We have not space to go into these at any length. The following are one or two of my "very own," as the children say, which are voted a great success.
Apple Jam.
Take quantity required—say 7 lbs.—tart crisp apples. Wash well and dry. Pare and core, putting the trimmings in water to cover. Cut up the best of the apples into small pieces—not too thin—and set aside, also covered with cold water. Put on the trimmings to boil with some lemon rind and either a few sticks of cinnamon or some cloves. Simmer for an hour or longer, till all the goodness is drawn out, mashing freely with a wooden spoon. Turn into jelly-bag and allow to drain without pressure. Pour the water off the apples, measure that and the drained juice, and put into preserving pan. Measure the apple chips also, and add when the liquid boils. Allow 14 ozs. loaf sugar to each breakfast cupful, and boil till the apples are clear, but not broken down—about 20 minutes. Skim and pot as usual. If ginger flavouring is preferred, shave down about 6 ozs. preserved ginger, and add when the juice is put on to boil.
Marmalade Jelly.
Take 3 lbs. fruit—6 bitter oranges, 3 sweet ones and 3 lemons. Remove the rinds and grate them small, or put through a mincer. Cut up the oranges, removing the seeds, which put in a tumbler of water. Cover the oranges, &c., with 17 tumblers cold water, and let stand for at least 24 hours. Put all in jelly-pan, including the water drained from the seeds, and let boil gently, for about 2 hours, mashing frequently with a wooden spoon. Let drain without pressure. Measure the juice, and to each pint allow 14 ozs. sugar, which add after the liquid boils. Boil fast for a few minutes, try if it will set. Skim and pot. But the pulp must not be thrown out, for it makes an excellent, if rather homely,
Marmalade,
which comes in specially useful for steamed puddings, &c. Weigh the pulp, and allow equal weight of sugar. Boil gently, taking great care not to burn, till clear—20 to 30 minutes.
Green Gooseberry and Strawberry Jam.
This will be appreciated by those who find the ordinary strawberry jam rather sweet and heavy. Take equal quantities of gooseberries and strawberries—say 3 lbs. of each. Trim the gooseberries, which must be firm and freshly pulled, and wash well. Put on to boil with a teacupful water to each lb. of gooseberries, and boil for 10 minutes. Add the strawberries and the sugar lb. for lb., and boil for 20 minutes longer, or till it will "jell," as Meg would say.
Green Gooseberry Jam
is made with the gooseberries alone, prepared as above. A little grated lemon rind, &c., might be used for flavouring. Then if one is making
Green Gooseberry Jelly,
top and tail the fruit very carefully, removing every tough or discoloured one. Put on to boil, well covered with water. Add flavouring or not as preferred, and simmer gently for an hour or so. Drain without pressure. Allow 14 ozs. to pint of juice, and boil rapidly about 10 minutes. Allow 1 lb. sugar to each lb. of the pulp. Boil together for about 20 minutes, and this will give a very good, if rough and ready, jam.
Jelly without Boiling.
Everyone who can get good red or white currants should try making the jelly without boiling. I got the recipe from a friend many years ago, and can recommend it as a way in which the fresh flavour of the fruit is preserved to perfection. Wring the currants in usual way, and to each pint of juice allow 14 ozs. loaf sugar, which must be pure cane. I believe crystalised will do, but I have never tried it. Granulated or beet sugar will not do. Put juice and sugar in a strong basin and beat with the back of a wooden spoon till the sugar is quite dissolved, which will take about half-an-hour. Skim and pot. It should be quite firm by next day, and will keep for a year or longer—if it escapes consumption.
Bramble Jelly.
This is one of the finest preserves one can make—especially if we have gathered the fruit. The brambles should not be too ripe, but should have a good proportion of hard red ones. Wash well in cold water and put on with water to barely cover. Simmer gently for an hour or longer, bruising well with wooden spoon. Drain without pressure. Measure, and allow 14 ozs. sugar to pint, i.e., breakfast cupful. Allow the juice to boil up well. Add the sugar, boil fast for a few minutes, skim and pot.
NOTE.—Only pure cane sugar should be used for preserves. Add the sugar when the preserve is boiling—nearly ready indeed. It only requires to be thoroughly dissolved and boiled through. This method goes far to prevent burning and loss of flavour.
* * * * *
The NEW VEGETABLE FOOD EXTRACT which possesses the same nutrient value as a well-prepared Meat Extract.
2 oz. pot, 7-1/2 d.; 4 oz. pot, 1/1-1/2; 8 oz. pot, 2/-; 16 oz. pot, 3/4.
The Ideal basis for high-class Vegetable Soups.
