I believe it is the general practice now to give a patient, in almost
every kind of illness, food that is very nourishing, yet very
digestible, that the system may become strengthened to throw off its
disease.
I devote a chapter to “cookery for the sick,” as it is such a useful and
delightful accomplishment to know just how to prepare the few available
dishes for invalids, so that while they may be most suitable food for
the recovery of the patient, they may at the same time be most agreeable
to the taste and pleasing to the eye.
The three events of the day to the sufferer are the three meals. How
gratefully is it remembered if they have been delicately and carefully
administered! Let the mother or the wife prepare them with her own
hands; let her never ask an invalid what he will have to eat, but with
thought and ingenuity strive to vary the bill of fare each day, always
providing proper nourishment. This is an art in itself which can be
delegated to no one. It is worth as much to the suffering and beloved
patient as is the medical prescription of the physician.
Never leave an article of diet in the sick-room: it is a good means of
destroying the appetite, which should be encouraged and not weakened.
Whatever is served, let great attention be paid to giving the dish,
after it is properly cooked, a dainty appearance. Place it on the
choicest of ware in the house, with the cleanest of napkins, and the
brightest of silver, even if that consists only of a tea-spoon.
If tea and toast be served, put the tea, freshly drawn, into the
daintiest of tea-cups. Every family might well afford to buy one little,
thin china cup and saucer, to use in case of illness; put a square of
loaf-sugar into it. A few drops of cream are easily saved for the
patient’s tea from a small quantity of milk; and cream in small
quantities is considered more digestible than milk.
All cooks think they can make toast. There is about one person in ten
thousand who really does know how to make it; who actually appreciates
the difference between a thin, symmetrical, well-yellowed, crisp piece
of toast with the crust cut off, and just from the fire, and a thick,
unshapely slice, unevenly crisped on the outside, and of doughy softness
in the centre. One is digestible; the other is exceedingly indigestible.
The _scientific_ mode of making toast is explained on page 67.
Of the laxative articles of diet, undoubtedly one of the most important
is the oatmeal porridge. The chemists say, “Oatmeal stands before all
other grains in point of nutritive power.” I do not mean to serve gruel,
but a thicker preparation, of considerable consistence, which is more
palatable. The mode of making it is explained on page 74. Put a heaping
table-spoonful of this on a thin saucer; pour some cream over it; then
sprinkle over this a little granulated sugar. Now place the saucer on a
little salver, on which is spread the whitest of napkins.
Always remember that in cooking any of the grains, as, for instance,
corn-meal, oatmeal, hominy, cracked-wheat, etc., let them be thrown into
_salted boiling_ water. This makes very great difference in the flavor
of the dish. Make every thing in small quantities, so that the patient
may always have his dishes _freshly_ made.
A very nourishing, digestible, and excellent dish for invalids is a raw,
fresh egg, the receipt for administering which is given among the
invalid receipts (see page 322).
In regard to rice, Dr. Lee remarks: “We regard rice as the most valuable
of all the articles of food in cases of the derangement of the digestive
organs. It nourishes, while it soothes the irritable mucous membrane;
and while it supports strength, never seems to aggravate the existing
disease. For acute or chronic affections of the alimentary canal,
rice-water for drink and rice-jelly for food seem peculiarly well
adapted, and appear to exert a specific influence in bringing about a
recovery. These preparations are invaluable also in convalescence from
acute fevers and other maladies, and in the summer complaints of young
children.”
Jellies made with gelatine or calf’s feet are very appetizing, but must
not be relied on as furnishing much nourishment. They afford a pleasant
vehicle for administering wine, of which the stimulating properties are
often very advantageous. I copy a short article from Booth’s “Chemistry”
on the subject:
“Gelatine in domestic economy is used in the forms of soup and jelly as
an aliment; but though experiments seem to show that when mixed with
fibrous, albuminous, and caseous substances it becomes nutritive, this
conclusion is yet doubtful; for the theory of respiration proves that
histrose, which produces the gelatine, has accomplished its part in the
animal organization, and can no longer afford sustenance thereto. One
fact, however, seems positive, and that is its inability alone to yield
nourishment to carnivorous animals. The feeble nutritive power of a
gelatinous matter seems to be owing to the destruction of its
organization.”
On the same subject of the dietetical value of gelatine, Professor
Youmans says: “It is regarded as a product of the partial decomposition
of albuminous bodies in the system, but as incapable of replacing them
when taken as aliment. The French attempted to feed the inmates of their
hospitals on gelatinous extract of bones. Murmurs arose, and a
commission, with Magendie at their head, was appointed to investigate
the matter. They reported gelatine as, dietetically, almost worthless.”
Graham bread, corn bread, or the Boston brown-bread, made with part rye
flour, are much more nourishing than breads made from bolted wheat. The
whiter the wheat flour, the more starch it contains, and the less
gluten, which is separated in bolting, and which is the nutritious or
flesh-producing portion. The rich Boston brown-bread is especially good
cut into thin, even pieces, with a little cream poured over it.
The value of corn-meal for invalids who are thin and incapable of
maintaining their natural warmth is scarcely appreciated. Indian-corn
contains a large percentage of oil, which is nourishing and fattening.
Fat is the heat-producing power.
As to the meats, it seems to me a mistake that that from the ox, with
his wholesome food, cleanly habits, sweet breath, and clear eye, is not
the most wholesome and digestible of aliments. No meat is so tender and
juicy as the cut from the tenderloin or the porter-house steak.
Pork should be avoided in every form by invalids.
I can not but believe that rare-cooked, tender beef is the most valuable
dish in the culinary _répertoire_ for invalids; yet Dr. Beaumont, after
experimenting with St. Martin, ranks venison, when tender and in season,
as the most digestible and assimilable of meats. He classes mutton
second; then beef. Lamb is less digestible than mutton. Veal should be
avoided as well as pork. Fatty substances are also difficult of
assimilation. Poultry is less digestible than beef. Then, again, the
manner of cooking beef has a great influence on its digestibility. The
best modes are broiling and roasting. Potatoes roasted or baked are
digested an hour sooner than potatoes boiled.
Before beginning the receipts for especial dishes, I will copy a little
story, which furnishes an illustration that the simplest modes of
cooking are, after all, the most satisfactory.
“The Vicomte de Vaudreuil, when appointed _chargé d’affaires_ of France
to the Court of St. James’s, brought over with him a young cook, an
_élève_ of the highest schools of the _cuisines_ of Paris. This young
culinary aspirant to fame, shortly after his arrival in London, obtained
permission of his master to go and witness the artistic operations of
that established _cordon-bleu_, Monsieur Mingay, the cook to Prince
Esterhazy, who had been brought up under the Prince Talleyrand’s famous
_chef_, Louis, and previously under that most _bleu_ of all _cordons_,
the great Carême. On the _élève’s_ return, the Vicomte, hearing that his
cook was in a state of astonishment from something he had witnessed in
Prince Esterhazy’s kitchen, summoned him to his presence, and said,
‘What is this culinary miracle, which I have heard astonishes you, and
casts into the shade all other triumphs of the art?’ Vatel’s follower
replied, ‘Oh, Monsieur le Vicomte, when I entered the _cuisine_ at
Chandos House it was near the time of the prince’s luncheon, for which
his excellency had ordered something which should be very simple and
easily digestible, as he was suffering from languor. The _chef_, Mingay,
accordingly cut from under a well-hung rump of beef three slices of
fillet, and rapidly broiling them, he placed the choicest-looking in the
middle of a hot dish, and afterward pressing the juice completely out
of the remaining two, he poured it on the first! Oh, monsieur, how great
the prince! how great the cook!’”