Water Gruel.
To two quarts of boiling water, add one gill of Indian meal and a heaped tablespoonful of flour, made into a paste and stirred in the water. Let it boil slowly twenty minutes. Salt, sugar, and nutmeg to the taste.
Oatmeal makes a fine gruel in the same way.
Beef Tea.
Broil a pound of tender, juicy beef ten minutes, salt and pepper it, cut it in small pieces, pour on a pint of boiling water, steep it half an hour, and then pour it off to drink. Another way is slower, but better. Cut the beef in small pieces, fill a junk bottle with them, and keep it five hours in boiling water. Then pour out, and season the juice thus obtained.
Tomato Syrup.
Express the juice of ripe tomatoes, and put a pound of sugar to each quart of the juice, put it in bottles, and set it aside. In a few weeks it will have the appearance and flavor of pure wine of the best kind, and mixed with water is a delightful beverage for the sick. No alcohol is needed to preserve it.
The medical properties of the tomato are in high repute, and it is supposed that this syrup retains all that is contained in the fruit.
Arrowroot Custard for Invalids.
One tablespoonful of arrowroot.