HORS CONCOURS
Universal Cookery and Food Exhibition 1907.
MARMITE
THREE GOLD MEDALS AWARDED
Cookery Schools and Teachers are invited to apply for Free Samples, Recipes, and full particulars to
THE MARMITE FOOD EXTRACT CO., Ltd., 59 Eastcheap, London, E.C.
* * * * *
WILL YOU TRY A CUP OF TEA
that, instead of injuring your nerves and toughening your food, is Absolutely Safe and Delightful? 2/2, 2/10, and 3/6 per lb.
THE UNIVERSAL DIGESTIVE TEA
is ordinary tea treated with oxygen, which neutralises the injurious tannin. Every pound of ordinary tea contains about two ounces of tannin. Tannin is a powerful astringent substance to tan skins into leather. The tannin in ordinary tea tans, or hardens, the lining of the digestive organs, also the food eaten. This prevents the healthful nourishment of the body, and undoubtedly eventuates in nervous disorders. On receipt of a postcard, The Universal Digestive Tea Co., Ltd., Colonial Warehouse, Kendal, will send a Sample of this tea, and name of nearest Agent, also a Descriptive Pamphlet compiled by Albert Broadbent, Author of "Science in the Daily Meal," &c.
AGENTS WANTED.
* * * * *
THE BEST SOUP THICKENER.
ROBINSON'S PATENT BARLEY
Also Best for Making BARLEY WATER, CUSTARD, BLANC MANGES, &c.
KEEN ROBINSON & CO., LTD., LONDON,
Makers of Robinson's Patent Groats for making Gruel.
* * * * *
We have not space to go into the question of beverages at any length. A few good "drinks" are given under Invalid Dietary, and I would just say that the juice of a squeezed lemon, orange, or other fruit juice is much better than any effervescent or chemicalised beverage. There are, however, some excellent pure fruit-juices now on the market, among which one may mention
Pattinson's Fruit Syrups
and essences for various temperance drinks as being specially good. Many are proscribed on the score of health, &c., from the use of
Tea and Coffee,
but as these will remain first favourites for a long time to come, the first essential is to have them properly prepared, so that there is little if any ill effect. Where tea is most largely and constantly used, as in China and Japan, it is said to be quite innocuous. This may be partly owing to the more wholesome and rational way in which those people live, partly also to the finer quality of tea available, but very largely to the method of preparation. Various devices have been patented to save trouble in changing from one pot to another, but as most of these are rather complicated for daily use, we are glad to learn of a tea which can be prepared in the old comfortable handy way without any ill effects, and this boon seems to be furnished in the
Universal Digestive Tea,
prepared at the Colonial Warehouse, Kendal. By a process—which, by the way, is not kept secret—the tea is treated with oxygen in such a way that the hurtful tannin is neutralised, while none of the other properties are affected in any way. There is certainly no loss of flavour, and no difference that one can discern from the usual, but specially good tea—a fact which will appeal to ordinary tea-drinkers, of whom there are still a majority. For any further information regarding this tea, I would recommend readers to a little pamphlet compiled by Albert Broadbent, Esq., food specialist and lecturer, whose writings on the food question, &c., are well known. It is entitled "The cup that cheers." It explains the process of treatment, and gives medical and analytical testimony in its favour from various authorities of very high standing. The best proof is in the drinking, however, and one may have a sample pound or more carriage paid.
INVALID DIETARY.
The whole of the previous part of this book has been devoted to the contriving of the several meals usual in a work-a-day household and under ordinary circumstances. But exceptions will occur in the "best regulated families," and although much may be done to prevent illness by pure, nourishing, well-cooked food, one must be prepared for emergencies as they come.
Of course, most of our friends will be only too ready to pounce upon us when illness comes into the house, with their "I told you so" comments. In the first place it will be owing to their low diet and want of proper nourishment that father has got influenza, or Tommy mumps or measles—beef-fed persons never have these affections—(which shows what an enormous proportion of vegetarians there must be)—and in the second place, now that there is illness, you must fall back on beef-tea, port-wine, and other "generous diet," to get up and sustain the patient's strength. However callous or deaf you might be to the supplication for the flesh-pots from those in health, you cannot, must not shut your heart to the call of the weak or suffering.
And woe betide us if we are heretic, and the patient does not recover so quickly as we could wish (if he does, we shall be suspected of having surreptitiously called the orthodox nostrums to our aid, but that by the way), so that it behoves us to give the critical and censorious as little room for their strictures as possible.
Now, what are we to get for that erewhile sine qua non of the sick room,
Beef Tea?
