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 List of the Volumes : 
 
 The Home Lawyer 
 
 The Home Physician 
 
 The Making of the Home. By Mrs. 
 S. A. Barnett 
 
 Our Sick, and How to Take Care 
 
 or Them. By Florence Stacpoolk 
 
 Vegetarian Cookery. By A. G. P>.vne 
 
 Cookery for Common Ailments. 
 
 By a Fellow of the Royal College 
 OF Phvsicians and Phyllis Browne 
 
 Advice to Women on the Care of 
 their Health Before, During, and 
 After Confinement. By Florence 
 Stacpoole 
 
 Practical Housekeeping. By Phyllis 
 Browne 
 
 Practical Home Cookery. By A. G. 
 Payne 
 
 Elements of Modern Dressmaking. 
 By J. E. Davis 
 
 Etiquette of Good Society. Edited 
 and Revised by Lady Colim Campbell 
 
 Poultry and Profit. By William \V. 
 Broomhead 
 
COOKERY 
 
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 COMMON AILMENTS 
 
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 AND 
 
 PHYLLIS BROWNE 
 
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 London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 
 
 1911 
 

 
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PREFACE 
 
 This book is intended to serve as a practical 
 dietetic guide to the invalid, and in its pages, it 
 is hoped, the reader will find the food problem 
 stated, not merely in terms of carbon, hydrogen, and 
 nitrogen, etc., etc., nor, advancing a step, in terms 
 of hydrocarbons, carbohydrates, and proteids, etc., 
 but in the form of actual dishes which will prove 
 both digestible and palatable. 
 
 The term '' invalid " will be found to receive a 
 very comprehensive definition, which, if it does not 
 actually include health, will not exclude it. This 
 is necessary, for it must be clear that no hard 
 and fast line can be drawn between health and 
 unhealth. So true is this that we have con- 
 sidered that such conditions as old age, in which 
 the powers are failing, and infanoy ond childhood, 
 
 330359 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 in which the powers are not established — i.e., have 
 not become stable — may with propriety associate 
 themselves with the multitudinous forms of failure 
 to reach the standard of health, or actual departure 
 from this standard. Health, briefly defined, is life 
 at its highest ; unheal th, or the invalid state, is life 
 at every level below this.* 
 
 For convenience' sake we accord individuality to 
 states of unhealth which, broadl}^, present definite 
 characters, and these constitute the long list of 
 diseases. So far as is practicable, we shall take from 
 this list the more important members — at any rate, 
 those which may serve as types — and we shall 
 endeavour in each case to state clearly the principles 
 on which the dieting should be conducted, and 
 then to exemplify these principles. 
 
 To do this rationally, it will be advisable that 
 we should first sketcth briefly the physiology of 
 the sul)ject. 
 
 * Old age and infancy are briefly referred to in the opening 
 chapters : it has not been thought necessary to give them more 
 special consideration in the second part of the book. 
 
FEE FACE. ix 
 
 At the end of the book there will be found a 
 number of recipes for the preparation of foods 
 suitable to illness in its more acute stages ; these 
 constitute ''liquid or slop diet/' and to these re- 
 course may be had if it be necessary to feed the 
 patient before the arrival of the doctor ; also, with 
 his sanction, selection may be made therefrom 
 during the course of the illness. 
 
 With this exception, no attempt is made to 
 guide the feeding of the sick : this must be in the 
 hands of the medical attendant. Very cuiious 
 notions prevail among the uninitiated in this respect; 
 and the doctor who should diet his patient and 
 omit the prescription sacred to Jupiter, would incur 
 serious risk to his reputation. Yet the diet may be 
 alone at fault, and simple regulations as to this all 
 that is needful. The days of our Fairy Tales are 
 not quite forgotten, and, when all is said and done, 
 the most matter-of-fact amongst us dearly loves a 
 little mystery. Drugs have their place, and, in our 
 opinion, a most important place ; but diet in all 
 cases takes precedence. 
 
1 PREFAOE, 
 
 May we anticipate the critic, and add that a 
 treatise in the present small compass cannot 
 present the reader with dietetic intricacies, not 
 to say eccentricities, but must restrict itself to 
 teachings which have a more general currency. 
 If these fail, the diet must be changed unhesi- 
 tatingly and the organism humoured, however un- 
 orthodox or whimsical in its tastes. The Science 
 of diet has yet to be written ; till that time we 
 must leave room for the eclecticism of the palate, 
 and admit the fancy diet. 
 
COE'TEK'TS 
 
 Food and Digestion 
 
 Kinds op Diet ... 
 
 The Articles op Diet ... 
 
 Obesity 
 
 Diabetes; or the Sugar Diathesis 
 
 The Gouty Habit 
 
 Grayel and Stone 
 
 Eheumatism 
 
 Eheumatic Gout... 
 
 KiCKETS 
 
 SCURTY 
 
 ScROPULA, Consumption, etc. 
 
 Anemia 
 
 Nervous Prostration: "Nerves," Neurasthenia 
 Fever (Acute and Chronic) ... 
 
 Dyspepsia 
 
 Biliousness 
 
 "Torpid" or "Sluggish" Liver 
 
 FAaB 
 
 1 
 21 
 63 
 
 76 
 99 
 117 
 133 
 142 
 158 
 173 
 174 
 176 
 197 
 217 
 220 
 224 
 238 
 241 
 
xu 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 
 PAoa 
 
 Vomiting 
 
 
 
 .. 243 
 
 DiARRHCEA... 
 
 
 
 .. 244 
 
 Constipation 
 
 
 
 .. 24G 
 
 Bright's Diseasj 
 
 
 
 .. 254 
 
 Heart Disease 
 
 
 .. 267 
 
 Bronchitis 
 
 .. 
 
 .. 270 
 
 Asthma 
 
 
 .. 272 
 
 Liquid and Semi-Liquid Foods, or 
 
 "Slop Dietary" . 
 
 .. 274 
 
Common Ailments. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FOOD AND DIGESTION. 
 " Our cupboard of food." — George Herbert. 
 
 Given life, the data upon which it is maintained 
 are the food-stuffs proper, and certain other sub- 
 stances which, though essential to nutrition, are 
 not usually classed under this heading. We may 
 arrange as follows the nutritive principles : — 
 
 Sugars and starches (carbohydrates). 
 Fat and oils (hydrocarbons). 
 The flesh of bird, beast, fish (proteids or 
 albumens). 
 
 Certain salts. Water. 
 
 In this Kst the technical names of the first 
 three groups are appended ; it should be added 
 that the third group will with advantage be held 
 to include the albuminoids, which, in the form 
 
2 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 of eonnoctive tissue, constitute a large proportion of 
 flesh or muscla It is the connective tissue or 
 tissues — present" in hesb, present in bone — which 
 yield us gelatine. 
 
 The first three groups occupy a position which 
 is different from that belonging to the last two 
 principles — viz. the salines and water ; for, whereas 
 the former are of very complex structure, and 
 within the organism are broken up, to be again, 
 to some extent, built up within the tissues into 
 other complex bodies, the latter — comparatively 
 simple in their structure — may either wholly 
 escape such changes of decomposition, or suffer 
 them to a correspondingly simple degree. The 
 best example of the salt group is chloride of sodium 
 — common salt — a substance most widely distri- 
 buted, but it is to other members of this class that 
 fruits and vegetables owe much of their value [in 
 saying this, we do not overlook the nutritive value 
 of these articles of diet, which they possess in virtue 
 of the presence in their tissues of bodies belonging 
 to the first three groups} In a sense, water and 
 the salines " condition " (or make possible) the com- 
 phcated changes of analysis and synthesis to which 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 8 
 
 the term " nutritive " is generally restricted. The 
 restriction of this term to the first three groups 
 cannot be maintained; for though the function 
 subserved by a drink of water is wholly difierent 
 from that which belongs to a slice of bread or of 
 meat, the one is as necessary to the vital processes 
 as is the other. 
 
 With these qualifications, the above classes of 
 bodies furnish us with the means of maintaining Hfe. 
 To them we must add the condition of a certain 
 temperature ; for this also is essential, the narrow 
 range of a few degrees on the thermometer scale 
 Hmiting the possibilities of vitality. We shall not 
 be asked to place warmth on the list of nutritive 
 principles, though it is quite true that we may 
 starve from cold as well as from hunger. But what 
 about stimulants ? We have made no mention of 
 alcohol, nor does it come under any one of the 
 headings in the foregoing list : Is it a food ? is it 
 a drug ? Scientifically, we should prefer to rank 
 it as the latter, but practically it will not be pos- 
 sible to ignore its claims, sanctioned by imme- 
 morial custom, to at least a place on the side- 
 board. This subject we shail^discuss later. 
 
4 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Given life, then, and the means of maintaining 
 it, the problem of diet puts the following ques- 
 tions : — 
 
 (1) What are the absolute quantities of food 
 necessary for health ? 
 
 (2) What are the forms best adapted for this 
 purpose, 
 
 (a) to ensure the taking of food (palat- 
 
 ability) ? 
 (6) to ensure the highest assimilative 
 
 values (digestibility) ? 
 
 (3) What are the times at which food should be 
 administered (dietetic opportunity) ? 
 
 Question 2, in both its parts, belongs essentially 
 to the domain of cookery. 
 
 To proceed to the consideration of these ques- 
 tions. The requirements of food are not, even in 
 health, fixed quantities ; they vary according to the 
 conditions of personality, age, occupation, climate, 
 etc., and as often as these vary, so will the answers 
 to the diet problem. Each case must be dealt with 
 on its own merits ; but, as a rule, each individual 
 receives from the organism placed at his disposal 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 5 
 
 intimations sufficiently clear to enable him to main- 
 tain the body in health, and thus the dweller in 
 town or country, the occupant of the office or of 
 the saddle, will be able to solve this question for 
 the most part satisfactorily. If common sense 
 and self-restraint will fashion the trencher ac- 
 cording to the measure of the appetite, all will be 
 well, and it will not be necessary to call in the 
 doctor. 
 
 More obviously, the requirements in disease will 
 vary. Here life proceeds on a different plane, a 
 new balance having been struck. In such cases, 
 however important may be the adjuvant treatment 
 by medicine — using the word in its widest sense — 
 diet is always primary. Here, as in health, we have 
 the same digestive organs to consider. They may 
 be enfeebled or positively diseased ; but as long as 
 there is a residuum of life the assimilative processes 
 must persist. We will proceed, therefore, to con- 
 sider the digestive process. 
 
 The act of digestion is a complicated process, 
 having several stages. It begins with the taking of 
 food into the mouth. Within this cavity the solid 
 portions of the food are broken up, comminuted, 
 
6 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 and intimately intermingled with the proper secre- 
 tion of the mouth, the saliva. The whole process 
 is termed ^mastication, but a special term, insaliva- 
 tion, is reserved for the intermingling of the saliva 
 with the food. Mastication, however, is the larger 
 term, for it involves insalivation. The teeth as 
 cutting and grinding instruments, the tongue as 
 a stirrer, the salivary glands to furnish the secre- 
 tion — these are the parts concerned. In respect 
 of certain solid foods the mouth serves only to 
 disintegrate, to break up, and in this way to 
 prepare for the next operation ; but in the case 
 of certain others, belonging to the group of the 
 starches and sugars, it performs an additional 
 chemical process. This latter results from the in- 
 fluence of the saliva upon the carbohydrates as a 
 group ; by it these are converted into more soluble 
 or assimilable bodies. The active prmciple in the 
 saliva is a ferment called ptyaline, and it serves the 
 same function that an allied body, diastase, per- 
 forms in the process of malting. The saliva by 
 moistening the food enables it, after comminution, 
 to be swallowed. This is a mechanical service 
 which it will effect for all forms of solid food ; but it 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 7 
 
 is an interesting question whether the saliva, as an 
 alkaline fluid, does not perform yet another service, 
 and facilitate in the stomach the penetration by the 
 acid gastric juice of the masticated food. Be this 
 as it may, it will have become abundantly evident 
 that not only good manners, but good physiology, 
 requires that we shall not drink with the mouth 
 full ; fluid thus drunk will, it is true, moisten and 
 thus facihtate swallowing, but it will not replace 
 the saliva which should have performed this 
 office. 
 
 We would here insist upon the fact that 
 the mouth does not concern itself with hquids, 
 beyond passing them on. Such foods have no stage 
 in the mouth; and the like is true of semi-solid 
 substances, such as jellies, creams, custards, junkets. 
 These may be swallowed along with a certain 
 amount of saUva, but there can be neither com- 
 minution nor insalivation. In certain stages of 
 disease we may, of a purpose and for various 
 reasons, jump the stage in the mouth, and ad- 
 minister only hquid nourishment. 
 
 To one point we may with advantage draw 
 attention — viz. that the process of mastication is 
 
8 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 under our own control, and that we are directly 
 responsible if the digestive act fails through its 
 incomplete performance. 
 
 The next stage takes place in the stomach, for 
 the fauces and gullet merely serve as conducting 
 tubes between the mouth and the stomach. Within 
 the latter organ the food remains a considerable 
 time, and during the whole of this period it is 
 subjected to the action of an acid secretion, the 
 gastric juice. This fluid gradually permeates the 
 contents of the stomach, the intermingling being 
 facilitated by certain movements of constriction 
 and relaxation of the walls of the organ ; these 
 movements are named peristaltic. Escape of the 
 contents, either backwards into the gullet or on- 
 wards into the intestine, is prevented by firm con- 
 traction of the orifices of entry into and of exit 
 from the stomach, so that during active gastric 
 digestion this organ is a closed sac. The gastric 
 juice owes its activity to two elements — the 
 presence, namely, of a ferment named pepsine and 
 of a free acid. Again we find that one particular 
 class of food-stuffs is specially acted upon: this 
 time it is the class of albuminous bodies, which 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 9 
 
 constitute the chief part of the flesh of bird, beast, 
 and fish. 
 
 Digestion within the stomach lasts a variable 
 period, dependent, on the one hand, upon the 
 vigour of the stomach, and on the other upon the 
 nature of the meal. As the process approaches 
 completion, the more perfectly digested portions 
 escape from the stomach into the intestine, the 
 constricting muscle of the exit, or pylorus, relax- 
 ing to allow them to pass ; but parts still un- 
 changed, or imperfectly changed, appear to excite 
 the muscle to renewed activity whenever they 
 attempt to pass the outlet. They are thus retained 
 till their conversion is completed. At first sight 
 we are tempted to consider this selective action of 
 the pyloric orifice as too intelligent ; but it is no 
 more so than the selective action of a certain 
 mechanism in the air passages, named the glottis, 
 which allows free passage, in and out, to air and 
 moisture, but closes spasmodically if a pungent 
 vapour attempts to pass with the air. 
 
 Beside the power to act upon the principles 
 of meat, the stomach secretes a principle which 
 curdles millc, curdling being the first stage in the 
 
10 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 digestion of milk. Sugary substances also undergo 
 certain changes in the stomach. The action upon 
 flesh remains, however, the main action. 
 
 Stomach digestion contrasts with digestion in 
 the mouth — if the term be allowable — in that it is 
 not a voluntary process. We are unable volun- 
 tarily to influence the food when once it has reached 
 the stomach ; but, on the other hand, we are well 
 acquainted with influences which do exert a modi- 
 fying effect upon gastric digestion, and by regard- 
 ing these we can at will seek or avoid disturbance. 
 These influences operate also upon intestinal diges- 
 tion, and we shall therefore postpone their consi- 
 deration till after we have described this third 
 stage. 
 
 The next, or third, stage takes place in the 
 intestines. The food, modified by the gastric juice, 
 having left the stomach, is now subjected to the 
 action of the liver and pancreas, two important 
 glands, which pour their secretions into the upper 
 part of the small intestine. At the same time, the 
 walls of the intestine also secrete a certain amount 
 of fluid, called succus entericus, which probably, 
 however, plays only a subsidiary part in intestinal 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS 11 
 
 digestion. It will not be necessary to analyse the 
 action of these several secretions ; it suffices to say 
 that the mingled fluids continue energetically the 
 digestion of starchy and gummy substances and of 
 albumen, and that they further promote by emulsi- 
 fication and other changes the absorption of fats. 
 Thus the third class of food-stuffs is now dealt 
 with. The contents of the intestine in this 
 stage will be found to have acquired an alkaline 
 reaction. 
 
 When digestion — or coction, as the older physi- 
 ologists described the process — has proceeded far 
 enough, absorption begins ; and though it will not 
 be denied that in health a certain amount of 
 absorption takes place from the stomach, yet, as 
 the structure teaches us, it is the small intestine 
 which in this act plays the prominent part. The 
 upper and middle portions of the small intestine 
 absorb most vigorously, the lower portions to a 
 relatively small degree. The small intestine ter- 
 minates in the large intestine, a tract of some 
 length ; but by the time the contents of the intes- 
 tinal tube reach this portion of the tract, the assimi- 
 lative process is practically at an end, and what 
 
12 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 remains of the food is no longer nutritive. Thence 
 onwards the intestinal tube is, to all intents and 
 purposes, excretory only. 
 
 We shall do well to bear in mind, however, 
 that though normally absorption takes place chiefly 
 in one part of the alimentary tract, yet that every 
 part of the tract from the stomach, even to the 
 termination of the large intestine, may serve this 
 purpose, provided we bring to the tract food in a 
 suitable condition for absorption. Of this know- 
 ledge ample use is made in disease. In such cases 
 the food is prepared by artificial means for the 
 tract, and the organism does not cook its own meals. 
 
 We must further add, that in health the secre- 
 tions of the alimentary tract do not favour putre- 
 factive or fermentative changes, though the contents 
 of the stomach and intestines are highly putres- 
 cible. In disease such changes are very prone to 
 set in. 
 
 Intestinal digestion is outside the direct control 
 of the will, but, like gastric digestion, it is liable to 
 be modified by a number of disturbing conditions 
 of which we have knowledge. We will now proceed 
 to consider these. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 13 
 
 It may be taken as axiomatic that the relative 
 activity of one organ or system demands the rela- 
 tive inactivity of other organs or systems. We 
 know that increased activity of a part involves 
 increased afflux of blood to the part, and therefore, 
 pro tanto, deflux from other parts. If now, during 
 activity of one system, we make the attempt to 
 use energetically another system, we shall of 
 necessity interfere with the working of the former 
 system. Thus severe mental effort during diges- 
 tion, or great muscular exertion, will more or less 
 disturb the act, delaying or even arresting it for the 
 time being. The experiment by Sir Busick Har- 
 wood, quoted by Paris, is decisive on this point : — 
 " He took two pointers, equally hungry, equally 
 well fed ; the one he suffered to lie quiet after his 
 meal, the other he kept for above two hours in 
 constant exercise. On returning home he had 
 them both killed. In the stomach of the do^r 
 that had remained quiet and asleep all the food 
 was found chymified, but in the stomach of the 
 other dog the process of digestion had scarcely 
 commenced."^ It must not be argued, however, 
 
 * Paris, " Treatise on Diet," fifth edit., 1837, pp. 121, 122. 
 
li DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 that digestion cannot proceed adequately except the 
 other systems are completely inactive. The mode- 
 rate use of these latter, especially in health, does not 
 disturb digestion. It is effort, not exercise, which is 
 harmful ; and the relation between effort and exer- 
 cise is so much a matter of habit, that we shall not 
 be surprised to observe amounts of work performed 
 without effort by the one whose habit is work, which 
 the unaccustomed could not accomplish without 
 severe and sustained endeavour. Quite different 
 physiological conditions will be involved in these 
 two cases, the one making no extra demand upon 
 the economy, the other taxing its powers severely. 
 Clearly that which would disturb the digestion in 
 the latter case, would leave it uninfluenced in the 
 former. This is an example of the almost inde- 
 finite powers of adaptation which the organism pos- 
 sesses, and to again quote Paris : — " We have daily 
 experience to prove that the husbandman may re- 
 turn to his daily labour and the schoolboy to his 
 gambols, immediately after a frugal meal, without 
 inconvenience or injury;"^ but the same degree 
 of exercise in the ciiso of a person of sedentary 
 
 * OjK at., p. 122. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 15 
 
 habits or of weak stamina would probably arrest 
 and subvert the whole process of digestion." 
 
 The rule, then, for us all — strong and weakly, 
 healthy and sick — is the avoidance of strain, effort, 
 tension during digestion; we shall in this way 
 avoid best one of the causes of that sub-pectoral 
 grief with which some of us are acquainted. The 
 moral is less the complete shunning of work, than 
 its habitual performance, for in this way effort 
 will be felt less and less. 
 
 Violent emotions represent strain of another 
 kind which may disturb digestion, but these we are 
 more hable to be sought out by, than to seek for 
 ourselves. 
 
 Exposure to cold or chill may result in an 
 acute attack of dyspepsia. This, again, will be 
 accidental ; we need not caution as to this. 
 
 How necessary, on the other hand, to the 
 proper functioning of the alunentary tract is a 
 regular action of the bowels, we must urge ; for this 
 is a matter of considerable importance, and for 
 which we are directly responsible, since it is so 
 easily established by habit. It should, of course, 
 be established in childhood. 
 
16 DIET AND GOOKERY 
 
 To summarise very briefly : digestion recognises 
 three stages, which succeed each other in regular 
 sequence: a preparatory stage in the mouth, a 
 gastric, and an intestinal stage. Together these 
 constitute the digestive cycle. For the proper 
 performance of the first we are directly responsible ; 
 for the other two we are indirectly responsible, 
 to the extent of avoiding certain well-known dis- 
 turbing influences. 
 
 There remains another point of view from which 
 to regard the digestive act — viz. the time neces- 
 sary to complete it. Upon this depend the 
 practical questions, What shall be the number of 
 meals ? and What the interval between successive 
 meals ? 
 
 The stage in the mouth — i.e. the period of mas- 
 tication — demands some thirty minutes, more or 
 less. Society has considerably protracted this period; 
 but then the meal has ceased to be a real necessity 
 — it has become a pastime and a fine art. This 
 stage, indeed, can be shortened almost ad libituon 
 provided we select and prepare our food accord- 
 ingly. In childhood and infancy, where the food is 
 milk and teeth a superfluity, the meal is taken in a 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 17 
 
 surprisingly short time. In adult life we may, in 
 cases of sickness, copy this method, and reduce the 
 digestive act from three to two stages. The stage 
 in the stomach will occupy a variable period, accord- 
 ing to the nature of the food and the state of the 
 stomach. Nothing exact can be said of its length, 
 but it is probably measured by hours — at the least, 
 two or three. The third, or intestinal stage, in like 
 manner cannot be accurately measured ; but it also 
 is probably measured by hours. The intestmal stage 
 — continuing, as it does, the gastric digestion of 
 albuminous bodies — supplements the latter, and 
 hence, should the stomach have emptied itself rela- 
 tively early, the intestinal process is likely to be 
 relatively prolonged. 
 
 This dovetailing of the two processes increases 
 the difficulty of apportioning to each its time 
 limits. Taking the two stages together, we may 
 safely count them as lasting, at the least, four hours 
 and a half to five hours.* Though these two acts 
 supplement each other, there are reasons for beHev- 
 ing that they are to a certam extent antagonistic, 
 
 ♦ Four to seven hours is tho estimate ol a careful observer of 
 the duration in health. 
 
18 DIET AND COOKEET 
 
 and cannot go on simultaneously without mutual 
 interference. It is the merit of Dr. Paris to have 
 drawn special attention to this matter, and to 
 have shown that to start anew the process of gastric 
 digestion, before the completion of the intestinal 
 stage of a preceding repast, is almost certain to 
 delay both processes. This is most important ; for 
 there can be no doubt that the present tendency is 
 to take too many meals, and to make the intervals 
 too short. Should a dyspeptic state have arisen from 
 such or from other causes, it is the common prac- 
 tice to treat the enfeebled organs by smaller quan- 
 tities of food at shorter intervals, on the ground 
 that we shall tax the powers least in this way. The 
 plea is plausible, but the practice is in the great 
 majority of cases undoubtedly harmful. On this 
 doctrine of little and often, Paris quotes the 
 " specious aphorism of Su' W. Temple," " that the 
 stomach of an invalid is like a schoolboy — always 
 at mischief unless it is employed," and comments 
 very severely on the harmfulness of the teaching. 
 The truth is that in such cases we should endeavour 
 to lengthen, and not shorten, the intervals, in order 
 to rest the organs and enable them to recover their 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS 19 
 
 vigour. This does not mean that, in exceptional 
 cases, the maxim little and often may not hold 
 true — e.g. in grave illnesses, in which the intestinal 
 tract is both feeble and irritable, resenting in par- 
 ticular food in bulk. Here our hand is forced, and 
 we must give at frequent intervals because we can- 
 not give in quantity. But, after all, these cases are 
 ot the nature of crises, which temporarily we tide 
 over as best we can ; and even in these we endea- 
 vour to make the intervals as long as possible, 
 having recourse, if needful, to other modes of ali- 
 mentation — as by rectal injections. Wherever the 
 method "little and often" is forced upon us, we 
 must make the food correspondingly easy of diges- 
 tion ; for in this way we lessen interference. In- 
 deed, if we artificially pre-digest the food, the 
 alimentary tract does little more than absorb, and 
 we have no real digestive act. 
 
 As to the number of meals and the intervals 
 between them, this cannot be set down arbitrarily 
 for one and for all. A liberal amount of common 
 sense is required in setting forth a dietary ; but we 
 may say broadly — 
 
 (1) That three meals a day suffice. 
 
20 niJ^T AND COOKERY. 
 
 (2) That the intervals should not be less than 
 four hours and a half to five hours. 
 
 A very good arrangement is — breakfast at 8 a.m., 
 luncheon or dinner at 1 p.m. to 1.30 p.m., and the 
 evening meal at 6.30 to 7 p.m. Whether the 
 midday or the evening meal should be the dinner 
 will depend much upon circumstances and the 
 exigencies of the day's routine. 
 
 And what about the afternoon cup of tea ? If 
 strictly limited to this, and it does not partake of 
 the nature of a meal — even of a light one — it may 
 be allowable. There are strict rules to be observed 
 in the brewing of the tea. But if the patient be 
 dyspeptic, reform will, as a rule, have to commence 
 with the abolition of this pseudo-meal ; and in the 
 vast majority of cases the taking even of a small 
 quantity of food with the tea will do harm, by 
 taking off the edge of the appetite for dinner. To 
 he taken thrice daily, the familiar formula of the 
 prescription, should be written largo in the refectoiy 
 or dining-room. 
 
 >. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 KINDS OF DIET. 
 
 " Van Swieten has justly said that * to assert a thing to be 
 wholesome without a knowledge of the condition of the person for 
 whom it is intended, is like a sailor pronouncing the wind to be 
 fair without knowing to what port the vessel is bound.* " — Paris, 
 "Treatise on Diet," fifth edition, p. 222. 
 
 Of what shall the meals consist ? and what shall the 
 quantities be which we should take ? These are the 
 second and first questions in the diet problem which 
 we have already put ; the third question, as to the 
 times of taking food, has just been briefly touched 
 upon. It is the object of this book to consider 
 in detail the questions of quahty and quantity, 
 but we may, with advantage, set forth here some 
 generalities. 
 
 And first, Avith regard to quantity : we may say 
 that in health the appetite will regulate better 
 than the scales; for no fixed routine of diet can 
 
22 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 meet so satisfactorily the varying needs of the body 
 as that varying quantity, appetite, the inconstancy 
 of which they themselves occasion. The laws of sup- 
 ply and demand vary, not only with each organism, 
 but they fluctuate from day to day. Of the needs 
 of the body the appetite is the expression, and the 
 digestive powers will prove equal to the performance 
 of the task which it imposes. It is true we are told 
 to leave off the meal " with an appetite," and that 
 this maxim will be found to be a reliable guide in 
 many ways ; but it is hard to put in practice, and 
 it is by no means certain that it is the whole truth. 
 The fact is, we can carry on our diet at two levels — 
 a lower and a higher — and still be within the bounds 
 of moderation and retain our health. It is also a 
 fact that sustained effort can be made on the lower- 
 diet level. But there is something more than sus- 
 tained effort to be considered. There is that other 
 something which we denominate " Go," and which 
 we may describe as tension ; this it is which occa- 
 sions that unrest of mind or body which impels the 
 organism, and which underhes much enterprise. 
 Now, there are some reasons for believing that the 
 higher diet-level favours the development of " Go," 
 
FOB COMMOy AILMENTS. 23 
 
 of which we can make a right or a wrong use ; and 
 it is unquestionable that high diet depends for its 
 stimulant character perhaps as much on the quan- 
 tity as the quality of the food. When we speak of 
 high feeding, we do not mean the use of spices and 
 the thousand-and-one incentives which the cook's 
 art invents ; we refer neither to the gourmand nor 
 the gourmet. We simply mean a reasonable satis- 
 fying of the appetite (not a " surfeit of lampreys "), 
 as against the use of the curb-rein. The saint has 
 mostly chosen the latter method ; but the busy, 
 energetic, practical, and enterprising worker in all 
 departments of industry may, without being a 
 sinner, find that life at its high level of activity 
 is best maintained on the high level of diet. It 
 is probably impossible to dogmatise on these points ; 
 there is truth in both directions. 
 
 In disease, on the other hand, the scales will 
 often have to be put against the appetite ; and 
 notably is this the case in the graver forms ot 
 
 illness. 
 
 What are the quantities which the scales and 
 the measure declare to be necessary to the support 
 of Hfe, when the appetite no longer guides us ? This 
 
24 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 will depend upon the quality of the food, and we 
 shall therefore pass to this subject. 
 
 Van Swieten, in the dictum we have quoted, 
 says well what the proverb says more tersely: 
 "One man's meat is another man's poison." As 
 usual, this is the proverbial half-truth ; for, taking 
 mankind en Tnasse, one man's meat is another 
 man's meat. It is with exceptional states, how- 
 ever, that we deal, and for these the proverb has 
 much force, and we must bear it constantly in mind 
 whilst reading the following general statements. In 
 a minority of cases they may not apply. We now 
 propose to consider seriatim the more important 
 articles of diet, and we shall do this on the following 
 plan — viz. we shall begin with those articles of diet 
 which are most easily borne, and thence we shall 
 proceed up the scale till we reach the full dietary 
 of the healthy adult. 
 
