Mother's Remedies, Thomas Jefferson Ritter [reading well .TXT] 📗

or three changes of cold water. Cereals are best cooked in a double boiler. The lower part should be filled about one-third full of water and, if more is added during the soaking, it should always be boiling hot. The cereal should be boiled over the fire for ten or fifteen minutes. The water should be boiled first and then salted. The cereal is added gradually and the whole stirred to prevent it from burning. It should then be placed in the double boiler and steamed until thoroughly cooked. Cereals, like other starchy foods, require thorough cooking. Most recipes allow too short a time. Oatmeal, especially, should be mentioned. It develops a better flavor if cooked for three hours or more, and is better when it is prepared the day before and reheated when used. It should be just thin enough to pour when taken out of boiler, and when cooled should form a jelly.

Any cereal mush may be thinned with water, milk or cream and made into a gruel, or the gruel may be made directly from the grain or flour. Gruels should be thin, not too sweet nor too highly flavored, and served very hot. Milk gruels should be made in a double boiler. Gruels can be made more nutritious by the addition of whipped egg, either the white or yolk or both, and the various concentrated food products.

When cereal flours are used, the flour should be rubbed to a smooth paste with a little cold water and added slowly to boiling water, stirring constantly until it is thoroughly mixed.

[652 MOTHERS' REMEDIES] LENGTH OF TIME TO COOK CEREALS.

Cornmeal mush: Boil 10 minutes, then steam for 3 hours or more.
Oatmeal: Boil 10 minutes, then steam for l-1/2 hours or more.
Irish oatmeal: Boil 10 minutes, then steam for 8 hours or more.
Wheatena: Boil 10 minutes, then steam for 10 hours or more.
Gluten mush: Boil 30 minutes.
Steamed rice: Steam for one hour.
Boiled rice: Boil for twenty minutes or until soft.

Arrowroot Gruel.—Dissolve half a teaspoonful of sugar and a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt in a cupful of water and heat. Mix half a teaspoonful of arrowroot flour with a little water and add to the heated water. Boil for twenty minutes, stirring constantly; then add a cupful of milk, bring to a boil, strain, and serve hot.

Barley Gruel.—Proceed as above, using a tablespoonful of Robinson's
Barley flour instead of arrowroot.

Oatmeal Gruel.—As above, but use oatmeal, and boil for half an hour or longer before adding the milk.

Farina Gruel.—Proceed as in making arrowroot gruel, using instead a tablespoonful of farina, and boil ten minutes before adding the milk.

Cracker Gruel.—Brown the crackers, and reduce to a powder by means of a rolling-pin. Add three tablespoonfuls of the powdered crackers to half a cupful of milk and half a cupful of boiling water; cook for ten minutes; then add one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt and serve.

Cornmeal Gruel.—Take a tablespoonful of cornmeal and moisten with a little cold water. Stir this into a pint of boiling water to which a pinch of salt has been added. Cook for three hours in a double boiler, or for thirty minutes directly over the fire. In the latter case it must be stirred constantly.

Gluten Gruel.—Mix a tablespoonful of gluten flour with one-fourth of a cupful of cold water and stir this into one cupful of boiling salted water. Cook directly over the fire for fifteen minutes; then add one clove and cook over boiling water for a half hour.

Tapioca Jelly.—Soak a cupful of tapioca of the best quality in a pint of cold water for two hours; when soft, place in a saucepan with sugar, the rind and juice of one lemon, a pinch of salt, and another pint of water; stir the mixture until it boils; turn into a mold and set away to cool; if desired, a glassful of wine may be added.

Chestnut Puree.—One pound of chestnuts (not horse-chestnuts) are peeled, and boiled in water until the second (inside) skin comes off easily. The chestnuts are placed in a sieve until all the water drains off. They are then washed in a dish and afterwards passed through a sieve. Melt three ounces of butter in a stew-pan on the fire, add a little salt and sugar,—enough to cover the point of a knife, and then the chestnuts. Stew them for half an hour, stirring frequently; pour in enough bouillon so that the mush does not get too thick.

[NURSING DEPARTMENT 653]

Brown Bread.—Take one-half cupful scalded milk, one-half cupful of water, one teaspoonful of salt, one-half teaspoonful of butter, one-half teaspoonful lard, two tablespoonfuls of molasses, one-half cupful of white flour, sufficient graham flour to knead, and three-quarters of a yeast cake dissolved in one-quarter of a cupful of lukewarm water. Prepare the same as white bread. Instead of graham flour, equal parts of graham flour and white flour may be used in kneading.

Whole Wheat Bread.—Dissolve a quarter of a yeast cake in a tablespoonful of lukewarm water. Pour half a cupful of hot water over half a cupful of milk and when lukewarm add the yeast and half a teaspoonful of salt. To this add a cupful of whole-wheat flour and beat for five minutes. Cover and allow this to stand in a warm place for two hours and a half. Then add whole-wheat flour gradually, mixing the mass until it can be kneaded. Knead until elastic; shake and place in baking pans. Cover and allow to stand in a warm place until it doubles in bulk. Prick the top with a fork and bake for one hour. The oven should not be as hot as for white bread.

Cream-of-Tomato Soup.—One can tomatoes, one-fourth teaspoonful soda, one-half cupful of butter, one-third cup of flour, 3-1/4 teaspoonfuls of salt, one-half teaspoonful of white pepper, one quart of milk. Stew the tomatoes slowly one-half to an hour, strain and add soda while hot; make a white sauce and add the tomato juice. Serve immediately.

Cream-of-Celery Soup.—One and one-half cupful of celery, one pint of water, one cupful of milk, one cupful cream, two tablespoonfuls of butter, one-half cupful of flour, one-half teaspoonful of salt, one-eighth teaspoonful of white pepper. Cook the celery in the boiling water until very soft; strain and add the hot liquid; make a white sauce and cook until it is thick cream.

