Reform Cookery Book Part 21

Rhubarb Juice

is very good when made from fresh, naturally-grown rhubarb. Wipe and cut small, put in covered jar in oven or steamer till the juice flows freely.

This will not be ordered where there is rheumatism or the like. For such, an alkaline beverage is wanted instead of an acid.

Celery Milk

is exceedingly good, and I claim to have discovered it for myself. Wash and trim some sticks of celery. Cut small and simmer for an hour or longer in milk and water. Bruise well to get all the goodness out, and strain through jelly-bag. When fresh celery is not to be had, celery seeds may be used.

Simmer in water, strain, and add milk.

Cocoanut Milk

is also very good, and will sometimes be retained when ordinary milk is rejected. Select a juicy cocoanut, pierce a hole and drain out the milk.

Break and remove from sh.e.l.l, and pare off the brown skin very finely, so as not to lose any of the oil. Grate or run through mincer, add two cupfuls boiling water, and beat with a wooden spoon from ten to fifteen minutes; then squeeze through a cloth or potato masher. Put the cocoanut into a saucepan with more boiling water, mash over the fire for a few minutes, and squeeze again very thoroughly. If it has been squeezed in a masher the liquor may need to be strained again through a cloth or hair sieve.

For a bland soothing drink, invaluable in practically every form of internal irritation and debility, Barley Water reigns supreme, and in its preparation Robinson's Patent Barley will be found invaluable.

Smooth one or two spoonfuls to a cream with cold water. Pour on boiling water, stirring all the while, and boil gently for five to ten minutes.

When cool it will be a firm jelly, and can be diluted as required with hot or cold water, milk, fruit-juice, "Extract," &c., &c.

To come now to what more closely resembles beef-tea, we can have a liquid practically undistinguishable made from

Brown or German Lentils.

Take a teacupful of these, look over and pick very carefully so that no stones or dirt may escape notice. Scald with boiling water, and put to simmer with plenty of boiling water in a saucepan or stewing jar. Add a shallot, a bit of celery, teaspoonful ground rice, tapioca, &c., and, unless prohibited, seasoning to taste. A blade of mace, a slice or two of carrot, beetroot, &c., might be added at discretion. Simmer gently, or better still, steam for an hour. Strain, without any pressure, and serve with fingers of crisp, dry toast. Equal quant.i.ties of German lentils and brown beans may be prepared exactly as above to make Savoury Tea, as also a mixture of brown and white beans. A delicious

Invalid Broth

is made thus:--Wash well a cupful of b.u.t.ter peas or haricot beans and one or two tablespoonfuls pot barley. Put in saucepan or double boiler with water, and cook for two to three hours. Season and strain. Celery, onion, parsnip, &c., may be added if desired. Some milk may also be added, and, if wished specially rich and strengthening, one or two eggs beaten up. Warm up only as much as is needed at one time, and serve with toast or triscuits.

Variety of flavour, &c., may be contrived by mixing lentils, dried green peas, &c., with the haricots, or instead of these, tomatoes may be sliced and added ten minutes before straining.

I need not here give recipes for ordinary oatmeal gruel, but

Lentil Gruel

may be new to some. Take a dessert-spoonful lentil flour--the "Digestive"

lentil flour is always to be depended on--smooth with a little cold milk or water in a saucepan. Add three teacupfuls boiling milk or barley-water and simmer for fifteen minutes. A little extract such as "Carnos" or "Marmite"

may be added to this or any of the foregoing broths.

These extracts, "Carnos" and "Marmite," are exceedingly useful in the sick-room, as they can be so easily and quickly prepared. "Carnos" being a fluid extract, is especially handy. A teaspoonful of that, or a half teaspoonful "Marmite" to a cupful boiling water makes a delightful cup of savoury tea. Be careful not to make too strong. Such extracts may also enter with advantage into

Savoury Custard.

Beat up an egg, and add to it half a teacupful milk, and either a teaspoonful "Carnos" or rather less of "Marmite," the latter dissolved in a little boiling water. Add pinch salt. Turn into a b.u.t.tered cup or tiny basin, cover with b.u.t.tered paper, and steam gently for seven or eight minutes till just set.

