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RECIPES.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

TO MAKE ARROWROOT.

1855. INGREDIENTS.-Two teaspoonfuls of arrowroot, 3 tablespoonfuls of cold water, pint of boiling water.

Mode.—Mix the arrowroot smoothly in a basin with the cold water, then pour on it the boiling water, stirring all the time. The water must be boiling at the time it is poured on the mixture, or it will not thicken; if mixed with hot water only, it must be put into a clean saucepan, and boiled until it thickens; but this is more trouble, and quite unnecessary if the water is boiling at first. Put the arrowroot into a tumbler, sweeten it with lump sugar, and flavour it with grated nutmeg or cinnamon, or a piece of lemon-peel, or, when allowed, 3 tablespoonfuls of port or sherry. As arrowroot is in itself flavourless and insipid, it is almost necessary to add the wine to make it palatable. Arrowroot made with milk instead of water is far nicer, but is not so easily digested. It should be mixed in the same manner, with 3 tablespoonfuls of cold water, the boiling milk then poured on it, and well stirred. When made in this manner, no wine should be added, but merely sugar, and a little grated nutmeg or lemon-peel. Time.-If obliged to be boiled, 2 minutes. Average cost, 2d. per pint. Sufficient to make pint of arrowroot.

MISS NIGHTINGALE says, in her "Notes on Nursing," that arrowroot is a grand dependence of the nurse. As a vehicle for wine, and as a restorative quickly prepared, it is all very well, but it is nothing but starch and water; flour is both more nutritive and less liable to ferment, and is preferable wherever it can be used.

BARLEY GRUEL.

pint of port

1856. INGREDIENTS.-2 oz. of Scotch or pearl barley, wine, the rind of 1 lemon, 1 quart and pint of water, sugar to taste. Mode.-After well washing the barley, boil it inpint of water for hour; then pour this water away; put to the barley the quart of fresh boiling water, and let it boil until the liquid is reduced to half; then strain it off. Add the wine, sugar, and lemon-peel; simmer for

5 minutes, and put it away in a clean jug. It can be warmed from time to time, as required.

Time.-To be boiled until reduced to half. Average cost, 18. 6d. Sufficient with the wine to make 1 pint of gruel.

TO MAKE BARLEY-WATER.

1857. INGREDIENTS.-2 oz. of pearl barley, 2 quarts of boiling water, 1 pint of cold water.

Mode.-Wash the barley in cold water; put it into a saucepan with the above proportion of cold water, and when it has boiled for about hour, strain off the water, and add the 2 quarts of fresh boiling water. Boil it until the liquid is reduced one half; strain it, and it will be ready for use. It may be flavoured with lemon-peel, after being sweetened, or a small piece may be simmered with the barley. When the invalid may take it, a little lemon-juice gives this pleasant drink in illness a very nice flavour.

Time.-To boil until the liquid is reduced one half.
Sufficient to make 1 quart of barley-water.

TO MAKE BEEF TEA.

1858. INGREDIENTS.-1 lb. of lean gravy-beef, 1 quart of water, 1 saltspoonful of salt.

Mode.-Have the meat cut without fat and bone, and choose a nice fleshy piece. Cut it into small pieces about the size of dice, and put it into a clean saucepan. Add the water cold to it; put it on the fire, and bring it to the boiling-point; then skim well. Put in the salt when the water boils, and simmer the beef tea gently from to hour, removing any more scum should it appear on the surface. Strain the tea through a hair sieve, and set it by in a cool place. When wanted for use, remove every particle of fat from the top; warm up as much as may be required, adding, if necessary, a little more salt. This preparation is simple beef tea, and is to be administered to those invalids to whom flavourings and seasonings are not allowed. When the patient is very low, use double the quantity of meat to the same proportion of water. Should the invalid be able to take the tea prepared in a more palatable manner, it is easy to make it so by following the directions in the next recipe, which is an admirable one for making savoury beef tea. Beef tea is always better when made the day before it is wanted, and then warmed up. It is a good plan to put the tea into a small cup or basin, and to place this basin in a saucepan of boiling water. When the tea is warm, it is ready to serve.