 MILK. 
 
 This is a complete food, which suffices the 
 infant in the first months of life, and which 
 all through life may be taken, as a rule, with advan- 
 rage, and to which in crises we may revert as the 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 25 
 
 sole article of diet. If you are in doubt, give milk : 
 this is safe doctrine. 
 
 By simple methods or observations we can 
 show that milk is a compound food. If it stand, 
 globules of fat rise and form the layer of cream, 
 which we can skim off. If it go sour, or we add 
 rennet under suitable conditions, we separate a 
 substance known as curd, and which belongs to the 
 class of albuminous compounds. At the same time 
 that the curd separates out, the whey does so also. 
 This whey is a thin liquid with a sweetish taste, the 
 sweetness being due to the presence of a sugar, 
 called sugar of milk. It is this saccharine sub- 
 stance which in the formation of Koumiss or Kefeer 
 ferments. Whey, further, contains certain salts. 
 We see, thus, each class of aliment represented 
 — fats, albuminous bodies, sugars, and lastly, 
 salines. 
 
 The importance of this knowledge of the com- 
 position of milk is that it enables us to modify milk, 
 should occasion arise, by withdrawing this or that 
 constituent which may not be deemed suitable, or 
 by altering in some way these constituents. 
 
 To apply this, let us suppose that the milk 
 
fiS DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 disagree either with the infant or the adult. We 
 may proceed as follows : — 
 
 (1) We may boil the milk and remove the skin 
 (curd) which forms. By this means we render the 
 milk more digestible. Repetition of the act a second 
 or third time may be advantageous. 
 
 (2) We may dilute the milk with water or 
 barley-water, rice mucilage, a weak solution of 
 isinglass, or white of egg. In this way we lessen 
 the concentration of the milk, and the curd tends 
 to separate in smaller floccules. Of diluents, barley- 
 water is probably the best. 
 
 (3) We may dilute and add an alkali — e.g. a 
 few grains of bicarbonate of soda to the pint ot 
 milk — or lime-water, from two or three tablespoon- 
 fuis to the pint up to one-third part, or even one- 
 half We tend thus to correct any sour tendencies 
 of the stomach, and probably also beneficially affect 
 the form of separation of the curd. 
 
 (4) We may combine Avith the alkali some 
 simple carminative, such as cinnamon- water. 
 
 (5) We may give some stimulant, brandy or 
 rum, in quantities from a few drops, for the infant, 
 up to teaspoon-, dessert-, or tablespoonful doses. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS, 27 
 
 (6) If the stomach, thus assisted, cannot digest 
 the milk, we may assist by pre-digesting it: a 
 process which we term peptonising. Benger's 
 Hquor pancreaticus or Fairchild's zymine, among 
 many other preparations, may serve for this 
 purpose. 
 
 In aU these operations the element in milk 
 which we regard with most suspicion is the curd, 
 and hence another course open to us, should one 
 milk disagree, is to change it for another less rich 
 in curd. Arranged in descending order of digesti- 
 biUty, we have goat's milk (least digestible), cow's 
 milk, ass's milk, and human milk (most diges- 
 tible). As far as curd-richness is concerned, the 
 order will be reversed; for goat's milk is richest 
 in curd, ass's and human milk least rich. Ass's 
 milk comes nearest in composition to human milk ; 
 it contains even less casein (curd). A milk ap- 
 proaching the composition of human milk is now 
 prepared artificially on a large scale from cow'a 
 milk, and known as humanised milk. Ass's milk 
 is prohibitively dear. 
 
 Should the selection of another milk not help us 
 we must then try an incoviplete milk — e.g. we may 
 
28 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 remove the cream or butter from the milk — skim 
 milk, butter Tnilk ; or we may further remove the 
 curd and drink the Avhey. To the whey we may 
 return the cream which we have removed before 
 curdUng the milk, or we may withhold it. To such 
 incomplete milk we may apply any of the pro- 
 cedures which we have just enumerated as applic- 
 able to whole milk. 
 
 Should all these means fail, we should never 
 omit to give Koumiss (also called rnilk-wine 
 and milk-brandy) a trial. It is a most excel- 
 lent modification of milk, and is at times tolerated 
 when nothing else is ; there is present about two per 
 cent, of alcohol Supposing milk is borne, but we 
 do not wish to advance beyond it, we may, to vary 
 the monotony, safely give it in the form of junket ; 
 for the curdling will of necessity take place in the 
 stomach, and to perform this operation beforehand 
 can do no harm. Moreover, the patient has the 
 satisfaction of partaking of solid or semi-solid 
 food, liquid food not counting in his eyes as 
 nourishment. 
 
 But suppose that milk is not only tolerated, but 
 that, whilst unwilling to advance beyond it, we wish 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS, 29 
 
 to add to its nutrient powers. In such case we 
 may enrich it by the addition of cream, or we may 
 effect the same more cheaply by immersing in the 
 milk some mutton suet enclosed in a muslin baof, 
 and simmering the whole. This should be done 
 tentatively as to quantity, beginning with, say, a 
 heaped teaspoonful or less of chopped suet to the 
 pint of milk, and advancing to larger quantities 
 so long as the stomach is not averse and the milk 
 appears to be digested. Such milk may be de- 
 scribed as super-added milk. 
 
 And the quantities ? If a hand-fed infant of 
 six weeks old be receiving and digesting half to 
 three-quarters of a pint of good cow's milk, pro- 
 perly diluted, we need not be unhappy — at least till 
 the doctor comes ; and in like manner, if an adult, 
 resting, is taking as his sole food between three and 
 four pints of milk in the day, we may be quite 
 content ; we should ourselves favour the lower 
 rather than the higher limit. It has been 
 Slated that there is as much nourishment in 
 a pint of milk as in a good-sized chop, and it is 
 probable that the estimate does not over-state the 
 relation. 
 
m DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 MEAT BROTHS. 
 
 The next article of diet which we may always 
 give safely is meat broth. This may be pre- 
 pared from beef, mutton, veal, or chicken. Beef- 
 tea is the best representative of the group, and is 
 much more largely used than any of the others. 
 These infusions represent very different nutritive 
 values, even when prepared from the same meat, 
 according to the mode of preparation. As usually 
 made with boiling water, however prolonged the 
 boiling or however slowly the temperature is raised 
 to the boiling point, the most nourishing portions 
 of the meat — the albumens — are coagulated and 
 left behind, the water taking from the meat its salts, 
 certain complex bodies called extractives and gela- 
 tine, and no more. These principles, however, 
 neither singly nor in combination, can support life. 
 This has been abundantly proved for gelatine by 
 widely-extended experiments, which, starting with 
 the preconceived notion that the gelatine con- 
 tained in soups was the only nourishing part of the 
 soup, has yet been unable to establish the fact. 
 The subject was most fully gone into during the 
 early years of the French Revolution, when the 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 31 
 
 question of the most economical means of efficiently 
 feeding the army and the people was of national 
 importance. Neither preconceived notion, then, 
 nor the urgency of a drained exchequer, have 
 been able to convert gelatine into a complete food 
 Yet it has a value ; which modem science has pro- 
 claimed to be that of protecting or replacing those 
 albuminous bodies which would otherwise suffer 
 decomposition within the tissues. 
 
 It is important that this should be realised; 
 for we all start with the conviction that the 
 nutritive value of our meat extract is established 
 when it sets to form a jelly ; nay, more — that it 
 is proportional to the stiffness of the jelly. Let 
 it be clearly understood that gelatine has a value 
 as a food, but it is not in itself a complete food, 
 nor does it become such when the stimulant 
 qualities of salts and extractives are associated 
 with it. It is in this latter respect, perhaps, that 
 the broths are of chief value — viz, in their refresh- 
 ing or stimulant powers ; and at the risk of being 
 paradoxical, we would say that in a sense the value 
 of meat broths depends upon their low nutritive 
 powers; for, being rapidly absorbed and readily 
 
92 DIET AND GOOEERY 
 
 dealt with in the tissues, they tax very slightly 
 the powers of assimilation. They thus bring their 
 sthnulant action to bear at very little cost, so to 
 speak; and in a manner we take a cup of strong 
 beef-tea much as we would take a dose of alcohol : 
 in the majority of cases we shall do so with much 
 more benefit. 
 
 The combination of beef-tea with milk thus con- 
 stitutes an excellent diet, which is specially adapted 
 to meet grave states of depression. Ad interim, 
 such may always be given with perfect safety. As 
 to quantity, three pints of milk and a pint of strong 
 beef-tea would constitute a sufficient dietary for an 
 adult. 
 
 But should milk in all its forms disagree — and 
 such cases arise both in infancy and adult life — we 
 may, by adopting certain precautions, obtain in the 
 liquid form from meat a much more nourishing 
 food than any form of meat broth. 
 
 (1) Beef- tea may be made in the ordinary wa}^ 
 and then to this fluid we may add varying quanti- 
 ties of raw meat which has been reduced to the 
 finest pulp by scraping, soaking in water, pounding 
 in a mortar, and then rubbing through a fine-wire 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 33 
 
 sieve. With the addition of a little salt, such an 
 admixture is very palatable, the taste of the raw 
 meat being effectually disguised. The beef-tea, 
 when the meat-pulp is added to it, must not be 
 very hot, or the albumen of the pulp will be co- 
 agulated, but it may be warmed : the mixture is 
 very suitably taken cold or iced. As to proportions, 
 we may feel our way gradually ; but it will be 
 found that one ounce of pulp mixes well with two 
 ounces of beef-tea. The stimulant effects of such 
 supplemented beef-tea would be first felt, and upon 
 this would follow the assimilation of the meat. 
 
 (2) By means of a ferment — e.g. pepsine or pan- 
 creatine — and moderating the temperature, we can 
 straightway produce a liquid which as a food has 
 a high nutritive value. The albuminous bodies of 
 the meat are, by such means, largely converted 
 into forms ready for absorption. Such broth is 
 described as peptonised: it is stimulant, highly 
 nutritive, and readily assimilable. 
 
 There are a few good commercial preparations 
 of peptonised meats. 
 
 (3) By means of common salt and soaking in 
 cold water, with subsequent pressure and careful 
 
M DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 filtration, we can obtain from meat a fluid containing 
 some of the albumens in solution. This is of the 
 nature of a dilute meat-juice. By the addition of an 
 acid — e.g. hydrochloric acid — we may facilitate the 
 extraction of the meat. This fluid must not be 
 heated. 
 
 Here will come the long list, daily increas- 
 ing, of meat-juices, fluid meats, and meat extracts, 
 etc. They are, some of them, valuable adjuvants ; 
 but in the case of many, if the attempt be made to 
 rely on them alone, we shall need to give quanti- 
 ties which would risk poisoning the patient with 
 extractives. In other words, these preparations are 
 disproportionately rich in extractives and salts. 
 Their proper place is that of auxiliary stimulants, 
 and they require to be cautiously selected. To credit 
 all the wonderful things said about them we must 
 be possessed of much faith, of the kind which has 
 been defined as that gift or power which enables us 
 to believe that which we know to be impossible. And 
 to think that they are to be obtained from common 
 meat ! 
 
 Clear meat soups belong to the category of broths ; 
 bones are generally made use of as part of the stock, 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. .^ 
 
 and such soups contain more gelatine than where 
 meat alone is used. Gelatine, we have seen, is 
 valuable as an ingredient, and soups of this kind 
 may in most cases be allowed, even to very dehcate 
 stomachs. Soups thickened with meal of various 
 kinds are less digestible, but the use of such will 
 be considered later. Vegetables are frequently 
 added to soups, but in the invalid state they are 
 often inadmissible. On the other hand, a flavour- 
 ing of herbs might be advantageously used much 
 more than it is ; and for this purpose vegetable 
 essences are convenient, though we may readily 
 use the vegetables themselves by enclosing them 
 in a mushn bag, and boiling them thus along 
 with the soup. We must be prepared to with- 
 hold these flavourings should there be the least 
 intimation of difficulty of digestion. 
 
 Meat jellies and calf s-foot jellies will rank with 
 liquid rather than with solid foods : their solidity 
 is, perhaps, as much feigned as is the fluidity ot 
 milk. Gelatine is the constituent which causes the 
 setting of the liquid into the jelly state. We may 
 try these preparations, therefore, during the stage 
 of slop diet if the patient feel any desire for them ; 
 
36 DIET AND OOOKERT 
 
 but in general, where there is much disturbance 
 and debility of the alimentary system, there is an 
 aversion for all kinds of solid food, and even for 
 their simulacra, and hence the jellies are usually 
 put aside till commencing convalescence. 
 
 EGGS. 
 
 The addition of eggs to the diet will consti- 
 tute the next advance. Egg is a complete food 
 for the embryo bird,^ and it is highly nutritious to 
 man. The contents of the shell are easily separable 
 into the two parts : white and yolk. The former 
 is little else than a solution of albumen ; the latter, 
 besides a modification of albumen, contains much 
 fat. The starchy and saccharine group is scarcely 
 represented in either. There are various salts. It 
 is estimated that an average fowl's egg will con- 
 tain about as much albumen and fat as a quarter 
 of a pint of milk ; but then the milk will contain 
 sugar as well. It is also reckoned to be the equi- 
 valent of rather under an ounce and a half of fat 
 
 * This etatement must be held to apply to the whole egg, 
 shell and all : for during incubation the earthy salts of the shell 
 are to a large extent dissolved and incorporated. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 37 
 
 meat. Computations have been made as to the 
 number of eggs which, as sole dietary, would have 
 to be taken to cover the needs of the organism for 
 albumen, and it has been set down as twenty; this 
 for a healthy man. 
 
 Eggs raw or lightly-boiled are easily digested, 
 but hard-boiled they are indigestible."^ In the latter 
 form they tend to constipate, whilst raw they are 
 laxative. In the raw or lightly-boiled egg the 
 white is the more digestible part ; the yolk is less 
 so, owing to the richness in fat and the greater 
 concentration of the aliment. In the hard-boiled 
 state the white is the more indigestible. The yolk 
 is, of course, more nourishing than the white. 
 
 We may make use of either part of the egg 
 separately : this will be analogous to the use of the 
 several forms of incomplete milk already men- 
 tioned. Demme's solution of white of egg consists 
 of a dilute solution of the white, with a little sugar 
 and cognac, t This fluid is of much value in the 
 
 * This is the current view amongst both medical men and the 
 laity, but one accomplished physician, an authority in dietetics, 
 recommends the hard-boiled egg to his patients. 
 
 t The whites of two eggs to a pint and a half of water, with 
 the addition of a little sugar and cognac. 
 
88 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 treatment of irritable states of the stomach and 
 intestines in infants, and it may for a short time 
 replace milk. In similar states of the body at all 
 ages it would be useful. In like manner the yolk 
 of egg may be broken up, with hot water and sugar 
 and orange-flower water added, or cognac or rum. 
 This is the lait de poule* In the British Pharma- 
 copoeia the mixture of spirit of French wine is an 
 egg-flip in which the yolks are used. 
 
 The whole egg — white and yolk — or the yolk 
 alone, is frequently administered beaten up in 
 milk, with or without the addition of a stimulant — 
 e.g. brandy. The yolk of egg, or the whole egg, 
 may be conveniently smuggled into the cup of tea 
 or coffee where these are permissible. 
 
 The curious phenomenon of idiosyncracy or 
 individual susceptibility is very pronounced for 
 eggs, some people being unable to take them in 
 any form. 
 
 Thus far we have described what is usually 
 spoken of as slop diet — milk, broths, eggs (raw or 
 very lightly boiled). Perhaps we ought to exclude 
 
 • Yeo : " Food in Health and Disease." 
 
FOR COM^ION AIL3IENTS. 39 
 
 the latter (eggs) when cooked, however Hghtly. 
 Such food, being of the hghtest kind, may be given 
 at frequent intervals, according to the maxim 
 " little and often." At times it must be so given ; 
 but whenever, even on this diet, we can safely 
 stretch out the intervals, and administer small 
 meals, so to speak, we should do so. 
 
 Included under the heading slop diet are a 
 variety of farinaceous preparations — e.g. arrowroot, 
 cornflour, gruel, barley-water and barley-jelly, rice- 
 water, bread-jelly, etc. These preparations are mu- 
 cilaginous and very bland, or demulcent, as it is 
 technically called. Rice-water, barley-water, and 
 water-arrowroot are the best of them, and if made 
 thin can be borne in most cases ; but the others do 
 not diminish, but rather add to, the difficulty oi 
 digestion, and chiefly because of the fermentable 
 character of the starch which is their principal 
 constituent. They tend to produce flatulence. 
 Soups thickened by means of flour or such-like 
 are, therefore, less digestible than clear soups. 
 The meal obtained from peas, lentils, etc., is 
 highly nutritious, but very unsuitable for weak 
 stomachs. 
 
40 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Where the stomach is able to cope with these 
 additions the general nutrition will be the gainer ; 
 in these cases we shall find that milk or broths will 
 bear thickening with tapioca or sago, and probably 
 that rice, well boiled, may be taken. From milk 
 thus thickened we pass, by easy stages, to milk- 
 puddings, which we can have more or less milky, to 
 taste. The addition of eggs to such puddings 
 increases decidedly the difficulty of digestion, 
 and they should not be allowed, therefore, at 
 first. 
 
 We should add that the most suitable drinks 
 for quenching thirst during the slop-diet stage will 
 be: water (iced or not), a thin barley-water or rice- 
 water, or the old-fashioned toast- and-water. We 
 may sweeten slightly and flavour with lemon-peel 
 the first three drinks, if this be fancied. Whey is 
 sometimes liked, and it has the advantage of 
 slight nutritive properties. Plain water — sip- 
 ping hot — will in not a few cases be found 
 very comforting and thirst-quenching ; it obviates 
 the " floods of wash," which appease only tempo- 
 rarily the thirst and cause discomfort to the 
 stomach. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 41 
 
 FISH. 
 
 The next step will be from slop diet to solid 
 food. Fish is the lightest form of solid aliment, and 
 we commence, therefore, with this. We may sum 
 up briefly the principal points about fish diet : — 
 
 (1) The fish should be white-fleshed — e.g. whit- 
 ing, cod, flounder, plaice, sole, haddock, brill, turbot. 
 The whiting has earned for itself the title, " chicken 
 of the sea " (Paris) ; and deservedly. In the above 
 list the turbot is probably the least digestible, 
 because of the firmness of its fibre. The viscid 
 gelatinous skin of fish is not reckoned so digestible 
 as the flesh itself. 
 
 Various opinions are held about the value of 
 oysters : they are certainly nutritious, and they 
 generally count as digestible. Dr. Paris considers 
 they have been over-estimated; still, on occasion 
 we may give them the benefit of the doubt and try 
 them. They should not be cooked. 
 
 For those who can eat and digest herrings, 
 mackerel, eels, salmon, there will be no sympathy 
 found in these pages. 
 
 (2) Boiled fish is the most easy of digestion. 
 
42 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Broiled or grilled fish comes next. Fried fish is 
 least suitable. In boiling fish, hard or salt water 
 should be used. 
 
 (3) Salt is an indispensable accessory to fish diet. 
 
 Fish in general, and in particular the more 
 digestible kinds, is very non-stimulant. In this it 
 contrasts with meat. For this reason we may 
 with advantage add to the dietary a little strong 
 and clear soup, and this should precede the fish. 
 
 We have now reached the stage of smaU meals 
 at definite intervals, and we are, of course, per- 
 mitted to include in the dietary all those articles 
 and preparations of food which we have previously 
 enumerated. Milk puddings — e.g. of rice, sago, 
 tapioca — custard (boiled), jellies : these may serve 
 to select from. Small quantities of stale bread, of 
 thin dry toast, and of sponge-fingers, will probably 
 be allowable. 
 
 For drink : water, plain, or if need be quahfied 
 with a little good spirit (preferably whisky) — 
 Mynheer Van Dunck's method not to be adopted 
 — a sound claret, a Burgundy, or even a httle dry 
 sherry. 
 
 Tea, coffee, cocoa : shall we allow these ? Much 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 43 
 
 will depend on previous habits and tolerance, 
 natural or acquired ; but in general cotfee is least 
 suitable ; tea will come next ; cocoa will be the best. 
 If tea be taken, it should be weak and infused quite 
 freshly, and for not more than two or three minutes. 
 If cocoa be selected, we should use an infusion of 
 the nibs as the best form : its bitterness and thin- 
 ness will generally prove acceptable.* 
 
 BIRDS. 
 
 Ascending the scale, we next proceed to meats ; 
 and first the flesh of birds. Of the fowl, guinea- 
 fowl and turkey, the flesh is white, delicate, and 
 easy of digestion, and we may select one or other 
 with advantage. Fowl is in much demand, and 
 may be said to be almost the piece de resistance of 
 invalid dietary. Such food is but little stimulant. 
 The flesh of ducks and geese is much more tasty, 
 but it is correspondingly more difficult of diges- 
 tion, the fibre being harder and richer : it is not 
 permissible. The flesh of game is more stimu- 
 lating than that of white-fleshed poultry, and it 
 
 ♦ Tea or cocoa will often be permissible during the stage of 
 purely slop diet. 
 
4A DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 possesses more flavour, at the same time it is 
 nearly as digestible, and sometimes even more so. 
 This quality it owes in part to the absence of fat, 
 and in part, probably, to the appetite which it pro- 
 vokes. The partridge, pheasant, and, perhaps, 
 quail are good examples of this class ; some con- 
 sider quail too rich for invalids. 
 
 The pigeon ranks neither as poultry nor as 
 game ; it may be kept in reserve to relieve monotony. 
 
 The flesh from the breast or wings of birds 
 should be chosen, as the most delicate. Boiling 
 and roasting — in the latter case with free basting — 
 are the best modes of cooking birds. 
 
 In the case of birds, as in that of fish, the more 
 digestible are those which contain least fat. 
 
 Hare and rabbit are generally classed along 
 with birds rather than with butcher's meat. Hare 
 is very flavoursome, and when young it is counted 
 fairly digestible. It is a stimulating diet. On the 
 whole, it is best reserved until it can be taken in aU 
 its glory of seasoning and accessories. From the 
 point of view of the invalid, rabbit is perhaps more 
 suitable, though at best it is but an indifferent sort 
 of food. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 45 
 
 butchers' meat. 
 
 We reach the last stage in our progress at the 
 shambles, and henceforward, by the help of a few 
 precepts, trust to be well rid of the invalid 
 state. 
 
 The most digestible of the meats is mutton : its 
 fibre is darker and less tender than that of lamb, 
 but in spite of this it is generally admitted to be 
 more digestible. Lamb is hence more for the epi- 
 cure than the invalid, and it is its tenderness which 
 makes it the honne houche, for it possesses less 
 flavour than mutton ; it is also less stimulant. 
 
 Beef comes decidedly after mutton in point of 
 digestibility, being of much firmer texture. It 
 ranks as more stimulating ; and that this is a true 
 estimate is, we think, sufficiently evidenced by the 
 much greater stimulant powers of beef-tea than 
 of mutton-broth. 
 
 Veal compares with beef as lamb does with 
 mutton : it is both less strengthening and less 
 assimilable. It, like lamb, is more gelatinous than 
 the flesh of the older animal. 
 
 Pork is wholly unsuitable for the invalid, 
 
46 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 but bacon, curiously, is more digestible than 
 pork, and may on occasion be allowed to the 
 dyspeptic. 
 
 Venison is disqualified by its high flavour, 
 though, as Pavy points out, its fibre is easily di- 
 gested. It compares with mutton as game does 
 with chicken. 
 
 Salted meats are not digestible, nor are cured 
 meats in general, though bacon, as we have said, 
 occupies an exceptional position. We would warn 
 against cured tongue, in particular. 
 
 Certain parts of the animal are specially selected 
 as articles of diet ; but for the invalid we need only 
 mention two — the sweetbread of the calf (there are 
 two varieties of sweetbread) and tripe. Sweetbread, 
 simply dressed and cooked, is very tender and 
 suitable for the invalid ; its want of flavour is one 
 qualification, its friable texture another. Tripe 
 is reckoned digestible, but for the invalid the fat 
 should be removed. The structure of sweetbread 
 — and, one may also say, of tripe — is quite different 
 from that of the meats. 
 
 As to cooking, boiling in general gives a 
 more insipid, but a less rich, and therefore more 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 47 
 
 digestible, food than roasting. Baking is not so 
 good a method of cooking. 
 
 VEGETABLES AND FRUITS. 
 
 Vegetables and fruits remain for consideration. 
 As a class, vegetables come late into the 
 dietary, the majority of them requiring vigorous 
 digestive powers. For this reason the pea and 
 bean tribe must be excluded from the invalid 
 dietary, though the pulses, as they are termed, 
 are highly nutritious.^ The difference, however, in 
 digestibility between very young green peas and 
 those which have reached " a certain age " is 
 striking. Esculent roots and tubers, turnips, car- 
 rots, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, must also be 
 excluded as decidedly indigestible. Of esculent 
 vegetable - fruits, some count the marrow as di- 
 gestible ; but this sub-class, which further includes 
 the cucumber (cooked, of course) and the tomato, 
 
 * This statement is perhaps too absolute, for certain of the pulso 
 meals modified somewhat by preparation, constitute both a nutri- 
 tious and digestible food, and thus the Revalenta Arabica, which 
 consists chiefly of lentil meal, suits well some invalid states. After 
 all, this is to some extent a prepared food. 
 
46 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 is of doubtful advisability. The green vegetables 
 may be admitted in part ; the best will be cauli- 
 flower and broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach : 
 these should be plainly boiled. When cooked, 
 seakale and celery will prove very wholesome and 
 digestible ; and we must not omit boiled lettuce. 
 
 Of all vegetables, one of the first to be admitted 
 will be the potato, in the floury or mealy state. In 
 no other state is it permissible. This is best 
 brought about by roasting the potato in its skin : 
 mashing does not contribute to the digestibility. 
 In some dyspeptic states, however, potatoes must 
 be entirely forbidden. Potatoes vary much in 
 size, and to allow " roast potato " does not imply 
 consent to a whole potato. When vegetables are 
 admitted, it must be in great moderation. 
 
 An excellent substitute for vegetables will be 
 plain boiled rice, eaten, with salt, along with the 
 meat. 
 
 We shall not forget that, where vegetables and 
 herbs are not permitted, their flavourings, as ob- 
 tained by means of essences, may be allowed. Of 
 this we have already spoken. 
 
 Condiments are mostly employed at the meat 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 49 
 
 and vegetable course. They are, for the most part, 
 not required in health; but where digestion is 
 sluggish they sometimes supply that degree of 
 stimulation which the plain food fails to supply, 
 and in this way they promote digestion. This 
 is the philosophy of condiments. We avoid 
 their use as much as possible in invalid cookery. 
 Salt, of course, is not a condiment: it is always 
 m place. 
 
 Fruits. — The dessert is a superfluity which re- 
 quires health to enjoy and digest. The old saying 
 that fruit is gold in the morning and lead at night 
 has much of truth ; and even in health we hold 
 the dessert to be, at the least, unnecessary. The 
 invalid with weak digestion must forego fruit, with 
 few exceptions. 
 
 Stone fruits are the least digestible as a class ; 
 but the ripe peach may sometimes be allowed, and 
 sometimes the apricot ; the skins will, of course, be 
 avoided. 
 
 The apple, however ripe, is not to be thought of, 
 but the pear may, on occusion, be considered. 
 
 The small-seeded fruits— the ripe strawberry 
 
60 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 and raspberry in particular — are among the most 
 wholesome, according to Paris. 
 
 The orange is permissible in most cases; but 
 we must carefully reject the white or inner skin, 
 and, better still, we shall only crush the fruit in 
 the mouth, and swallow the juice, leaving the 
 pulp. 
 
 Grapes, avoiding the skins and the seeds, are 
 suitable in nearly all cases. The orange and the 
 grape, with these quahfications, are undoubtedly 
 the safest. 
 
 Nuts of all kinds we need only mention to insist 
 upon their harmfulness. 
 
 " By cookery, fruit otherwise unwholesome may 
 be converted into a safe and useful aliment" 
 (Paris). In particular, the baked apple must be 
 mentioned. 
 
 Bread, etc. — Bread may form an accompaniment 
 of every article of diet, itself being a valuable food. 
 We have already touched upon its use, but we may 
 here add that for the invalid we shall choose white 
 bread ; that the lighter varieties are the best ; that 
 the bread shall be sufficiently stale to crumble in 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS, 51 
 
 the mouth when masticated : if it mass itself to- 
 gether it is unsuitable, for the juices of the ah- 
 mentary tract can then penetrate it only with diffi- 
 culty. Toasted in the form of thin shoes, its 
 digestibihty is improved, and this is a ready way 
 of making stale bread palatable. 
 
 Wheaten flour in the form of rusks, of tops 
 and bottoms, and of some of the lighter plain bis- 
 cuits, is digestible. Some of the lighter and drier 
 sponge cakes are also of value. 
 
 No other forms should be allowed. Baked and 
 boiled pastry are very unwholesome. Cakes of 
 all kinds are bad. Batter puddings and pancakes 
 are very unsuitable, and even macaroni is not easy 
 of digestion. 
 
 As to the whole-meal bread, much nonsense 
 has been Avritten about it. No doubt it is more 
 nutritious, if the question be of hving solely on 
 white or brown bread ; but with a mixed diet we 
 can easily supply all that the body needs, and 
 forego that most indigestible husk, with the small 
 quantity of albuminoid nutriment which adheres 
 to it. With some, however, the husk seems to 
 partake ot the nature of a conscience clause. 
 
52 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 FOOD AND AGE. 
 
