Mother's Remedies Part 170

Cinnamon Tea.--To 1/2 pint fresh milk add stick or ground cinnamon, enough to flavor, and white sugar to taste; bring to the boiling point and take either warm or cold. Excellent for diarrhea in children or adults.

Barley Water.--Add two ounces pearl barley to 1/2 pint of boiling water; simmer five minutes, drain and add 2 qts. boiling water, add two ounces of sliced figs, and two ounces of raisins; boil until reduced to one quart.

Strain for drink.

Arrowroot Custard.--One tablespoonful of arrowroot, one pint milk, one egg, two tablespoons sugar. Mix the arrowroot with a little cold milk and beat in the egg and sugar, pour into the boiling milk and scald until thickened, flavor and pour into cups to cool.

Odors.--A few drops of oil of lavender poured into a gla.s.s of very hot water will purify the air of the room almost instantly from cooking odors; the effect is especially refres.h.i.+ng in a sick room.

[648 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

Dainty Way to Serve Egg on Toast.--Pile the well-beaten white of an egg on a slice of b.u.t.tered toast, which has been softened with hot water. Make a hollow in the white and drop the yolk therein. Set in the oven to cook the egg.

Oatmeal Gruel.--Pour boiling water over a cupful of rolled oats, stir and let stand a moment, then strain off the liquid. Season with sugar and a little cream if desired. Especially good for children.

Prepared Flour for Summer Complaint.--Take a double handful of flour, tie up in a cloth and cook from three to six hours in a kettle of boiling water. Take out and remove the cloth and you have a hard, round ball. Keep in a dry, cool place. Prepare by grating from this ball into boiling milk enough to make it as thick as you desire, stirring it just before removing from the fire with a stick of cinnamon to give it a pleasant flavor. Salt the milk a little. This is very good for children having summer complaint.

Chicken Broth.--Take the first and second joints of a chicken, boil in a quart of water until tender, season with a very little salt and pepper.

Fever Drinks--Pour cold water on wheat bran, let boil one-half hour, strain and add sugar and lemon juice. Pour boiling water on flaxseed and let stand until it is ropy, pour into hot lemonade and drink.

Egg Gruel.--Beat the yolk of an egg with one tablespoonful sugar, beating the white separately; add one cup boiling water to that yolk, then stir in the whites and add any seasoning. Good for a cold.

Diabetic Bread.--Take one quart of set milk or milk and water, one heaping teaspoonful of good b.u.t.ter, one-fifth of a cake of compressed yeast beaten up with a little water, and two well-beaten eggs. Stir in gluten flour until a soft dough is formed; knead as in making ordinary bread; place in pans to raise, and when light bake in hot oven.

Lime Water.--Into an earthen jar containing hot water stir a handful of fresh unslaked lime. Allow it to settle; then decant the clear fluid and bottle it. Water may again be added to the lime, and the mixture covered and allowed to stand to be decanted as needed.

Vanilla Snow.--Cook one-half cup of rice. When nearly done add one-half cup of cream, small pinch of salt, beaten white of one egg, one-half cup of sugar, flavor with vanilla. Pile in a dish and dot with jelly. Serve with sugar and cream.

Omelet.--One egg, white and yolk beaten separately; two tablespoons milk, one-third teaspoon each of flour and melted b.u.t.ter, a little salt. Add the beaten white last. Pour in small spider in which is a little melted b.u.t.ter (hot) and cook over moderate fire. When it thickens and looks from under the edges, fold it over and slip it on a hot dish.

[NURSING DEPARTMENT 649]

Almond Milk.--Blanch one pound of sweet and two of bitter almonds that have been soaked in cold water for twenty-four hours. This is done by pouring boiling water over the almonds when, after a few minutes, they can easily be pressed out of their hulls. Grind the almonds in a mill or pound them in a mortar; mix with a half-pint of warm milk or water and allow the mixture to stand two hours after which strain through a cloth, pressing the juice out well.

Brandy and Egg Mixture.--Rub the yolks of two eggs with half an ounce of white sugar; add four ounces of cinnamon water; one coffee-spoonful of white sugar.

Cold Eggnog.--Beat up an egg; add to it two teaspoonfuls of sugar, a gla.s.sful of milk and a tablespoonful of brandy or good whisky; mix thoroughly.

Hot Eggnog.--Beat up the yolk of one egg; add a teaspoonful or two of sugar and a gla.s.sful of hot milk; strain and add a tablespoonful of brandy or old whisky, or flavor with nutmeg or wine.

Egg Broth.--Beat up an egg and add to it half a teaspoonful of sugar and a pinch of salt; over this pour a gla.s.s of hot milk and serve immediately.

Hot water, broth, soup, or tea may be used in place of milk.

