MUSH AND PORRIDGE
Mush is meal or grain cooked in water to the consistency of rather thin pudding. Porridge is like mush, only thinner. The most important point connected with the preparation of these is thoroughness in the cooking. Made as they generally are of coarsely ground or of rolled grains, they need long boiling to soften the cellulose and to cook the starch properly.
Oatmeal. Oatmeal should be cooked for at least three hours in a double boiler. It is at its best prepared the day before it is needed, and then reheated as it is wanted. If it is done in this way, the flavor is fine, and there is no danger that the grains will be hard. When taken from the kettle, the oatmeal should be of the consistency to pour, and on cooling it ought to form into a tender, jelly-like pudding. Sometimes oatmeal is cooked so that the grains are whole and separate, but it is not easily digested so, and lacks the delicious flavor which long cooking gives.
Oatmeal for those for whom there is no objection to its use is a valuable nutrient, furnishing more for the money than almost any other food.[31]
Indian Meal. Indian meal also requires many hours' cooking. Even if it be in a single vessel and actually boiled, not less than an hour and a half of exposure to heat is safe.
Farina. Farina having been already subjected to a high degree of heat in its preparation, is thereby partially cooked, and does not require as long a time as the raw grains.
Mushes and porridges made from oatmeal, cracked wheat, or any grain on which the tough outside covering remains, are to be avoided in all cases of irritation or disease of the alimentary canal, particularly in diseases of the intestines, for the hard hulls are very irritating to the delicate lining membranes. Young children have exceedingly delicate digestive powers, and are often made ill by coarse, starchy food. For them it is always safest to use the prepared grains, such as farina, granula, and Imperial Granum.
All of the grains given in these recipes may be made into porridges by following the rules given for mushes, except that a larger proportion of water should be used. Porridges are like mushes, only thinner.
OATMEAL MUSH
½ Cup of rolled oats, or ½ cup of granulated oatmeal.
½ Teaspoon of salt.
1 Pint of boiling water.
Pick over the oatmeal, and put it into a double boiler with the salt. Pour on the boiling water, place the upper vessel of the boiler on the stove, and boil two minutes. This effectually starts the cooking. Then put the upper vessel into the lower, and cook for five hours. The water in the under boiler should boil during this time, and will occasionally need replenishing. Serve the mush steaming hot with sugar and cream, and baked apples, apple sauce, or tart jelly if one is fond of something acid.
If rolled oats be used, three hours are sufficient to cook it, but both kinds are best cooked the day before they are needed, as long cooking improves rather than injures the grain.
FARINA
Farina being a prepared grain and free from hulls and waste, so large a proportion will not be required to make a mush as of the raw grains.
3 Tablespoons of farina.
½ Saltspoon of salt.
1 Pint of boiling water.
Cook the mixture in a saucepan for twenty minutes after it actually boils, or in a double boiler for one hour. This is a delicious food for children, served with cream, or milk, and sugar.
WHEAT GERM
Wheat germ is a delicate and nutritious preparation of wheat. It is made so that by boiling for a short time it is ready for the table, and makes a delicious breakfast dish.
½ Cup of germ.
½ Teaspoonful of salt.
1½ Cups of boiling water.
Boil in a saucepan without a cover for half an hour, or cook in a double boiler twice as long. The directions on the packages give a shorter time, but it is extremely doubtful whether this grain can be wholesome with the few minutes' cooking usually advised.
IMPERIAL GRANUM
Imperial Granum, cooked according to the above rule, is always a wholesome and safe dish for children; or it may be made into a very thin gruel, and used as a drink instead of water.
GRANULA
Granula is a breakfast grain which has been partially prepared by dry heat, and is almost cooked enough to use. It is sometimes recommended that it be prepared by simply boiling a minute in milk. It is, however, both softened and improved in flavor by boiling from ten to fifteen minutes in one and one half times its bulk of water, with salt in the proportion of a teaspoon to a cup of grain.
CRACKED OR ROLLED WHEAT
1 Cup of cracked wheat.
1 Teaspoon of salt.
3 Cups of water.
Pick over the wheat, to remove any foreign substance that may be in it. Put it with the salt and the water (boiling) into a double boiler, and cook for two hours. Serve with cream and sugar, either hot or cold. If it is desirable to have it cold, it may be molded in cups or small round jelly-molds.
INDIAN-MEAL MUSH
1 Cup of corn-meal.
1 Teaspoon of salt.
1 Quart of boiling water.
No. 1. Make the corn-meal and salt into a paste with a little cold water, then pour in the boiling water and cook it in a double boiler for five hours.
No. 2. Put the salt into the water, and when the water reaches the boiling-point stir in the dry meal by taking a handful and sprinkling it slowly through the fingers. Use a wooden spoon for stirring. Boil an hour and a half. Or, wet the meal in a little cold water, and pour over it the boiling water. The most important point is thoroughness in the cooking, which should be done carefully so that the pudding may not burn on the bottom of the dish. If the temperature be regulated so that it just simmers, there will be little danger of this. Serve with maple syrup, or with cream.
HOMINY MUSH
1 Cup of hominy.
1 Teaspoon of salt.
1¼ Quarts of water.
Put all together in a double boiler, and cook for three hours. Add more water if the mush seems stiff and thick; all preparations of corn absorb a great deal in cooking, and hominy usually needs a little more than four times its bulk. Hominy is exceedingly indigestible unless well cooked, but sweet and nutritious when subjected to a high temperature for a long time.