 The foregoing is a sketch only, the outlines of 
 which will require filling up for each individual. 
 We shall now proceed to consider in detail certain 
 states of body — vices of the system, acquired or in- 
 herited — for which special dietaries have been estab- 
 lished by experience. Before we do this, however, 
 let us consider if, in the natural course of events, 
 the stages — infancy, adolescence, maturity, decay — 
 require special dietetic treatment. These stages are 
 essentially of health ; and we have as Httle right to 
 term morbid the downward path of old age, when 
 vitality is on the wane, as we are justified in 
 applying the same term to the growing stage of 
 childhood, when vitality is on the increase. Still, 
 though they are of health, yet we may with advan- 
 tage give them brief attention. 
 
 During the edentulous period of infancy the 
 menu of the hand-fed infant is, or should be, 
 charmingly simple : milk, complete or incomplete, 
 modified or unmodified, is the sole dietary. We 
 have said enough already on this subject, but we 
 may add that when milk, modified in various waysi 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 53 
 
 cannot be digested, the condition is distinctly 
 morbid, and the treatment should be in the hands 
 of the doctor. 
 
 When the teeth begin to appear, although they 
 are yet unfit for masticating purposes, we may 
 admit into the dietary some farinaceous food — e.g. 
 one or other of the patent " prepared " foods or 
 meals, biscuits, bread, jelly, etc. The quantities 
 will be, as a rule, under advice, and we need not 
 specify further. 
 
 A little broth or beef-tea, a small quantity of 
 milk-pudding, some lightly-boiled egg, a little 
 gravy with potato or bread-crumbs, some scraped 
 or pounded meat, boiled white fish, etc. : by these 
 advances we shall proceed up to the age of two 
 years; but during the whole of this period the 
 staple article will be milk. 
 
 From two years onward, mth a mouth full of 
 eager teeth which should be taught the full value 
 of mastication, we shall for some years longer yet 
 rely on milk as in the first rank of suitable foods, 
 and especially during the years of active growth. 
 As a reminder of this, we may recall the name, 
 " milk-teeth," for the first set. Indeed, all through 
 c 
 
54 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 life, if milk can be enjoyed and taken in quantity 
 not less than a pint a day, it will form, so to speak, 
 an excellent basis. Of one gentleman, to our know- 
 ledge, whose fondness for milk was explained as 
 the result of his never having been properly 
 weaned, this taste must certainly be reckoned 
 among his virtues. 
 
 The permanent teeth begin to replace the milk 
 Bet from the seventh year onwards. These are 
 meant for serious use on the plainer kinds of food : 
 bread, potatoes, milk-puddings, eggs, plainly-dressed 
 meats, bacon, fat, butter, vegetables, fruits : and 
 from such materials we can build up the tissues 
 of our bodies ; but all through the period of child- 
 hood and adolescence it would be a very wise 
 practice to introduce milk in fair quantity, either 
 alone or with porridge, cocoa, coffee, tea, or in milk- 
 puddings. This will hold still more strongly if 
 there be any chest delicacy. 
 
 In adult life milk loses its importance — i.e. we 
 can do without it more easily ; but we shall never 
 do amiss with it. 
 
 In advanced life we approach another edentu- 
 lous period, which is supposed to indicate that we 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 55 
 
 should fall back on tlie softer foods of childhood. 
 Whether this is meant or not, it is difficult to say : 
 the dentist " has changed all this," both in respect 
 of the physiognomy of age and, in a sense, the 
 habits. Perhaps the chief indication of this period 
 of life is temperance — the moderata diceta or third 
 physician of the school of Salerno. As to quality, 
 it is probable that meat is less needed. It was the 
 famous Dr. Caius who in old age returned to the 
 food of infancy. 
 
 During the early years of life the quantity of 
 food supplied should be, if anything, in excess of 
 the bare needs of the body. It should be what 
 is technically called a " luxus " supply : the mea- 
 sure should overflow ; in this way the tissues which 
 are growing in size and energy secure their maxi- 
 mum of vitahty. 
 
 During the later years we shall pursue an oppo- 
 site path, for fear of encumbering with waste pro- 
 ducts those tissues whose vitahty, both for assimi- 
 lation and excretion, is impaired. 
 
 Beyond this broad statement as to quantity we 
 need not go ; for in other respects the conditions 
 are of health, and with simple foods, the appetite 
 
66 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 will guide correctly. But perhaps we ought to 
 caution that in very early life, as also in very late 
 life, the vital powers are low, and, therefore, the 
 resistance small. Under these circumstances we 
 ought, if in doubt, to administer food which in 
 adult life, in a similar perplexity, we should with- 
 hold. Provided the food is readily assimilable, the 
 " little and often" maxim may then have some 
 scope in old age as it has in infancy : we shall be 
 temperate, it is true — we must not be Spartan. 
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 The subject of age gives us the opportunity 
 for saying a few words on the alcohol ques- 
 tion. We shall treat this matter from a phy- 
 siological point of view only ; for the moral question 
 — interesting as it may be, and imperative as it 
 may be — is not for us. There may be reasons of 
 this kind which shall command us, under circum- 
 stances, to forego the advantages of alcohol, if it 
 be advantageous : each must settle this point for 
 him or herself The plain question before us is : 
 Is alcohol advantageous physiologically ? 
 
 There will be some gain if it can be shown that 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 57 
 
 the use of alcohol is not unreasonable. For the 
 moment we will put aside the question whether 
 alcohol undergoes combustion within the tissues, 
 and to this extent is a heat-producer and veritable 
 food ; we will regard it simply as a stimulant — i.e. 
 as a substance which enables us to unlock the 
 forces stored up in the tissues — to realise them, so 
 to speak. Can we, from such a use of alcohol, 
 expect to get any good ? At once it will be urged, 
 if it unlocks the forces of the tissues, the benefit 
 which it brings will be at the expense of the 
 economy, and it is hard to see how a drained ex- 
 chequer can be replenished by means such as these, 
 which take just as much as they give. A steam- 
 engine which has an insufficient supply of coals for 
 the journey to be done, will hardly succeed in com- 
 passing its task by having all its remainmg supply 
 of fuel cast on the fire at once. But whilst this 
 will hold true so far as the whole journey is 
 concerned, such an engine, whose fires had burned 
 low, might, by an apparently rash expenditure of 
 what remained to it of fuel, get up steam sufficient to 
 reach a neighbouring coaling-station — a feat which 
 would be quite impossible if the fires were fed with 
 
58 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 a more parsimonious hand This is exactly the 
 theory of the use of stimulants — neither more nor 
 less : of themselves, they bring nothing to the body, 
 and therefore of themselves they cannot perma- 
 nently advantage it, but by the help of food they 
 can reasonably aid the economy. Thus, let us sup- 
 pose a patient exhausted by a prolonged fever or 
 other illness, and just commencmg convalescence : 
 food is given; but the powers are so feeble that 
 digestion and assimilation are most imperfectly 
 performed, and the organism, taxed by the effort, 
 makes doubtful progress. The timely use of stimu- 
 lants here, whilst they draw upon the small store 
 of available force, yet excite a sufficient digestive 
 reflex to start and carry through a satisfactory 
 assimilation; and it will be then found that the 
 organism is amply repaid by the influx of nutritive 
 material for the expenditure which the stimulant 
 caused. In just this way crises of prostration 
 can be tided over which in no other way could be 
 recovered from. It will be noted, then, that the 
 use of stimulants can be reasonably defended as 
 a timely expenditure of force which makes possible 
 the utilisation of food. Food is in every case the 
 
FOE COMMON AILMENTS. 59 
 
 true restorative, but stimulants may be necessary 
 to its assimilation. Always, then, stimulants must 
 be given in relation to the taking of food : this 
 is the Veritas in vino which we must ever keep 
 before us. 
 
 But if alcohol be to some extent burnt up within 
 the body, after the fashion of foods in general — and 
 there is evidence in favour of a limited utiHsation 
 of it in this sense — then a fortiori it will be of 
 use. We would caution, however, against this 
 view of the value of alcohol : it is, at best, a 
 veiy poor food. 
 
 There remains another aspect which the oppo- 
 nents of alcohol lay stress upon : they say that the 
 presence of alcohol in the alimentary tract impedes 
 the digestive ferments, and therefore impedes diges- 
 tion and assimilation. This is true in the test-tube 
 and laboratory flask, when alcohol is added in 
 quantity to the test fluids ; but it is not true even 
 here for the lower percentages of alcohol additions, 
 as is well shown by Sir WilUam Roberts, in his 
 book on "Digestion and Diet"* Therefore, not 
 even in the test-tube do these objections hold; 
 
 "Digestion and Diet," p. 116 ; 1892. 
 
60 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 and, as William Hunter long since contended, 
 " the stoniach is neither a mill, a fermenting-vat, 
 nor a stew-pan" (nor, we may add, a test-tube), 
 " but a stomach, gentlemen — a stomach."* 
 
 After all, theory, no matter how plausible, 
 must give way to experience; and to our minds 
 this is distinctly in favour of a seasonable and 
 reasonable use of stimulants. These should not 
 be used in routine fashion; children should not 
 be brought up accustomed to their use, however 
 moderately, unless they do not thrive ; and it 
 would be a wise precaution to abstain from admin- 
 istering them then except on advice. As a very 
 general rule, children are better without stimulants : 
 we, of course, are not speaking of actual disease, t 
 In adult life, as a digestive aid, alcohol taken at 
 meals may be of great service ; on the other hand, 
 It may be quite superfluous. In advanced Hfe 
 
 • Fide Paris. 
 
 t Henoch, a recognised authority on children's diseases, dis- 
 cussing the means of nourishing infants in certain conditions of 
 mal-nutrition, repeats the words of his teacher, Romberg, that the 
 old Hungarian wine, Tokay, unadulterated, is not only a "lac 
 senile " but a "lac juvenile." This wine thus qualified, is perhaps 
 not very accessible. 
 
FOE COMMON AILMENTS. 61 
 
 the moderate use of cordials may be very desirable ; 
 and if moderation have prevailed till then, we need 
 not fear their abuse. We would commend the 
 word cordial to the consideration of our readers. 
 
 As to the forms of alcohol which we should em- 
 ploy, we possess in the following list a scale of 
 strengths which mil meet all requirements. 
 
 The ardent spirits: Brandy, whisky, gin, 
 
 runx 
 The more generous wines : Port, sherry, 
 
 Madeira. 
 The lighter wines : Burgundy, claret, hock, 
 
 champagne. 
 The malt liquors : Ale, porter, stout. 
 
 Of the spirits, gin is the least likely to interfere 
 
 with digestion (this appears from Sir W. Koberts's 
 
 experiments on artificial digestion) ; but so long as 
 
 the quantities are kept within small limits — e.g. 
 
 two, or at most three, tablespoonfuls diluted with 
 
 water, we shall look for an acceleration of digestion, 
 
 and no interference. 
 
 Sherry or port, in doses of one, or at most 
 c* 
 
«2 DIET AND COOKERY, 
 
 two, wine-glasses will act as pure stimulants to 
 digestion. 
 
 Of the lighter wines, the limit should be two 
 small claret or hock glassfuls. Of malt liquors, a 
 tumblerful 
 
 People will, of course, differ in their powers of 
 utilising alcohol in digestion; but the above are 
 safe limitations, barring individual intolerances, 
 which are sometimes very marked, and are found 
 not infrequently for malt liquors. According to 
 the above-quoted experiments, the retarding effects 
 which large quantities of sherry, port, claret, hock, 
 etc., exert on artificial digestion are quite out of 
 proportion to the amount of alcohol present, and 
 must therefore be due to other ingredients. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE ARTICLES OF DIET. 
 
 "The Worts, the Purslain, and the Messe of Watercresse.'*— 
 Herrick (N'oble Numbers). 
 
 We have seen that the nutritive principles may- 
 be arranged in five classes — indeed, in four, if we 
 exclude water — but the articles of diet, natural or 
 prepared, which present these nutritive principles 
 constitute a very formidable hst. To arrange them 
 on scientific lines is very difficult ; for the articles 
 of diet are rarely pure in the sense of containing 
 only one class of nutritive principles, and opposing 
 views may be taken as to whether we should place 
 a given food here or there. The following list will, 
 we trust, possess some practical value, and at the 
 same time be not devoid of scientific method. In 
 it, howev^, we shall not attempt to separate foods 
 occurring naturally from foods prepared arti- 
 ficially : the list is a hst of the things we eat 
 
64 DIET AND OOOKERY 
 
 THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 
 
 The Bread, Rice, and Potato Class. — The vari- 
 ous forms of bread, white and brown (including 
 biscuits and cakes), made from wheat, oats, rye, 
 barley, maize, buckwheat ; all varieties oi flour pre- 
 parations — e.g. pastries (pudding and tart), batters 
 (pancakes, etc.), vermicelli, macaroni, semolina, corn- 
 flour (from maize ; oswego and maizena are other 
 names for the same thing) ; 'porridges and gruels. 
 
 Rice, sago, tapioca, arrowroot. 
 
 Potatoes. 
 
 In this class we must put foods serving a similar 
 purpose — e.g. the sweet potato, the yam, the bread- 
 fruit, bananas and plantains, the chestnut, and, on 
 historic grounds, the acom. 
 
 The Pulses. — These occupy a position by them- 
 selves, and they are represented by the matured 
 seeds : Peas, beans (haricot and broad), and lentils. 
 
 Sugar in various forms (crystalline, liquid: 
 treacle), syrups, jams, preserves, honey, manna. 
 
 Sugar is a nutritive principle, allied to starch and 
 widely distributed among foods, in particular in 
 vegetables and fruits ; but sugar by itself stands as 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS, 65 
 
 an article of diet, whilst a number of food- sub- 
 stances owe their dietetic value to the sugar with 
 which they are prepared. Hence, for practical pur- 
 poses there is a group of sugar-foods. 
 
 The Vegetable Glass. — The potato is in a sense a 
 vegetable, but in nutritive value it associates itself 
 with the bread group and the rice group. The 
 pulses are likewise vegetables ; but in the Tnature 
 state their high nutritive value and the nature of 
 their nutritive principles set them apart, and in 
 proximity to both the bread and animal food 
 classes. On the other hand, in the young and 
 green state they return to the vegetable class. 
 
 The pea group: Green peas, green haricots, 
 broad beans (young), French beans (pod and seed). 
 
 The lentil is not eaten in the unripe state. 
 
 Green vegetables — the cabbage tribe : White and 
 red cabbage, " greens," savoy, Brussels sprouts, cauli- 
 flower, broccoH, broccoli sprouts, spinach, turnip- 
 tops. 
 
 Root vegetables : Carrots, parsnips, turnips, beet 
 root, artichokes * (Jerusalem). 
 
 * For convenience we have classed the Jerusalem ax-tichokes 
 as roots ; they are really tubers. 
 
66 DIET AND OOOEERY 
 
 Fruit vegetables : Cucumber, marrow, tomato. 
 
 In a group not classifiable under any of the 
 above headings may be put : — Seakale, asparagus, 
 the green artichoke ; and by itself must stand the 
 onion. 
 
 The salad group : Celery, endive, lettuce, sorrel, 
 mustard-and-cress, watercress, radishes. 
 
 In many cases this group may with advantage 
 be cooked like other vegetables. 
 
 Edible fungi : Morelles, truffles, mushrooms. 
 
 The Fruit Class. — We may arrange the members 
 of this class into the following groups, which are 
 more or less natural : — 
 
 Apple, pear, quince, medlar. 
 
 Orange, lemon, Ume, shaddock. 
 
 Plum, peach, nectarine, apricot — cherry. 
 
 The fig (green). 
 
 Strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, dewberry, 
 mulberry. 
 
 Grapes, currants, gooseberries. 
 
 Cranberry, barberry, whortleberry. 
 
 The melon. 
 
 The pine-appla 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 67 
 
 Plantains and bananas are fruits, and of high 
 nutritive value, but on account of the starch they 
 contain they have been already spoken of in con- 
 nection with the sweet potato, yam and bread-fruit. 
 
 Of dried fruits, we have in common use — 
 
 The fig, date, prune, raisin. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to mention the prickly 
 pear and pomegranate, since these fruits are so 
 little used in this country. The olive scarcely 
 reckons dietetically as a fruit. 
 
 Nuts. — These form a class or sub-class which it 
 is necessary to separate from fruits in general. The 
 members are nutritious, but indigestible ; they are 
 rich in nitrogenised principles, and also in oily 
 compounds. The more important are : the almond, 
 cocoanut, hazel-nut, Brazil-nut, and walnut. The 
 chestnut we have placed in the starch-containing 
 group. 
 
 The soja, soya, or soy bean is of the pulse tribe 
 but on account of the small amount of starch which 
 it contains may conveniently be placed here ; it is 
 highly nutritious. 
 
 We have seen that both the nutritive principles, 
 
68 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 starch and sugar, are separable, as such, from 
 articles of diet, and themselves are used undiluted 
 as foods : thus arrowroot and the several varieties 
 of sugar are eaten. In like manner fatty com- 
 pounds — e.g. oils — are separable in the pure state, 
 and are taken as such. From the vegetable king- 
 dom we thus obtain olive-oil. This sub-group is 
 better represented by a derivative from the animal 
 kingdom : — 
 
 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 
 
 (1) Milk : its several varieties and modifications. 
 
 (2) Milk derivatives : Butter, cream, cheese. 
 Butter and cream are nearly pure fats ; there is 
 
 a small proportion of nitrogenised matter. Cheese 
 varies enormously in its composition, the richer 
 kinds containing nearly as much of fatty as of 
 nitrogenised compounds ; the poorer kinds — e.g. 
 skim-milk cheese — containing much of the latter, 
 but very little of fat. 
 
 (3) Eggs. 
 
 Although the eggs of several birds are eaten, 
 we practically mean fowls' eggs Avhen we speak of 
 the group. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 69 
 
 (4) Fish. 
 
 (a) White fish: Whiting, sole, haddock, 
 
 flounder, plaice, brill, halibut, tur- 
 
 bot, cod. 
 The order here given is somewhat that of diges- 
 tibility. Thus we have, as most digestible, whiting 
 and sole; as firmer, and therefore less digestible, 
 turbot ; as perhaps least digestible, cod. White 
 fish contains little fat. The roach, perch, pike, 
 jack, and carp also contain little fat. 
 
 (h) Oily or fat-containing fish : Eel, conger- 
 eel, sprat, herring, pilchard, lam- 
 prey, mackerel, salmon, salmon- 
 trout. 
 The eel is out-and-out the most rich in fat : it 
 contains some three to five times as much as the 
 other members of its group — e.g. four times as 
 much as the conger-eeL Salmon-trout is less rich 
 and oily than salmon, therefore more digestible. 
 
 (c) Shell-fish (crustacean) : Lobster, crab, 
 crayfish, shrimp, and prawn. 
 Shell-fish (molluscan) : Oyster, cockle, 
 scallop, mussel, periwinkle, limpet. 
 
70 DIET AND GOOKEBY 
 
 Of crustacean shell-fish, the claw of the lobster 
 reckons to be digestible: the claw of the crab is 
 much more digestible than the soft part, or " pud- 
 ding " ; but the whole sub-group is tasty, and tasty 
 food in general is difficult of digestion. Among 
 molluscan shell-fish, oysters are counted easy of 
 digestion, but their reputation is perhaps not 
 earned (Paris) ; they contain but little fat. Oysters 
 become indigestible by cooking. 
 
 In respect of the group "shell-fish" idiosyncrasy 
 is not infrequently manifested ; and the instances 
 of alimentary upset, at times amounting to symp- 
 toms of poisoning, are not few. The diet is risky, 
 with perhaps the one exception of oysters when in 
 season. We must not omit to add that oysters, 
 mussels, cockles, contain much amyloid — i.e. starchy 
 or sugar-yielding material, and that the soft part 
 (pudding) of crabs and lobsters is rich in the same. 
 This fact, on grounds other than those of mere di- 
 gestibility, will disqualify the shell-fish group in 
 certain states of body. Salted, smoked, or other- 
 wise preserved fish, or parts of fish — e.g. the roe 
 — give us much-rehshed dishes, but they are for 
 the healthy. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 71 
 
 Birds. — White-fleshed poultry: Fowl, guinea- 
 fowl, turkey. 
 
 Pigeons may come in with these, though not 
 reckoned as poultry. 
 
 Darker-fleshed poultry : Ducks, geese. 
 
 Game: Pheasant, partridge, grouse, woodcock, 
 snipe, ptarmigan. 
 
 Wildfowl : Wild ducks, teal, widgeon. 
 
 Ducks and geese are unquestionably much 
 more difficult of digestion than the white-fleshed 
 poultry, the fibre of the meat being harder 
 and much richer.* In like manner, wild- 
 fowl are more difficult to digest than game. 
 It is less easy to assign the relative positions 
 of the white-fleshed poultry and game ; for 
 whilst the latter are more tasty and stimulant, 
 they appear in many cases to be more easily 
 dealt with by the system. As a general ruk^ 
 we begin with fowl and advance to game ; but we 
 should bear in mind that, simply dressed, these two 
 classes come very near together, and that the more 
 
 * The liver of the goose, in a state artificially brought about, 
 is known as " foie gras." It contains a large percentage of fat, 
 and is correspondingly rict. 
 
72 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 flavoursome may, for that very reason, prove more 
 digestible. 
 
 Meats. — Mutton and beef, and the correspond- 
 ing lamb and veal. 
 
 Pork and its derivatives, bacon and ham. 
 
 Special parts : Liver, kidneys, heart, tripe, sweet- 
 bread, brains, calf s-head, calf s-feet, tongue (fresh 
 and cured). 
 
 Venison. 
 
 Hare. 
 
 Rabbit. 
 
 Salted meats. Cured meats. 
 
 Of this class of food, mutton is the most 
 digestible, and it constitutes an excellent staple 
 article of diet for the invalid and the weak 
 of digestion. Lamb is more tender, but on 
 the whole less digestible ; the less sapid char- 
 acter of the lamb will, however, commend it to 
 some stomachs in certain states. Beef is deci- 
 dedly less digestible than mutton, the fibre 
 being harder ; it is fuller-flavoured. Veal stands 
 to beef as lamb to mutton in point of digestibility ; 
 its tissue is more gelatinous, less sapid. The usual 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS, 73 
 
 accessories to veal are quite unsuitable to weak 
 stomachs. 
 
 Pork is well known as an indigestible food ; this 
 is due to its richness and to the hardness of the 
 fibre of the meat. 
 
 Of Special Parts. 
 
 The Liver is characterised by the presence of a 
 considerable quantity of sugar, and it also contains 
 a substance closely allied to, and readily converted 
 into, sugar. The quantity of fat which it contains 
 is very variable. Liver is usually fried, and pre- 
 pared thus, constitutes a rich dish. 
 
 Kidneys. — The closeness of texture is the 
 characteristic here, and is a bar to easy digestion. 
 As a dish, kidneys rank as indigestible, partly 
 because they are generally cooked as a savoury ; 
 in this form they should not be brought within 
 measurable distance of the dyspeptic. In them- 
 selves they are not rich, and their digestibility 
 varies within very wide limits, according to the 
 cooking. 
 
 Heart. — To closeness of texture we must add 
 
74 DrET AND COOKERY 
 
 hardness of fibre as distinctive : on both accounts 
 this dish should be avoided. 
 
 Tripe, when plainly cooked and freed from its 
 fat, is easy of digestion. 
 
 Sweetbread (both kinds, from the stomach and 
 throat) is a suitable food when simply dressed. 
 
 Brains (calf's or sheep's) are both eaten and 
 enjoyed ; but this dish is rather rich in fat, inde- 
 pendently of any mode of cooking. 
 
 Calfs-head, calfs-feet, are both characterised 
 by the gelatinous nature of the tissues : this may 
 attract because of the slight mastication required ; 
 but the food- value of gelatine is not great, and both 
 dishes possess negative rather than positive values 
 — viz. that they do not require mastication and 
 that they are insipid. 
 
 Tongue in the fresh state is tender when pro- 
 perly cooked, but there is much fat present in the 
 interstices of the fibres. 
 
 Venison and hare are dark meats somewhat 
 full-flavoured ; they correspond with game among 
 birds. They are digestible in themselves, but their 
 savouriness disqualifies them for weak stomachs. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 75 
 
 The rabbit approaches in character to the white- 
 fleshed poultry, but it comes after them in digesti- 
 bility. 
 
 Cured meats and salted meats are, as a class, 
 less digestible than meats in the fresh state ; 
 this is partly caused by the hardening of the fibre 
 which results. It would also appear that in the 
 process of salting meat loses some of its nutritive 
 value, which the brine extracts. Bacon forms 
 an exception to the above rule, for in general it 
 agrees welL 
 
OBESITY. 
 
 This condition occupies a position midway be- 
 tween health and disease, and it is not possible 
 to draw the limiting line between these two : we 
 may therefore, with advantage, take obesity first. 
 The fact that upon the same diet one organ- 
 ism grows fat whilst another keeps spare belongs 
 to an obscure region of physiology. We do not 
 know why this is. We are familiar with another 
 fact of the same order — viz. that lean people are 
 often large eaters, whilst fat people are frequently 
 moderate, even small, eaters, and we are equally at 
 a loss for an interpretation. Further, it is not un- 
 common to find stout people active, quick both in 
 mind and body. From a consideration of these 
 points we are necessarily led to the conclusion 
 that the accumulation of fat in the tissues is 
 an inherent tendency of some organisms, and is 
 an expression of its health. This we must 
 always have in mind ; and both before and 
 
DIET AND COOKERY. 77 
 
 during any treatment for obesity which we may 
 undertake, we should carefully observe the signs of 
 vigour, evidenced by mental and bodily activity, by 
 cheerfulness, enterprise, etc. Should these improve, 
 well and good : we are justified in proceeding ; but 
 should they slacken at all, we must reconsider 
 the question of treatment, and ask ourselves 
 w^hether, after all, the encumbrance of fat is 
 not the least of the evils before us. In such 
 cases, alone, in which the loss of flesh proves an 
 advantage to the economy is it permissible to treat 
 obesity as such. 
 
 Again, before we accuse the diet as the cause of 
 obesity, we should make sure that other influences 
 are not at work — i.e. over-indulgence in sleep, in- 
 sufficient exercise. Having eliminated these, we 
 may, with the above qualifications, proceed to re- 
 vise the diet scale upon the following lines : — 
 
 (1) We shall greatly restrict the use of the 
 bread, rice, and potato class ; we shall withdraw the 
 dried pulses and the use of the sugar group. The 
 forbidding of sweet wines, sweet ales, stout, and 
 porter will belong to the sugar restrictions, and the 
 same will hold for sweet fruits, fresh or dried, and 
 
78 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 sweet vegetables. Starch-containing fruits — e.g. 
 bananas — will not be advisable. 
 
 (2) We may limit the consumption of fat: 
 butter, cream, the fat of meat, and fat-containing 
 flesh generally, whether of beast, bird, or fish. 
 
 (3) We shall limit the amount of liquid taken. 
 The question of restriction, or rather the extent 
 
 to which this must be practised, mil vary with 
 each case ; experience only can determine this. 
 Strictness as to No. 1 is of the most importance ; 
 some, indeed, relax or dispense with No. 2, and 
 some relax as to No. 3. One authority admits of 
 free potation, but is strict as to Nos. 1 and 2; 
 and another well-kno^vn plan of treatment, which 
 does not commend itself as appetising, recognises 
 abundant drinking of hot water, with limitation of 
 the food to rump steak and cod-fish."'^ The severer 
 restrictions — which, by-the-bye, should not be prac- 
 tised except under advice — may often be inter- 
 mitted for long periods. It is well, according to 
 some authorities, not to be too abrupt in the transi- 
 tion from the accustomed to the modified diet, and 
 
 * A tumblerful of hot water towards the eud of each meal 
 sometimes aids effectually a revised diet. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 79 
 
 this will be wise if we are acting on our own 
 responsibility. 
 
 We have spoken of restriction, not abstention ; 
 tor we do not advocate, even a^ to No. 1, that the 
 bread-rice-potato group should be wholly eschewed. 
 Thin dry toast in small quantity, rusk, some Hght 
 and plain biscuit, also in small quantity, may re- 
 present this group. Any of the so-called diabetic 
 bread preparations {see " Diabetes," page 106 et seq.) 
 are of course allowable. Sugar and sweet foods of 
 all kinds we shall certainly avoid i"^ these are 
 luxuries, not necessaries. Saccharine may do duty 
 for sugar, also glycerine. Milk and butter may be 
 used in moderation : to take cream would be mali- 
 cious. In spite of these qualifications there will yet 
 remain a fairly ample dietary, which we may illus- 
 trate by the following examples : — 
 
 * This is a counsel of perfection which the more human of us 
 may construe into the admission of a little fresh fruit ; whilst the 
 baked apple, without sugar, may he enjoyed with an easy con- 
 science. 
 
80 DIET AND GOOKERT 
 
 DIET TABLES FOR OBESITY. 
 
 First Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 A large cup of Tea or Coffee, without Milk or Sugar. 
 
 Tomato and Egg on dry Toast. 
 Plain Biscuit, or Rusks, with a very little Butter. 
 
 Luncheon or Supper. 
 Cold Meat and Salad. Cheese and Rusks. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Filleted Sole, with Brown Piquante Sauce. 
 
 A slice of Meat from a roast, or Fillet of Beef 3aut6. 
 
 Cauliflower. Fried Celery, Baked Apple and Rusks. 
 
 Second Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 A large cup of Tea or Coffee, without Milk or Sugar. 
 
 Fillets of Haddock. Dry Toast with a little Butter. 
 
 Luncheon or Supper. 
 
 Oysters and Brown Bread, with a little Butter. 
 
 Or Omelette Soufflde. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Clear Soup. 
 
 A slice of Meat from a joint, or Fried Chicken with 
 
 Chives. 
 
 Rusk or Toast. Asparagus. 
 
 Raspberry Jelly. 
 
 Cheese. Celery or Lettuce, and Plain Biscuit. 
 
FOE OOMMON AILMENTS, 81 
 
 EECIPES. 
 
