Science in the Kitchen Part 50

MUTTON BROTH.--Cut a pound of perfectly fresh, lean mutton or lamb--the scrags of neck are best--into small dice. Add a quart of cold water, and simmer gently for two or three hours. Strain, and when cold skim off all fat. Reheat when needed for use.

If preferred, a tablespoonful of rice which has been soaked for an hour in a little warm water, or a tablespoonful of cooked barley, may be simmered in the broth for a half hour before serving. Season with salt as desired.

VEGETABLE BROTH.--Put a cupful of well washed white beans into a quart of cold water in a double boiler, and cook slowly until but a cupful of the liquor remains. Strain off the broth, add salt, and serve hot. If preferred, a few grains of powdered thyme may be added as flavoring.

VEGETABLE BROTH NO. 2.--Pick over and wash a cup of dried Scotch peas, and put to cook in a quart of cold water, cook slowly in a double boiler or in a kettle placed on the range where they will just simmer, until but a cupful of liquid remains. Strain off the broth, add salt and one third of a cupful of the liquor, without pulp, from well-stewed tomatoes. Serve hot.

MIXED VEGETABLE BROTHS.--Broths may be prepared as directed from both black and white beaus, and combined in the proportion of one third of the former to two thirds of the latter; or a broth of lentils may be used instead of the black bean.

_RECIPES FOR PANADA._

BROTH PANADA.--Use beef or chicken broth in place of water, and proceed the same as in Egg Panada, omitting the egg.

CHICKEN PANADA.--Take a cupful of the white meat of chicken, pounded to a paste in a mortar, and half a cup of whole-wheat crust or zwieback crumbs. Add sufficient chicken broth to make a thick gruel.

Season with salt, boil up for a few minutes, and serve hot.

EGG PANADA.--Put two ounces of light, whole-wheat crusts into a pint of cold water in a granite-ware stewpan; simmer gently for three quarters of an hour, stirring occasionally. Season with a spoonful of sweet cream and a little salt, then stir in the well-beaten yolk of an egg, and serve.

MILK PANADA.--Heat a pint of milk to boiling, then allow it to cool. Add two ounces of nice, light, whole-wheat crusts, and simmer for half an hour, stirring frequently. Season with a little sugar, if allowed. Granola may be used in place of the crusts, if preferred.

RAISIN PANADA.--Boil a half cup of raisins in a half pint of water.

Break a slice of zwieback into fragments in a bowl. Add a well-beaten egg and a teaspoonful of sugar. Pour in the raisins, water and all, and beat very thoroughly.

GRAINS FOR THE SICK.

For invalids able to digest solid food, rice, cracked wheat, Graham grits, oatmeal, barley, farina and other grains may be prepared and cooked as previously directed in the chapter on Grains.

The various cooked preparations of grains--granola, wheatena, avenola, wheat gluten and gluten meal--manufactured by the Sanitarium Food Co., Battle Creek, Mich., form excellent articles of diet for many invalids, when served with hot milk or cream, or prepared in the form of mush.

Several recipes for their use have already been given in preceding chapters; the following are a few additional ones:--

_RECIPES._

GLUTEN MUSH.--Heat together a cup of thin cream and three cups of water; when boiling, sift in lightly with the fingers, stirring continuously meanwhile, enough wheat gluten to make a mush of the desired consistency. Boil up once and serve. A few blanched or roasted almonds may be stirred in just before serving, if desired.

TOMATO GLUTEN.--Heat a pint of stewed tomato, which has been rubbed through a fine colander to remove the seeds, to boiling, add salt to season, and three tablespoonfuls of gluten meal. Boil together for a moment until thickened, and serve hot.

TOMATO GLUTEN NO. 2.--Prepare the same as the preceding, using five tablespoonfuls of the gluten meal, and seasoning with two tablespoonfuls of rather thick, sweet cream.

MEATS FOR THE SICK.

All meats for the sick should be prepared in the very simplest way, served with the plainest possible dressing, and without the use of condiments other than salt.

_RECIPES._

BROILED STEAK.--Take a half pound of round steak and a slice of tenderloin; wipe well with a clean, wet cloth. Have a clear fire; place the meat in an open wire broiler or on a gridiron over the coals, and cook, turning as often as you can count ten, for four or five minutes, if the slices are about one inch thick; then with a lemon squeezer squeeze the juice from the round steak over the tenderloin, season with a little salt, and serve at once on a hot plate.

CHICKEN.--For an invalid, the breast of a tender chicken broiled quickly over hot coals is best. For directions for broiling chicken see page 406.

CHICKEN JELLY.--Dress a small chicken. Disjoint, break or pound the bones, and cut the meat into half-inch pieces. Remove every particle of fat possible. Cover with cold water, heat very slowly, and simmer gently until the meat is in rags, and the liquid reduced about one half. Strain off the liquor, cool, and remove all the fat. To make the broth more clear, add the sh.e.l.l and white of an egg, then reheat slowly, stirring all the time until hot. Strain through a fine cloth laid inside of a colander. Salt and a little lemon may be added as seasoning. Pour into small cups, and cool.

