V
GENERAL REMARKS ON FOODS AND FEEDING
Always have all food presented to an invalid as tempting as possible. Use pretty china and glass, if you are permitted to do so, yet not the very finest the house affords; that might make the patient nervous lest some evil befall it. Absolutely clean napkins and tray cloths, a few green leaves about the plate, a rose on the tray; the chop or piece of chicken, the bird or the piece of steak ornamented with sprigs of parsley, the cold things really cold, and the hot ones hot, these are necessities of invalid's feeding, that mark the nurse who has a proper appreciation of a sick person's delicate sensibilities. Have all plates, cups and saucers hot, when they are for the reception of hot toast, coffee, tea, etc. Hot water plates are very convenient, and easily procured at any large china shop; but if they cannot be found, put the hot plate containing the chop over a bowl of boiling water, and cover with a hot saucer, fold a napkin around the baked potato, and you can carry the tray containing the dinner through cold halls and up staircases and it will arrive at your patient's room hot. Be careful not to fill the bowl so full of hot water that it will spill. Never fill a cup so full that it will spill its contents over into the saucer, it makes a disgusting looking mess. Have all fruit cold, oranges and grapes especially. Always look over a bunch of grapes and cut off the soft ones before you hand them to a patient. If you have foreign or California grapes, hold them for a moment under the cold water faucet and let the water run through the bunch, and all the cork dust will then be washed out.
If you peel and quarter an orange for your patient never let her see you do it, unless you are perfectly sure you will not get your hands covered with juice. Wash your hands before you bring it to be eaten.
Be careful not to have any suspicion of grease about the beef tea, broths, etc. A quick and easy way to remove all grease, is to fill a cup or bowl brimming full, let it stand a few moments that the grease may rise to the top, tip the cup a very little to one side, and the grease, to the last atom, will flow over the side of the cup; pour your broth carefully into a clean hot cup, and serve. Beef juice is more palatable with a little very brown toast.
Remember, that an invalid hardly ever likes any food made sweet. No matter what the taste may be in health, in sickness, sweet things are nauseous; for this reason ice cream bought at confectioners' is often rejected. Salt also must be used with caution, if the mouth and lips are tender, as is often the case; use the salt sparingly in all broths, etc.
If your patient cannot take milk, when, as in typhoid fever, the doctor wishes the diet to be wholly or for the most part of milk, try at first to remove the thick, bad taste by giving a little pure water or carbonic acid water after it. If that will not do, mix the carbonic acid water with it, and have both nice and cold. If a glass of milk is too much (and it will be in nine cases out of ten, especially if it is cold), give half a glass; if that is still too much, give quarter of a glass, or put more water with it. Never repeat a dose (of food) if it nauseates the patient. Make some change in quantity or quality, and you will, if you watch carefully, find out the right proportions.
A person lying flat down in bed cannot, of course, drink from a glass or cup, and a feeding cup is apt, by pouring too freely, to cause choking. A bent glass tube is the best arrangement, the patient can drink easily through this, and can regulate by sucking, the rapidity with which the food is taken. The tube should be cleaned immediately after each using, and if any beef tea or other food cannot be dislodged by letting water run through it, pass a string with a knot tied in it, through. Make the knot big enough to touch all sides of the tube, have it thoroughly wet, and the cleansing will be easily and quickly accomplished. If a patient prefers drinking from a glass, and can be raised in bed, always lay a napkin under the chin before you give the drink, and on no account have the glass or cup more than half full, if you do, it will surely spill.
In giving medicine that tastes very bitter or unpleasant in any way, bring, at the same time with the medicine, some water, milk, or whatever may be preferred, to take after it. Also a napkin to wipe the lips, especially if the patient be a man.
Always keep milk, beef tea, etc., covered in the refrigerator, and, if you can, see that this is cleaned every day. But this might cause the cook to feel aggrieved, so I put it as a suggestion merely. But if the refrigerator has a smell, and the cook seems touchy, the milk, etc., better be kept upstairs on some sheltered window-ledge, and carefully covered.
If you have your own little refrigerator upstairs, see to it that it is cleaned every day. Never put away anything in tin pails; always use earthen or china bowls or pitchers.
BEEF TEA.