 First Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Tea. — Tea is largely consumed in England, and it 
 may seem unnecessary to give directions for making it ; 
 yet it is so often badly made, and either rendered 
 injurious or deprived of its virtues through being badly 
 made, that it is advisable to describe the correct method 
 of preparing it. 
 
 It is impossible to make good tea of inferior material ; 
 therefore, the first thing to be done is to choose good 
 tea. This is difficult, because there are few articles 
 of general consumption which vary so much in quality. 
 It is not easy for any one but an expert to determine 
 whether one tea is genuine or another is not. All that 
 can be done is to make the purchase of a respectable 
 dealer, to pay a fair price for it, and judge by the result. 
 Cheap tea is nearly always inferior tea ; but genuine and 
 good tea, if we can get it, is the cheapest in the end, 
 because there is less waste belonging to it. 
 
 In order to procure good tea, we should, after adopt- 
 ing the methods already mentioned, note the appearance 
 of the tea bought. It should be what is technically 
 called " clean tea " — that is, it should be free from dust 
 and stalks, and should consist of leaves about the same 
 hize well twitited. Also it should not have a metallic 
 
Si DIET AND OOOKRRl 
 
 look about it. One of the most conspicuous tests of tea, 
 apart from its taste, is its fragrance. The smell of good 
 tea would never be mistaken by anyone who had once 
 recognised it. 
 
 The mode of preparation has much to do with the 
 excellence of tea. It should be made from water that 
 was freshly drawn at the last moment before being put 
 on the fire, and that is used the instant it has reached the 
 boiling-point. Water that has boiled for awhile becomes 
 flat, and therefore unfit for making tea. The kettle, 
 too, that is used for boiling the water should be clean 
 both inside and out. When water is at all hard (and 
 much of the water used in towns is more or less hard), 
 the kettle quickly becomes furred inside ; the outside 
 also becomes covered with soot. The inside of a kettle 
 should be washed out frequently with soda and hot 
 water, and an oyster-shell which has been well scrubbed 
 should be put into it. To this oyster-shell the fur will 
 adhere, instead of clinging altogether to the bottom and 
 sides of the kettle. The outside should be kept bright, 
 because if soot is allowed to collect the kettle will be 
 longer in boiling than it need be. Curiously enough, 
 people who are most careful about the condition of 
 the ordinary saucepans, will frequently leave the inside 
 of the kettle untouched for months. 
 
 There is a great difference of opinion among tea- 
 makers as to what kind of teapot is to be preferred 
 for brewing tea. Many successful tea-makers decidedly 
 prefer earthenware teapots. Others declare that good 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 83 
 
 tea best yields its fragrance in a polished silver or metal 
 teapot. The reason why good tea is so often made in 
 silver teapots, is that their owners can usually afford 
 to put plenty of tea in the pot. The advantage attached 
 to earthenware teapots is that they can readily be made 
 clean, and can easily be kept clean. It is believed, how- 
 ever, that if a metal teapot is in thoroughly good 
 condition, better tea can be made therein than in an 
 earthenware pot, because metal keeps hot longer than 
 earthenware. 
 
 Because the soluble properties of tea are best ex- 
 tracted by soft water, and because in towns water is 
 often somewhat hard, many make a practice of putting 
 a pinch of bicarbonate of soda into the teapot with the 
 tea-leaves. Only under very exceptional circumstances 
 is this method to be recommended. Soda draws out the 
 strength of tea, but it destroys its flavour, and it favours 
 the extraction of the harmful principle in tea. 
 
 The length of time which tea should be allowed 
 to draw varies with the quality of the tea ; therefore no 
 rule for universal application can be laid down. Coarse 
 tea yields its fragrance and strength more quickly than 
 fine tea ; and young leaves need to draw longer than old 
 ones. Tea is never good, however, when it is allowed to 
 draw longer than is necessary. Tea that is very strong 
 and slightly bitter with long standing is most injurious. 
 
 The following is the method recommended for making 
 tea. Half fill the teapot with hot water, let it stand a 
 minute or two until hot, then empty it. Put into 
 
84 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 it tlie requisite quantity of good tea (the old rule of 
 a level teaspoonful for each person and one for the pot is 
 an excellent one), and pour on gently enough freshly 
 boiling water to half fill the teapot. Let it stand two 
 or three minutes with the tea cosy over it ; then fill the 
 teapot and pour out the tea. When sugar and milk arc 
 used, they should be put into the tea-cup before the 
 tea. Some people like lemon-juice in tea instead of 
 milk. Lemon-juice should be put into the cup after 
 the tea. 
 
 A tea cosy is valuable because it prevents the escape 
 of heat from the teapot, and tea yields its goodness best 
 when hot. If, however, a cosy is employed to keep the 
 teapot hot for a long time, so that the tea is allowed to 
 become black and bitter, its use is to be deprecated. 
 Yet to dispense with a cosy is to dispense with one 
 ol' the products of civilisation. When it is necessary 
 to make fresh tea, fresh leaves should on no account be 
 added to those already in the teapot. The vessel should 
 be emptied entirely and be rinsed with boiling water ; 
 then the tea should be altogether re-made. 
 
 As in Diabetes, so also in Obesity, saccharine may be 
 used to sweeten tea or coffee. 
 
 Tomato and Egg on Dry Toast. — Wipe two ripe toma- 
 toes, and cut them into small pieces. Mince very finely a 
 thin slice of onion about the size of a thumb-nail, also two 
 ounces of lean ham. Melt a piece of butter, the size of 
 a marble, in a small stewpan, and add two tablespoonf uls 
 of broth ; pat in the minced mixture, and cook gently 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 85 
 
 for about ten minutes. Lift the pan from the fire and 
 add two well-beaten eggs. Stir quickly until the pre- 
 paration begins to thicken ; then take the pan off the 
 fire again and stir until the eggs look lumpy and set 
 without being at all hard. Pour the egg upon dry toast, 
 cut into neat squares, and serve hot. It is necessary to 
 remember that in cases of obesity the use of butter and 
 fat must be limited. 
 
 2^oast. — Bread used for toasting should be not less 
 and not more than two days old, and it should be about 
 the third of an inch thick, so that it can be made crisp 
 throughout. When it is so thick that there is a raw 
 bread interval between the toasted sides, the raw piece 
 is less digestible than the bread from which it was made. 
 
 In obesity, however, it is specially necessary that 
 toast should be thin. 
 
 To make toast put the bread on the fork and hold it 
 at a little distance in front of a clear, bright fire. When 
 it is hot and dry on the surface, without having taken 
 any colour, turn it, and slowly bring the other side 
 to the same condition. Now turn it again, and let it 
 slowly become richly brown on both sides all over with- 
 out being in the least black. Serve it at once. The art 
 of making toast well consists in drying it slowly, browning 
 it equally without burning it, and serving it as soon 
 as done. 
 
 If toast is to be buttered, the butter should be spread 
 lightly with the edge of the knife. To press butter into 
 toast makes it heavy and spoils it. 
 D 
 
86 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Any form of gluten bread (see page 106) is suitable 
 also for obesity. 
 
 Luncheon or Supper. 
 
 Salad. — The secret of making a salad successfully 
 from the various vegetables available for the purpose is 
 to have the raw vegetable freshly gathered, in full season, 
 and to make it thoroughly dry, and not to mix until 
 a few minutes before it is served. A mixed salad that 
 is allowed to stand loses its crispness, and the leaves 
 become sodden. The easiest way of making a salad dry 
 is to wash the vegetable quickly, drain it between 
 the fingers, then lay it in the middle of a dry napkin, 
 and toss it about lightly for a few minutes. Lettuce 
 leaves for salad should be broken with the fingers ; a 
 knife should not be allowed to touch them. For the 
 present purpose only salt and vinegar should be used as 
 a dressing. In ordinary cases salt, good olive-oil, and 
 vinegar should be used, and many authorities are of 
 opinion that whatever is added to these ingredients is 
 injurious. The proportions then employed should be 
 three tablespoonfuls of oil to one of vinegar. 
 
 Dinner* 
 
 Filleted Sole vnth Piquante Sauce. — Wash and dry a 
 aole, skin it, and cut off the head, tail, and fins. Cut the 
 fish down the centre and slip the knife underneath the flesh 
 close to the bones, raise the flesh, and gradually draw it 
 away from the bone. By this means four strips or fillets 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 87 
 
 will be obtained from one sole. Smooth the fillets with 
 a knife. Double them in two, with the shiny surface 
 inside, salt them, and let them lie for an hour covered 
 with vinegar. Lay them in a stewpan, and sprinkle 
 salt and pepper over them, add a few drops of lemon- 
 juice, and cover them mth hot stock, or water if stock is 
 not available ; but in this case a few peppercorns should be 
 added. Bring the stock to the boil, draw the pan back, 
 and simmer gently for six or seven minutes — a minute 
 or two more or less, according to the thickness of the 
 fillets. Drain the fillets, arrange them prettily on a hot 
 dish, have ready some brown Piquante sauce, and serve. 
 
 Brown Piquante Sauce. — Melt a tiny piece of butter 
 in a small stewpan, and allow it to become brown without 
 being at all burnt. Put with it half a gill of vinegar 
 which has been boiled quickly to reduce it. Mix well, 
 add pepper and salt, and pour over the fish through a 
 strainer. 
 
 Fillet of Beef Saute. — Take slices from the under- 
 cut of the sirloin of beef, a third of an inch thick. 
 Trim away the skin and unsightly edges, and make the 
 cutlets look very neat ; flatten with a wet knife, sprinkle 
 pepper and salt over them, and let them lie for an 
 hour. Melt a small piece of butter in an omelet-pan 
 over a gentle fire, put in the fillets, and let them cook 
 for thirty or forty seconds, turn and cook the other side, 
 and repeat until done. Dish in a circle. To make 
 the dish look inviting, a slice of tomato the size of 
 a shilling can be laid on each fillet, and chopped parsley 
 
88 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 sprinkled on the top. Or a few olives may be stoned, 
 stewed in stock for about twenty minutes, and piled in 
 the centre of the fillets. 
 
 The fillet of beef may be obtained from the undercut 
 of the sirloin or the undercut of the rump. The under- 
 cut of the sirloin is rarely sold apart from the sirloin, 
 and few housewives care to cut it from the joint. The 
 undercut of the rump, however, can generally be pro- 
 cured ; but where it is not available, a slice of rump- 
 steak may be used instead. It will not be as tender as 
 the fillet, but it will be more tasty. The gravy which 
 fiows from the fillets will be the most suitable ac- 
 companiment for this dish. 
 
 Cauliflower in Sprigs. — Trim a cauliflower; let it 
 lie in salted water for an hour ; look it over carefully ; 
 then put it into cold salted water and bring the water to 
 the boil. At once throw the water away and plunge 
 the cauliflower into plenty of fast boiling salted water. 
 Boil gently till tender, but not soft. Break the cauli- 
 flower into branches, and serve. 
 
 Fried Celery. — Cut some celery into pieces of a 
 uniform size, throw them into boiling water to which 
 half a cupful of vinegar and a little salt have been 
 added, and let them boil gently for ten minutes. Take 
 them up, drain them, lay them in cold water, and 
 dry. Mix a teacupful of fine, dry bread-crumbs with a 
 tablespoonful of grated Parmesan, and a little pepper 
 and salt. Roll the celery in flour, brush it all over 
 with beaten egg, and toss it in the bread-crumbs. Place 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 89 
 
 a few sticks at a time in a frying basket, plunge into 
 boiling fat, and when crisp drain on kitchen paper, and 
 pile crosswise on a dish. Serve hot. 
 
 Baked Apple and Rusks. — Choose apples in perfect 
 condition ; wash well and prick the skin with a darning 
 needle. Then put them into a deep dish, add a few 
 spoonfuls of water, and bake very gently indeed. Serve 
 with dry rusks. The apple may be eaten hot or cold. 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Breakfast, 
 
 ijqffee. — With good material and proper appliances 
 it is exceedingly easy to make good coffee ; therefore we 
 can only wonder that it is the rarity that it is in 
 English homes. The materials required are a sufficient 
 quantity of freshly roasted and freshly ground coffee- 
 berries and fast boiling water, and a cafetiere such as 
 is sold by every ironmonger. No chicory is needed ; 
 indeed, if pure coffee is desired, the employment of 
 chicory must be forbidden. Chicory gives colour and 
 brilliancy to the beverage into which it is introduced, 
 and some persons think it produces a palatable drink. 
 But the drink produced is not coffee. 
 
 The fragrance of coffee escapes from the berry very 
 quickly, and it is necessary, therefore, that the coffee 
 should be freshly roasted. The most effectual way of 
 
90 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 securing this condition is, of course, to have it roastert 
 at home, and small coffee roasters are to be bought for a 
 moderate sum. Not many housekeepers, however, care 
 to undertake this business ; and where large shops are 
 within reach, it is not imperative that they should do so. 
 At large establishments coffee is always roasted fre- 
 quently, and if a small quantity is bought at one time, if 
 the coffee is stored in a canister with a tightly fitting lid, 
 and if the berries are gently heated in the oven before 
 being gi'ound, to revive the flavour, the coffee will be 
 everything that could be wished. It is indispensable, 
 however, that the berries should not be ground until 
 they are wanted. Coffee made from powder that has 
 been ground even for a few hours is sure to be more 
 or less stale and unprofitable. To use the cafetiere, first 
 fill it with boiling water, let it stand a minute, then 
 pour the liquid away. Place the requisite amount of 
 coffee upon the perforated bottom of the upper compart- 
 ment, put the strainer in its place, and pour in gently 
 and gradually as much boiling water as is needed. Cover 
 the cafetiere, and leave it in a hot place until the 
 water has filtered from the upper compartment into 
 the lower one. If it is to be served in another pot, the 
 vessel which is to receive it must be made hot with 
 Ijoiling water before the coffee is poured in it. 
 
 The quality of coffee depends very much upon the 
 quantity of material used. It is obvious that though 
 coffee may be well made, it cannot be strong unless 
 we use plenty of coffee. Ideas differ very much, 
 
FOE COMMON AILMENTS. 91 
 
 however, as to the degree of strength which is desirable. 
 Thrifty housewives who consider coffee injurious declare 
 that a teaspoonful of ground coffee is sufficient for 
 half a pint of water. The usual allowance, however, 
 is a heaped t^ablespoonful of coffee to half a pint of 
 water. Very black coffee is sometimes made with a heaped 
 tablespoonf ul of coffee to a quarter of a pint of water ; 
 and the Turks, we are told, use three tablespoonfuls 
 of coffee to each small cup. When, however, it is 
 wished that the coffee should be very strong, it is better 
 to decrease the measure of water rather than to largely 
 increase the quantity of coffee used. If too much coffee 
 is placed in a cafetiere the water does not filter through 
 thoroughly. Moreover, no one can drink a large 
 quantity of very strong coffee. One way of securing 
 a supply of strong coffee is to preserve a small quantity 
 of the beverage, should any be left, from one day to 
 another, and make coffee for the second day from a weak 
 solution of coffee and water, instead of plain water. 
 We learn that the gar9ons in the French cafds always 
 do this when they can. The cold coffee should not, 
 however, be left standing in the cajetiere ; it should be 
 drained off and kept in a glass bottle closely stoppered. 
 
 When milk is used wilh coffee, it should be scalded, 
 not boiled ; and many think it an improvement to 
 put the milk in the cup before the coffee. When coffee 
 is very strong the proportions used are one-half coffee 
 and half milk. 
 
 When coffee is not good the reason usually is either 
 
92 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 that it has not been made in a proper coffee-pot, or that 
 a sufficient quantity of coffee has not been allowed, 
 or that the coffee-pot was not clean. A vessel of 
 this description requires most careful attention, and 
 it very soon gets out of order if it is neglected. It 
 is not enough to rinse the cafetiere out every day 
 after use. There is an oily property about coffee which 
 adheres in spite of rinsing out, and which clogs the holes 
 of the filter, and not only keeps the coffee from running 
 through, but also injures its flavour. A coffee-pot 
 should be daily washed, not rinsed, with boiling water, 
 and the pieces should be taken apart and dried 
 separately. If packed away wet, and left to dry by 
 themselves, they will in time impart a metallic taste 
 to the liquid. Cold water is worse than useless for 
 washing a coffee-pot, because it sets the oil. 
 
 When a cafetiere is not available, respectable, though 
 decidedly inferior, coffee can be made in an ordinary 
 coffee-kettle, in the pot in which it is to be sent to table, 
 or even in a jug. The following methods are, in these 
 cases, recommended : — 
 
 To make Coffee in an ordinary Coffee-kettle. — IMea- 
 siire the quantity of coffee to be used. Make it hot 
 in the oven to revive the flavour ; then put it into 
 the kettle, and pour the boiling water slowly over it. 
 Let it stand a minute or two ; put it on the fire, 
 and bring it gently to the point of boiling. Take it 
 off the fire, pour out a cupful of the infusion, and return 
 it to the pot from a good height. Repeat this operation 
 
FOR COMMON AILMEl^TS. 93 
 
 twice. Throw a tablespoonful of cold water into the 
 coffee, let the pot stand by the fireside for three or 
 four minutes, strain the liquid through muslin into 
 the heated vessel from which it is to be served, and send 
 it at once to table. 
 
 To make Coffee in the Pot in which it is to be sent to 
 table. — Make a small bag of unbleached calico to be used 
 as a strainer, and fix it so that it shall be suspended 
 in the middle of the cofiee-pot. Allow an ounce of coffee 
 for each quart of the beverage. Heat the ground coffee, 
 put it into the bag, and pour over freshly boiling water 
 to cover the bag entirely. Let the pot stand in a warm 
 place for ten minutes, and serve. 
 
 To make Coffee in a Jug. — Fill the jug with boiling 
 water, let it stand a minute or two, then empty it. For 
 a pint of coffee put two tablespoonfuls of ground coffee 
 into the jug, pour the water, which should be freshly 
 boiled and actually boiling, over it, and stir with a 
 spoon. Cover with a cloth pressed into the top, and set 
 the jug on the hot plate for five minutes. Have the 
 vessel in which the coffee is to be served made hot, 
 lay a piece of muslin over it, and pour the coffee gently 
 through the muslin. 
 
 When coffee is made with any other vessel than 
 a cafetiere, the employment of chicory may be prefeiTed. 
 The proportions usually taken are from three to four 
 ounces of chicory to one pound of coffee. An overdose 
 of chicory will make coffee undrinkable. 
 
 Fillets of Haddock. — When the haddock comes into 
 
94 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 the house the day before it is to be used, clean it, cut 
 off the head, remove the skin, rub it over with salt, 
 and hang it in a cool place. When it is to be cooked, 
 divide the flesh into fillets about an inch and a half 
 square ; put them in a stewpan containing as much 
 boiling salted water as will cover them, and let them 
 simmer three or four minutes till done. Drain the 
 fish, arrange it neatly on a hot dish, squeeze the juice of 
 a lemon on it, and sprinkle chopped parsley over it. Set 
 in the oven for a minute or two till quite hot, and serve. 
 
 Dried haddock is very tasty cooked in the same way. 
 It would need, however, to be placed in cold, not boiling, 
 water, and would be done when brought to the point of 
 boiling. It would not require any salt. 
 
 Dry Toast. — See above. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Oysters. — To be enjoyed in perfection, oysters must 
 be alive when opened ; also they must be freshly opened, 
 for they deteriorate in flavour and excellence every 
 minute that they remain on the shell. Many varieties 
 of oysters are now sold, and their price varies very 
 much. Natives are, of course, the best, and next in 
 value come the oysters known technically as " seconds," 
 and which are almost equal to natives. Anglo-Dutch 
 oysters are also excellent for eating ; the large, white, fat 
 English oysters are most suitable for sauce. American 
 oysters are much liked by some, and it is claimed for 
 them that they are more wholesome than other sorts. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 95 
 
 Oysters are usually eaten with pepper and vinegar, 
 with a slice of thin brown bread and butter. Epicures 
 in oysters, however, frequently prefer them without 
 anything. They can also be bearded or not, according 
 to taste. They are generally considered more dainty 
 when neatly bearded. 
 
 Omelette Souffle. — This dish can be made with the 
 greatest ease when a hot oven is available. The only 
 point requiring attention is that the eggs should be 
 beaten properly. The yolks and whites should be 
 beaten separately. The yolks should be beaten with 
 the requisite amount of sugar and a little flavouring 
 until they become very thick and cease to froth. In 
 cases of obesity the less sugar used the better. The 
 whites should be whisked until they are quite firm 
 and solid, and can be cut clean through with a knife; 
 they may then be mixed lightly with the yolks. The 
 preparation can then be put in a warmed and buttered 
 earthenware or china dish, or into a small enamelled 
 omelette pan, and set in a quick oven. In from five 
 to ten minutes (according to the number of eggs used) 
 it will be fit for serving. It should have risen well 
 and be set. It should be served without a moment's 
 delay, as it will fall very quickly when it is once 
 removed from the oven. It will be all the better if 
 it can be served on the dish on which it was cooked. 
 The dish will need to be greased sufficiently to keep the 
 preparation from sticking to it, no more. Butter is not 
 an essential ingredient of an omelette cooked thus. 
 
96 DIET AISID COOKERY 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Clear Soup. — (See page 150.) 
 
 Fried Chicken with Chives. — A young fowl only is 
 suitable for this dish. It should be divided into four or 
 six parts, or the legs only can be cooked thus, smO 
 the remainder of the bird prepared in some other way. 
 Chives are less used in cookery than they deserve to 
 be, because they have the good qualities of the onion in 
 abundance, and its bad qualities, the unpleasant odour 
 and strong taste, in a mild form. They are very hardy, 
 and easily grown where there is a garden. The bulbs 
 are slender, and not worth using ; the leaves and young- 
 tops of the plants are, however, very delicate, and 
 impart a piquant flavour to the dish with which they 
 are served. To prepare them, wash them, then cut 
 them into thin rings, throw them into a basin containing 
 boiling water, and let them soak for three or four 
 minutes. Take them up, dry them perfectly by spreading 
 them between the folds of a napkin. If chives are not 
 available, a thin slice of shalot chopped till as fine aF 
 sawdust may be used instead. 
 
 To prepare the chicken, truss it, or cut it into joints, 
 and make it quite dry. Put in a shallow stewpan or frying- 
 pan about three ounces of butter, or half butter and half 
 oil may be used. When it fizzes put in first the legs of 
 the fowl facing each other, the wings on each side, and 
 the rest of the bird in the middle. Add salt and pepper, 
 and fry over a good but not fierce fire. If the fowl 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 97 
 
 cooks softly it will be sodden; if it is fried too 
 quickly it will be burnt outside without being cooked 
 inside. It must be kept at a moderate heat and turned 
 frequently, and the pan should be shaken to keep the 
 butter from burning. The legs of the fowl should be 
 taken out last. The fowl should be done in from fifteen 
 to twenty minutes. If the fat were boiling when the 
 joints were put into it, the dish would not be greasy 
 at all ; it would simply be browned quickly on the 
 outside, and the gravy would be kept inside. 
 
 When the fowl is sufficiently cooked, take it up, put 
 the joints between two plates in the oven, throw the 
 chives or the minced shallot into the frying-pan, and 
 let them cook in the hot fat until yellow, not brown. 
 Drain, scatter over the fowl, and serve. 
 
 If sauce is desired for this dish (although it will 
 be very good without), it may be prepared as follows : — 
 Drain the fat from the frying-pan, and pour into it 
 a cupful of stock (or a glass of white wine if approved). 
 Put with it half a teaspoonful of Liebig and a few drops 
 of lemon-juice; pepper and salt. Arrange the pieces 
 of chicken in a pyramid form — the inferior portions 
 at the base, the delicate parts on the top. 
 
 When cooking a fowl thus, it is most necessary to 
 keep turning the joints to avoid burning. If, however, 
 the fork is stuck into the flesh, the gravy will escape. 
 
 Asparagus. — Asparagus is always enjoyed as a 
 separate course. Scrape the stems slightly, and throw 
 them into cold water as they are done. Cut the white 
 
98 DIET AND COOKERY. 
 
 ends evenly to make the stalks the same length, and tie 
 them with twine in bundles of an equal size. Use a 
 stewpan large enough to hold the asparagus without 
 bending the stalks. Half fill it with water, salt it; 
 when it boils skim it, and put in the asparagus. Leave 
 the lid off the pan, and boil gently till tender. It will 
 need to boil from twenty to thirty minutes, according to 
 thickness, but should be taken up as soon as done, or it 
 will lose colour and flavour. Drain well, and serve 
 on toast. 
 
 Raspberry Jelly. — Simmer about a breakfast cupful 
 of ripe raspberries, mixed with a few picked red currants, 
 with half a cupful of water until the juice flows freely. 
 Turn the fruit upon a sieve, and let the juice drip from it 
 without pressure. Soak a tablespoonful of gelatine in 
 water to cover it. When the water is absorbed, dissolve 
 the gelatine in the fruit juice. When the jelly begins to 
 thicken, put it into small moulds or glasses. If sweetness 
 is required, use saccharine instead of sugar. The employ- 
 ment of sugar is to be avoided in cases of obesity. 
 
DIABETES; OE THE SUG^AE 
 DIATHESIS. 
 
 This disease presents no real affinities to the con- 
 dition just discussed — viz. obesity; indeed, in a 
 sense, tlie two states are diametrically opposed ; for 
 whereas in diabetes sugar and substances chemically 
 alKed to sugar are not utilised by the system, but 
 escape to its loss, in obesity these same substances 
 are too well utilised, and are stored up to its en- 
 cumbrance. Diabetes cannot, however, be regarded 
 as a mere negative disease — an inability to assimi- 
 late certain principles — for, unquestionably, in the 
 majority of cases the sugar-yielding group acts as a 
 positive poison to the system, and promotes the 
 disorder. The vice may in certain cases attain to 
 such a degree, that by an intricate chemistry sugar 
 may be formed even from the nitrogenous or albu- 
 minous group. It need hardly be said, that where 
 this obtains the case assumes a very threatening 
 aspect. 
 
loo DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 The dietefcic treatment of diabetes is of the first 
 importance, and in many cases the disease can be 
 held in check by this means alone ; but in no other 
 disorder are the resources of the cook more severely 
 taxed. The problem before him is to hide the 
 absence of the starch granule, or, harder still, to 
 reconcile the patient to its absence. Under the cir- 
 cumstances, unless the patient's good-will and 
 powers of self-restraint co-operate in carrying out 
 the necessary observances, it will be useless to 
 attempt the task. 
 
 There are two classes of diabetics : in the one 
 the subjects are younger, on an average, and the 
 symptoms, including emaciation, are more pro- 
 nounced ; in the other class, the patients are more 
 advanced in years, and they are not infrequently 
 inclined to corpulency, and, indeed, suffer but 
 slightly from the disease. 
 
 The regimen in the former of these two classes 
 will need to be much more strict than in the latter, 
 but even in the former, tentative procedures — dietetic 
 experiments, in fact — will be necessary in each case ; 
 for till we try, we cannot possibly know the degree 
 of starch or sugar toleration of the individual. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 101. 
 
 These powers, it would seem, vary very greiatly. \% 
 will be obvious, then, that a hard-and-fast routine 
 treatment of all cases of diabetes will be very ill- 
 advised. In the following we shall present the 
 severer restrictions, since the milder will simply 
 mean a more or less relaxing of these : for which, 
 however, medical authority should at all times 
 be responsible. 
 
 For practical reasons, diabetes may conveniently 
 be placed next to obesity, since the restrictions in 
 each case concern chiefly one main group of ali- 
 ments — viz. those containing starch and sugar. 
 
 From the regimen of the diabetic we shall 
 accordingly exclude : — 
 
 (a) The entire bread, rice, and potato group. 
 
 (6) Sugar, and sweet foods of all kinds. 
 
 (c) The pea or pulse group, in the dried and 
 even in the young state. 
 
 (d) Root vegetables, the whole group. 
 
 (e) The Spanish onion. 
 (/) The tomato. (?) 
 
 All sweet fruits will be excluded by (6). 
 From the Kst of animal foods we must ex- 
 clude : — 
 
102 iDTET AND COOKERY 
 
 {g) The liver of animals, and, because of the 
 magnitude of this organ in them, the shell-fish : 
 oysters, cockles, mussels, etc. For the same reason 
 one authority excludes the pudding of crabs and 
 lobsters. 
 
 (h) Milk may be allowed in limited quantity, 
 but, as far as possible, it should be replaced by 
 cream. 
 
 From the list of drinks we shall exclude : — 
 
 (i) Port and all sweet wines ; sweet ales and 
 porter or stout ; rum and sweetened gin, or any 
 form of sweetened spirit — e.g. liqueurs. 
 
 As to what is permitted, we might say briefly 
 that this includes all that which is not excluded, 
 but we shall do well to specify a little more : — 
 
 (1) The bread, rice, and potato group is replaced 
 by various gluten preparations — viz. gluten bread, 
 biscuits, cakes, puddings, and bran cakes ; almond 
 rusks and cakes ; bread made from the Soy bean. 
 Ordinary bread, cut into thin slices and thoroughly 
 " torrefied " (charred), is sometimes permitted. 
 
 (2) Sugar is, or may be, replaced by glycerine, 
 or, better, by saccharine. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 103 
 
 (3) The vegetables permissible include tbe green 
 vegetables, whole group ; the salad group, cooked 
 or fresh. Further: cucumber, marrow, seakale, 
 ,asparagus.* Mushrooms are allowed. 
 
 (4) Nuts, except chestnuts, are allowed. 
 
 (5) Cheese and butter are permissible, but milk 
 only sparingly ; fat and oil are beneficial. 
 
 (6) Eggs. 
 
 (7) Butcher's meat, poultry, game, fish, and 
 broths or extracts from these, unthickened, are all 
 permitted. 
 
 (8) To drink we have : Tea, coffee, cocoa from 
 the nibs, chocolate made with gluten meaL 
 
 Soda-water and the table mineral waters. 
 
 Dry sherry, claret, Burgundy, or dry Sauterne, 
 hock 
 
 Bitter ale. 
 
