Skimmed milk and buttermilk both have their value as nutriment, and experts say that even after cream has been removed the skimmed milk still contains nearly ten per cent of its nutritive properties. Buttermilk is often more acceptable to patients than sweet milk, and, if it can be obtained fresh every day, it can be used occasionally to add variety to a strictly milk or liquid diet. It is said that six ounces of buttermilk has in it the same amount of nutrition as a medium-sized potato.[2] “Actual experiment has demonstrated that a fifteen-cent lunch containing nine different food materials (soup, beef, potatoes, turnips, bread, butter, coffee, milk, sugar), did not have any greater nutritive value than a four-cent lunch consisting of a pint of skimmed milk and ten ounces of bread.”
[2] U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin 74.
In ordering milk it is better to get too much than too little. The excess can always be used in food combinations, and at the prices ordinarily paid it is not an expensive food. Because of the ease with which it is digested by the average person, and its nutritive properties, it can be served in almost a numberless variety of forms to sick people, and often in preference to other foods.
Care of Milk
Assuming that it is possible for dealers to supply pure milk, and that the housekeeper knows whether or not she is getting the genuine article for her sick family, there is still something required, if it is to reach the patients in good condition. Be the article never so pure when delivered, it can quickly become impure by careless handling. The milk delivered at a very early hour may be left at the door where it is exposed to heat, dust and flies, and by the time it is taken into the house impurities may have entered that will account for it becoming sour in a few hours. Another source of contamination can be traced to the practice of putting milk in open vessels into the same refrigerator with meats and vegetables. Old tin or wooden vessels should never be used, and vessels should be thoroughly scalded and scrupulously clean before the milk is put in. If the racks and shelves in the cooling room are scrubbed daily, also the inside of the milk refrigerator, and a temperature of 50 F. or lower maintained, there should be no difficulty in keeping milk sweet twenty-hour hours or longer.
Milk delivered in bottles which have been previously sterilized will be found more satisfactory than that which has been carried in large cans and dipped from vessel to vessel. Each time it is handled the contents of these cans are exposed to floating dust, and the time the milk will remain sweet is shortened. The bottles in which milk is served should be carefully cleaned as soon as emptied, and in warm weather milk should never be left without ice. The careless habit that exists in some kitchens of allowing the milk to stand in a heated room for an hour or more because every one is otherwise employed, should never be tolerated in a hospital.
Another point in handling may be worth mentioning; milk or cream intended for the sick may be consumed by kitchen employees, and in spite of the housekeeper’s plans the supply may become exhausted before the new supply is available. This often occurs at night, when it is impossible to replenish the quantity from any source. All calculations as to the amount per capita required will be valueless if servants are allowed to consume it at will. If milk is to be allowed to them as a beverage, then a much larger amount should be ordered.
Cheese
Cheese, which is a concentrated form of milk, while rich in nutrition, is somewhat difficult of digestion, and if bought at all for hospital patients should be purchased sparingly and served in very small portions. Like milk, it needs to be kept cool and entirely separate from fruits, vegetables and meats.
Eggs