Time.-to hour. Average cost, 6d. per pint.

Sufficient.-Allow 1 lb. of meat for a pint of good beef tea.

MISS NIGHTINGALE says, one of the most common errors among nurses, with respect to sick diet, is the belief that beef tea is the most nutritive of all articles. She says, "Just try and boil down a lb. of beef into beef tea; evaporate your beef tea, and see what is left of your beef; you will find that there is barely a teaspoonful of solid nourishment to pint of water in beef tea. Nevertheless, there is a certain reparative quality in it,-we do not know what,-as there is in tea; but it may be safely given in almost any inflam matory disease, and is as little to be depended upon with the healthy or convalescent, where much nourishment is required."

SAVOURY BEEF TEA.
(Soyer's Recipe.)

1859. INGREDIENTS.-1 lb. of solid beef, 1 oz. of butter, 1 clove, 2 button onions or a large one, 1 saltspoonful of salt, 1 quart of water.

Mode.-Cut the beef into very small dice; put it into a stewpan with the butter, clove, onion, and salt; stir the meat round over the fire for a few minutes, until it produces a thin gravy; then add the water, and let it simmer gently from to hour, skimming off every particle of fat. When done, strain it through a sieve, and put it by in a cool place until required. The same, if wanted quite plain, is done by merely omitting the vegetables, salt, and clove; the butter cannot be objectionable, as it is taken out in skimming.

Time.-to hour. Average cost, 8d. per pint.

Sufficient.-Allow 1 lb. of beef to make 1 pint of good beef tca. Note. The meat left from beef tea may be boiled a little longer, and pounded, with spices, &c., for potting. It makes a very nice breakfast dish.

DR. CHRISTISON says that "every one will be struck with the readiness with which certain classes of patients will often take diluted meat juice, or beef tea repeatedly, when they refuse all other kinds of food." This is particularly remarkable in cases of gastric fever, in which, he says, little or nothing else besides beef tea, or diluted meat juice, has been taken for weeks, or even months; and yet a pint of beef tea contains scarcely oz. of anything but water. The result is so striking, that he asks, "What is its mode of action? Not simple nutriment; oz. of the most nutritive material cannot nearly replace the daily wear and tear of the tissue in any circumstances." Possibly, he says, it belongs to a new denomination of remedies.

BAKED BEEF TEA.

1860. INGREDIENTS.-1 lb. of fleshy beef, 1 pint of water, ✯ salt-~ spoonful of salt.

Mode.-Cut the beef into small square pieces, after trimming off all the fat, and put it into a baking-jar, with the above proportion of water and salt; cover the jar well, place it in a warm, but not hot oven, and bake for 3 or 4 hours. When the oven is very fierce in the daytime, it is a good plan to put the jar in at night, and let it remain till the next morning, when the tea will be done. It should be strained,

and put by in a cool place until wanted. It may also be flavoured with an onion, a clove, and a few sweet herbs, &c., when the stomach is sufficiently strong to take these.

Time.-3 or 4 hours, or to be left in the oven all night.

Average cost, 6d. per pint.

Sufficient.-Allow 1 lb. of meat for 1 pint of good beef tea.

BAKED OR STEWED CALF'S FOOT.

1861. INGREDIENTS.-1 calf's foot, 1 pint of milk, 1 pint of water, 1 blade of mace, the rind of lemon, pepper and salt to taste.

Mode.-Well clean the foot, and either stew or bake it in the milkand-water with the other ingredients from 3 to 4 hours. To enhance the flavour, an onion and a small quantity of celery may be added, if approved; a teacupful of cream, stirred in just before serving, is also a great improvement to this dish.

Time.-3 to 4 hours. Average cost, in full season, 9d. each.
Sufficient for 1 person. Seasonable from March to October.

CALF'S-FOOT BROTH.