 Brandy and whisky. 
 
 Water acidulated with cream of tartar makes a 
 pleasant thirst- quenching drink. 
 
 * According to one authority, such vegetables as Brussels 
 sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, French beans, marrow, seakale, 
 asparagus should be boiled in much water before eating. 
 
104 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 DIET TABLES FOR DIABETES. 
 
 First Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Tea or Coffee, sweetened with Saccharine, and flavoured 
 
 with a little Cream. 
 
 Mutton Chop. Brar Bread, or Gluten Bread. 
 
 Small Salad. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Vegetable Marrow, with Savoury Mince. Bran Bread. 
 
 Savoury or Almond Custard. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Clear Soup, with Poached Egg floating in it. 
 
 Partridge, Braised, with Cabbage. Cheese. 
 
 Bran or Gluten Bread. 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Tea or Coffee, as above. Cafd Noir with or without 
 
 Saccharine. Kidney and Mushrooms. Bran Bread. 
 
 Almond Biscuits. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Cold Beef and Cucumber. Gluten Bread. 
 
 Almond Biscuits, with Butter and Salt. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Baked Plaice. Veal k la Talleyrand, or Hot Meat 
 
 from a Joint. Seakale. Gluten or Bran Bread 
 
 Calf's Foot Jelly in Glasses. 
 
 Walnuts or Almonds. ' 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS, 105 
 
 RECIPES. 
 
 First Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 ^ea. — (See page 81.) Saccharine, as a substitute for 
 susar, to be taken with tea or coffee, can be obtained 
 in the form of tabloids. For ordinary purposes it can 
 be bought in the form of powder. 
 
 Mutton Chop. — Take a chop from the middle of the 
 loin of mutton, trim it neatly, and pepper and salt it. 
 Use for cooking either a hanging gridiron or one that is 
 intended for the top of the fire (the latter is to be 
 preferred), and be sure that it is perfectly clean. Grease 
 the bars, and make them hot ; put the chop in its place, 
 and be sure not to stick a fork into the lean part when 
 moving it. To do so would be to let the gravy escape ; 
 the meat should be taken hold of either with a pair of 
 steak tongs or with a spoon and fork. As soon as one 
 side is brown, turn the chop, let the other side brown, 
 turn again, and repeat until the chop has been turned 
 six times. The length of time required will depend 
 upon thickness. A loin chop three-quarters of an inch 
 thick lightly done will take about ten minutes ; well done, 
 about twelve minutes. It is done enough when it feels 
 springy if pressed with a fork. Serve it on a hot dish, 
 with pepper and salt, and a slice of butter laid on it 
 if approved. 
 
106 DIET AND OOOKEEY 
 
 A chop is at its best when broiled, but it is not 
 always convenient or possible to have the hot, clear fire 
 needed for broiling in the morning. Should necessity 
 compel, therefore, the chop may have to be saute, or 
 cooked in the frying-pan, instead of being broiled. In 
 this case very little fat should be used_, enough only 
 to keep the chop from burning, and it should be already 
 melted before the meat is put in. At the end of 
 five minutes the chop should be turned, and cooked 
 till done. A chop cooked in the frying-pan is, how- 
 ever, sure to be inferior to one that is broiled over 
 the fire. 
 
 Diabetic Bread. — One of the greatest privations 
 which have to be endured by diabetic patients is en- 
 countered in respect of bread ; and, therefore, many 
 efforts have been made by scientific experts to supply an 
 acceptable substitute for this food. Bread made from 
 prepared gluten flour, bran flour, and powdered almonds, 
 has been produced, and can be bought in the form of 
 slices and rolls. Gluten biscuits, bran biscuits, and 
 bran cakes, are also to be obtained, and they have been 
 extensively used. 
 
 In his work on "Food in Health and Disease," Dr. 
 Burney Yeo gives the following information about bread 
 for diabetic patients : — 
 
 " Gluten bread is never entirely free from starch, 
 and, unless it is prepared with great care and by known 
 manufacturers, it may even contain a considerable quan- 
 tity. It isi also by no means agreeable to the palate. 
 
FOE GOMMON AILMENTS. 107 
 
 Yet, ■when well and carefully prepared, it undoubtedly 
 supplies a need." 
 
 Sir William Roberts speaks highly of a gluten bread 
 made by Bonthron, 106, Regent Street, in the form 
 of small palatable buns. They keep about a fortnight, 
 and he found them nearly free from starch. 
 
 Bran bread (introduced by Dr. Prout), made from 
 bran washed as free from starch as possible, is also 
 largely used for diabetics, but, unless very carefully 
 prepared, it contains a considerable amount of starchy 
 material, and also a large proportion of indigestible 
 cellulose, which, with some persons, sets up a great deal 
 of gastro-intestinal irritation. 
 
 Dr. Camplin's formula for making bran bread is one 
 of the best. Dr. Camplin, it may be explained, was for 
 many years a diabetic, and he effectually succeeded in 
 keeping his disease at bay. He spoke very strongly 
 from personal experience in favour of bran food as a 
 substitute for bread in diabetes. The following is his 
 recipe : — 
 
 "Take a sufficient quantity, say a quart, of wheat 
 bran ; boil it in two successive waters for a quarter of 
 an hour, each time straining it through a sieve ; then 
 wash it well with cold water on the sieve until the 
 water runs off perfectly clear ; squeeze the bran in a 
 cloth as dry as you can ; then spread it thinly on a dish, 
 and place it in a slow oven. If put in at night, let it 
 remain in till morning, when, if perfectly dry and crisp, 
 it will be fit for grinding. The bran thus prepared 
 
108 DIET AND GOOKEBY 
 
 must be grouiul in a fine mill, and sifted through a wire 
 sieve of such fineness as to require the use of a brush to 
 pass it through ; that which remains in the sieve must 
 be ground again until it becomes quite soft and fine. 
 
 *' Take of this bran powder three ozs. (some patients 
 use four ozs.), the other ingredients as follows : three 
 new-laid eggs, one and a half oz. (or two ozs. if desired) 
 of butter, and about half a pint of milk. Mix the eggs 
 with a little of the milk, and warm the butter with the 
 other portion ; then stir the whole well together, adding 
 a little nutmeg and ginger, or any other agreeable spice. 
 Bake in small tins (patty pans), which must be well 
 buttered, in a rather quick oven for about half an hour. 
 The cakes when baked should be a little thicker than a 
 Captain's biscuit. They may be eaten with meat or 
 cheese at breakfast, dinner, or supper; at tea they 
 require a rather free allowance of butter, or they may be 
 eaten with curd, or any of the soft cheeses." 
 
 It is important that the above directions as to 
 washing and drying the bran should be exactly followed, 
 in order that the bran may be freed from starch and 
 rendered more friable. Bran in its common state is 
 soft, and not easily reducible to fine powder. In some 
 seasons of the year, or if the cake has not been well 
 prepared, it changes more rapidly than is convenient. 
 This may be prevented by placing the cake before the 
 fire for five or ten minutes every day. These cakes are 
 made by Blatchley, 167, Oxford Street, London. Sir 
 William Roberts suggests the use of seven eggs instead 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS, 109 
 
 of three as an improvement, also the addition of a 
 teaspoonful of carbonate of soda. 
 
 Another authority, Dr. Pavy, advocated bread made 
 from bran flour instead of ordinary bread for diabetics. 
 He constantly recommended that it should be made 
 at home, and at the same time handed the patient 
 the following recipe, which had been given to him by a 
 lady, the wife of a diabetic, who had contributed much 
 to her husband's comfort by devising various palatable 
 substances for his use. 
 
 Recii^efor Bran Cakes. — Take four ozs. of prepared 
 bran flour, two ozs. of butter, one drachm of bicarbonate 
 of soda, five eggs, and about a quarter of a pint of warm 
 milk. First mix the bicarbonate of soda ^vith the bran 
 flour ; then beat up two ozs. of butter in a hot basin, 
 and shake into it the mixture of bran flour and bicar- 
 bonate of soda, beating with a spoon all the while. 
 Next beat up the five eggs in a separate basin before 
 the fire till milk-warm, and stir them gradually into the 
 mixture of bran flour, soda and butter. Beat up all 
 well together for at least ten minutes, adding gradually 
 the warm milk. Place in well-buttered tins, or patty 
 pans, and bake in a brisk oven for about ten minutes. 
 The cakes are done when they will turn out of the 
 tin quite easily. The above quantities will make about 
 five cakes of the size of ordinary buns. The cakes, if 
 desired, "may be cut into slices, toasted, and buttered." 
 
 When the directions here given are properly carried 
 out, a substitute for bread is yielded, which may, of 
 
110 DIET AND OOOKERY 
 
 course, be supplied to the patient fresh every day, or as 
 often as may be desired, and which is really not un- 
 palatable. It ought to be light, soft, and moist, without 
 giving an impression of feeling wet or cold in the mouth. 
 
 Instead of all bran flour, equal parts or other pro- 
 portions of bran and almond flour may be used. The 
 cakes, in the opinion of many, are thus rendered more 
 palatable. The almond flour seems to soften and neu- 
 tralise the taste of the bran, whilst the bran reduces the 
 richness of the almond flour. 
 
 Dr. Pavy adds that after the process to which the 
 bran is subjected in washing, it may be questioned if 
 it possesses really any nutritive value; but as it is 
 employed, it is combined with other materials, and 
 plays the part of an unobjectionable agent which gives 
 bulk to what is consumed, and, therefore, supplies some- 
 thing for filling the stomach, and enabling the patient to 
 feel that he has taken a full meal. 
 
 Pavy also introduced almond cakes as a substitute 
 for ordinary bread, and it is undoubtedly a valuable one. 
 By washing the meal of sweet almonds with acidulated 
 water the greater part of the sugar is removed, and the 
 meal so treated may, by careful preparation, be made 
 into a palatable cake or biscuit. Seegen also advocates 
 the use of almond cakes, and gives the following recipe 
 for making them : — 
 
 Almond Cakes. — Take of blanched sweet almonds 
 J lb. ; beat them as fine as possible in a stone mortar ; 
 remove the sugar contained in this meal by putting it in 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. Ill 
 
 a linen bag, and steeping it for a quarter of an hour 
 in boiling water acidulated with vinegar ; mix this paste 
 thoroughly with three ozs. of butter and two eggs. Next 
 add the yolks of three eggs and a little salt, and stir well 
 for some time. Whip up the whites of these eggs, and 
 stir in. Put the dough thus obtained into greased 
 moulds, and dry by a slow fire. 
 
 Speaking of almond biscuits. Dr. Pavy says : ** By 
 many diabetics almond biscuit can be taken, and it is 
 considered a desirable addition to the other kinds of 
 food allowed, but it must be admitted that by some it is 
 found to be too rich for ordinary consumption with the 
 meals. It goes very well, however, with a little sherry 
 or any other kind of wine alone, and composed as it 
 is entirely of almond flour and eggs, it forms a highly 
 nutritive and serviceable food. It is eaten well by 
 children." 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Vegetable Marrow with Savoury Mince. — Out a 
 vegetable marrow into two lengthwise, and remove 
 the seeds. Salt the pieces, and let the water drain 
 from them. Have ready a stuffing made of equal parts 
 of lean veal or beef and cooked bacon finely chopped, to 
 which chopped parsley, pepper and salt may be added. 
 (The possible saltness of the bacon must be remembered 
 when the salt is put in.) Fill the two halves of the 
 marrow with this, press them together, and bind them 
 with tape. Lay the vegetable in a saucepan or deep 
 
112 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 dish, with a little butter, pepper and salt, a wineglassful 
 of stock, and a few drops of lemon juice. Simmer 
 gently or bake till the marrow is quite tender. It will 
 probably need to be cooked for a couple of hours. If 
 preferred, partially cooked sausage-meat made without 
 breadcrumbs may be used instead of the bacon force-meat. 
 A more speedy method of preparing this dish is to fry the 
 marrow in the first instance, then fill it with force- 
 meat, and set it in the oven till hot through and brown 
 on the top. (For Bran Bread, see above.) 
 
 Savoury Custard. — Whisk one whole egg and the 
 white of an egg, and mix it either with a gill of stock or 
 a gill of cream, whichever is preferred. Flavour with a 
 pinch of salt and a little nutmeg ; or the custard may be 
 sweetened with saccharine, and flavoured with a little 
 almond. Pour it into a buttered gallipot, cover it with 
 a buttered paper, and place it in a saucepan of boiling 
 water, with water coming half-way up the jar. Let 
 it steam very gently until firm in the centre. If more 
 convenient, the custard may be poured into a small pie 
 dish, put into a dripping tin containing boiling water, 
 and cooked in the oven. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Clear Soup with Poached Egg floating in it. — Poach 
 an egg carefully and lightly, then trim the edges 
 neatly. Place it in a hot soup plate, and pour a 
 breakfast cupful of clear soup gently over it. A 
 little chopped parsley or chopped chervil may be 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS 113 
 
 S])rinklecl in at the last moment. (For Clear Soup, see 
 page 150.) 
 
 Braised Partridge^ with Cabbage. — This is an essen- 
 tially French dish, and very tasty. It is, however, not 
 suitable for young partridges. When these can be 
 obtained, there is no better way of dealing with them 
 than to roast them. 
 
 When the bird is to be braised, truss it as a fowl 
 is trussed for boiling, with its legs tucked inside. Put 
 it into a stewpan with a slice of fat bacon cut into dice, 
 and an onion with a clove in it, and turn it about 
 till it is lightly browned all over ; pour round it half 
 a pint of strong, well-flavoured stock, and add any bacon 
 bones or meat trimmings that may be available. Cover 
 the pan closely, and simmer gently. 
 
 Whilst the partridge is being cooked, the cabbage 
 may be prepared. Procure a freshly-cut tender cabbage, 
 or half a Savoy. Wash it well, drain it, cut out the 
 stalk, and boil it with enough stock to cover it, and 
 a slice of bacon or some bacon bones, pepper and 
 salt. When quite tender, strain it, and cut it into 
 slices. Take up the partridge, strain the gravy, and 
 reduce it by boiling it quickly. Also free it from 
 fat. Place the bacon bones, etc., in the bottom of the 
 stewpan, put a layer of cabbage upon this, then the 
 partridge, then the rest of the cabbage, moisten with 
 the gravy ; cover closely, and stew gently for half an 
 hour. The time needed for cooking this dish will 
 depend on the age of the birds. If they are old, three 
 
114 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 hours will not be too long ; if they have recently attained 
 their full growth, an hour and a half altogether will be 
 long enough. 
 
 To dish the partridges, make a basin very hot, put 
 the cabbage into it, place the partridges on this, and 
 cover with cabbage. Remove the bones, trimmings, 
 onion, etc., make the gravy very hot, and garnish the 
 mould with the bacon. Turn the contents of the 
 basin upon a hot dish, and pour the gravy over all. 
 Fried sausages are sometimes served with partridges 
 thus dressed. 
 
 Second Day* 
 
 Breakfast. 
 Kidneys and Mushrooms. — Skin and core two sheep's 
 kidneys, and cut them into small, neat pieces. Melt an 
 ounce of butter in a saucepan, and throw in about two 
 dozen champignons, or, if they can be had, the same 
 quantity of fresh button mushrooms may be used, and 
 half a gill of stock. Simmer gently (on no account boil) 
 for seven or eight minutes, and stir well. Throw in the 
 prepared kidneys, and again simmer gently till the 
 kidneys are cooked. At the last moment add pepper 
 and salt, and half a teaspoonful of chopped parsley : 
 also, if approved, half a gill of sherry. Serve hot. 
 
 JD/NNER. 
 
 Baked Plaice. — Procure a thick plaice, and lift the 
 tillets from the bone ; wash and dry them, and put them 
 
FOE COMMON AILMENTS. 115 
 
 in a single layer in a buttered baking tin ; salt and 
 pepper them, and sprinkle the juice of a lemon over 
 them, and pour a tablespoonful of stock round them. 
 Cover them with buttered paper, and bake in a gentle 
 oven for about ten minutes. Serve on a hot dish, with 
 their own gravy, flavoured with essence of anchovy 
 poured over them. 
 
 Veal Cutlets d, la Talleyrand. — Take a slice of veal 
 from the fillet, weighing about one pound, and an inch in 
 thickness. Cut it into rounds half an inch thick and 
 three inches across ; flatten them with the side of a 
 broad-bladed knife dipped in cold water, and carefully 
 remove all skin and sinew, which would cause them 
 to shrink when cooking. Have ready a shallot finely 
 minced, four mushrooms chopped small, a tablespoonful 
 of chopped parsley, a little lemon juice j the yolks of 
 two eggs, a quarter of a pint of stock ; a gill of cream, a 
 little butter, pepper and salt. Melt two ounces of 
 butter in a scrupulously clean saute pan, and cook the 
 cutlets very gently without letting them brown. Season 
 them with pepper and salt, sprinkle over them the 
 chopped shallot, mushrooms, and parsley, pour the stock 
 over, and simmer for twenty minutes. Strain off the 
 gravy, and free it from fat. Dish the cutlets in a circle, 
 and keep them hot a minute. Put with the gravy the 
 yolks of two eggs, and stir over the fire for a few 
 seconds to cook the eggs, without letting the sauce boil. 
 Add last of all the cream and a few drops of lemon 
 juice j pour the sauce over the cutlets, and serve. 
 
116 DIET AND COOKERY. 
 
 Seakale. — Wash some seakale, and tie it in bundles. 
 Put it into boiling salted water, and boil it gently for 
 about twenty minutes, or till tender. Drain and serve. 
 
 Savoury Jelly. — Soak an ounce of gelatine in cold 
 water to cover it for half an hour. Put a pint and 
 a half of second stock or water into a perfectly clean 
 saucepan with the gelatine, a small piece of leek, one 
 shallot, a piece of celery, a blade of mace, and either the 
 strained juice of two lemons or a tablespoonful of 
 vinegar, one gill of sherry and half a teaspoonful of 
 salt, also the whites and cleaned shells of two eggs. 
 Whisk the jelly till it rises in the pan, let it boil, draw 
 the pan back and let it stand for twenty minutes ; then 
 pour it gently into a jelly bag, disturbing the scum, 
 which will act as a filter, as little as possible. When 
 clear, put it into small glasses, and drop one or two 
 leaves of tarragon and chervil in to set with it. 
 
 Salted Almonds. — Take two ounces of sweet almonds, 
 throw them into boiling water, and let them remain on 
 the fire till the skin can be slipped off easily. Skin 
 them, di-y them in the oven. Make a tablespoonful of 
 oil or butter hot in the frying-pan, and fry the almonds 
 in it till lightly browned. Drain, and dust with fine salt, 
 and toss the nuts until each one is savoured. If pre- 
 ferred, the almonds can be served hot as soon as salted, 
 or they may be set aside until quite cold. As a salted 
 relish, eaten very sparingly, we may ignore the small 
 quantity of sugar present. 
 
THE GOUTY HABIT. 
 
 We need not concern ourselves with what pre- 
 cisely is meant by the word gout, for in so doing we 
 should run the risk of raising a cloud of disputants, 
 without the likelihood that any further light Avould 
 be thro^vn upon the subject itself. If, however, we 
 state the case broadly, and declare gout to be a vice 
 of the system, specially affecting the uric acid ex- 
 change, and showing itself by depositions of this 
 material (chalk stones) in the joints and fibrous 
 structures of the body, with the Hability to inflam- 
 matory attacks in these same parts, all will agree 
 that we have described a sahent feature of gout, 
 which will appeal to all parts of the house, from 
 gallery to stalls. For other symptoms and features 
 of gout — and their name is legion — we must be 
 content to relegate them to the doctor. Let him 
 make the diagnosis, and then approve of our 
 diet list 
 
 Uric acid is a nitrogenised body, and in gout we 
 
 8 
 
118 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 have, therefore, a perturbation of the nitrogenous 
 waste of the system ; but it does not follow that 
 07ily the nitrogenised aliments will cause or share in 
 this perturbation, and experience teaches us that this 
 non-sequitur actually holds. However, having first 
 made sure that inactivity — enforced, as from seden- 
 tary occupations, or the result of indolence simply 
 — is not the cause of the gout present, we shall pro- 
 ceed to diet the patient, and we shall begin by 
 lessening the amount of animal food : i.e. we shall 
 lessen the nitrogenised income. There is no evi- 
 dence that the albuminous constituents of animal 
 tissues favour gout more than the same constituents 
 of vegetable tissues ; and the restriction of animal 
 diet is because of the percentage richness of pro- 
 teids in the former, and for no other reason. 
 
 We shall then proceed to curtail the consump- 
 tion of starchy and sugary compounds : these bodies 
 are supposed to interfere with the complete break- 
 mg up of nitrogenised compounds. 
 
 Thirdly, we shall keep an open mind as to the 
 admission of fat to the dietary: allowing it in 
 moderation in those cases where it agrees well, but 
 keeping its use under careful observation. 
 
FOn COMMON AILMENTS. 119 
 
 Fourthly, we shall watch with grave suspicion 
 the consumption of alcohol, forbidding absolutely 
 the sweeter wines — in particular, port — the sweeter 
 ales and beers, and sweetened spirits. If permitted, 
 the gouty subject should choose from among the 
 following : a dry sherry, a sound claret, whisky ; 
 and of these he should partake in very great 
 moderation. 
 
 We should add, that some authorities lay 
 more stress on the restriction of sugar and starch 
 than upon that of animal food itself, and that some 
 condemn strongly the use of fat. 
 
 But upon most points, with the exception of 
 the alcohol question, we are concerned with re- 
 striction — curtailment rather than exclusion; and, 
 indeed, the key-note to gouty treatment is ^modera- 
 tion. Individual treatment is very important, and 
 we must argue ad hominem rather than ad gentem. 
 Further, as one author says, we shall have to con- 
 sider " very often more the man than the ailment." 
 
 The regimen as thus sketched out will be very 
 much upon the] lines of the treatment of obesity, 
 but it will differ from it in the restriction of animal 
 foods, and in the yet more cautious use of alcohol. 
 
120 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 There remains to mention that gouty people are in 
 general dyspeptics — or, at any rate, that dyspepsia 
 plays an important part in gout. For this reason 
 it is necessary to select the foods according to their 
 digestibility (see Section on Dyspepsia). We now 
 accordingly lay down the following dicta : — 
 
 (1) To limit the bread, rice, and potato group, 
 and in particular to avoid all forms of pastry and 
 all cakes. Bread in the new state is unsuitable ; 
 dry toast, rusks, plain water biscuits (also any 
 form of diabetic bread) will be the best to select 
 from. 
 
 Sugar and Preserves of all kinds, also sweet 
 dried fruits, to avoid. 
 
 (2) Of vegetables, to select the cabbage tribe 
 in all its variety, and the salad group, as most 
 suitable; but the fruit vegetables may be tried, 
 including even the tomato and the cucumber; 
 the latter if well boiled. Seakale and asparagus 
 may also be tried. Fresh fruits to allow as freely 
 as the digestion will permit : bananas and plantains. 
 Yams are not suitable. Nuts as a class are too 
 indigestible. 
 
 (3) Fats and oils, so far as they are tolerated, to 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 121 
 
 allow ; but foods soaked or cooked in fat or oil, 
 being mostly difficult of digestion, to disallow. 
 
 (4) Butcher's meat to be represented by mutton 
 or beef — preferably the former. Pork, veal, cured 
 meats, potted meats not allowed. Bacon toasted or 
 boiled generally suits. Game or poultry permissible. 
 Butchers meat at most once a day. 
 
 Fish : the white kinds allowed. 
 
 (5) Milk to be admitted freely ; butter and cream 
 cautiously ; cheese to be avoided. 
 
 (6) Eggs not very suitable. 
 
 Plain cooking is indicated ; highly-spiced, elabo- 
 rate, tasty dishes should be avoided. 
 
 (7) Alcohol (see above); tea and coffee, if they 
 agree ; cocoa, especially that from the nibs, will in 
 other cases be the substitute. The table mineral 
 waters very suitable. 
 
122 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 DIET TABLES FOR GOUTY HABIT. 
 
 First Day. 
 
 FRESH FRUIT. 
 Bll£A/CFAST. 
 
 Weak Tea or Cocoa, made from nibs, without Sugar, 
 but with Milk ad lib. 
 Haddock, plainly boiled. 
 Dry Toast (eaten with a very little Butter), 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Rice Pudding, with Stewed Apricots. 
 Bread. 
 Milk, or some Mineral Water, with one or two table- 
 spoonfuls of Whiskey, 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Boiled Fillets of Whiting. 
 A slice from a Joint of Mutton or Roast Ptarmigan 
 on Toast. 
 Broccoli. 
 Bird's Nest Pudding, with Milk. 
 Rusks. 
 Potash, Soda, or Seltzer Water, with one or two table- 
 spoonfuls of Whiskey. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS, 123 
 
 Second Day, 
 
 FRESH FRUIT. 
 BjiEAKFAST. 
 
 "Weak Tea or Cocoa, made from nibs, without Sugar, 
 
 but with Milk ad lib. 
 
 Bacon Rashers. 
 
 Stale Bread or thin Dry Toast 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Baked Sole. Bread. 
 Sound and ripe fresh Fruit. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Vegetable Marrow Soup. 
 
 A slice from a Joint or Boiled Fowl or Chicken, with 
 
 Mushrooms. 
 
 Spinach. 
 
 Hydropathic Pudding. 
 
 Fresh Fruits. 
 
124 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 RECIPES. 
 
 First JDay. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Tea. — See page 81. 
 
 Cocoa made from Nibs. — This beverage is quite unlike 
 cocoa made from the soluble powder, and is much more 
 valuable as an article of diet. It has rather a peculiar 
 taste, to which, however, the palate soon becomes ac- 
 customed ; and when well made, it is clear and bright, 
 like coffee. As it is necessary to let it simmer for some 
 hours, it must be prepared betimes. In households 
 where it is used regularly, a special saucepan is set 
 apart for its preparation, and this is kept constantly 
 simmering by the side of the stove. 
 
 Allow a teacupful of cocoa nibs for each quart of 
 water. Crush the nibs to small pieces under the rolling- 
 pin, soak them all night in the requisite quantity of cold 
 water, and next day let them simmer gently in the same 
 water for six or seven hours. As the water boils away, 
 add a little more from time to time, to preserve the 
 measure. When sufficiently boiled, strain the liquid ; 
 let it go cold, skim the fat from the top, and the cocoa 
 is ready. From motives of economy, the old nibs are 
 sometimes boiled with the fresh ones. This plan makes 
 the cocoa strong, and it extracts the goodness thoroughly 
 from the nibs, and thus prevents waste; but the beverage 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 125 
 
 thus produced is less bright than it otherwise would be. 
 Cocoa shells are sometimes substituted for cocoa nibs. 
 The mode of preparation is the same. 
 
 Cocoa made from Prepared Powder. — There are 
 many cocoa powders in the market, but most are not as 
 suitable for invalids as cocoa made from nibs. When 
 any special mode of preparation is recommended, 
 directions for making are given with the package, and 
 these should be followed. When no directions are given, 
 the quantity of cocoa required should be mixed to a 
 paste with cold water ; boiling milk, or boiling milk and 
 water, or boiling water should then be poured in 
 gradually with one hand, while the preparation should 
 be stirred gently with the other. 
 
 Chocolate. — Carefully made chocolate is a very 
 delicious drink, and though not suitable in the present 
 case, when suited to the condition of the invalid it 
 makes a pleasant change. It is sold in the form of 
 squares or fingers. The following is the method of 
 preparation. Put a small piece of chocolate (about 
 half an ounce) into a saucepan with a cup of boiling 
 water. Stir till the chocolate is dissolved ; as soon as 
 the water boils add a teacupful of milk and a lump of 
 sugar. When the chocolate boils once more, serve 
 immediately. Continued boiling will spoil it. 
 
 As the size of the shapes and the strength of 
 chocolate of different makers varies, it is well to 
 experiment with one sort until it is found how much 
 chocolate is needed to make for a cup. Chocolate that 
 
 1^ TV 
 
126 DIET AND OOOKEBY 
 
 is over-strong is indigestible and not agreeable to the 
 taste. 
 
 Haddock, plainly/ Boiled. — Cleanse a moderate-sized 
 haddock, remove its eyes, and truss it with its tail in its 
 mouth. Put a few peppercorns, some salt, and a littlo 
 vinegar into as much water as will cover the fish. Bring 
 this to the boil, lower the fish into it, bring it again to 
 the boiling point, and simmer till done. The time re- 
 quired will depend on the size and thickness of the fish. 
 
 Toast. — See page 85. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Plain Rice Pudding, with Stewed Apricots or other 
 Fresh Fruit. — Wash the rice in two or three waters. 
 This will get rid of the loose starch, and will also do 
 much to prevent burning. If a milky pudding is 
 wanted, two tablespoonfuls of rice will be enough for 
 a quart of milk. When a solid pudding is preferred, 
 it is not unusual to allow nine times as much milk as 
 there is rice. For gouty patients, however, the milky 
 pudding is the better of the two. 
 
 A simple way of making the pudding is to put a 
 pinch of salt and a little grated lemon rind with the rice 
 after it has been washed, pour the milk over it, and 
 bake it very slowly in a cool oven. So long as it cooks 
 at all, the more slowly it is baked the more the grains 
 will swell, and the more digestible the pudding will be. 
 A piece of butter about the size of a threepenny piece 
 should be put with it, and it should not be stirred after 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 127 
 
 it has once begun to bake. One way of ascertaining 
 whether or not the rice is sufficiently^cookeJ is to raise 
 the dish at the side a little. If the rice and milk 
 move together, the rice is cooked ; but if the milk moves 
 and the rice remains at the bottom, it is not. 
 
 Apricots, PeacheSy or Apples Stewed. — When stewing 
 fruit, it is most important that a dainty saucepan should 
 be used for the purpose. A vessel that has been used 
 for meat or gravy, even though it has been thoroughly 
 cleansed, is liable to convey an unpleasant flavour. Also 
 the fruit should be gently stewed ; if boiled hard it will 
 break, and be comparatively worthless. When fruit is 
 very acid, and when it is necessary, as in the present 
 case, to be sparing in the use of sugar, a very small 
 pinch of carbonate of soda may be put with the juices, 
 and this will to some extent modify the acidity. 
 