Well, before we come to the non-flesh substitutes, which are more similar in some ways to the ordinary beef-tea, we will consider what is given in the earlier stages when the stomach rejects nearly all nourishment.
Pure Fruit Juices
can usually be retained and assimilated by the most debilitated. The refreshing and restorative properties of orange, grape, and similar fruit juices are generally appreciated, though many people hold the extraordinary belief that these are best when almost all the nourishment has been fermented out of them as in ordinary wine; but not so many even of the more advanced among us, as yet, realise the wonderful healing and anti-toxic possibilities of fresh fruits, more especially grapes. Pure grape juice has been found to act with such destructive force upon disease germs of various kinds as would appear little short of miraculous.
To prepare, press out with squeezer and strain, dilute or not with hot or cold water according to the condition of the patient. The juice of an orange to a tumbler of water makes an excellent tonic drink where there is feverishness and debility of the digestive organs, and a teaspoonful or more of lemon juice may be used in the same way.
Rhubarb Juice
is very good when made from fresh, naturally-grown rhubarb. Wipe and cut small, put in covered jar in oven or steamer till the juice flows freely. This will not be ordered where there is rheumatism or the like. For such, an alkaline beverage is wanted instead of an acid.
Celery Milk
is exceedingly good, and I claim to have discovered it for myself. Wash and trim some sticks of celery. Cut small and simmer for an hour or longer in milk and water. Bruise well to get all the goodness out, and strain through jelly-bag. When fresh celery is not to be had, celery seeds may be used. Simmer in water, strain, and add milk.
Cocoanut Milk
is also very good, and will sometimes be retained when ordinary milk is rejected. Select a juicy cocoanut, pierce a hole and drain out the milk. Break and remove from shell, and pare off the brown skin very finely, so as not to lose any of the oil. Grate or run through mincer, add two cupfuls boiling water, and beat with a wooden spoon from ten to fifteen minutes; then squeeze through a cloth or potato masher. Put the cocoanut into a saucepan with more boiling water, mash over the fire for a few minutes, and squeeze again very thoroughly. If it has been squeezed in a masher the liquor may need to be strained again through a cloth or hair sieve.
For a bland soothing drink, invaluable in practically every form of internal irritation and debility, Barley Water reigns supreme, and in its preparation Robinson's Patent Barley will be found invaluable.
Smooth one or two spoonfuls to a cream with cold water. Pour on boiling water, stirring all the while, and boil gently for five to ten minutes. When cool it will be a firm jelly, and can be diluted as required with hot or cold water, milk, fruit-juice, "Extract," &c., &c.
To come now to what more closely resembles beef-tea, we can have a liquid practically undistinguishable made from
Brown or German Lentils.
Take a teacupful of these, look over and pick very carefully so that no stones or dirt may escape notice. Scald with boiling water, and put to simmer with plenty of boiling water in a saucepan or stewing jar. Add a shallot, a bit of celery, teaspoonful ground rice, tapioca, &c., and, unless prohibited, seasoning to taste. A blade of mace, a slice or two of carrot, beetroot, &c., might be added at discretion. Simmer gently, or better still, steam for an hour. Strain, without any pressure, and serve with fingers of crisp, dry toast. Equal quantities of German lentils and brown beans may be prepared exactly as above to make Savoury Tea, as also a mixture of brown and white beans. A delicious
Invalid Broth
is made thus:—Wash well a cupful of butter peas or haricot beans and one or two tablespoonfuls pot barley. Put in saucepan or double boiler with water, and cook for two to three hours. Season and strain. Celery, onion, parsnip, &c., may be added if desired. Some milk may also be added, and, if wished specially rich and strengthening, one or two eggs beaten up. Warm up only as much as is needed at one time, and serve with toast or triscuits. Variety of flavour, &c., may be contrived by mixing lentils, dried green peas, &c., with the haricots, or instead of these, tomatoes may be sliced and added ten minutes before straining.
I need not here give recipes for ordinary oatmeal gruel, but
Lentil Gruel
may be new to some. Take a dessert-spoonful lentil flour—the "Digestive" lentil flour is always to be depended on—smooth with a little cold milk or water in a saucepan. Add three teacupfuls boiling milk or barley-water and simmer for fifteen minutes. A little extract such as "Carnos" or "Marmite" may be added to this or any of the foregoing broths.
These extracts, "Carnos" and "Marmite," are exceedingly useful in the sick-room, as they can be so easily and quickly prepared. "Carnos" being a fluid extract, is especially handy. A teaspoonful of that, or a half teaspoonful "Marmite" to a cupful boiling water makes a delightful cup of savoury tea. Be careful not to make too strong. Such extracts may also enter with advantage into
Savoury Custard.