Beef from the round, finely chopped and free from fat. Proportions, 1 lb. beef to 1 pint of water, cold. Let the beef soak in the water, stirring occasionally, for two hours; then put it on the stove and heat it until the red color disappears; never boil it. Skim off all grease, salt to taste.
BEEF JUICE.
Round steak cut an inch thick; slightly broil like beefsteak for the table, cut into squares of an inch, squeeze in a lemon squeezer, skim carefully and salt. Serve either very cold, or place the cup containing the juice in a bowl of boiling water, stir carefully, and as soon as the juice is warm serve. If left a moment too long it is spoiled, as it curdles. One pound of beef makes an after dinner coffee cup almost full of juice.
BEEF TEA IN A BOTTLE.
Put into a Mason's preserve jar, tightly corked, one pound of beef chopped as for ordinary beef tea. Put this into a kettle of cold water, with a saucer on the bottom, let it come slowly to a boil and boil for an hour. Take out of the bottle and squeeze the beef.
SCRAPED BEEF.
Take a piece of lean round steak, scrape with the edge of a spoon until the place scraped has no more meat on the surface, but only the white fibre, cut this off with a sharp knife, exposing once more a fresh surface. Season, and spread raw on bread and butter, or make into little cakes and broil slightly, according to the doctor's orders, or your patient's taste.
MUTTON BROTH.
Mutton from the neck. Proportions, 1 lb. of mutton to 1 quart of water, put the mutton and the water (cold) on the back of the stove, let it come slowly to a boil, boil until the meat is ready to fall from the bones. After straining out all the meat etc. add one tablespoonful of rice or barley. Simmer half an hour after adding rice or barley.
CLAM BROTH. NO. 1.
Take 1 qt. clams. Strain off the juice and chop the clams fine, return clams to the juice and simmer one hour. Put on to scald as much milk as juice. Strain out the clams, thicken with a little corn starch, making about as thick as cream, pour juice into a bowl and add the milk.
CLAM BROTH. NO. 2.
Same as above, only cut off the hard part of the clams, chop the soft parts and leave them in the broth. For convalescents.
CLAM BROTH. NO. 3.
Take little neck clams unopened, wash them very clean with a brush. Place them on the top of the stove in a clean dry pan, and when the shells open take them off, remove the clams and pour the juice into a cup. To be served hot. If it is too strong, add a little boiling water. This is for very sick people; give only a teaspoonful at a time. It sometimes corrects nausea.
CHICKEN BROTH.
A fowl, not too young, cut in pieces, 1 qt. water to 1 lb. fowl. Put it on the stove in cold water, let it heat slowly, then boil gently until the meat is ready to fall from the bones, strain, skim and add rice, boil once more for 1/2 hour. Salt to taste. Serve with toast or hot crackers.
OYSTER BROTH.
Equal quantities of juice and milk, put each in separate vessels on the stove; when the juice comes to the boil, skim and slightly thicken, pour in the milk boiling hot, add the oysters one by one, let them remain on the stove about five minutes, or until the beards begin to curl, and they are no longer slippery. Serve with crackers heated very hot.
OYSTERS BROILED.
Dry the oysters, large ones are best, in a towel, have a piece of toast slightly buttered on a hot plate, near, pour over this a little hot oyster juice, not enough to make the toast wet through. Arrange the oysters on a fine buttered broiler, cook over a brisk fire like steak, until the beards curl. Turn them often. It takes about five minutes. Arrange them on the toast, add a little salt and a very little butter, serve very hot.
BROILED CHICKEN.
The chicken must be young, split down the back. Lay on the gridiron and broil evenly, turning frequently. Serve on a piece of buttered toast, salt and slightly butter the chicken. A little parsley garnishes the dish prettily.
All birds to be broiled should be split down the back and broiled evenly, laid on thin toast and served hot.
BEEF STEAK.
Steak must be cut 3/4 inch thick, and evenly broiled, rare, unless particularly requested to do otherwise. Be careful not to smoke it; the grease dropping into the fire may make trouble in this way.
OATMEAL GRUEL.
