FOOD FORMULAS
Beef Juice.—Take one pound of round steak and broil it slightly. Press the juice out with a lemon squeezer, or, with a meat-press. Season with salt and serve hot or cold as desired. If it is heated after it has once been cold, it should not be overheated as this will coagulate the albumen which will appear as flakes floating on the surface of the juice.
Beef Juice by the Cold Process.—Take one pound of finely chopped round steak, six ounces of cold water, a pinch of salt; place in a covered jar and stand on ice, or in a cool place, six hours. This mixture should be shaken from time to time. Strain and squeeze all the juice out by placing the meat in a coarse cloth and twisting it very hard. Season and feed as above.
Beef juice made in this way is more nutritious than that made from the steak when broiled; it is not, however, quite so palatable.
Beef juice made in either of the above ways is much more nutritious than the beef extracts sold ready to use.
Mutton Broth.—Take one pound of finely chopped lean mutton, including some of the bone, one pint of cold water and a pinch of salt, cook for three hours over a slow fire down to half a pint, adding water to make up this quantity if necessary; strain through muslin. When it is cold remove the fat and add more salt if required. It may be fed warm or cold in the form of a jelly.
Mutton Broth With Cornstarch or Arrowroot.—Add to the above sufficient cornstarch or arrowroot to thicken, cook for ten minutes and then add three ounces of milk, or one ounce of thick cream, to a half pint of broth. This makes a nutritious and extremely palatable broth.
Chicken, Veal, and Beef Broths.—These may be made and used in the same way as mutton broth.
Scraped Beef or Meat Pulp.—Take a rare piece of round or sirloin steak, cut the outer part away, scrape or shred with a blunt knife. Cutting the meat into small pieces is not satisfactory. One teaspoonful to one tablespoonful may be given well salted, to a child a year and a half old. It is best to begin with a small dose and work up to the larger to accustom the digestive apparatus to its use.
Junket, or Curds and Whey.—Take one pint of warm fresh cow's milk, a pinch of salt, a teaspoonful of granulated sugar, to which add two teaspoonfuls of Fairchild's essence of pepsin and allow the mixture to stand until firmly coagulated—this may take about twenty minutes—place in the ice box until thoroughly cold. Nutmeg may be added for older children and adults.
Whey.—The coagulated milk prepared as above is broken up with a fork and the whey is strained off through cheesecloth. If a stimulant is desired, brandy, in the proportion of one teaspoonful to six tablespoonfuls of the whey may be added.
Barley Water.—One level tablespoonful of Robinson's barley is rubbed up with a little cold water, to this is added one pint of boiled water containing a pinch of salt. The mixture should be stirred while the water is being added. Cook for thirty minutes in a double boiler and strain. Enough boiling water should be added to the mixture to make up the full pint if any has boiled away.
Barley Gruel or Barley Jelly.—Repeat the above process, but instead of using one tablespoonful of the barley powder, use from two to four according to the consistency of the gruel or jelly desired.
Barley water may be made from the grains. A formula for this process will be found in the chapter on artificial feeding.
Rice, Wheat, or Oat Water.—These are made from the rice, wheat, or oat flour in the same way as barley water described above. They may be made from the grains also, using the same proportions as in the making of barley water.
Imperial Granum.—This is prepared in the same way as the barley flour above described.
Albumen Water.—Take half a pint of cold water, the white of one fresh egg, a pinch of salt, and a teaspoonful of brandy, shake and feed from a spoon or from a bottle. This is frequently used in cases of vomiting, or in irritable stomachs. It is often retained when all other food is rejected.
Dried Bread.—Cut either stale or fresh bread into thin slices and place in the open oven. When it is dried and crisp but not browned it may be given to children in preference to crackers.
Coddled Egg.—A fresh egg with the shell intact is placed in boiling water which is immediately removed from the fire. The egg is allowed to remain in the water for eight minutes when it is ready for use. The white only should be used if the digestion is poor.