Foods to be Avoided
Foods to be Carefully Avoided. Veal, pork in any form except bacon,[74] highly seasoned stews, curries, canned meats or dried meats in any form, baked beans, fruit cake, also all cakes or gingerbread made with so-called "cooking-butter" or with common lard, raw fruits, lobsters and crabs, new potatoes, berries, and cabbage.
[DISTRICT NURSING]
In England and in some parts of America district nursing, or nursing among the very poor of certain sections of a city, is an established part of a nurse's work. Her duties are to go from house to house among the sick, to administer medicine and food, and to make the surroundings of her patient comfortable.
There is no way in which one may reach the hearts and sympathies of the poor so quickly as by helping them to, or showing them how to do for themselves, those things which they think they need.
Their first consideration is for the immediate necessities of life—food, clothing, and shelter. Their days are spent in a struggle with the world for these—too often an unequal struggle, in which the world conquers. A nurse, or any other person who can gain admission to their homes and sympathies, may help them in many ways as no other can. Great good may be done by teaching them economical and simple methods of preparing their food, which as a general thing is cooked both badly and wastefully.
A nurse doing district nursing, besides administering medicine and making her patient generally comfortable, will inevitably and naturally turn to the preparation of some form of nourishment for him. If she can make it acceptably with the materials and cooking utensils at hand, or is able to ask for that which is within the means of the family, or to direct the buying of it, she will add greatly to the comfort of the household.
The object of this chapter is not, however, to deal with cooking for the sick. That will be left entirely to the judgment of the nurse, who is supposed to have studied the subject as a part of her training. But it has occurred to the author that a nurse doing district nursing would often find the opportunity to help the families of her patients, and that often such help would need to be given in order to prevent actual suffering. Especially would this be true if it were the mother of a family who was ill, and there was no one to prepare food for the father and children, who must be fed. Usually there is a child, either boy or girl, who is old enough to learn if there is some one to teach.
The following pages have been written for the purpose of suggesting, to such nurses as are disposed to do good in this way, some easily made and economical dishes which are really both palatable and nutritious. A few directions about building a fire, washing dishes, sweeping, etc., will be given, and then some bills of fare with recipes adapted for the use of people of small means, and taken for the most part from the Lomb Prize Essay by Mary H. Abel, entitled "Practical, Sanitary, and Economic Cooking," and published by the American Public Health Association, 1890.
Permission to use these recipes has been graciously granted by Mrs. Abel, and the American Public Health Association, through Mr. Lomb.