Making Good on Private Duty Part 2

If a gla.s.s of milk is too much (and it will be in nine cases out of ten, especially if it is cold), give half a gla.s.s; if that is still too much, give quarter of a gla.s.s, or put more water with it. Never repeat a dose (of food) if it nauseates the patient.

Make some change in quant.i.ty or quality, and you will, if you watch carefully, find out the right proportions.

A person lying flat down in bed cannot, of course, drink from a gla.s.s or cup, and a feeding cup is apt, by pouring too freely, to cause choking. A bent gla.s.s tube is the best arrangement, the patient can drink easily through this, and can regulate by sucking, the rapidity with which the food is taken. The tube should be cleaned immediately after each using, and if any beef tea or other food cannot be dislodged by letting water run through it, pa.s.s a string with a knot tied in it, through. Make the knot big enough to touch all sides of the tube, have it thoroughly wet, and the cleansing will be easily and quickly accomplished. If a patient prefers drinking from a gla.s.s, and can be raised in bed, always lay a napkin under the chin before you give the drink, and on no account have the gla.s.s or cup more than half full, if you do, it will surely spill.

In giving medicine that tastes very bitter or unpleasant in any way, bring, at the _same time_ with the medicine, some water, milk, or whatever may be preferred, to take after it. Also a napkin to wipe the lips, especially if the patient be a man.

Always keep milk, beef tea, etc., _covered_ in the refrigerator, and, if you can, see that this is cleaned every day.

But this might cause the cook to feel aggrieved, so I put it as a suggestion merely. But if the refrigerator has a _smell,_ and the cook seems touchy, the milk, etc., better be kept upstairs on some sheltered window-ledge, and carefully covered.

If you have your own little refrigerator upstairs, see to it that it is cleaned _every_ day. Never put away anything in tin pails; always use earthen or china bowls or pitchers.

BEEF TEA.

Beef from the round, finely chopped and free from fat.

Proportions, 1 lb. beef to 1 pint of water, cold. Let the beef soak in the water, stirring occasionally, for two hours; then put it on the stove and heat it until the red color disappears; never boil it. Skim off all grease, salt to taste.

BEEF JUICE.

Round steak cut an inch thick; slightly broil like beefsteak for the table, cut into squares of an inch, squeeze in a lemon squeezer, skim carefully and salt. Serve either very cold, or place the cup containing the juice in a bowl of boiling water, stir carefully, and as soon as the juice is warm serve. If left a moment too long it is spoiled, as it curdles. One pound of beef makes an after dinner coffee cup almost full of juice.

BEEF TEA IN A BOTTLE.

Put into a Mason's preserve jar, tightly corked, one pound of beef chopped as for ordinary beef tea. Put this into a kettle of cold water, with a saucer on the bottom, let it come slowly to a boil and boil for an hour. Take out of the bottle and squeeze the beef.

Sc.r.a.pED BEEF.

Take a piece of lean round steak, sc.r.a.pe with the edge of a spoon until the place sc.r.a.ped has no more meat on the surface, but only the white fibre, cut this off with a sharp knife, exposing once more a fresh surface. Season, and spread raw on bread and b.u.t.ter, or make into little cakes and broil slightly, according to the doctor's orders, or your patient's taste.

MUTTON BROTH.

Mutton from the neck. Proportions, 1 lb. of mutton to 1 quart of water, put the mutton and the water (cold) on the back of the stove, let it come slowly to a boil, boil until the meat is ready to fall from the bones. After straining out all the meat etc. add one tablespoonful of rice or barley. Simmer half an hour after adding rice or barley.

CLAM BROTH. NO. 1.

Take 1 qt. clams. Strain off the juice and chop the clams fine, return clams to the juice and simmer one hour. Put on to scald as much milk as juice. Strain out the clams, thicken with a little corn starch, making about as thick as cream, pour juice into a bowl and add the milk.

CLAM BROTH. NO. 2.

Same as above, only cut off the hard part of the clams, chop the soft parts and leave them in the broth. For convalescents.

CLAM BROTH. NO. 3.

Take little neck clams unopened, wash them very clean with a brush. Place them on the top of the stove in a clean dry pan, and when the sh.e.l.ls open take them off, remove the clams and pour the juice into a cup. To be served hot. If it is too strong, add a little boiling water. This is for very sick people; give only a teaspoonful at a time. It sometimes corrects nausea.

CHICKEN BROTH.

