always be made with water, the whole sweetened at once,
and of such a consistency that, when poured out, and it has had time
to cool, it will cut with the firmness of a pudding or custard. One
or two spoonfuls are to be put into the pap saucepan and stood on the
hob till the heat has softened it, when enough milk is to be added,
and carefully mixed with the food, till the whole has the consistency
of ordinary cream; it is then to be poured into the nursing-bottle,
and the food having been drawn through to warm the nipple, it is to
be placed in the child’s mouth. For the first month or more, half a
bottleful will be quite enough to give the infant at one time; but,
as the child grows, it will be necessary not only to increase the
quantity given at each time, but also gradually to make its food
more consistent, and, after the third month, to add an egg to every
pint basin of food made. At night, the mother puts the food into the
covered pan of her lamp, instead of the saucepan—that is, enough for
one supply, and, having lighted the rush, she will find, on the waking
of her child, the food sufficiently hot to bear the cooling addition
of the milk. But, whether night or day, the same food should never be
heated twice, and what the child leaves should be thrown away.
The biscuit powder is used in the same manner as the farinaceous food,
and both prepared much after the fashion of making starch. But when
tops-and-bottoms, or the whole biscuit, are employed, they require
soaking in cold water for some time previously to boiling. The biscuit
or biscuits are then to be slowly boiled in as much water as will, when
thoroughly soft, allow of their being beaten by a three-pronged fork
into a fine, smooth, and even pulp, and which, when poured into a basin
and become cold, will cut out like a custard. If two large biscuits
have been so treated, and the child is six or seven months old, beat up
two eggs, sufficient sugar to properly sweeten it, and about a pint of
skim milk. Pour this on the beaten biscuit in the saucepan, stirring
constantly; boil for about five minutes, pour into a basin, and use,
when cold, in the same manner as the other.
This makes an admirable food, at once nutritious and strengthening.
When tops-and-bottoms or rusks are used, the quantity of the egg may be
reduced, or altogether omitted.
Semolina, or manna croup, being in little hard grains, like a fine
millet-seed, must be boiled for some time, and the milk, sugar, and egg
added to it on the fire, and boiled for a few minutes longer, and, when
cold, used as the other preparations.
Many persons entertain a belief that cow’s milk is hurtful to infants,
and, consequently, refrain from giving it; but this is a very great
mistake, for both sugar and milk should form a large portion of every
meal an infant takes.