TAMARIND WATER.
One tumbler of tamarinds, one pint cold water. Turn water over tamarinds and let it stand an hour; strain before using. Currant jelly or cranberry jelly can be used similarly.—Mrs. Owens’ Cook Book.
BEEF TEA.
One pound lean beef cut into small pieces, put into a bottle without a drop of water, cover tightly and set in a pot of cold water; heat gradually to a boil, and continue boiling steadily for three or four hours, until the meat is like rags, and the juice all out. Salt to taste.
Beef tea does not afford as much nutrition as people have been taught. It is readily taken up by absorption, and is desirable where a mild stimulant is required. In fevers and inflammations bran or oatmeal gruel furnish much more desirable nutrition.
BEEF TEA A STIMULANT, AND NOT A FOOD.
Notwithstanding it has been repeatedly shown that beef tea is not a food, the laity, and to a considerable extent the profession, are slow to be convinced. That patients fed on beef tea slowly starve is a fact, which the analysis only too conclusively supports, and which is sustained by accurate clinical observation. In the Lancet for October, 1880, p. 562, Mr. G. F. Masterman publishes an analysis, which shows that beef tea has a chemical composition similar to urine. Beef tea, most carefully prepared, says Dr. Neale in the Practitioner (November, 1881), does not contain, including alkaline salts, more than from 1.5 to 2.25 per cent. solid matters, and such matter is mainly composed of urea, kreatin, kreatinin, isolin and decomposed hematin. As a stimulant, beef tea may be, and often is, highly serviceable, but as a means of support during the exhausting drain of a long illness, it does not compare in nutritive value to milk. Dr. Lauder Brunton raises the question whether beef tea, a product of muscular waste, may not under some circumstances be actually poisonous!—Medical News.
RICE GRUEL.
Two table-spoons rice, one quart cold water; steep slowly one hour; strain through a gravy strainer; add a little cream and salt.