Take two large iron tablespoonfuls of oatmeal freshly cooked for breakfast, add one cup of boiling water, slowly stirring all the time, then add an equal quantity of milk. Let all boil for ten minutes, and strain through a fine wire sieve. If you have no cooked oatmeal put 1/2 cup raw oatmeal in a double boiler with two cups of boiling water and cook for two hours, then proceed as above. It makes the gruel richer to add all milk, or 1-1/2 cups of milk and 1 cup of cream. Be sure not to forget the salt. Never put any sugar in unless requested to do it by the patient.
KOUMYSS.
Dissolve a third of a cake of compressed yeast (Fleischmann's) in a little warm water (not hot). Take a quart of milk fresh from the cow, or warmed to blood heat, add to it a tablespoonful of sugar, and the dissolved yeast. Put the mixture in beer bottles with patent stoppers, fill to the neck, cork, and let them stand for twelve hours where the temperature is about 68 degrees or 70 degrees, then put the bottles on ice, upside down.
MILK PUNCH.
One glass of milk, 1 or 2 tablespoonfuls of brandy, 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Shake well or beat with an eggbeater. Give cold. Have patient take slowly.
EGG-NOG.
One egg, half glass of milk, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of sherry or brandy, ice. Beat the yolk of egg in a glass, add the sugar and beat, then a little milk, continue beating, then four or five pieces of ice about as big as a hickory nut; add brandy— regulate to the taste of your patient—add rest of milk; beat whites of eggs and add all but a teaspoonful with which garnish the top. It should make a glass brimming full. Have a spoon with which to eat it.
EGG LEMONADE.
One egg, one-half a lemon, 2 teaspoonfuls of sugar, beat the white and yolk separately as for egg-nog; add the sugar to the yolk, then the lemon juice, then the ice, lastly the white beaten to a stiff froth.
WINE WHEY.
One pint of boiling milk, one-half pint sherry; add sherry to the milk while scalding hot; stir a moment until the curd gathers; strain through a fine muslin, sweeten. To be taken cold. This takes a little practice to gather the curd as it should be done.
POACHED EGGS.
The best way of cooking for an invalid. Slip the egg, previously broken into a saucer (the fresher the egg the better), carefully into salted water which is boiling in a frying pan, then immediately set the pan at the side of the stove so that the water does not boil, keep it there for about five minutes. Let the water be about two inches deep in the iron frying pan. Each egg must be broken separately and slipped carefully into the water. When cooked so that the white is firm but jelly like, no part being raw or hard, take it out with a skimmer and slip it on a piece of thin buttered toast, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top, serve immediately. Garnish with parsley.
SCRAMBLED EGGS.
Beat two eggs until thoroughly mixed, add two tablespoonfuls of milk, salt and pepper. Pour into a very hot frying pan, buttered, and stir constantly for about two minutes. Pour over buttered toast.
SHIRRED EGGS.
Heat the shirring cup very hot. Put in a piece of butter as big as a large pea. Shake it about and break in the egg. Let it remain on the stove a few moments and serve in the shirring cup. Sprinkle salt and pepper on it.
OMELETTE.
Beat very stiff two eggs, whites and yolks separately, add two tablespoonfuls of milk and a little salt. Pour carefully into a small frying pan, hot and buttered. As soon as the egg is set, slip a knife under one side and fold one side over the other. Slip on a piece of toast and serve at once. A little finely minced ham or parsley flavors it very well.
RENNET.
One pint of milk slightly warmed and sweetened and flavored, add one large teaspoon of liquid rennet. Stir for a moment and set it in a refrigerator. To be eaten with sugar and cream.
BOILED CUSTARD.
One pint of milk and 2 eggs. Beat the eggs, add the milk heated almost to the boiling point. Stir in 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar. Return to the double boiler, and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring gently all the time. When done it will be about as thick as cream. Be careful not to let it cook too much as it will "separate" and be spoiled.
BAKED CUSTARD.
Same ingredients and proportions as for boiled custard, only let milk be cold. Pour into custard cups. Stand these in a dripping pan half full of warm water and bake in a pretty hot oven. Watch carefully, bake 15 minutes.
THIN BREAD AND BUTTER.
Have a loaf of good home-made bread, yesterday's baking, cut off the crust, then butter the loaf and cut the slice in this way, buttering first and cutting afterwards. The slice can be made very thin and dainty, and the thinner it is, the better. A patient will sometimes relish this when tired of all kinds of toast or crackers.