 Mineral water or milk, with one or even two table- 
 spoonfuls of whiskey, may be allowed with the pudding 
 and fruit. 
 
 Boiled Fillets of Whiting. — Whiting is exceedingly 
 delicate fish, and very easy to digest. Fillet it by 
 passing the knife from the tail to the head, and lifting 
 the flesh from the bone on both sides. Divide each side 
 into halves, trim the fillets into good shape^ pepper 
 and salt them, and boil them in salted water to which a 
 few drops of lemon-juice have been added. Let them 
 simmer gently for a few minutes till cooked through, 
 
DIET AND OOOKERY 
 
 but they must not be overcooked. Take up carefully 
 with a slice, dish prettily, and sprinkle chopped parsley 
 on the top. Fish cooked according to this simple recipe 
 will be excellent if it is served hot, and if everything 
 about it is hot. If half cold it will not be worth eating. 
 
 Ptarmigan. — Of late years ptarmigan have been 
 offered for sale in England in great abundance, and 
 when they can be obtained of good quality they are 
 excellent. They vary very much, however, and there- 
 fore they need to be carefully chosen. It is said that 
 they are really grouse, whose plumage has been affected 
 by climate, and their flavour by food. Birds, we are 
 told, that have fed on young mountain firs have a 
 taste of turpentine, and are worthless. Those that have 
 fed on the open plains are nearly equal to English 
 grouse. A delicate scent will detect the "turpentine 
 smell." The birds should be bought at a good shop. 
 
 Ptarmigan should be young and plump, and they 
 should be well hung. They should be trussed like a 
 fowl, roasted before the fire or baked in the oven, and 
 basted as much as possible with hot fat. They will take 
 from twenty-five to thirty minutes. When almost done 
 a slice of toast should be put under them. Crumbs 
 made from the crust of bread grated and used dry, 
 or from the inside of a stale loaf, crumbled, passed 
 through a sieve and dried in the oven, may be handed 
 round with the game. 
 
 Broccoli. — For all practical purposes broccoli and 
 cauliflower are the same vegetable, though epicures say 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 129 
 
 that the cauliflower has the more delicate flavour of the 
 two. An advantage which belongs to broccoli is that it 
 is less likely to have caterpillars in it than the other. 
 The secret of making it mellow is to cut the root right 
 across, to put into fast-boiling water to oover it, and to 
 put into the water with it whilst it is boiling a knob of 
 butter and a little salt. When the flowers are soft it 
 should be quickly and thoroughly strained. A little 
 sauce may be poured over it in the dish. 
 
 Bird's-Nest Pudding. — Butter a pudding-dish, and 
 put into it two tablespoonfuls of bullet sago well washed, 
 a pinch of salt, the rind and juice of a lemon, and a 
 slight sprinkling of sugar, the less the better. Fill the 
 dish with warm water. Pare four or five good cooking 
 apples, and remove the core without breaking the fruit. 
 Bake till the apples are tender and the sago transparent, 
 and serve with milk. 
 
 Second Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 Bacon. — Rashers of bacon served at breakfast may 
 be fried in a frying-pan, broiled, or toasted in a Dutch- 
 oven, or with a toasting-fork, till the fat is quite clear. 
 Of these three methods the last is the best, and the first 
 is the worst. The rashers should be cut as thin as 
 possible, and the rind should be trimmed away. When 
 the employment of a frying-pan cannot be avoided, the 
 cooking should be very slowly done, and the bacon 
 should be turned occasionally. It is important that 
 
130 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 the pan used should be daintily clean, and not at all 
 burnt or black. If a little butter or bacon-fat be made 
 hot in the pan before the bacon is put in, the dish will 
 be improved thereby. This plan is not usual, but it is to 
 be recommended. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Baked Sole. — Skin the fish, lift the fillets from the 
 bones, and trim them neatly. Grease a shallow tin 
 sparingly, enough to keep the fish from sticking to the 
 pan ; lay the fillets in it, season them with pepper and 
 salt, and squeeze the juice of a lemon over them ; then 
 cover with a dish, and leave plenty of room for soft 
 cooking. In ten or twelve minutes they will be ready. 
 Take up with a slice, garnish with parsley, and serve 
 
 hot. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Vegetable Marrow Soup. — Pare, seed, and quarter a 
 moderate-sized marrow, and put it into a stewpan with 
 light stock to cover it, an onion, and a little pepper and 
 salt. Let it simmer gently until quite soft, then rub it 
 through a sieve, and mix with the pulp a little more 
 stock. Make it hot, and add at the last moment about 
 a pint of boiling milk. 
 
 JB oiled Fowl or Chicken with Mushrooms. — When., 
 well cooked this is a dainty dish, and it is very 
 wholesome and digestible. The bird should be plucked 
 and drawn with great care ; indeed, a chicken needs to 
 be handled very gently, because the skin is so tender 
 that it tears very easily. Truss it quite firmly, rub the 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 131 
 
 breast with a cut lemon, and wrap the bird in a floured 
 cloth, plunge it into hot water, and when it boils draw 
 the pan back, and simmer gently till done, skimming 
 occasionally. It will take three-quarters of an hour or 
 longer, according to size, but the more slowly it is cooked 
 the better it will be. It will be more tasty if an onion 
 and a small bunch of herbs be put in the water with 
 it. Before serving, a little sauce may be poured over 
 it, and the rest may be sent to table in a boat. Fried 
 bacon should be served with the dish. 
 
 Mushroom Sauce. — Take about a dozen freshly 
 gathered mushrooms, peel them, removing all the upper 
 skin, and sprinkle salt among the gills. Let them lie in 
 a cool cellar for two or three hours, by which time the 
 salt will have drawn from them a rich dark-coloured 
 juice, probably enough to cook them in ; but if there is 
 not, half a cupful of boiling water or stock may be added. 
 Simmer for a few minutes, season with pepper, and serve 
 either poured over the chicken or in a separate dish. 
 
 Spinach. — Wash the spinach in several waters ; this 
 is necessary because it has a good deal of grit hanging 
 about it. Afterwards trim it carefully, and remove the 
 stalk from eveiy leaf; if fully grown, the vein that runs 
 up the leaf will need to be trimmed away also. If 
 the spinach is young, it may be boiled without more 
 water than clings to the leaves j if old, it should be put 
 into lightly salted boiling water. In either case it will 
 need to be pressed down with a spoon. When tender, 
 drain it and squeeze the water from it, then either 
 
132 DIET AND 000KER7. 
 
 rub it through a sieve to make it smooth or chop it 
 finely. A few minutes before it is wanted, strain 
 away any moisture that may have run from it with 
 standing, put it again into the stewpan, with a table- 
 spoonful of milk or gravy, and a little pepper and salt. 
 Turn it about till it is hot through and has become 
 dry. Have ready a hot mould, put the spinach into it, 
 press it to make it take the shape of the mould, turn it 
 into a hot tureen, and serve. 
 
 In ordinary cases, when fat is not considered objec- 
 tionable, a good slice of butter should be put into the 
 stewpan with the spinach, and the vegetable should be 
 turned about with this until dry. For gouty subjects, 
 however, fat in cookery is to be avoided, and for them, 
 therefore, gravy is substituted. 
 
 Hydropathic Pudding. — Take fresh fruit in season, 
 and stew it with a little water to make it soft. Whilst 
 it is cooking prepare a basin to receive it. Take a slice 
 of stale bread. Stamp out of it a round piece about the 
 size of half-a- crown, and place this at the bottom of the 
 basin ; arrange round it in an upright position, and 
 with an inch and a half between each, thin strips of 
 bread cut into fingers, of a size to come to the top of the 
 basin. While the stewed fruit is warm, put it gently, a 
 spoonful at a time, into the basin, trying not to disturb 
 the bread. Cover the surface with bread cut into dice 
 and with crumbs, put a saucer with a weight on the top, 
 and leave it till cold. The pudding will turn out in 
 a shape. 
 
GRAVEL AND STONE (URIC ACID 
 VARIETY OF). 
 
 In these disorders the same substance which in 
 gout tends to separate within the tissues of the 
 body, tends here to separate within the urinary 
 passages ; but this, as Sir W. Roberts draws atten- 
 tion to, is a very important distinction, since the 
 precipitation within the urinary passages is, physio- 
 logically considered, outside the tissues. What the 
 exact relationship is between gravel and gout is 
 not very clear, but they are certainly not two forms 
 of one and the same thing. However, the fault in 
 each case is an excess of uric acid, and, provisionally 
 we may therefore apply the same dietetic treatment. 
 We shall, hence, exercise especial caution in the use 
 of alcohol, sugars, starches, and fat ; and we shall 
 restrict the use of animal food. In both gout and 
 gravel we ought to start with a prejudice against 
 fat. 
 
184 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 DIETARY TABLES FOR GRAVEL AND 
 
 STONE. 
 
 First Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Tea, Coflfee, or Cocoa made from nibs, with Milk ad lib. 
 
 (all without sugar). Stewed Mushrooms. 
 
 Dry Toast or stale Bread and Butter in modei-ation. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Sole on Toast. Baked Apple. Rusks. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 A small slice from a Joint, or Sweetbread. 
 
 One Potato baked in its skin. Turnip Tops. 
 
 Blancmange made with skimmed milk. 
 
 Celery or Plain Salad, with Water Biscuits and a little 
 
 Butter. 
 
 Second Day, 
 
 •/;!; Breakfast. 
 
 Tea, Coffee, or Cocoa made from nibs, with Milk ad lib 
 
 (all without sugar). 
 
 Rasher of Bacon. Dry Toast or stale Bread and Butter. 
 
 Tomato Sandwiches. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Filleted Plaice, baked. Sago Shape. Small Biscuits 
 
 with very little Butter. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS, 13& 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 A small slice from a Joint, or Minced Collops. 
 
 Rice served as a vegetable, plainly boiled. Greens. 
 
 Apple Mould. Devonshire Junket. 
 
 Cheese, such as Brie or Camembert, with Watercress and 
 
 plain Biscuit. 
 
 RECIPES. 
 
 First Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 For tea or cofifee, see pp. 81, 89. 
 
 Cocoa made from Nibs. — See p. 124. 
 
 Stewed Mushrooms. — Mushrooms that are to be used 
 for breakfast will probably have been gathered over- 
 night. Peel them as soon as they are delivered, put 
 them with the handles sticking up into a soup-plate, 
 and spiinkle a little salt about the gills. Leave them 
 till wanted. The salt will draw out of them a rich 
 wine- tinted juice, and there will probably be enough for 
 stewing them. If there is not as much gravy as is 
 needed, a wineglassful of hot water and a knob of butter, 
 or preferably a little cream, may be put with them. 
 Stir the mushrooms till they bubble. Have ready a 
 slice of bread toasted on both sides. When the mush- 
 room gravy rises in the pan, the mushrooms will be 
 
196 DIET ANT) COOKERY 
 
 cooked. Turn them at once over the toast in a deep 
 dish, and pepper them well : they are already sufficiently 
 salted Either cream or broth, or a mixture of the two, 
 may be used for stewing mushrooms thus ; but both the 
 butter or cream should be used very moderately. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Sole on Toast — Take a small sole, and lift the flesh 
 from the bone to make four fillets. Trim these, and 
 twist them neatly ; then put them into a saucepan with 
 a gill of boiling water, a few drops of lemon-juice, pep- 
 per, and salt. Bring the water again to the boil, draw 
 the pan back, and simmer gently for five minutes. 
 Drain and lay each fillet on a square of toast, mix a 
 little milk with the stock, and add a little chopped 
 parsley ; pour a spoonful of sauce over each fillet, and 
 serve. 
 
 Apple, Baked. — See p. 89. 
 
 jD/nnmr. 
 
 Sweetbread. — This food is very easy of digestion, and 
 therefore when carefully prepared it is very suitable for 
 those who are not in robust health. The following is a 
 simple way of cooking it, when basting it or frying in 
 fat is not allowable. Procure a young sweetbread, wash 
 it as soon as it is sent in, and lay it in salt and water for 
 an hour ; then parboil it for about ten minutes. Take it 
 up, lay it in cold water, and when quite cold, peel it and 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 137 
 
 trim it, carefully removing all loose skin and gristle, and 
 leaving only the soft white meat. Put it back again 
 into the saucepan with stock to cover it, an onion, pepper 
 and salt, and a little lemon-juice. Simmer for about 
 twenty minutes, dish the sweetbread on toast, pour 
 the sauce over it, and send rashers of bacon to table 
 with it. A little milk may be added to the sauce if 
 Uked. 
 
 Baked Potato. — See p. 150. 
 
 Turnip Tops furnish an excellent vegetable ; their 
 slightly bitter taste is generally approved by dainty 
 eaters. They need to be carefully prepared, however, 
 if they are to be enjoyed in perfection. Wash them 
 thoroughly, and trim away all the stalks. Throw them 
 into plenty of fast-boiling salted water, and boil them 
 quickly with the lid oflf the pan till tender. Draw the 
 water from them, pressing them well, chop finely, return 
 them to the saucepan, dredge with pepper, and flavour 
 with a few drops of vinegar. Toss over the fire till hot, 
 mould in a hot basin, and serve. 
 
 Blancmange made with Skimmed Milk. — Soak half 
 an ounce of refined gelatine in cold water, to cover it, for 
 an hour or more. Boil a pint of milk with an inch of stick 
 cinnamon till agreeably flavoured, and sweeten it with 
 saccharine if approved, or put a little salt with it. Pour 
 it boiling on the gelatine, and stir till the latter is dis- 
 solved. When cold, strain the milk through muslin, and 
 when it is beginning to thicken, put it into a prettily 
 shaped mould, and serve on a glass dish. 
 
138 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Breakfast, 
 
 Rasher of Bacon. — See p. 129. 
 
 Tomato Sandwiches. — Out wholemeal bread, or white 
 bread two days old, into sKces, and butter them very 
 lightly. Have ready some ripe, fresh tomatoes which 
 have been cut into slices with a sharp knife and salted 
 rather liberally. Sandwich the tomatoes between two 
 pieces of bread and butter, press them well together, and 
 cut into fingers. Pile them crosswise on a dish, and 
 garnish with parsley. These sandwiches are very re- 
 freshing and appetising. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Filleted Plaice, Baked. — Choose a thick plaice. Wash 
 it well in cold water, and dry it in a cloth; then put it on 
 a board, with a sharp knife remove the skin from the 
 back of the fish, cut off the head and tail and take the 
 flesh from the bones, dividing it into neat pieces con- 
 venient for serving. Lay the pieces in a single layer 
 in a buttered baking-tin, pepper and salt them, and 
 squeeze the juice of a lemon over them; then cover 
 with greased paper. Bake in a moderate oven for ten 
 or twelve minuter. Serve with Worcester Sauce. 
 
 The fillets of many soi"ts of fish are excellent when 
 cooked in this simple way. Should the small amount 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS, ld9( 
 
 of butter here used tax the digestion, exchange for 
 boiled plaice. 
 
 Sago Shape. — Soak two tablespoonfuls of sago for an 
 hour in milk, then boil with more milk to make up the 
 quantity to a pint. Boil till clear, add flavouring, with 
 saccharine if desired, and stir in a tablespoonful of gela- 
 tine which has been soaked in water for an hour and 
 dissolved. Mix thoroughly ; when quite cold pour into 
 a shape, and turn out for use next day. A little stewed 
 fresh fruit may be served with this dish. 
 
 J?/NNER. 
 
 Minced Collops au Naturel. — Take half a pound of 
 tender rump-steak, free from fat, skin, and gristle. 
 Mince it well, and season it with pepper and salt. Put 
 it into a daintily clean saucepan, set it on a gentle fire, 
 and let it simmer very slowly in its own gravy for ten 
 or twelve minutes, stirring it with a fork to keep it from 
 getting into lumps. If it should get too dry, add half a 
 gill of boiling stock or gravy, simmer two minutes longer, 
 and serve. This very simple dish is sometimes much 
 liked by invalids. 
 
 Rice Served as a Vegetable. — Rice that is to be used 
 as a substitute for potato may be prepared in two ways : 
 either it may be plainly boiled as for curry, or it may be 
 cooked in stock, and made savoury with onions, etc. 
 Two recipes are here given, but gouty patients would do 
 well to prefer rice plainly boiled. 
 
140 DIET AND OOOKEBY 
 
 Rice Plainly Boiled. — Choose Patna rice for the 
 purpose. Wash it in two or three waters, drain it, 
 and throw it into plenty of fast-boiling salted water. 
 Two quarts of water will be needed for a quarter of 
 a pound of rice. Boil ft-st for thirteen minutes, or 
 till the grains crush easily between the thumb and finger. 
 Pour the water off, and let it dry in front of the fire, 
 stirring it with a fork now and again to separate the 
 grains. 
 
 Rice Cooked in Stock. — Take a good-sized onion, 
 chop it finely, and fry it in fat till lightly browned. Put 
 it in a stewpan with a cupful of rice and a quart of well- 
 flavoured stock. Let it boil, then draw the pan back, 
 and simmer gently till the rice swells and becomes 
 tender. As the rice absorbs the liquid, add more, and 
 stir the rice or shake the pan occasionally to prevent 
 burning. Season with salt and cayenne, and, if ap- 
 proved, add about two tablespoonfuls of grated Par- 
 mesan before serving. Also, if approved, a tiny pinch of 
 powdered saflfron or a gill of tomato pur^e may be 
 stewed with the rice to colour and flavour it. 
 
 Greens should be well washed and cleansed, then 
 plunged into plenty of salted water that is boiling fast, 
 and boiled with the lid off". When done, turn them into 
 a warm colander, and squeeze the water from them with 
 the back of a plate. Put them into a hot vegetable-dish, 
 sprinkle pepper and salt on them, and cut them across 
 several times. 
 
 Apple Mould. — Take a pound of baking apples, pare, 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 141 
 
 core, and quarter them, and put them into a baking-dish 
 or stewpan with a little water, and let them cook gently 
 till soft. Whilst they are simmering, put half an ounce 
 of gelatine to soak in a gill of water. Beat the apple to 
 pulp, dissolve the gelatine, put it with the fruit, add 
 a little lemon-juice or grated nutmeg, and mould when 
 cold. If sweetness is desired, this dish may be sweetened 
 with saccharine, and the lemon-juice may be omitted. 
 It is to be remembered, however, that in the disease 
 now under consideration, special caution is to be exer- 
 cised in the use of sugar. 
 
 Devonshire Junket. — Heat a pint of new milk till luke- 
 warm, and sweeten and flavour it with saccharine, a tiny 
 pinch of powdered cinnamon, and a dessertspoonful 
 of brandy. Pour the flavoured milk into the dish in 
 which it is to be served, and stir into it a dessertspoonful 
 of prepared rennet ; then leave it untouched until it 
 is firm. It will probably arrive at this condition in 
 about three hours. The more rennet used, the more 
 quickly it will turn ; but the less rennet used, the more 
 dainty the junket will be, so long as there is enough to 
 turn it at all. Rennet varies in strength, so that it 
 is scarcely possible to say exactly how much will be 
 requirecL 
 
EHEUMATISM. 
 
 This heading covers more than one affection ; and, 
 unqualified, it is sufficiently vague. It is necessary, 
 in the first place, to exclude acute rheumatism (or 
 rheumatic fever, as it is frequently called) ; and in 
 the next place — a more difficult task — the affection 
 known technically as rheumatoid arthritis, and, 
 popularly, as rheumatic gout. Thus expurgated, 
 rheumatism will constitute a chronic trouble, 
 characterised by pain and stiffness in one or more 
 joints, or in certain muscles of the body (muscular 
 rheumatism). 
 
 The disease is, unfortunately, very common^ not 
 to say popular, and we need not be more precise in 
 defining it ; but, at the same time, though we do all 
 " know rheumatism," yet we must noc overlook 
 certain affinities to gout, as well as to the above- 
 mentioned diseases, and be sure of the mischief 
 confronting us before we attempt to treat it. 
 
DIET AND COOKERY. 143 
 
 The diet in rheumatism will resemble that in 
 gout in the avoidance of the sugar group : sweet 
 foods, sweet drinks, and, in particular, the sweeter, 
 more fruity wines, and the more full-bodied ales 
 and beers. This will be the chief abstention. Un- 
 sweetened spirit, preferably whisky, is the best form 
 of alcohol. 
 
 The bread, rice, and potato group is allowable 
 in moderation, and so far as the digestion can cope 
 with it. Rheumatic subjects are often the victims 
 of acid dyspepsia, and must, on this account, be 
 cautious in the use of this group. In any case, no 
 forms of pastry or cake are allowed. 
 
 Fats, so far as they are assimilable, appear to be 
 beneficial. We should, indeed, rather press this 
 group. 
 
 Albuminous foods : Meats should be taken in 
 moderation, and plainly dressed. We should restrict 
 the quality perhaps more than the quantity — e.^. ; 
 of fish, allowing the lighter kinds, white ; of birds, 
 the white-fleshed poultry and game (wild-fowl are 
 less suitable) ; of meats, mutton preferably ; and of 
 the special parts of animals, tripe, sweetbread, brains, 
 calf's head, caK's feet will be found suitable. Cured 
 
144 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 meats should not be eaten. Eggs and milk may be 
 taken without restriction. 
 
 We have said nothing about vegetables and 
 fruits. These may be enjoyed in the fresh state, 
 with few exceptions ; of the former, we shall do 
 well to avoid carrots, and parsnips, and beet, and to 
 be cautious with the group of the fruit- vegetables ; 
 of fruits, we shall avoid those which require sugar 
 as an accessory, unless we are content to forego the 
 sugar; also plums and cherries. Preserved and 
 dried fruits are not advisable. The presence of 
 dyspepsia — as stated, a not infrequent accompani- 
 ment of rheumatism — will involve, on its own 
 account, other restrictions. 
 
 Rheumatism is found among the full of habit 
 and the generous-living, but it torments also the 
 ill-fed and ill-clothed ; and whilst the former will 
 require a more abstemious mode of living, the 
 latter will need feeding-up, but this may be done 
 on the lines just mentioned. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 145 
 
 DIETARY TABLES FOR RHEUMATISM. 
 
 First Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 Tea or Cocoa, with plenty of Milk, but without Sugar. 
 
 Ox Eyes (Baked Egg on a round of Toast). 
 Toast or Stale Bread, with Butter. A Baked Apple. 
 
 Luncheon, 
 Boiled Tripe. Onion Sauce. Potato, Boiled, Baked, or 
 
 Roasted. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Julienne Soup. Marengo of Chicken. Fried Potatoes. 
 
 Cauliflower with Sauce Blanche. 
 
 Lemon Rice Pudding. 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 Tea or Cocoa, with plenty of Milk, but without Sugar. 
 Bacon, Toast, with Butter. Fresh Fruit. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 Savoury Omelette. Apple Snow and Milk. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Boiled Turbot. Loin of Mutton, Boned and Rolled. 
 
 Browned Potato. Seakale. 
 
 Ladywell Pudding. 
 
146 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 RECIPES. 
 
 First Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 rea.— See p. 81. 
 
 Ox Eyes. — Take some stale bread, and cut a slice 
 three-quarters of an inch thick. Toast and stamp it 
 into rounds with the top of a teacup, and out of the 
 middle of each one take a smaller round, the size of the 
 top of an egg-cup, being careful to keep the bottom 
 of the round whole. Butter a dish that can be put into 
 the oven, lay the rings in it, salt them, then cover them 
 with milk, and let them soak till soft. Drain away the 
 milk, and put a raw egg in the middle of each ring ; 
 sprinkle a little pepper and salt on them, and put a 
 teaspoonful of milk on each ^^^g. Cover and bake in 
 a hot oven until the whites are set, but they must 
 not brown. If the dish on which they are baked 
 cannot be sent to table, take up the eyes carefully with 
 a slice, and place on a hot dish. 
 
 Baked Apple. — See p. 89. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Boiled Tinpe. Onion Sauce. — When daintily cooked, 
 tripe is easily digested and wholesome ; when insuffi- 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 147 
 
 ciently boiled, it is hard, leathery, and unpalatable. It 
 is cheap meat, and is generally plentiful in large towns. 
 It is partially boiled before it is offered for sale, and 
 some people think that on this account it needs very 
 little cooking after it is brought home. This is a 
 mistake. The preliminary boiling which it receives from 
 the dresser is part of the process of cleansing it, not of 
 cooking it, and this has to be done thoroughly, because 
 it is most necessary that tripe should be scrupulously 
 cleansed. It can be cooked in several ways. With 
 them all it should, in the first instance, be blanched — 
 that is, it should be put into a saucepan of cold watar, 
 allowed to boil, then taken out and scraped. 
 
 There are two or three sorts of tripe. What are 
 called "blanket," or "double," and "honeycomb" tripe 
 are understood to be the best. 
 
 To boil one pound of tripe, blanch it, then cut 
 it into neat squares of about two inches. Put it into a 
 saucepan with a pint of milk, and with it four onions 
 which have been peeled and cut through into quarters ; 
 bring the milk to the boil, and simmer for at least 
 two hours. If, at the end of that time, the tripe 
 feels quite soft when a fork is pushed into it, it is 
 enough ; if not, it must be simmered a little longer. 
 Take out the onions, and chop them finely. Mix a 
 dessertspoonful of flour with a little pepper and salt 
 to a smooth paste with cold water in a basin. Take 
 up the pieces of tripe, and stir the hot milk to the 
 thickening. Stir again over the fire with the onions till 
 
U8 DIET AND OOOKERY 
 
 the sauce boils ; put in the tripe once more, and simmer 
 again for about ten minutes, or till the tripe is hot 
 through. Serve very hot. 
 
 Potato. — A potato perfectly boiled is a greater rarity 
 than at first sight appears. Because the work neces- 
 sary thereto is easy, it is too often carelessly performed. 
 The condition of the saucepan used for boiling has 
 a great deal to do with the excellence of the potato. 
 A saucepan that is used for stews and general cookery 
 ought not to be used also for boiling potatoes. It is 
 well to reserve a special saucepan for this purpose. Also 
 it is to be remembered that old potatoes and new 
 potatoes must be treated difierently, and that potatoes 
 that break easily are best when steamed. 
 
 To Boil Old Potatoes. — First wash and well brush 
 the potatoes, and as each one is peeled throw it into a 
 bowl of clean cold water ; on no account let it lie in the 
 same water with the parings and refuse. When peeling 
 it, carefully remove the specks and eyes, and peel the 
 skin as thinly as possible. The potatoes will be better 
 for lying in water for a while. Take care also to cook 
 together potatoes of an equal size. Drain the potatoes 
 and put them into a saucepan with as much cold water 
 as will abundantly cover them, and bring them to the 
 boil very gently, the slower the better. When they 
 can be pierced through with a fork, drain off the water, 
 cover them closely with a clean, soft cloth, put the lid 
 on the pan, and set the pan by the side of the stove 
 for ten minutes or so, that the potatoes may finish 
 
FOE COMMON AILMENTS. 149 
 
 cooking in their own steam. Shake them a little, and 
 serve. 
 
 To Steam Potatoes. — Prepare the potatoes as above, 
 put them into the steamer over a saucepan of fast- 
 boiling water, and let them steam till a fork will pierce 
 them. Lift the steamer off the saucepan, cover the 
 potatoes with a cloth, let them stand two or three 
 minutes, shake, and serve. 
 
 To Boil New Potatoes. — New potatoes are never so 
 good as when freshly dug out of the ground. For 
 boiling, choose them of one size, wash and brush their 
 well. As each one is finished, throw it into clean cold 
 water. If the potatoes are not quite fresh, they will 
 need to be lightly scraped with a knife, instead of being 
 brushed only. Put them into boiling water, sprinkle 
 salt over them, and boil them until they feel tender 
 when pierced with a fork. Draw off the water, lay a 
 clean cloth over them, put the lid on the pan, and 
 let them stand by the side of the fire till quite dry. 
 Serve on a hot, folded napkin, and do not put the cover 
 on the tureen. 
 
 Boasted Potatoes. — When the fire is suited to this 
 mode of cookery, medium-sized potatoes are excellent for 
 eating after being buried in the ashes of an open fire for 
 half an hour or more, according to their size. The dust 
 should then be brushed off, and the skins burst by 
 squeezing. It is to be noted that potatoes which have been 
 baked in the oven or roasted in hot ashes are more 
 valuable for invalids than potatoes boiled 
 F 
 
150 DIET AND COOKEBY 
 
 Baked Potato. — Potatoes of a moderate size sliould be 
 chosen for baking, and when two or three are to be 
 cooked at one time, they should be as nearly as possible 
 of a size. Wash in lukewarm water, and brush until 
 thoroughly clean. Dry with a cloth, and bake in a 
 very hot oven until they feel soft when squeezed with a 
 cloth held in the hands. They ought to be cooked enough 
 in from forty-five to fifty minutes. It is to be noted 
 that potatoes baked in a hot oven are more easy of 
 digestion than if slowly baked. When ready, they 
 should be pressed until they crack slightly, as this will 
 keep them from becoming heavy. They should be 
 dished upon a hot napkin. 
 
 Julienne Soup is simply clear soup which has shred 
 vegetables thrown into it as a garnish. 
 
 To make the Clear Soup proceed as follows : — Take 
 two pounds of fleshy beef, without fat or skin, from the 
 silver-side or buttock, and tie it round to make it 
 compact. Put it into an enamelled saucepan, or into an 
 earthenware pipkin, if such a thing is at hand, and let it 
 brown over the fire for ten minutes. Turn it once 
 during the time, and move it to keep it from burning, 
 sticking a large fork into it when doing so to let the 
 gravy escape. A few bones may be put with it, and 
 they will be a valuable addition, provided only that they 
 are free from marrow and fat. They should be put 
 under the meat. Pour on three pints of cold water, and 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 151 
 
 add a small tablespoonful of salt. LeX the liquor come 
 very slowly to the boil, and carefully remove the scum as 
 it rises. Throw in a teacupful of cold water, bring to 
 the point of boiling again, and skim again. Repeat this 
 process three times. When no more scum rises, put 
 in two carrots, a turnip, two onions, one leek, a bunch of 
 parsley, four bay-leaves, and four cloves ; draw the pan 
 to the side of the stove, and simmer gently for four 
 hours. If the scum is effectually removed in the first 
 instance, this soup will not need to be clarified, and 
 it will be clear and bright like sherry. 
 