Beat up an egg, and add to it half a teacupful milk, and either a teaspoonful "Carnos" or rather less of "Marmite," the latter dissolved in a little boiling water. Add pinch salt. Turn into a buttered cup or tiny basin, cover with buttered paper, and steam gently for seven or eight minutes till just set.
The following is a very dainty and novel
Egg Flip.
Separate the white from the yolk of an egg and beat up the white quite stiff. Beat up the yolk and add to it the strained juice of an orange or some "Nektar." Mix all lightly together and serve in a pretty glass or china dish.
White of Egg
may be made more attractive for little folk if poached by spoonfuls for a minute or two in boiling milk, and served with a little pink sugar dusted over.
Orange Egg Jelly.
Rub 2 ozs. loaf sugar on the rinds of 2 oranges till it gets as much flavour as possible, then put in a basin with the strained juice and a teaspoonful lemon juice. Bring a very small quantity of vegetable gelatine—previously soaked for an hour in cold water—to boil in a breakfastcupful of water. One-eighth of an oz. of this gelatine is enough as it is so strong. Stir till quite dissolved and strain over the sugar, &c. When cool add the yolks of two eggs beaten up, and whisk till white and frothy. Beat the whites very stiff and add them. Beat all thoroughly, and when just about to set pour into a wet mould. Or allow to set and then pile up by rocky spoonfuls in a glass dish.
When an invalid is getting past the "sloppy" stage and is able for solid nutriment
Steamed Barley
is perhaps the most valuable food of any, and dyspeptics who experience difficulty in getting any kind of food to agree would do well to go on a course of this—not for one day or two, but for weeks and months together. Wash well in cold water a teacupful of pot barley. Put on in clean lined saucepan with plenty of cold water, bring to boil slowly, and if there is the least suspicion of mustiness, drain and cover with clean water. When it comes a boil again, turn into a pudding basin or double boiler, cover and steam for at least six hours. Twelve hours is much better, and it is safest to put on one day, what is wanted for the next. Onions, celery, tomatoes, &c., may be added at discretion. When to be used, this barley should turn out firm enough to chew, and may be eaten with thin dry toast or "Triscuits."
Besides these home-made preparations, there are many valuable foods to be had ready for use, or requiring but little preparation, thus affording change and variety, not only to the patient, but to the nurse or cook, who must often be heartily tired of making up the same gruels and mushes for weeks or months together. The Barley Mint, Patriarch Biscuits, and Barley Malt Biscuits to be had from the Wallace Bakery, 465 Battersea Park Road, London, S.W., come in very handy. The Barley Malt Meal can be made into a gruel or porridge, while Barley Malt itself may be added to any ordinary preparation to aid digestion. Barley Malt Meal Gruel has been found a sovereign remedy for constipation, obstinate cases yielding to it when all other treatment had failed. Make in usual way and add one or two large spoonfuls treacle or honey. The biscuits may be grated and made into a mush with hot milk, &c., or they may be soaked over night in as much hot water, milk, or diluted Extract as they will absorb, and then be put in the oven to warm through. Gluten Meal is another among many valuable Invalid Foods which there is space only to mention here; while the value of Robinson's Patent Groats for gruel is widely appreciated.
For diabetic and anaemic patients there are one or two other valuable foods now on the market specially prepared to nourish and enrich the blood, while at the same time starving the disease. Barley Malt Meal is specially good, also a recent "Wallaceite" product, "Stamina Food."
The "Manhu" Diabetic Foods
are well known and highly recommended. The following
"Manhu" Diabetic Savoury
will be welcome to those whose dietary is of necessity so restricted. 1/2 pint Savoury Tea (p. 90) or diluted "Extract," 1 egg, 1 tablespoonful "Manhu" Diabetic Food, 1/2 oz. butter, salt and pepper.
Melt butter in saucepan, add the food, and mix over slow fire till butter is absorbed. Add the savoury liquid, cook for a few minutes, add seasoning, beat in yolk of egg, then the white stiffly beaten. Mix lightly. Pour into pie-dish, and bake in quick oven for 15 minutes.
* * * * *
A Realised Ideal In Food Production.
Ideal Food Reform means much more than "going without meat." It means the use of only such foods as will thoroughly nourish the body without injuring it.
For instance, most popular biscuits are made from an impoverished white flour, and raised with chemicals, which injure the system. Again, white bread is an artificial one-sided food, and is raised with yeast. Yeast is a ferment, the product of brewery vats, and is not expelled from the loaf by baking.