Cream-of-Potato Soup.—Three potatoes, two cupfuls milk, one-half cupful of cream, yolks of two eggs, one teaspoonful of salt, pepper, one-half teaspoonful of onion juice. Cook the potatoes until soft, drain, mash, add the hot liquid, and strain; add the beaten yolks and seasoning. Cook in a double boiler until the egg thickens, stirring constantly. Serve immediately.

Oyster Stew.—One cupful of milk, one pint of oysters, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of butter, pepper. Heat the milk. Cook and strain the oyster juice. Add the oysters, which have been rinsed, and cook until the edges curl. Add seasoning, butter and hot milk. Serve at once This soup may be thickened with a tablespoonful of flour cooked in butter as for white sauce.

Peptonized Milk.—Cold Process.—Mix milk, water and peptonizing agents, and immediately place the bottle on ice. Use when ordinary milk is required. This is particularly suited for dyspeptics and individuals with whom milk does not, as a rule, agree. The flavor of the milk remains unchanged.

[654 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

Peptonized Milk.—Warm Process.—Put in a glass jar one pint of milk and four ounces of cold water; add five grains of extract of pancreas and fifteen grains of bicarbonate of soda. After mixing thoroughly, place the jar in water as hot as can be borne by the hand (about 115 degrees). This should be heated for from six to twenty minutes. At the end of this time it may be placed upon ice until required. The contents of one of Fairchild's peptonizing tubes may be used in place of the pancreas extract. If the milk is to be kept for any length of time, it should be brought to a boil, to prevent the formation of too much peptone, which renders the milk bitter.

Hot Peptonized Milk.—Mix together the usual peptonizing ingredients and add a pint of fresh cold milk; after thoroughly shaking the bottle, place it on ice. When needed pour out the required amount, heat it, and drink it as hot as it can agreeably be taken. If required for immediate use, the ingredients may be mixed together in a saucepan and slowly heated to the proper temperature.

Peptonized Milk Punch.—In the usual milk punch recipes the specially peptonized milk may be used in place of ordinary milk. Take a goblet one-third full of finely crushed ice; pour on it a tablespoonful of rum and a dash of curacao, or any other liquor agreeable to the taste. Fill the glass with peptonized milk; stir well, sweeten to taste and grate a little nutmeg on top.

Peptonized Milk Gruel.—Mix with a teaspoonful of wheat flour, arrowroot flour, or Robinson's barley flour with half a pint of cold water. Boil for five minutes stirring constantly. Add one pint of cold milk and strain into a jar; add the usual peptonizing ingredients, place in warm water (115 degrees) for twenty minutes, and then put upon ice.

Junket or Curds and Whey.—Take a half-pint of fresh milk; add one teaspoonful of Fairchild's Essence of Pepsin and stir just sufficiently to mix. Pour into custard cups and let it stand until firmly curdled. It may be served plain or with sugar and grated nutmeg. It may be flavored with wine which should be added before curdling takes place.

Junket with Eggs.—Beat one egg to a froth, and sweeten with two teaspoonfuls of white sugar; add this to a half-pint of warm milk; then add one teaspoonful of essence of pepsin and let it stand until curdled.

Milk Punch.—Shake together in a lemonade-shaker a glass of milk, a tablespoonful of rum, brandy, or good old whisky and two teaspoonfuls of sugar. After it has been poured into a glass a little nutmeg may be grated over the top.

Whey.—Take a half-pint of fresh milk heated luke-warm (115 degrees), add one tablespoonful of essence of pepsin and stir just enough to mix. When this is firmly coagulated, beat up with a fork until the curd is finely divided and then strain. For flavoring purposes lemon juice or sherry wine may be added.

[NURSING DEPARTMENT 655]

Cream of Tartar Whey.—Add a heaping teaspoonful of cream of tartar to a pint of boiling water. Strain, sweeten to taste, and serve cold.

Wine Whey.—Cook together a cupful of milk and half a cupful of sherry wine. As soon as the curd separates, strain and sweeten. This may be eaten hot or cold.

Milk Mixture.—This is made of cream, two parts; milk, one part; lime water, two parts; sugar water, three parts (seventeen and three-fourths drams of milk sugar to a pint of water).

Milk-and-Cinnamon Drink.—Add a small amount of cinnamon to the desired quantity of milk and boil it. Sweeten with sugar and add brandy if desired.

Albuminized Milk.—Shake in a covered jar or lemonade-shaker, a cupful of milk, a tablespoonful of lime water and the white of an egg. Sweeten, flavor as desired and serve at once.

Milk-and-Cereal Waters.—A most valuable method of preparing milk for invalids with whom it disagrees is to mix equal parts of milk and thoroughly cooked barley, rice, oatmeal, or arrowroot water and boil them together for ten minutes. This may be served plain, or flavored by cooking with it a cut-up raisin, a sprig of mace, or a piece of stick cinnamon, which should be strained out before serving.

Irish Moss and Milk.—Soak about two tablespoonfuls of Irish moss for five minutes and wash thoroughly in cold water. Add to a cupful of milk and soak for a half an hour; then heat slowly, stirring constantly, and then boil for ten minutes, preferably in a double boiler; strain, pour into cups and cool. This may be served while hot and may be rendered more nutritious by the addition of the white of an egg stirred into it just before serving.

Eggs.—Eggs and all other albuminous food should be cooked at as low a temperature as possible in order to avoid rendering them tough.

Soft-Cooked Eggs.—Place in a pint of boiling water, remove from the fire, and allow to stand for eight or ten minutes. If the egg is very cold to start with it will take a