 If liked, half the quantity of beef can be used when 
 making this soup, and a little Liebig's extract of meat 
 can be stirred in at the last to make it taste stronger. 
 
 To prepare the shred vegetables for Julienne soup, 
 
 take a carrot and a turnip. Scrape the carrot, cut it 
 
 into slices about an inch long, and pare these round and 
 
 round in ribbons ; then cut the ribbons into strips, thus 
 
 making them into lengths of the size and thickness of 
 
 half a match. Peel the turnip, and cut it into slices, 
 
 and afterwards divide these into strips of the same 
 
 size. Throw the vegetables into clear water as they 
 
 are done ; boil the turnips for five mmutes, the carrots 
 
 for fifteen minutes, then drain them ; throw them into 
 
 the soup. Under ordinary circumstances, prepared 
 
 vegetables should be fried in a little butter till lightly 
 
 browned, then simmered gently in the soup. For the 
 
 use of invalids, however, they are better plainly boiled, 
 
 because thus cooked they are more digestible. 
 
152 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Vegetables already prepared for Julienne can be 
 bought at any Italian warehouse. They require to be 
 soaked overnight, and boiled gently till perfectly tender. 
 
 It is not unusual to have a little onion and celery, 
 cut into strips, put into Julienne garnish, as well as 
 turnip and carrot. To make a change also, asparagus 
 tips can be added in spring, peas in summer, and French 
 beans in autumn. The green vegetables ought, how- 
 ever, to be boiled apart from the rest of the garnish, 
 or they will lose their colour. 
 
 Marengo of Chicken, — A Marengo of Chicken can 
 only be produced in perfection from a young bird. It is 
 a very appetising dish. 
 
 Divide the chicken into ten pieces — that is, two legs, 
 two wings, two pinions, two back pieces, and two breast 
 pieces. The wings should be taken with the muscle 
 belonging to them, and cut from the body slantwise, 
 so that the flesh can be laid over the bone. The legs 
 should be cut as long as possible. 
 
 Pour a quarter of a pint of salad oil into a stewpan, 
 and make it hot. Throw in a shallot, a little salt, five 
 or six peppercorns, a small blade of mace, and a pinch 
 of herbs, and, after stirring these over the fire for a 
 minute or two, put in the pieces of chicken, and turn 
 them about till they take a good brown all over. Drain 
 away the oil, and remove the herbs, etc. Pour a 
 pint of stock over the chicken in the same stewpan, and 
 simmer tliree-quarters of an hour. Now add a quarter 
 of a pint of tomato pur^e, a little piece of glaze about the 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 153 
 
 size of a nut, and, if they are to be had, a dozen button 
 mushrooms. Simmer some minutes longer, and serve. 
 When preparing this dish, it is necessary to remember 
 that the legs need to be cooked a little longer than 
 the other portions of the bird. They should, therefore, 
 be put into the oil first and taken out last. 
 
 Fried Potatoes. — See p. 205. 
 
 Cauliflower with Sauce Blanche. — Boil a cauliflower 
 or broccoli until it is mellow and tender (see Broccoli, 
 p. 128). Drain it well, and squeeze it to make it round 
 and compact. Pour a little Sauce Blanche over it, and 
 serve hot. 
 
 Sau^e Blanche. — Mix three-quarters of an ounce of 
 flour to a smooth paste with a little cold water, and 
 pour on it as much boiling water as will make the 
 entire quantity half a pint, stirring it well. Put it in a 
 small saucepan, and stir it till it boils. Let it cool ; 
 add the yolk of an egg and a little salt. The ordinary 
 way of making Sauce Blanche is to melt an ounce of 
 butter in a small saucepan, mix three-quarters of an 
 ounce of flour with it, and add the water and yolk of 
 egg. Sauce thus made is mellower and richer than 
 when made as described above. It is, however, also 
 less digestible ; therefore, when wanted for the use of 
 invalids, it should be plainly made. A knob of cold 
 butter may be stirred into it at the last moment if 
 approved. 
 
 Lemon Rice Pudding. — Wash a small teacupful of 
 rice, and boil it in a pint of milk till soft. Add a little 
 
354 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 saccharine or sugar, an egg, and the grated rind of a 
 large lemon. Turn into a buttered dish, and bake in 
 a moderate oven until the surface is lightly browned. 
 Pour on the top the juice of a lemon, and serve. 
 
 Second Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 Tea, — Seep. 81. Bacon, — Seep. 129. Toast. — Seep. 85. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Omelette. — An omelette made with two eggs is a 
 very suitable dish for an invalid, and it is very quickly 
 and easily made. It is desirable, however, to keep one 
 small frying-pan specially for this dish, which should 
 never be washed out, but should be rubbed brisklv 
 before and after use with clean soft white paper. 
 
 Break two eggs into a basin, remove the specks, beat the 
 eggs well, and put with them a little pepper and salt and 
 a dessertspoonful of chopped parsley. If liked, a pinch 
 of finely chopped chives, or a piece of shallot or onion 
 the size of a pea, and minced very finely, may also 
 be added. Put half an' ounce of butter in the omelette- 
 pan, and when very hot pour the beaten eggs, etc., gently 
 upon it. In half a minute they will begin to thicken 
 and look lumpy. All that is now wanted is to keep 
 putting a fork or the blade of a knife under the omelette, 
 and scraping it, to prevent it sticking to the pan, 
 
FOR OOMMON AILMENTS. 155 
 
 especially at the edges and the middle. Leave off 
 Bcraping a little before it is firm all over ; lift the handle 
 of the pan, and roll the egg together, thus making a sort 
 of cushion. Hold it high for a minute, then lower the 
 handle of the pan, slip the knife behind the egg, turn 
 it over, and slide it on the dish. It ought to be set 
 outside, and almost liquid in the centre. It should 
 be eaten at once. 
 
 Apple Snow. — Take two or three apples, and bake 
 them (see p. 89) till they fall. Scrape out the pulp 
 with a silver spoon, and be sure there are no lumps. 
 When it is quite cold, whisk the white of an egg till 
 it is firm enough to be cut with a spoon. Mix thoroughly, 
 and beat well to make a froth or snow; then pile on 
 a dish and serve. Sometimes apple prepared thus is put 
 into a shallow dish, and baked for a few minutes. The 
 thin rind and juice of half a lemon may also be added. 
 
 Dinner, 
 
 Boiled Turhot. — Turbot is easy of digestion, and 
 has a delicate flavour ; therefore, when in good con- 
 dition, it furnishes excellent food for invalids. The fish 
 is at its best when cooked whole, and it would be 
 difficult to name a more acceptable dish for a sick 
 person than a cut taken from a boiled turbot. At 
 the same time, small slices can be taken from it with 
 ease, and when special dishes have to be prepared this is 
 a convenience. The recipe here given is for cooking 
 
156 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 a small piece of turbot. It is to be noted that slices 
 from the middle and back of the fish are the best ; and a 
 great gastronomer has given it as his opinion that the 
 flesh on the dark- coloured side of the turbot is to be 
 preferred to the flesh on the white side. 
 
 Take a portion of turbot, and trim it neatly. Lay it 
 on a dish, pour half a gill of vinegar over it, add three 
 or four peppercorns, and let it lie for an hour; turn 
 it once or twice during the time. If possible, provide 
 fish stock, made by boiling the trimmings of the fish 
 in water, in which an onion, a little salt, a slice of 
 turnip and another of caiTot, and a pinch of mixed herbs 
 have been simmered. Strain the stock, let it boil, and 
 lay the portion of turbot in it. Let it simmer gently, 
 but do not allow it to boil, until done. When the flesh 
 leaves the bone easily it is ready. Drain it, and serve 
 it on a hot dish, with Dutch or anchovy sauce. The 
 slice of turbot may be garnished with chopped parsley 
 and hard-boiled egg passed through a sieve. 
 
 Loin of Mutton Boned and Boiled. — A small piece 
 of the loin of mutton, consisting of two or three chops, 
 boned and freed from fat, and rolled compactly, furnishes 
 an excellent small roast for an invalid. It may be 
 wrapped in two or three folds of buttered paper, and 
 baked in the oven, and, if well basted and carefully 
 cooked, it will be tenderer and more full of gravy than 
 one chop cooked separately could be. The paper should 
 be removed a short time before the mutton is dished, in 
 order that the meat may be coloured properly. The 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 157 
 
 gravy for this dish should be well coloured and free 
 from fat. It can be made by browning the bones of the 
 mutton, with an onion cut small, and stewing them well 
 in stock or water. A baked tomato is an excellent 
 accompaniment to loin of mutton. 
 
 Browned Potato. — Peel the potatoes in the usua) 
 way, and half-boil them. Drain them before they 
 begin to soften, and put them in the dripping-tin in the 
 oven with the meat. Baste them now and again during 
 the process of cooking. They will probably need to 
 bake as long as the meat bakes. They will be much 
 more wholesome if partially boiled beforehand, than if 
 cooked wholly in the oven. 
 
 Seakale. — Wash the seakale thoroughly, and trim 
 it neatly, then tie it in a small bundle with tape, as 
 twine would be likely to cut the tender stalks. Put it 
 into as much fast-boiling salted water as will cover it ; 
 it will take about twenty minutes. Drain well, and 
 serve on toast 
 
 Lady well Pudding. — (A light pudding easy of di- 
 gestion.) Mix a tablespoonful of flour and a little grated 
 nutmeg to a smooth paste with cold milk, and add a 
 little sugar to make the pudding palatable, remembering 
 always that for rheumatic subjects sweetness is to be 
 avoided. Pour on half a pint of boiling milk, and stir 
 well. When cold, add an egg beaten and half a wine- 
 glassful of sherry. Pour the preparation into a buttered 
 pie-dish, and bake half an hour. 
 
"EHEUMATIC GOUT. 
 
 » 
 
 This name describes, but not happily, a painful 
 affection of the joints, sometimes acute, more often 
 chronic, and tending to more or less deformity and 
 permanent fixation. Faulty though the name is, 
 it has established itself too firmly to be easily got 
 rid of. This is the more to be regretted that the 
 resemblance to gout is very superficial, and that the 
 treatment suitable in gout is quite unsuitable in 
 rheumatic gout, and may be disastrous. Neither 
 can it be said that any real relationship to rheum- 
 atism has been proved, so that, as it stands, the 
 heading is a misnomer. 
 
 Many regard the disease as of nervous origin, 
 and depressant agencies are frequently found to 
 have been at work. The dietetic treatment cannot 
 be said to have taken definite form, nor is it neces- 
 sary that it should crystallise. The great point to 
 bear in mind is that the patient will not bear 
 
DIET AND COOKERY. 159 
 
 lowering treatment of any kind, and that hence 
 the regimen should be a generous one, including 
 even the use of stout or porter. Fats seem to be of 
 special value. 
 
 To describe the diet briefly, we would say, the 
 rheumatic diet without its restrictions — in other 
 words, a full dietary — and with special mention in 
 favour of fats. We would not be misunderstood in 
 our use of the word "generous " : this must not be 
 interpreted as carte blanche to the pastry-cook and 
 confectioner, the market for whose productions is 
 outside our limits. Sugar as a sweetening agent 
 may be allowed in moderation, but sweets should 
 not be taken. 
 
160 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 DIET TABLES FOR RHEUMATIC GOUT. 
 
 First Day* 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Tea, Coflfee, or Cocoa, with plenty of Milk. 
 
 Baked Fresh Herrings. 
 
 Dry Toast, or Stale Bread with Butter. Baked Apples. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 Chop. Tomato Salad. Savoury Omelette. 
 
 Dinner, 
 
 Fried Sole. Braised Mutton. Jerusalem Artichokes. 
 
 Cabioet Pudding. 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Tea, Coffee, or Cocoa, with plenty of Milk. 
 
 Buttered Eggs. Sardines. Toast. Butter. 
 
 Stewed Prunes with or without Cream. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 Beef Stew. Cheese. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Ox-Tail Soup. Broiled Chicken, 
 
 Potato Puff. Spinach, 
 
 Rice with Apricots. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 161 
 
 RECIPES. 
 
 First Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Baked Fresh Herrings. — Fresh herrings carefully 
 cooked furnish a very appetising dish for breakfast, 
 and they are very nourishing and wholesome. 
 
 Take one dozen herrings, half with soft, half with 
 hard roes. Scrape and wash the fish well, cut off the 
 heads, split the bodies in halves, and take out the bone. 
 Rub each half with pepper, salt, and a very little mus- 
 tard, and powdered allspice. Roll each half separately, 
 leaving the tail outwards, and pack the rolls in a china 
 jar. (A jar of the sort and size used for table salt will 
 answer excellently.) Pound the soft roes, and mix half 
 a pint of vinegar and a little water ; throw the liquid 
 over the herrings. Put a couple of bay- leaves on the 
 top of the fish, and bake in a slow oven for about an 
 hour. 
 
 When herrings can be bought fresh for the morning 
 meal — and in certain towns they are often hawked round 
 early in the day — they are very good fried for breakfast. 
 When they are to be cooked thus, they need only to be 
 opened, emptied, cleansed, have their heads cut off, l^e 
 lightly peppered, salted, and floured, and laid in an 
 ordinary frying-pan, in as much hot fat as will cover 
 
162 DIET AND COOKEEY 
 
 them. They will be done in a few minutes, and their 
 condition must be judged by their appearance. If the 
 fat is properly hot before the herrings are placed in it, 
 and if they are laid on a plate covered with kitchen 
 paper for a minute or two before being served, in order 
 that superfluous fat may drain from them, they will not 
 be greasy when cooked thus. 
 
 Dry Toast (see p. 85). — Toast is very easily digested, 
 therefore it is very often given in illness. It should be 
 served as soon as it is made, if possible. When this is 
 not practicable, pile the slices on a dish, cover with a 
 napkin, and put the dish on the^ hearth or in the oven. 
 
 Baked Apple (see p. 89). — Serve the apple hot. In 
 cases of rheumatic gout, food should be preferably served 
 hot. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Mutton Chop. — See p. 105. 
 
 Tomato Salad, — Take a ripe red tomato, cut it in 
 slices a quarter of an inch thick. Mix in a spoon two 
 pinches of salt, one of pepper, a teaspoonful of vinegar, 
 and the same measure of oil. Baste the slices with the 
 dressing, a few minutes before serving. 
 
 Savoury Omelette. — See p. 154. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Fried Sole. — This dish is generally approved by 
 invalids, but this mode of cookery should never be 
 adopted unless it is certain that the fish is quite fresh. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 163 
 
 If there is the slightest doubt as to its condition, lift the 
 flesh from the bones, and cook the fillets. Pains should 
 be taken also to make the fish quite dry before frying it ; 
 " nothing will fry crisp that is wet." 
 
 A moderate-sized sole is the best for frying. Scrape 
 and cleanse the fish, and dry it thoroughly. In order to 
 secure perfect dryness, it is advisable to dredge it lightly 
 with flour. Beat an egg, and with it brush the sole 
 all over, then cover it with finely sifted bread-crumbs, 
 seasoned with pepper and salt. Have as much frying 
 fat in the pan as will cover the fish ; when it boils, not 
 before, lay the fish in it, and fry till it is a rich brown. 
 If the fat is not hot, the fish will be greasy and limp. 
 Should it not be pracUcable to provide suflicient fat to 
 cover the sole, fry it first on one side, then on the other. 
 Have ready a dish covered with kitchen paper, and lay 
 the sole upon this for a minute to drain it. The time 
 required for frying a sole will depend upon the thick- 
 ness. A moderate-sized sole will take from six to ten 
 minutes. 
 
 Braised Mutton. — Take a piece of the shoulder, loin, 
 or best end of the neck of mutton, weighing about two 
 pounds. Trim it neatly, so that it will stand squarely 
 and compactly on the dish when cooked. Put a liberal 
 slice of sweet dripping into a saucepan, make it hot, and 
 put the meat into it, then turn it about until it is lightly 
 browned all over. While the meat is colouring, put with 
 it some pepper and salt, about twenty small button 
 onions (when peeling these be careful not to cut into 
 
164 DIET AND OOOKEBY 
 
 them), and half a dozen young carrots or turnips cut 
 into fancy shapes or into quarters. When the meat is 
 brown, drain away the fat, flour the mutton, pour on 
 about a pint of hot water or stock, and stir it till it boils. 
 Put with it a shallot wrapped in parsley, cover closely, 
 and simmer for an hour and a half. When half cooked, 
 put in a dozen small onions of an even size. Before 
 dishing the meat, take out the herbs, and serve very hot. 
 The potatoes cooked thus will be excellent. 
 
 Jerusalem Artichokes. — If a vegetable is desired in 
 addition to those cooked with the mutton, a pleasant 
 change may be obtained by using Jerusalem artichokes. 
 Take as many artichokes as will be required ; three or 
 four large ones will probably be sufficient. Wash, brush, 
 peel, and trim them. If convenient, arrange to cook 
 them in a dish that will bear the heat of the oven, and 
 can be sent to table. Melt an ounce of butter or sweet 
 dripping in this, put in the artichokes, sprinkle pepper 
 and salt on them, and bake till soft and brown in a quick 
 oven, basting them frequently. The time required for 
 cooking will depend on the age ; young roots will be 
 done in about half an hour. If preferred, the artichokes 
 can be boiled in salt and water, instead of being baked. 
 They should then be coated with white sauce. 
 
 Cabinet Pudding. — Take a breakfast-cup or small 
 basin or mould that will hold half a pint, and butter it 
 inside. Fill it lightly with alternate layers of stale 
 sponge biscuits and ratafias. Just before cooking the 
 pudding pour on a custard made with a quarter of a 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 165 
 
 pint of boiling milk poured upon one egg, sweetened 
 with a teaspoonful of sugar, and flavoured with lemon 
 and vanilla. Lay a round of buttered paper on the top 
 of the pudding, set it in a saucepan with boiling water 
 to come half-way up the basin ; cover closely, and steam 
 very gently till set. Turn out carefully, and pour the 
 sauce over. 
 
 German Sauce and Lemon Sauce are both excellent 
 for a pudding of this kind. 
 
 German Sauce. — Put the yolks of two eggs, a wine- 
 glassful of sherry, and a dessertspoonful of castor sugar 
 into a double saucepan, that is, a saucepan with water 
 under the vessel that contains the material to be cooked. 
 Set the pan on the fire, and mill the sauce with an egg- 
 whisk until it begins to thicken and rise in the pan. It 
 will take about ten minutes. 
 
 Lemon Sauce. — Boil a tablespoonful of loaf-sugar in 
 a gill of water to a clear syrup, add the strained juice of 
 a large lemon and half a wineglassful of sherry. 
 
 When a superior sauce is provided for a pudding of 
 this description, a satisfactory result will be obtained by 
 using stale bread instead of ratafias and sponge biscuits. 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 Buttered Eggs. — Break two eggs into a basin and 
 beat them lightly with pepper and salt, and half a gill 
 of milk or cream, or half milk and half stock may be 
 
166 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 used. Melt a little piece of butter the size of a filbert 
 in an enamelled saucepan, pour in the eggs, and keep 
 stirring them one way over a gentle fire until they begin 
 to thicken ; then lift the pan from the fire, and stir again 
 until they are lightly set. If allowed to remain on the 
 fire too long, the eggs will be leathery, hard, and indi- 
 gestible. Turn the mass upon a slice of well-made 
 toast, sprinkle chopped parsley on the top, and serve 
 at once. 
 
 Sardines. — These fish furnish a veiy acceptable relish 
 for breakfast, and they are much liked. They may be 
 drained from the oil in which they are preserved, and 
 eaten with bread and butter, or they may be more 
 daintily prepared as follows : — 
 
 Drain the sardines, remove the skin and the tail, 
 split them in halves, and remove the bone. Put the 
 fillets of flesh on freshly made toast, and sprinkle grated 
 Parmesan lightly on the surface. Set the toast in the 
 oven till hot, and serve. 
 
 Stewed Prunes and Cream. — Stewed prunes are very 
 wholesome, and when eaten with cream they are very 
 nourishing. They are never more valuable than when 
 taken at breakfast-time. 
 
 Prunes vary much in quality. Those which are dry 
 and hard should be soaked for twenty-four hours before 
 being stewed ; the softer, plumper sorts do not need this 
 preliminary soaking, although they should be washed in 
 warm water and drained. Allow a pint of cold water 
 and a cupful of loaf-sugar for each pound of prunes, and 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 167 
 
 simmer tJbe fruit very slowly and gently for a couple of 
 hours or more, until quite tender and well swollen. If 
 liked, an inch of lemon-rind, a couple of cloves, or the 
 juice of a lemon may be added to the syrup. When the 
 fruit is ready, drain it and put it in a glass dish ; then 
 boil the syrup till it is thick. Half a glass of claret is 
 sometimes added. Stewed prunes are improved with 
 keeping for a few hours before being used. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 Beef Stew. — Take as much lean uncooked beef, that 
 has been trimmed from a joint to suit convenience, as 
 will fill a teacup. Free it from skin, gristle, and bones, 
 and cut it into small pieces. Provide also a teaspoonf ul of 
 onion, chopped finely, a moderate-sized turnip cut into 
 dice, and the red part of a large carrot scraped to pulp. 
 Melt a little dripping in a saucepan, and fry the meat in 
 it for two or three minutes to brown it ; take it up, and 
 fry also the cut^up vegetables. Put them with the meat, 
 and barely cover with stock or water. Simmer very 
 gently for an hour, put in three moderate-sized potatoes 
 that have been cut into cubes ; simmer half an hour 
 longer, and serve very hot. One or two croutons or 
 pieces of bread fried in hot fat will be an improvement 
 to this stew. If beef of a coarse tissue is used, it will 
 need to stew longer. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Ox-Tail Soup. — Joint a good sized ox-tail, and cut it 
 into inch and a half lengths. Trim away the fat, and 
 
168 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 fry the pieces in a stewpan with a little dripping for five 
 minutes, or till they are lightly browned. Pour over 
 them two quarts of stock or water. Bring the liquor to 
 a boil, and throw in a teaspoonful of salt. Skim it care- 
 fully, and put with it a small carrot, a turnip, an onion, 
 with two cloves, a blade of mace, half a small teaspoonful 
 of dried savoury herbs, six peppercorns, and a stick of 
 celery. Stew gently for two hours and a half. Strain 
 the stock, and put the pieces of ox-tail into cold water to 
 set the fat, and so facilitate its removal. Melt an ounce 
 and a half of butter in a small stewpan, mix a table- 
 spoonful of flour smoothly with it, and add the stock 
 gi'adually. Let the soup simmer by the side of the fire 
 ** to throw oS the grease," and skim away the fat as it 
 rises. Make the meat hot in the soup. Just before 
 serving add a spoonful of liquid browning, a few drops 
 of lemon-juice, and a glass of port. . In cold weather this 
 soup will keep good two or three days, and a portion can 
 be made hot as required. It is very nourishing and 
 sustaining. 
 
 Broiled Chicken. — When a special dinner has to be 
 provided for the invalid of the family, and when a 
 chicken is the dish chosen, it is a good plan to divide the 
 bird in halves, and cook the two portions differently on 
 separate days. An excellent dish may be made by 
 broiling one of these portions, according to the following 
 recipe. The other half may with advantage be made 
 into a fricassee, the recipe for preparing which is given 
 at p. 170. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 169 
 
 A broiled chicken requires care. Unless the bird 
 is quite young it should be partially cooked in the 
 oven before being placed on the gridiron, otherwise it 
 will be underdone in parts. Pick and singe the chicken, 
 and divide it evenly quite through ; then cleanse it 
 thoroughly ; cut oflf the head and neck, and the first 
 joints of the feet, and if it is necessary to wash the bird, 
 be sure to dry it perfectly afterwards with a napkin. 
 This being done, put the half-chicken in good position, 
 and make it as flat as possible, so that the heat of 
 the fire may reach every part equally, and also that 
 there may be no danger of its sprawling in the dish. A 
 little while before it is to be cooked, oil it all over, 
 or brush it over with warm butter; then put it on 
 the gridiron over a clear fire, bones downwards, and 
 keep it well basted. Turn it three or four times during 
 the process of cooking, and begin to turn as soon as 
 the gravy oozes out. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, and 
 serve. It will take about twenty-five minutes. The 
 bird will be more easily cooked in a hanging grill in 
 front of the fire than it will be on a gridiron over the 
 fire. This method of cooking a chicken is not easy, but 
 when successfully managed it is always liked. 
 
 When a chicken cannot conveniently be broiled over 
 or before the fire, it may be baked in the oven, in 
 imitation of broiling. When this is to be done, divide 
 the bird, or, if liked, simply take a wing and part of the 
 breast from a young chicken. Should there be any doubt 
 as to the tenderness of the bird, lay the piece on a 
 
170 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 gridiron or toaster, set it over a pan of boiling water, 
 cover it, and let it steam for half an hour before broiling. 
 This done, lay it in a warm dripping-tin, put it in a 
 moderately hot oven, and turn it two or three times, and 
 baste it by rubbing it all over with butter tied in muslin 
 each time it is turned. 
 
 A piquant sauce for serving with broiled or roast 
 chicken may be made by mixing together two table- 
 spoonfuls of melted butter with one tablespoonful of 
 vinegar, a saltspoonful of mustard, the same of white 
 sugar, and a little pepper and salt. Heat to the point of 
 boiling, pour over the chicken, cover closely for five 
 minutes, and serve. 
 
 Fricassee of Chicken. — Stew the portion of chicken 
 until tender in stock or water. Cut it into neat joints 
 and set it aside for a short time. Take a tumblerful of the 
 broth in which it was stewed, and boil therein one large 
 onion, or half-a-dozen small ones, half a bay-leaf, a small 
 bunch of herbs, pepper and salt, until the broth is 
 reduced by one half. Mix a small dessertspoonful of 
 flour to a smooth paste with cream or milk; after strain- 
 ing, mix the flavoured stock with it, and stir the sauce 
 over the fire till thick. Put the pieces of chicken into 
 the sauce, let them get hot through without boiling, 
 and serve. 
 
 Potato Puff. — Peel and boil three large potatoes. 
 When soft, dry, and mealy, beat them briskly with a 
 little salt and a tablespoonful of butter till white and 
 creamy. Add the yolk of au Qgg well beaten and a 
 
FOB OOMMON AILMENTS. 171 
 
 tablespoonful of cream or milk. About twenty minutes 
 before the potato is wanted, whisk the white of the 
 egg to a firm froth, mix it lightly with the mashed 
 potato ; turn the preparation into a deep dish, and 
 bake quickly till brown. If successfully prepared, the 
 potato will be light, puffy, and palatable. 
 
 Spinach. — See p. 131. 
 
 Mice with Apricots. — This dish should be prepared 
 the day before it is to be used. Put a dessertspoonful of 
 gelatine to soak in a tablespoonful of water. Wash two 
 tablespoonfuls of Carolina rice in one or two waters (this 
 will get rid of the superfluous starch, and thus make the 
 rice less liable to burn) ; then cook it with an inch 
 of stick cinnamon in a pint of milk. Let it simmer 
 gently and slowly in a saucepan by the side of the fire 
 for two or three hours, and add more milk from time 
 to time until a pint and a half has been used. Take out 
 the cinnamon, stir in two ounces of white sugar and the 
 gelatine melted, and mix well. Add last thing three- 
 pennyworth of cream which has been whipped till thick. 
 This cream is not indispensable, of course, but it makes 
 a wonderful improvement. Take a plain tin mould with 
 straight sides ; rinse it in cold water and leave it wet, 
 and set a gallipot, with a weight inside to keep it down, 
 in the middle. Put the rice in the space around the 
 gallipot, and leave it to set. Next day remove the 
 gallipot, turn the rice on a glass dish, put stewed apricots 
 or other stewed fi-uit in the centre, additional fruit 
 around, and pour the syrup over all. If a second three- 
 
172 DIET AND OOOKERY. 
 
 pennyworth of cream is not considered extravagant, it 
 may be whipped and piled upon the fruit. It is to 
 be remembered that to whip cream not only makes it 
 taste richer, but also increases its bulk. 
 
 Any suitable fruit may be used to garnish rice pre- 
 pared thus, although apricots are perhaps to be preferred 
 above all ; and when fresh fruit is not to be had, bottled 
 fruit can be used. The fruit should be gently simmered 
 in a syrup made of sugar and water, and taken up before 
 it is soft enough to lose shape. It should be cooked 
 in a porcelain or earthenware vessel, not in a metal 
 saucepan. 
 
EICKETS. 
 
 This affection does not represent a vice or tendency 
 of the sj^stem, but, rather, it is the outcome of a 
 vicious method of bringing up. The dietetic 
 problem is to substitute a healthy regimen for one 
 that is unhealthy, at the same time that the ill- 
 effects already produced are combated in other 
 ways. 
 
 Rickets belongs essentially to childhood — a time 
 of Hfe when simplicity of diet should obtain, and 
 foods require little preparation beyond the right 
 degree of cooking. Elaborate diet tables are there- 
 fore not required, and for this reason, as well as the 
 further reason that the case of rickets should be 
 under the doctor's care, and not leave his hands, 
 we shall pass it over. 
 
 It should be added that bad hygiene of all kinds, 
 and all agencies tending to depress the health, may 
 probably engender rickets, so that the disease needs 
 attacking from this point of view also — indeed, must 
 be looked at all round. 
 
SCUEYY. 
 