A fowl, not too young, cut in pieces, 1 qt. water to 1 lb. fowl.

Put it on the stove in cold water, let it heat slowly, then boil gently until the meat is ready to fall from the bones, strain, skim and add rice, boil once more for 1/2 hour. Salt to taste.

Serve with toast or hot crackers.

OYSTER BROTH.

Equal quant.i.ties of juice and milk, put each in separate vessels on the stove; when the juice comes to the boil, skim and slightly thicken, pour in the milk boiling hot, add the oysters one by one, let them remain on the stove about five minutes, or until the beards begin to curl, and they are no longer slippery. Serve with crackers heated very hot.

OYSTERS BROILED.

Dry the oysters, large ones are best, in a towel, have a piece of toast slightly b.u.t.tered on a hot plate, near, pour over this a little hot oyster juice, not enough to make the toast wet through.

Arrange the oysters on a fine b.u.t.tered broiler, cook over a brisk fire like steak, until the beards curl. Turn them often. It takes about five minutes. Arrange them on the toast, add a little salt and a very little b.u.t.ter, serve very hot.

BROILED CHICKEN.

The chicken must be young, split down the back. Lay on the gridiron and broil evenly, turning frequently. Serve on a piece of b.u.t.tered toast, salt and slightly b.u.t.ter the chicken. A little parsley garnishes the dish prettily.

All birds to be broiled should be split down the back and broiled evenly, laid on thin toast and served hot.

BEEF STEAK.

Steak must be cut 3/4 inch thick, and evenly broiled, rare, unless particularly requested to do otherwise. Be careful not to smoke it; the grease dropping into the fire may make trouble in this way.

OATMEAL GRUEL.

Take two large iron tablespoonfuls of oatmeal freshly cooked for breakfast, add one cup of boiling water, slowly stirring all the time, then add an equal quant.i.ty of milk. Let all boil for ten minutes, and strain through a fine wire sieve. If you have no cooked oatmeal put 1/2 cup raw oatmeal in a double boiler with two cups of boiling water and cook for two hours, then proceed as above. It makes the gruel richer to add all milk, or 1-1/2 cups of milk and 1 cup of cream. Be sure not to forget the salt. Never put any sugar in unless requested to do it by the patient.

KOUMYSS.

Dissolve a third of a cake of compressed yeast (Fleischmann's) in a little warm water (not hot). Take a quart of milk fresh from the cow, or warmed to blood heat, add to it a tablespoonful of sugar, and the dissolved yeast. Put the mixture in beer bottles with patent stoppers, fill to the neck, cork, and let them stand for twelve hours where the temperature is about 68 degrees or 70 degrees, then put the bottles on ice, upside down.

MILK PUNCH.

One gla.s.s of milk, 1 or 2 tablespoonfuls of brandy, 2 teaspoons of sugar.

Shake well or beat with an eggbeater. Give cold. Have patient take slowly.

EGG-NOG.

One egg, half gla.s.s of milk, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of sherry or brandy, ice. Beat the yolk of egg in a gla.s.s, add the sugar and beat, then a little milk, continue beating, then four or five pieces of ice about as big as a hickory nut; add brandy-- regulate to the taste of your patient--add rest of milk; beat whites of eggs and add all but a teaspoonful with which garnish the top. It should make a gla.s.s br.i.m.m.i.n.g full. Have a spoon with which to eat it.

EGG LEMONADE.

One egg, one-half a lemon, 2 teaspoonfuls of sugar, beat the white and yolk separately as for egg-nog; add the sugar to the yolk, then the lemon juice, then the ice, lastly the white beaten to a stiff froth.

WINE WHEY.

One pint of boiling milk, one-half pint sherry; add sherry to the milk while scalding hot; stir a moment until the curd gathers; strain through a fine muslin, sweeten. To be taken cold. This takes a little practice to gather the curd as it should be done.

POACHED EGGS.

The best way of cooking for an invalid. Slip the egg, previously broken into a saucer (the fresher the egg the better), carefully into salted water which is boiling in a frying pan, then immediately set the pan at the side of the stove so that the water does not boil, keep it there for about five minutes. Let the water be about two inches deep in the iron frying pan. Each egg must be broken separately and slipped carefully into the water. When cooked so that the white is firm but jelly like, no part being raw or hard, take it out with a skimmer and slip it on a piece of thin b.u.t.tered toast, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top, serve immediately. Garnish with parsley.