[No. 210. Camomile Tea.]
Put about thirty flowers into a jug, pour a pint of boiling water upon them, cover up the tea, and when it has stood about ten minutes, pour it off from the flowers into another jug; sweeten with sugar or honey; drink a tea-cupful of it fasting in the morning to strengthen the digestive organs, and restore the liver to healthier action. A tea-cupful of camomile tea, in which is stirred a large dessert-spoonful of moist sugar, and a little grated ginger, is an excellent thing to administer to aged people a couple of hours before their dinner.
[No. 211. Balm and Burrage Tea.]
These, as well as all other medicinal herbs, may easily be cultivated in a corner of your garden, when you are so fortunate as to live in a cottage of your own in the country; they are also to be obtained from all herbalists in large towns. Take of balm and burrage a small handful each, put this into a jug, pour in upon the herbs a quart of boiling water, allow the tea to stand for ten minutes, and then strain it off into another jug, and let it become cold. This cooling drink is recommended as a beverage for persons whose system has become heated from any cause.
[No. 212. Sage or Marygold Tea.]
Put a dozen sage leaves into a tea-pot, pour boiling water upon them, and, after allowing the tea to stand for five or ten minutes, it may be drunk with sugar and milk, in the same way and instead of the cheaper kinds of teas, which are sold for foreign teas, but which are too often composed of some kind of leaf more or less resembling the real plant, without any of its genuine fragrance, and are, from their spurious and almost poisonous nature, calculated to produce evil to all who consume them, besides the drawback of their being expensive articles.
Teas made from sage leaves, dried mint, marygolds, and more particularly the leaf of the black currant tree, form a very pleasant as well as wholesome kind of beverage; and, if used in equal proportions, would be found to answer very well as a most satisfactory substitute for bad and expensive tea.
[No. 213. How to Stew Red Cabbages.]
The use of the red cabbage in this country is confined to its being pickled almost raw, and eaten in that detestable and injurious state, whereby its anti-scorbutic powers are annulled.
The red cabbage, when merely boiled with bacon, or with a little butter and salt, is both nutritious and beneficial in a medicinal point of view, inasmuch as that it possesses great virtue in all scorbutic and dartrous affections. On the Continent it is customary to administer it in such cases in the form of a syrup, and also in a gelatinized state. The red cabbage, stewed in the following manner, will be found a very tasty dish:—Slice up the red cabbage rather thin, wash it well, drain it, and then put it into a saucepan with a little dripping or butter, a gill of vinegar, pepper and salt; put the lid on, and set the cabbage to stew slowly on the hob, stirring it occasionally from the bottom to prevent it from burning; about an hour's gentle stewing will suffice to cook it thoroughly. All kinds of cabbage or kail are anti-scorbutic agents.