MINCED CHICKEN.--Stew the breast of a young chicken until tender; mince fine with a sharp knife. Thicken the liquor in which it was stewed with a little flour, add salt and a little cream if allowed, then the minced chicken, and serve hot on zwieback, softened with cream as directed in the chapter on Breakfast Dishes.

MUTTON CHOP.--Select a chop containing a large tenderloin: cut thick, and broil for eight or ten minutes as directed for beef steak.

Season lightly with salt, and serve hot.

MINCED STEAK.--Mince some nice, juicy steak with a chopping knife, or in a sausage-cutter, rejecting as much of the fiber as possible; make into small cakes and broil the same as steak. Salt lightly when done, and for dressing use a little beef juice prepared as directed on page 427. It may be thickened with a little flour as for gravy, if preferred.

Sc.r.a.pED STEAK.--Take a small piece of nice, juicy steak, and with a blunt case-knife or tablespoon, sc.r.a.pe off all the pulp, being careful to get none of the fibers. Press the pulp together in the form of patties, and broil quickly over glowing coals. Salt lightly, and serve hot. It is better to be as rare as the patient can take it. Instead of b.u.t.ter, turn a spoonful or two of thick, hot beef juice over the steak, if any dressing other than salt is required.

EGGS FOR THE SICK.

_RECIPES._

FLOATED EGG.--Separate the white from the yolk, and drop the yolk, taking great care not to break it, into boiling, salted water. Cook until hard and mealy. In the meantime, beat the white of the egg until stiff and firm. When the yolk is cooked, remove it from the water with a skimmer. Let the water cease to boil, then dip the beaten white in spoonfuls on the top of the scalding water, allowing it to remain for a second or two until coagulated, but not hardened. Arrange the white in a hot egg saucer, and place the cooked yolk in the center, or serve on toast. This makes a very pretty, as well as appetising dish, if care is taken to keep the yolk intact.

GLUTEN MEAL CUSTARD.--Beat together thoroughly, one pint of rich milk, one egg, and four tablespoonfuls of gluten meal. Add a little salt if desired, and cook with the dish set in another containing boiling water, until the custard has set. Or, turn the custard into cups, which place in a dripping pan partly filled with hot water, and cook in a moderate oven until the custard is set.

GLUTEN CUSTARD.--Into a quart of boiling milk stir four tablespoonfuls of wheat gluten moistened with a little of the milk, which may be reserved for the purpose. Allow it to cook until thickened.

Cool to lukewarm temperature, and add three well-beaten eggs, and a trifle of salt, if desired. Turn into cups, and steam over a kettle of boiling water until the custard is set.

STEAMED EGGS.--Break an egg into an egg saucer, sauce-dish, or patty pan, salt very slightly, and steam until the white has just set.

In this way, it will retain its shape perfectly, and not be mixed with the few drops of water so annoying to invalids, and so hard to avoid in dis.h.i.+ng a poached egg from water.

SOFT CUSTARD.--Boil some milk, then cool it to 180, add three whipped eggs to each quart of milk, and keep at the temperature of 180 for fifteen or twenty minutes. The object is to coagulate the eggs without producing the bad effect of exposure to a high temperature.

RAW EGGS.--Break a fresh egg into a gla.s.s, add a tablespoonful of sugar, and heat to a stiff froth; a little cold water may be added if liked.

WHITE OF EGG.--Stir the white of an egg into a gla.s.s of cold water, or water as warm as it can be without coagulating the egg, and serve.

WHITE OF EGG AND MILK.--The white of an egg beaten to a stiff froth and stirred into a gla.s.s of milk, forms a nouris.h.i.+ng food for persons of weak digestion.

REFREs.h.i.+NG DRINKS AND DELICACIES FOR THE SICK.

In many fevers and acute diseases, but little food is required, and that of a character which merely appeases hunger and quenches thirst, without stimulation and without affording much nourishment.

Preparations from sago, tapioca, and other farinaceous substances are sometimes serviceable for this purpose. Oranges, grapes, and other perfectly ripened and juicy fruits are also most excellent. They are nature's own delicacies, and serve both for food and drink. They should not, however, be kept in the sick room, but preserved in some cool place, and served when needed, as fresh and in as dainty a manner as possible. Like all food provided for the sick, they should be arranged to please the eye as well as the palate. The capricious appet.i.te of an invalid will often refuse luscious fruit from the hand of a nurse, which would have been gladly accepted had it been served on dainty china, with a clean napkin and silver.

The juice of the various small fruits and berries forms a basis from which may be made many refres.h.i.+ng drinks especially acceptable to the dry, parched mouth of a sick person.

Fruit juices can be prepared with but little trouble. For directions see page 209.