Egg Cordial.--Beat up the white of an egg until light; add a tablespoonful of cream and beat up together, then add two tablespoonfuls of sugar and a tablespoonful of brandy.

Caudle.--Beat up an egg to a froth; add a winegla.s.sful of sherry wine, and sweeten with a teaspoonful of sugar; if desired flavor with lemon peel.

Stir this mixture into a half-pint of gruel; over this grate a little nutmeg and serve with hot toast.

Alb.u.min Water.--Beat the white of one egg until very light and strain through a clean napkin. Add six ounces of water. If intended for an infant a pinch of salt may be added. A teaspoonful or more of sugar and a teaspoonful or more of lemon juice, orange juice, or sherry wine may be added to enhance its palatableness. This drink may also conveniently be made by placing all the ingredients in a lemon-shaker, shaking until thoroughly mixed and then straining. Serve cold.

Apple Water.--Pour a cupful of boiling water over two mashed baked apples; cool, strain, and sweeten. Serve with shaved ice if desired.

Currant Juice.--Take an ounce of currant juice or a tablespoonful of currant jelly. Over this pour a cupful of boiling water (use cold water with the juice) and sweeten to taste.

Lemonade.--Take the juice of one lemon or three tablespoonfuls of lemon juice; add from one to three tablespoonfuls of sugar and a cupful (six ounces) of cold water. Serve with cracked or shaved ice if desired.

[650 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

Syrup for Cough of Long Standing.--"Five cents worth of flax seed, a little rock candy, two tablespoons of best brandy and a lemon makes the finest cough syrup in the world. Steep flaxseed a short time, strain and add rock candy to sweeten, then juice of one lemon and the brandy. One physician says it is as good as anything he can put up."

Syrup of Lemons for Fever Cases and to Disguise the Taste of Bad Medicines.--"Boil for ten minutes a pint of lemon juice, strain, add two pounds of brown sugar and dissolve. When cold add two and one-half ounces of alcohol. A fine addition to drinks in fever cases and good to disguise the taste of medicines."

Lemonade.--Pare the rind from one lemon, cut the lemon into slices, and place both in a pitcher with an ounce of sugar. Over this pour a pint of boiling water and let it stand until cold. Strain and serve with cracked ice.

Alb.u.minzed Lemonade.--Shake together a cupful of water, two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice, two teaspoonfuls of sugar, and the white of an egg. Serve at once.

Orangeade.--Cut the rind from one orange; over the rind pour a cupful of boiling water; then add the juice of the orange and a tablespoonful of sugar; cool, strain, and serve with shaved ice if desired. If this is too sweet, a tablespoonful of lemon juice may be added.

Imperial Drink.--Add a teaspoonful of cream of tartar to a pint of boiling water; into this squeeze the juice of half a lemon, or more if desired; sweeten to taste and serve cold. This drink is most useful in fevers and nephritis.

Flaxseed Tea.--Add six teaspoonfuls of flaxseed to a quart of water; boil for half an hour; cool, strain, sweeten, and if desired flavor with a little lemon juice.

Mulled Wine.--One-fourth of a cupful of hot water, one-half inch of stick cinnamon, two cloves, a tiny bit of nutmeg, one-half cupful of port (heated) two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Boil all the ingredients except the wine and sugar for ten minutes; then add the wine and sugar, strain, and serve very hot.

Grape Juice.--Pluck Concord grapes from the stem. Wash and heat them, stirring constantly. When the skins have been broken, pour the fruit into a jelly bag and press slightly. Measure the juice and add one-quarter the quant.i.ty of sugar. Boil the juice and sugar together and then pour into hot bottles; cork and seal with paraffin or equal parts of shoemaker's wax and resin melted together. Less sugar may be used.

[NURSING DEPARTMENT 651]

Oatmeal, Barley or Rice Water. From the Grain: Use two tablespoonfuls of grain to a quart of water. The grain should have been previously soaked over night or at least for a few hours. When required for an emergency the soaking may be dispensed with and the grain boiled for five minutes instead. The water in which the grain was soaked should be poured off and fresh water added before cooking. The grain should be boiled for several hours, water being added from time to time to keep the quant.i.ty up to a quart. Strain. This makes a somewhat thin, watery gruel. From prepared flours: Various brands of prepared grain flours are on the market, such, for example, as Robinson's Barley flour. These are all somewhat similar in preparation. From two rounded teaspoonfuls to a tablespoonful of the prepared flour is added to a pint of boiling water and this is boiled from fifteen to thirty minutes and then strained. No previous soaking is required.

CEREALS AND CEREAL GRUELS.

Either the grain itself or the specially prepared flour may be used. When the grains are used they should be spread on a clean table and all foreign substances removed. If the whole grains be used, it is well to wash them, after picking them over, with two 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.