Reform Cookery Book (4th edition) / Up-To-Date Health Cookery for the Twentieth Century.

by Mrs. Mill

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.