The following is a very dainty and novel

Egg Flip.

Separate the white from the yolk of an egg and beat up the white quite stiff. Beat up the yolk and add to it the strained juice of an orange or some "Nektar." Mix all lightly together and serve in a pretty gla.s.s or china dish.

White of Egg

may be made more attractive for little folk if poached by spoonfuls for a minute or two in boiling milk, and served with a little pink sugar dusted over.

Orange Egg Jelly.

Rub 2 ozs. loaf sugar on the rinds of 2 oranges till it gets as much flavour as possible, then put in a basin with the strained juice and a teaspoonful lemon juice. Bring a very small quant.i.ty of vegetable gelatine--previously soaked for an hour in cold water--to boil in a breakfastcupful of water. One-eighth of an oz. of this gelatine is enough as it is so strong. Stir till quite dissolved and strain over the sugar, &c. When cool add the yolks of two eggs beaten up, and whisk till white and frothy. Beat the whites very stiff and add them. Beat all thoroughly, and when just about to set pour into a wet mould. Or allow to set and then pile up by rocky spoonfuls in a gla.s.s dish.

When an invalid is getting past the "sloppy" stage and is able for solid nutriment

Steamed Barley

is perhaps the most valuable food of any, and dyspeptics who experience difficulty in getting any kind of food to agree would do well to go on a course of this--not for one day or two, but for weeks and months together.

Wash well in cold water a teacupful of _pot_ barley. Put on in clean lined saucepan with plenty of cold water, bring to boil slowly, and if there is the least suspicion of mustiness, drain and cover with clean water. When it comes a boil again, turn into a pudding basin or double boiler, cover and steam for at least six hours. Twelve hours is much better, and it is safest to put on one day, what is wanted for the next. Onions, celery, tomatoes, &c., may be added at discretion. When to be used, this barley should turn out firm enough to chew, and may be eaten with thin dry toast or "Triscuits."

Besides these home-made preparations, there are many valuable foods to be had ready for use, or requiring but little preparation, thus affording change and variety, not only to the patient, but to the nurse or cook, who must often be heartily tired of making up the same gruels and mushes for weeks or months together. The Barley Mint, Patriarch Biscuits, and Barley Malt Biscuits to be had from the Wallace Bakery, 465 Battersea Park Road, London, S.W., come in very handy. The Barley Malt Meal can be made into a gruel or porridge, while Barley Malt itself may be added to any ordinary preparation to aid digestion. Barley Malt Meal Gruel has been found a sovereign remedy for constipation, obstinate cases yielding to it when all other treatment had failed. Make in usual way and add one or two large spoonfuls treacle or honey. The biscuits may be grated and made into a mush with hot milk, &c., or they may be soaked over night in as much hot water, milk, or diluted Extract as they will absorb, and then be put in the oven to warm through. Gluten Meal is another among many valuable Invalid Foods which there is s.p.a.ce only to mention here; while the value of Robinson's Patent Groats for gruel is widely appreciated.

For diabetic and anaemic patients there are one or two other valuable foods now on the market specially prepared to nourish and enrich the blood, while at the same time starving the disease. Barley Malt Meal is specially good, also a recent "Wallaceite" product, "Stamina Food."

The "Manhu" Diabetic Foods

are well known and highly recommended. The following

"Manhu" Diabetic Savoury

will be welcome to those whose dietary is of necessity so restricted. 1/2 pint Savoury Tea (p. 90) or diluted "Extract," 1 egg, 1 tablespoonful "Manhu" Diabetic Food, 1/2 oz. b.u.t.ter, salt and pepper.

Melt b.u.t.ter in saucepan, add the food, and mix over slow fire till b.u.t.ter is absorbed. Add the savoury liquid, cook for a few minutes, add seasoning, beat in yolk of egg, then the white stiffly beaten. Mix lightly. Pour into pie-dish, and bake in quick oven for 15 minutes.

A Realised Ideal In Food Production.

Ideal Food Reform means much more than "going without meat." It means the use of only such foods as will thoroughly nourish the body without injuring it.