Thorough-going Food Reform demands bread, biscuits, &c., made with entire whole wheat flour, and free from chemicals, yeast, and other impurities. This is a high ideal: can it be realised?
It has been realised. The Wallace P.R. Foods Co. was founded expressly for-the purpose of making bread, biscuits, cakes, and other foods on scientific principles, which a great London "daily" has described as
100 Years in Advance of the Age.
In this model bakery the only flour used throughout is an entire wheatmeal ground to a marvellous fineness; and all other ingredients are the very best and purest. Chemicals, cheap fats, and yeast are banished.
Thousands have proved that the regular daily use of the P.R. Biscuits, Bread, &c., not only delights the palate, but eradicates many stubborn diseases, and brings about a steady improvement of health in cases where drugs, patent medicines, and all other unnatural methods have failed.
30 Samples of delicious Bread, Cake, Biscuits, and Coffee, 1/6 carr. paid.
Box Biscuits and Coffee only, 1/3 carr. paid.
_P.R. Specialities are stocked by all Health Food Stores.
Sole Makers:_
The Wallace P.R. Foods Co.
465 Battersea Park Rd., London, S.W.
* * * * *
INFANTILE MORTALITY
"COW & GATE" Dried Pure English Half-Cream Milk
The Superiority of Dried Milk over Fresh Cow's Milk was strikingly demonstrated by the experiments of the Sheffield Corporation Scheme for Reducing Infantile Mortality, given in a paper by ALBERT E. NAISH, M.A., M.B., B.C., Cantab., Assistant Physician, Sheffield Royal Hospital, in the September 3rd issue of the Medical Officer. For the purpose of these experiments our milk was used with that of two other makers.
OUR MILK BEING MADE DAILY AT OUR OWN FACTORIES
can be supplied in a much fresher condition than Foreign or Colonial makes. Besides the fact of our supplying several Infant Milk Depots and Creches, we have Thousands of Letters from grateful mothers, from all parts, who testify to the splendid results from feeding their babies on our Dried English Milk.
West Surrey Central Dairy Co. GUILDFORD.
It can be obtained of most Chemists and Health Food Stores, in Tins and Packets, 1/1. each.
We make Dried, Full-Cream, and also Separated Milk, as well as the above. Prices on application.
* * * * *
Savoury Gruel.
Dissolve about 1-1/2 teaspoonfuls vegetable extract—"Marmite," "Carnos," Mapleton's Nut Extract are all good—in 3 gills boiling water. Have a tablespoonful of either Gluten Meal, Barley Malt Meal, Banana Oats, &c., made smooth with a little cold water—add seasoning, a little grated onion, celery, &c.—and mix it with the "Extract" tea. Boil all together, stirring constantly for 5 or 10 minutes, then strain.
This savoury gruel may be acceptably varied from time to time by substituting Robinson's Patent Barley or Groats for the above.
Almond Cream Whey.
One pint milk, 1 dessertspoonful lemon juice, 1 tablespoonful Almond cream or Cashew nut cream. Bring milk nearly to boiling point, and add lemon juice. Let stand till it curdles. Strain and stir in the nut cream, also sweetening to taste.
"Nutter" Milk
(For Wasting Diseases, in place of Cod Liver Oil).
Put 1 oz. "Nutter," or other good vegetable fat, in small enamelled saucepan, and pour on 1/2 pint of milk. Heat very slowly nearly to boiling point. Stir or beat with wooden spoon till cool enough to drink. Pour into warm glass and sip slowly. If not all used at once, heat slowly, and mix well each time to be used.
Almond Milk Jelly.
Make up 1/2 pint almond milk by shaking up 1 tablespoonful Mapleton's concentrated almond cream with 2 gills water. Soak 1/8 oz. vegetable gelatine in cold water for an hour. Strain off the water and put in saucepan with the almond milk, rind of 1/2 lemon and juice of whole one, also 2 ozs. sugar. Stir over gentle heat till gelatine is dissolved. Strain and mould in usual way.
Onion Gruel (for a Cold).
One lb. onions, 1 apple, a little sugar, salt, ground cloves or mace, and white pepper, 1/2 gill boiling water, 2 tablespoonfuls "Cow and Gate" dried milk, 1 oz. butter or vegetable fat. Peel and chop the onions and scald with boiling water. Put on to simmer, with the apple chopped small, the water, butter, &c.—all except the dried milk. Cover and cook gently till tender. Sprinkle in the dried milk, and cook for a few minutes longer. Serve very hot.
The dried milk—full cream, half cream, or separated according to need of patient—may be added to any of the foregoing recipes where concentrated nourishment is required.