1862. INGREDIENTS.-1 calf's foot, 3 pints of water, 1 small lump of sugar, nutmeg to taste, the yolk of 1 egg, a piece of butter the size of a nut.

Mode.-Stew the foot in the water, with the lemon-peel, very gently, until the liquid is half wasted, removing any scum, should it rise to the surface. Set it by in a basin until quite cold, then take off every particle of fat. Warm up about pint of the broth, adding the butter, sugar, and a very small quantity of grated nutmeg; take it off the fire for a minute or two, then add the beaten yolk of the egg; keep stirring over the fire until the mixture thickens, but do not allow it to boil again after the egg is added, or it will curdle, and the broth will be spoiled.

Time.-To be boiled until the liquid is reduced one half.

Average cost, in full season, 9d. each.

Sufficient to make 1 pint of broth.
Seasonable from March to October.

CHICKEN BROTH.

1863. INGREDIENTS.— fowl, or the inferior joints of a whole one; 1 quart of water, 1 blade of mace,onion, a small bunch of sweet herbs, salt to taste, 10 peppercorns.

Mode.-An old fowl not suitable for eating may be converted into very good broth, or, if a young one be used, the inferior joints may be

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be

put in the broth, and the best pieces reserved for dressing in some
other manner. Put the fowl into a saucepan, with all the ingre-
dients, and simmer gently for 1 hour, carefully skimming the broth
well. When done, strain, and put by in a cool place until wanted;
then take all the fat off the top, warm up as much as may be re-
quired, and serve. This broth is, of course, only for those invalids
whose stomachs are strong enough to digest it, with a flavouring of
herbs, &c. It may be made in the same manner as beef tea, with water
and salt only; but the preparation will be but tasteless and insipid.
When the invalid cannot digest this chicken broth with the flavour-
ing, we would recommend plain beef tea in preference to plain chicken
tea, which it would be without the addition of herbs, onions, &c.
Time.-1 hour.

Sufficient to make rather more than 1 pint of broth.

NUTRITIOUS COFFEE.

1864. INGREDIENTS.-oz. of ground coffee, 1 pint of milk. Mode.-Let the coffee be freshly ground; put it into a saucepan, with the milk, which should be made nearly boiling before the coffee is put in, and boil both together for 3 minutes; clear it by pouring some of it into a cup, and then back again, and leave it on the hob for a few minutes to settle thoroughly. This coffee may be made still more nutritious by the addition of an egg well beaten, and put into the coffee-cup.

Time.-5 minutes to boil, 5 minutes to settle.

Sufficient to make 1 large breakfast-cupful of coffee.

OUR great nurse Miss Nightingale remarks, that "a great deal too much against tea is said by wise people, and a great deal too much of tea is given to the sick by foolish people. When you see the natural and almost universal craving in English sick for their tea,' you cannot but feel that Nature knows what she is about. But a little tea or coffee restores them quite as much as a great deal; and a great deal of tea, and especially of coffee, impairs the little power of digestion they have. Yet a nurse, because she sees how one or two cups of tea or coffee restore her patient, thinks that three or four cups will do twice as much. This is not the case at all; it is, however, certain that there is nothing yet discovered which is a substitute to the English patient for his cup of tea; he can take it when he can take nothing else, and he often can't take anything else, if he has it not. Coffee is a better restorative than tea, but a greater impairer of the digestion. In making coffee, it is absolutely necessary to buy it in the berry, and grind it at home; otherwise, you may reckon upon its containing a certain amount of chicory, at least. This is not a question of the taste, or of the wholesomeness of chicory; it is, that chicory has nothing at all of the properties for which you give coffee, and, therefore, you may as well not give it."

THE INVALID'S CUTLET.

1865. INGREDIENTS.-1 nice cutlet from a loin or neck of mutton, 2 teacupfuls of water, 1 very small stick of celery, pepper and salt to taste.

Mode.-Have the cutlet cut from a very nice loin or neck of

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