Cut a small fowl (two pounds) into small pieces, and put it over the fire with three pints of cold water, four ounces of Ceylon moss (which can be obtained at the drug-stores), and half a tea-spoonful of salt. Boil all together an hour; then strain it through a jelly-strainer or napkin into little cups or molds.
Mutton Broth
may be made in the same manner as chicken broth, allowing a quart of cold water to each pound of meat.
Veal and Sago Broth (Marian Harland).
Ingredients: Two pounds of knuckle of veal cracked to pieces, two quarts of cold water, three table-spoonfuls of best pearl sago soaked in a cupful of cold water, one cupful of cream heated to boiling, and the yolks of two eggs beaten light.
Boil the veal and water in a covered saucepan very slowly until reduced to one quart of liquid; strain, season with salt, and stir in the soaked sago (having previously warmed it by setting for half an hour in a saucepan of boiling water, and stirring from time to time). Simmer half an hour, taking care it does not burn; beat in the cream and eggs. Give one good boil up, and turn out.
Beef and Tapioca Broth.
Soak one pound of beef, cut into pieces, in a quart of cold water for half an hour; then boil it slowly, keeping it closely covered for two hours. Strain it. The last half hour, add half a cupful of tapioca (which has been soaked an hour in a little water), a small sprig of parsley, and a thin cut from an onion. When done, remove the parsley and onion; season with a very little pepper and salt, and two or three drops only of lemon-juice. When just ready to serve, put into the soup an egg, carefully poached in salted water, the white being merely set.
If patients are not too ill, any kind of beef soup made from stock, as explained on page 80, ought to be advantageous.