 As in the case of rickets, we have to deal with the 
 results of a dietetic error, and not with any consti- 
 tutional predisposition. The organism does not 
 make for scurvy or for rickets, though it may be 
 compelled in either direction. Scurvy is very greatly 
 a disease of the past, and it was incidental to pro- 
 longed sea voyages, and circumstances of whatever 
 nature which made difficult the obtaining of fresh 
 food, animal and vegetable. 
 
 The production of scurvy was an experiment in 
 dietetics which at one time was made on a large 
 scale. Now its occurrence belongs to the rarities ; 
 but every now and then — especially in large towns 
 — human beings are found ignorant of the first 
 principles of feeding, and in themselves or in their 
 children they may produce scurvy. Sometimes it 
 is the misfortune of the dietetic possibilities or im- 
 possibilities, rather than any fault of the individual. 
 
 The cure of scurvy needs no diet tables: the 
 
DIET AND COOKERY. 175 
 
 readmission of fresh food — animal and vegetable 
 — to the dietary suffices so far as aliment can cure ; 
 what remains over and above belongs to the 
 doctor. 
 
 To a condition met with in childhood, and pre- 
 senting some of the features of both scurvy and 
 rickets, and named scurvy-rickets, similar remarks 
 will apply. 
 
SCEOFULA, CONSUMPTION, ETC. 
 
 With these affections we return to diseases which 
 are the result — in part, at any rate — of a pre- 
 disposition of the tissues — of a vice of the system. 
 However we may look at this question, and what- 
 ever credit we may give to modern develop- 
 ments of the tubercle bacillus theory, it becomes 
 abundantly evident that it takes two to play 
 at the game of scrofula, or tubercle — the bacillus 
 on the one hand, undoubtedly, but as undoubtedly 
 the tissue tendency on the other. 
 
 These diseases are marked by the occurrence of 
 yellowish nodules in certain of the tissues. The 
 tendency of these nodules is towards softening, with 
 breaking down of the tissues in which they are em- 
 bedded. The lymphatic glands may be involved, 
 and we have the so-called " kernels " of scrofula. 
 Disfiguring scars often mark the site of past ulcera- 
 tions caused by such. The bones and joints may 
 be implicated, and bone and joint disease result. 
 The lungs may be the seat of the mischief, and 
 
DIET AND COOKERY. 177 
 
 pulmonary consumption ensue. Other parts of 
 the body may suffer, but scrofula and consumption 
 are the best and most familiar examples of this 
 tuberculous affection. 
 
 Of the two factors concerned in the production 
 of tubercle, we shall with difficulty escape the one 
 — the bacillus — though we may much diminish the 
 chances of infection by hygienic measures ; but as 
 to the other factor, we may hope, by a careful 
 building up of the tissues, even after the invasion 
 of the body, to enable the organism to withstand or 
 overcome the poison. t 
 
 In the front rank of measures adapted to this 
 end is a suitable dietary. This should be mixed, 
 and as generous as the patient can take. Again 
 we must warn, that we do not mean by this highly- 
 spiced and rich foods, with pastry, cake, etc. — the 
 plainer the better, so long as the patient partakes 
 satisfactorily ; but patients of the consumptive class 
 are often extremely fastidious, and little dishes as 
 tempting as possible may be called for. We would 
 warn against the free use of pepper and hke con- 
 diments, inasmuch as the larynx may share in the 
 affection, and the act of swallowinor be the more 
 
178 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 likely to provoke a cough if the food be at all 
 of an irritating character. 
 
 Such lar3aigeal irritability will be absent in many 
 cases of consumption, but when present and ex- 
 cessive it will demand direct medical treatment. It 
 will be found in such cases that soft foods — e.^. 
 gruel, arrowroot, soft milk-puddings, thickened 
 milk, jellies, etc. — are easiest swallowed. 
 
 There are no special avoidances in the dieting 
 of the scrofulous and consumptive. From each class 
 we may select and get as much variety as we can, 
 and, if need be, the help of wine, beer, or spirits 
 may be called in to assist the appetite or to stay the 
 stomach."^ There are, however, special indications 
 for fats and fatty foods to the extent of their 
 tolerance — butter, cream, etc. Should the diet not 
 agree, we may, by the aid of a ferment — e.g. pan- 
 creatine in some of its many preparations — ^help out 
 the digestion. The use of the ferments is a growing 
 one, though it hardly yet belongs to the kitchen. 
 
 Of great value in the treatment of all forms of 
 
 * Where there is laryngeal irritability, wine and beer may 
 cause much pain in the act of swallowing : in such cases we 
 should dilute the wine with water, and we may give it warmed 
 — the beer also should be tried warmed. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 179 
 
 tuberculous disease is milk, but it should be given 
 in la-rge quantity, and it should be added to, not 
 taken in the place of, other food. Thus " one to two 
 glasses of milk may be taken during and shortl}^ 
 after each meal " ; and in many cases, especially of 
 consumption, a glass of warmed milk, with or with- 
 out a little rum or brandy, will be of great value in 
 the early morning, about five or six. This early 
 hour is often a period of great physical depression. 
 Consumptive patients often suffer from aliment- 
 ary complications — irritable stomach, diarrhoea, 
 etc. — ^but the treatmenfc of these, from a dietetic 
 point of view, will differ in no wise from the treat- 
 ment of like conditions in non-consumptive people, 
 and, moreover, these complications will mostly call 
 for direct medical supervision ; we shall therefore 
 pass them over here. 
 
 If there be any tendency to feverishness, this 
 mil, in the great majority of cases, tend to show 
 itself towards the late afternoon or evening. In 
 such cases it will be well to make the more sub- 
 stantial meals in the morning and at mid-day — 
 i.e. during the absence of fever. If there be any 
 degree of fever, the case needs medical supei-vision. 
 
180 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 DIETARY TABLES FOR SCROFULA, CON- 
 SUMPTION, ETC. 
 
 First Uay, 
 
 Tea, etc., with Porridge and Milk. 
 Kidneys and Bacon. Savoury Eggs. Toast 
 Baked Apple. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Sausage Cakes, with Savoury Rice and Apple Sauce. 
 
 Little Butter Puddings. 
 
 Dinner. 
 Haricot Soup. Cutlets a la Reforme. Potato Snow. 
 Vegetable Marrow Saut^, 
 Amber Pudding. 
 
 Second Day, 
 
 Breakfast, 
 
 Tea, etc. Porridge. Mutton CoUops with Tomato. 
 
 Cream Toast. 
 
 Luncheon, 
 Oysters and Brown Bread. Baked Princesse Pudding, 
 
 with Cream. 
 
 Dinner. 
 Fillets of Sole, with Maitre d'Hdtel Sauce. 
 
 Grenadines of Veal, larded. 
 
 Potato Cakes. Asparagus. 
 
 Chocolate Puddinar. Cuytard Sauce. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS 181 
 
 RECIPES. 
 
 First Day. 
 
 Breakfast, 
 Tea.—^QQ p. 81. 
 
 Porridge. — Oatmeal porridge is exceedingly wholesome 
 and nourishing food, and people who can take it are 
 almost sure to benefit by it. It is very easy of digestion, 
 and constitutes most valuable food, but unfortunately 
 not everyone can enjoy it. Its acceptability depends 
 very much upon the way in which it is made. Yet 
 there are many ways of making porridge, and many sorts 
 of porridge, and the sort that suits one person does not 
 suit every person. Moreover, we generally find that 
 people who have been accustomed to one way of making 
 it have a contempt for every other method, and they are 
 almost inclined to extend the scorn to the individuals 
 who adopt it. Four recipes for making porridge are 
 here given, and all have been highly approved by experts. 
 For invalid use, however, the fourth recipe is specially 
 recommended here, because the long boiling renders the 
 meal exceedingly digestible. Moreover, porridge pre- 
 pared by recipe No. 4 is very delicate, and when taken 
 A^ith cream it is quite a dainty. It must be understood 
 that there are three kinds of oattiieal — "coarse," 
 ••medium," and "fine." Individual taste must deter- 
 mine which of the three varieties shall be preferred. 
 
182 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 ]^o. 1. — Put as much water as is likely to be wanted 
 in a saucepan with salt. When it boils, sprinkle medium 
 oatmeal into it with the left hand, and at the same time 
 beat it with the right hand until the required thickness 
 is obtained. (As tastes differ very much about the 
 degree of consistency desirable, it is not possible to say 
 how much oatmeal should be used.) When this point 
 is reached, set the pan on the hottest part of the fire, and 
 boil quickly for about ten minutes. 
 
 No. 2. — Put a quarter of a pound of fine oatmeal 
 with a little salt into a bowl, and add cold water 
 gradually to make a smooth paste. Turn this into a 
 saucepan containing a pint of boiling water ; stir to the 
 boil, and continue boiling for about half an hour, stirring 
 frequently to prevent the formation of lumps. 
 
 ]^o. 3. — Put salted water into a saucepan, and when 
 the water boils quickly, stir in gradually coarse oatmeal 
 till the required thickness is obtained. If any lumps 
 form during the process, draw them to the side of the 
 pan and crush them out. Draw the pan back a little, 
 put on the lid, and let the contents simmer gently till 
 wanted. The longer the better. An hour's simmering 
 is none too long, but the porridge must be stirred 
 frequently during this period to keep it from burning to 
 the pan ; and each time after being stii-red the lid must 
 be put on the pan again. When porridge can be long 
 boiled, less oatmeal is requu-ed, because the simmering 
 swells the oatmeal, and makes it go twice as far. 
 
 1;q 4. — Login to Uiiike the povriJge early in the 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 183 
 
 morning of the day before it is wanted. A porridge- 
 pan or double saucepan is best for making porridge 
 thus. It prevents any danger of burning. Put six 
 tablespoonfuls of coarse oatmeal into the double pan 
 with a pinch of salt, and let it soak for some hours 
 till the kitchen range is at liberty. Fill the pan with 
 boiling water, stirring it well, and keep the water boiling 
 in the outer pan till bedtime, or for about four hours, 
 stirring the meal occasionally. Last thing before retiring 
 for the night, stir it well, cover it, and leave it. In the 
 morning put it on the fire, and let it get hot through. 
 Porridge cooked thus is not at all troublesome to make ; 
 it is simply allowed to cook itself. 
 
 Kidneys and Bacon. — Allow a rasher of bacon for 
 each kidney. Skin and core the kidney, and cut it into 
 rather thin slices the round way. Mix on a plate a 
 tablespoonful of flour, a saltspoonful of salt, and half a 
 saltspoonful of pepper, and dip each slice in the mixture. 
 Melt a little bacon fat or butter in the frying-pan, and 
 fry the bacon very gently over a slow fire, turning it 
 repeatedly. When done, take up the bacon, put it on a 
 hot dish, and fry the slices of kidney in the same fat. 
 In one minute turn them j in about four minutes they 
 will be done enough, and may be put on the dish with 
 the bacon. They should be slightly underdone ; and 
 unless slowly and gently cooked, will be unwholesome. 
 Pour off nearly all the fat, mix a little flour with the 
 remainder to make a smooth paste, add gradually as 
 much stock or water aa wiiJ make a thick sauce, stir 
 
184 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 this over the fire till it boils, and strain it over the 
 kidneys. 
 
 A dessertspoonful of ketchup can be added to the 
 fiance, if approved. 
 
 Savoury Eygs. — Provide a small tin mould, such as a 
 dariole-mould or deep patty-pan, for each egg. Butter 
 the tin well inside, and cover the bottom with a savoury 
 mixture made of a slice of cold boiled ham or bacon (fat 
 and lean together), a little chopped parsley, pepper, and 
 salt. It may be calculated that two ounces of bacon and 
 a teaspoonful of parsley will be sufficient for three eggs. 
 Break one egg carefully into each tin, place the tins side 
 by side in a saucepan of fast-boiling salted water, and 
 poach them gently until the white is set. If boiled 
 quickly, tlie eggs will be hard, and the white full of holes ; 
 whereas, it should be soft and smooth. Have ready in 
 a hot dish small circles of toasted bread, one for each 
 egg. Turn the eggs carefully on these, and serve. If 
 liked, a small piece of ham can be substituted for the 
 toast. 
 
 Toast— ^QQ p. 85. 
 
 Baked Apple. — See p. 89. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 Sausage Cakes. — Sausages have a bad name, because 
 they can be easily — and as bought, frequently are — mixed 
 with inferior material. Yet they are generally liked, 
 especially by invalids, because they can be eaten with 
 little trouble, and are convenient, and easy of digestion. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 185 
 
 Moreover, when the skins are dispensed with, and when 
 there is a mincing machine in the house, they can be 
 made at home with the greatest facility, as the skins are 
 generally considered specially objectionable by fastidious 
 eaters, and as mincing machines are now largely used. 
 Consequently, sausage-cakes ought to be very popular. 
 They can be made of any good trimmings of meat, and 
 are usually much liked when a mixture of meats enters 
 into their composition. It is possible to make them from 
 any high-class fragments of trimmings of joints that are 
 available. 
 
 Take as much meat as is likely to be needed, remove 
 the gristle, skin and sinew, and mince it till it is tolerably 
 fine with half its weight of fat and a small proportion 
 of bread-crumbs. Season it well with pepper and salt. 
 Make it into flat, round cakes, about half an inch thick; 
 flour these, and fry them for about ten minutes in a little 
 butter or bacon fat. Serve very hot. 
 
 Savoury rice is often liked with meat prepared thus, 
 and if the cakes are made wholly or partially of pork, a 
 little apple sauce is a relishing accompaniment. 
 
 Savoury Rice. — Wash a heaped tablespoonful of rice, 
 and stew it gently with a cupful of beef or chicken broth, 
 an onion, and some seasoning. When soft, mix with it 
 a cupful of milk and an egg ; put it in a small greased 
 pie-dish, and bake in a gentle oven till brown. 
 
 Apple Sauce. — Peel, core, and quarter one or two 
 good baking apples, put them in a basin, cover closely, 
 and set the vessel in a saucepan surrounded with boiling 
 
186 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 water. Let the fruit steam till it falls ; mix a little 
 sugar and a tiny piece of butter with it, and serve The 
 time required for cooking the apples will vary with the 
 variety. If time is an object, they may be baked or 
 boiled instead of being steamed, as they will be more 
 quickly done. To steam them, however, is an excellent 
 way of preparing them. 
 
 Little Batter Puddings. — Put two tablespoonfuls of 
 flour and a pinch of salt into a basin, and mix it very 
 smoothly with cold milk to a smooth paste, adding more 
 milk to make up half a pint, and the beaten yolk of an 
 egg. A few minutes before the puddings are to be 
 baked, whisk the white of the egg till firm, and turn 
 it into the batter, endeavoui'ing not to break the air- 
 bubbles while doing so. Butter two or three large 
 patty-pans, half fill with the batter, and bake in a quick 
 oven. Turn the puddings out, lay a spoonful of jam in 
 the centre of each, and serve hot. This batter will be 
 much lighter if it is mixed two or three hours before 
 it is wanted. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Haricot Soup. — This soup is particularly nourishing 
 and wholesome. Soak two tablespoonfuls of white oi 
 red haricots in water to cover them overnight. (If the 
 preliminary process has been forgotten, it may be omit- 
 ted, but the haricots will need to boil so much longer.) 
 Next day put the beans into a saucepan with a pint of 
 stock, a slice of onion, a little knob of butter, pepper, 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 187 
 
 and salt, and let them cook gently till quite soft. Rub 
 them with the liquor through a hair sieve ; make the 
 soup hot, and mix with it when boiling a quarter of a 
 pint of boiling cream, or milk if cream is not allowed. 
 Serve at once with fried croutons. 
 
 Crodtons for Soup, — Cut stale bread into quarter- 
 inch dice. Place these on a greased dripping-tin, and 
 bake till crisp and brown. Set them on kitchen paper 
 to free them from superfluous fat, and serve. Bread 
 thus prepared is, for soup, much superior to toasted 
 bread cut into dice. 
 
 Cutlets with Reforme Sauce. — ^This dish is a simple, 
 modified, and easily prepared presentation of the cele- 
 brated and somewhat elaborate dish, Cutlets k la 
 Reforme. It is, however, appetising and likely to be 
 acceptable to an invalid. 
 
 Mutton Cutlets are generally taken from the neck of 
 mutton. When bought ready trimmed of the butcher, 
 they are rather expensive ; but when prepared at home 
 they are profitable, because the trimmings taken off raw 
 can be utilised to the last scrap, and thus there need be 
 no waste with them. To prepare the cutlets at home we 
 need only to procure the best end of a neck of mutton, 
 to chop off the thick part of the chine bone, to saw off 
 about three inches of the rib bones, to separate into cut- 
 lets by cutting slantwise to the left, to detach all skinny 
 parts, little pieces of bone, and rough edges there may 
 be, and to make the ends as neatly rounded as we can. 
 If we intend to put a frill on the bone, we scrape away about 
 
188 DIET ANV COOKERY 
 
 an inch of the meat from the end of the bone, and leave the 
 bone bare ; but our aim should be to make the cutlet as 
 smooth, flat, even, and neat as possible. So far as size 
 is concerned, it is well to remember that an ideal cutlet 
 is three- eighths of an inch thick, three inches long, two 
 inches broad in the middle, neatly rounded at the chine 
 end, with a bare bone protruding beyond the meat. A 
 neck of mutton is a valuable joint to have in a house 
 where there is an invalid, because, so long as it is sweet, 
 it improves with hanging in a cool, airy situation, and if 
 cutlets are taken from it as they are wanted, they can 
 be served with diflferent sauces, and thus variety of fare 
 is easily secured. It is important to remember, however, 
 when a neck of mutton is to be used in this way, that 
 the cutlets should not be separated until they are wanted. 
 If they are, the meat will get dry. 
 
 There are two or three ways of cooking mutton cut- 
 lets for invalids. Either they may be plainly broiled, 
 or they may be egged, breaded, and broiled, or they may 
 be saute (that is, fried in a little fat), or fried in a sauce- 
 pan with a good depth of fat ; or they may be cooked in 
 the oven, or toasted before the fire in a Dutch oven. 
 When there is a frying-saucepan of a good depth 
 available, perhaps the method to be preferred is that of 
 frying in a good depth of fat. Nor need it be supposed 
 that a cutlet thus cooked will necessarily be greasy. If 
 dropped into very hot fat — fat that is so hot that it is 
 still, and a blue fume rises from it — they will at once 
 become encased in a coatincj, which will serve to keep in 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 189 
 
 the juices, and prevent the grease from penetrating to 
 the interior. The cutlet will be cooked through in a 
 minute or two ; as soon as it is brown it will be done. 
 It may then be laid on kitchen paper, and thus any 
 superabundant grease which may cling to the outer surface 
 will be absorbed. The fat used in this operation can be 
 used again and again, if it is strained after being used 
 once or twice, and clarified or washed in boiling water 
 occasionally. It is, perhaps, superfluous to add that after 
 clarification it must first be allowed to go cold, then have 
 the impurities which will settle in a cake at the bottom 
 scraped away. Afterwards it should be gently melted 
 down again in the oven, for the purpose of expelling any 
 watery particles that may still cling to it. 
 
 Cutlets that are to be fried in deep fat may either be 
 egged and breaded or simply rubbed over with flour to 
 secure dryness. They are better to be egged and breaded 
 an hour or two before they are fried. The crumbs must 
 be stale, fine, and even. 
 
 Reforme Sauce. — For one or two chops take a small 
 teacupful of ordinary thick brown sauce. Put into it 
 two tablespoonfuls of port, a tablespoonful of red currant 
 jelly, half a teaspoonful of anchovy, a few drops of tar- 
 ragon vinegar, and, if it is to be had, a dessertspoonful of 
 tomato. Make this hot over the fire, and serve poured 
 over the cutlet. 
 
 Broion Sauce. — If there is no brown sauce in the 
 house, a small quantity may be made as follows. Melt 
 a piece of glaze the size of a walnut in half a pint of 
 
190 DIET AND COOKE BT 
 
 water, and for the sake of the flavour boil in it a slice 
 of onion and half a carrot cut small, a pinch of mixed 
 herbs, and a tiny knob of sugar. When agreeably 
 flavoured, strain the liquid ; thicken it with a table- 
 spoonful of flour mixed till smooth with cold water, 
 boil it, and add a few drops of browning if necessary. 
 
 Or simmer any trimmings or bones there may be in 
 water till half a pint of good stock is obtained ; add glaze 
 or Liebig's Extract, and proceed £is above. It is always 
 desirable to use stock rather than water when making 
 sauces for invalids, who are in need of nourishing food. 
 
 Potato Snow. — Boil two or three potatoes in the 
 usual way (see p. 148). When dry and floury, rub 
 them quickly through a wire sieve, or a potato-strainer, 
 so that they shall fall in flakes. Sprinkle chopped 
 parsley on the top, and serve at once without disturb- 
 ing them. 
 
 Vegetable Marrow SautS. — As commonly served, 
 vegetable marrow is very much of a fraud. It comes to 
 table immersed in water, and more water runs from it 
 as it stands ; then the water becomes cold, and mixes 
 with the sauce, and the result is not agreeable. The 
 fact is that vegetable marrow is composed largely of 
 water, and special care is needed to make it dry. The 
 following method will probably give satisfaction. Choose 
 a moderate-sized marrow, pierce it in three or four places 
 with a skewer or a knitting-needle, and an hour or two 
 before it is wanted put it into fast-boiling salted water, 
 and boil it whole with the skin on. When soft, take it 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 191 
 
 up, skin it, remove the seeds, cut it into sections, and 
 leave it to drain for a while. A few minutes before 
 it is wanted, melt a knob of butter, or sweet dripping, in 
 a stewpan, put in the slices of marrow, and shake over 
 the fire till hot through and crisp. Put the pieces of 
 marrow on a slice of toast, pour melted butter over, and 
 serve hot. 
 
 Amher Pudding. — Peel, core, and quarter two large 
 apples, and put them in a stewpan with an ounce of 
 butter, an ounce of sugar, an inch of lemon-rind, and 
 a spoonful of lemon-juice, and let them stew till soft. 
 Rub them through a sieve, and mix with them the well- 
 beaten yolk of an e^g. Butter and sugar a small pie- 
 dish rather thickly, and sprinkle bread-crumbs on the 
 butter. Pour in the apple, and bake in a moderate 
 oven for about a quarter of an hour. Whisk the white 
 of the egg till firm, pile it on the pudding, sprinkle 
 castor sugar on the top, and return to the oven for a few 
 minutes till the icing is set. Serve at once. This 
 pudding is generally liked with cream. 
 
 Second JDay, 
 
 Breakfast, 
 Mutton CoUops with Tomatoes. — When there is a 
 shoulder of mutton uncooked in the larder, an acceptable 
 breakfast for an invalid may be obtained by taking one 
 or two slices from the lean meat which lies underneath 
 the shoulder, and which is very sweet and delicate. Cut 
 
192 VIET AND COOKERY 
 
 the meat thin, pepper and salt it, and lay it in a frying- 
 pan with a little butter melted. Oook it slowly, and 
 turn it again and again till done enough. If gently 
 cooked, it will be tasty and good ; but if quickly cooked, 
 it will be hard. A couple of ripe tomatoes, which have 
 been baked in a pie-dish till soft, will be an excellent 
 accompaniment to the mutton. 
 
 Cream Toast. — Cut three slices of stale light bread, 
 and toast them a delicate brown. Butter well while 
 hot; salt the toast liberally, and place the slices one 
 upon another in an earthenware or silver dish that will 
 stand the heat of the oven, and can be sent to table. 
 Pour on boiling milk to cover the toast entirely, put the 
 lid on the dish, and leave it in the oven for five minutes, 
 by which time the toast will probably have absorbed 
 the milk. Lift the slices carefully with a knife, and put 
 a tablespoonful of thick cream on each, cover the dish 
 affain and return to the oven for ten minutes. Serve 
 at once. The toast should be tasty, light, and very 
 digestible and nourishing. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Oysters and Brown Bread. — See p. 94. 
 
 Baked Princesse Budding. — Soak two ounces of fine 
 bread-crumbs in two tablespoonfuls of sherry and an 
 equal measure of cream. When the liquid is absorbed, 
 add a beaten egg. Put the mixture into a dish and 
 bake. Serve with cream and jam. If the pudding 
 made from this recipe is cousidered over-rich or too 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS, 193 
 
 extravagant, the following formula may be substituted. 
 Boil a gill of milk with a thin piece of lemon- rind, 
 and, when well flavoured, pour it scalding hot upon two 
 ounces of stale bread-crumbs. Add an ounce of butter, 
 an ounce of sugar, and the well-beaten yolk of an 
 egg. Put a tablespoonful of jam at the bottom of a 
 small pie-dish, pour the pudding mixture over it, and 
 bake in a quick oven till the pudding is set and lightly 
 browned. Whisk the white of the egg to a stiff froth, 
 pile it on the pudding in broken lumps, sprinkle a little 
 moist sugar on it, and return it to the oven to acquire 
 colour and firmness. If preferred, threepennyworth of 
 whipped cream may be used to garnish the pudding 
 instead of the white of egg: 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Rolled Fillets of Sole d, la Mattre d' Hotel. — Fillet a 
 pair of soles (see p. 86), and stew the bones, skin, 
 etc., in half a pint of water, to make fish stock. Grease 
 a baking-tin with butter. Roll each fillet with the 
 shiny skin inside, and fasten the ends with a small 
 skewer. Arrange them on the tin, sprinkle over them a 
 little salt and pepper and a few drops of lemon-juice 
 Butter a piece of kitchen paper, and lay it on the rolls to 
 keep them from burning. Put them in the oven for six 
 or seven minutes. Drain the rolls on paper, arrange 
 them on a dish, and pour the sauce over. If the fish 
 were not drained the sauce would not coat it properly. 
 
194 VIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Maitre <V Hotel Sauce. — Melt an ounce of butter in 
 a stewpan, and mix three-quarters of an ounce of flour 
 smoothly with it. Strain the fish stock, pour it on 
 the panade, and stir the sauce till it boils and thickens. 
 Add a tablespoonful of cream, a few drops of lemon- 
 juice, pepper and salt. Pick, wash, and chop small the 
 leaves of a sprig of parsley, and add it to the sauce 
 the last thing. If there is no cream, boil the fish-bones 
 in milk instead of water. Lemon-juice will serve to 
 whiten the sauce. 
 
 Grenadines of Veal. — Take one pound of veal from 
 the best end of the fillet, or from the best end of 
 the neck. If the last-named joint is chosen, the meat 
 can be cut from the bones, and afterwards divided into 
 cutlets. The knuckle end of the leg will not be suitable 
 for the dish ; it will be too sine\^y. Remove the skin 
 from the veal, and divide it into rounds of an even size, 
 about four inches across and a third of an inch thick. 
 Dip a cutlet bat or broad-bladed knife into cold water, 
 and flatten the cutlets, and lard them somewhat thickly 
 on one side with strips of fat bacon an eighth of an 
 inch wide and an inch and a quarter long. Clean and 
 cut into small pieces the following vegetables : a small 
 carrot, a turnip, an onion, a stick of celery, a sprig 
 of parsley, thyme and marjoram, and put them at 
 the bottom of a stewpan, with a teaspoonful of whole 
 pepper and half a teaspoonful of salt. Lay the cutlets 
 on the top, larded side upwards, being careful that they 
 lie singly, and pour in sufficient stock to reach them, but 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 195 
 
 not to cover them. Cover the meat with a round of 
 buttered kitchen paper cut to fit the saucepan ; then put 
 the lid on the pan, and cook slowly for three-quarters of 
 an hour. Every now and again the paper must be lifted, 
 and the grenadines must be basted with the stock. At 
 the end of the time remove the lid of the pan and 
 the paper, and set the stewpan in the oven to brown the 
 cutlets. Strain the stock, and boil it quickly till thick 
 and strong. Arrange the grenadines in a circle, pour 
 the sauce over them, garnish with rolls of bacon, and 
 serve. The grenadines will look more attractive if they 
 are dished on a bed of mashed potatoes, and if dressed 
 vegetables (such as spinach or green peas, or a macedoine 
 or mixture of vegetables) are in the centre. If potatoes 
 are served thus, the potato cakes will scarcely be 
 required also. 
 
 Potato Cakes. — Boil some potatoes, and mash them 
 in the usual way with butter and milk. When smooth 
 and rather moist, form them into balls by shaking them 
 in a cup which has been dredged lightly with flour, turn 
 them upon a greased baking-tin, and flatten them. 
 Brush them over with milk, sprinkle bread-raspings on 
 them, and put them in the oven till hot and lightly 
 browned. Take up carefully with a slice, and serve hot. 
 
 Asparagus. — See p. 97. 
 
 Chocolate Pudding. — Boil four ounces of chocolate 
 in three tablespoonf uls of milk till quite smooth, and stir 
 in while hot an ounce of butter and a dessei-tspoonful of 
 sugar. Cool, then add the yolks of two eggs. Beat 
 
196 DIET AND COOKERY. 
 
 the whites to a firm froth, and fold them in gently 
 at the last moment. Whilst doing this try not to break 
 the air-bubbles. Pour the preparation into a small 
 greased pudding-mould, sprinkle an ounce of pounded 
 rusks to cover it, lay a round of buttered paper on 
 the top, and steam for about half an hour, or a little 
 more, till firm in the centre. Turn out carefully, and 
 serve with custard sauce poured over the pudding. 
 
 Custard Sauce. — Break an eg^ into a bowl, and beat 
 it till frothy. Pour over it half a pint of boiling milk ; 
 turn it into a jug placed in a saucepan of boiling water, 
 and stir over the fire till the custard coats the spoon. 
 Sweeten the sauce, and flavour it with two or thre^ 
 drops of vanilla. 
 
ANJEMIA. 
 
 The name signifies lack or poverty of blood ; but 
 whilst a variety of causes may bring the condition 
 about — e.g. loss of blood, exposure to unhealthy 
 conditions of Hfe, improper feeding, etc. — it is not 
 necessary that there should be any inherent 
 tendency in the organism towards a faulty blood 
 formation. Cases where this tendency is absent 
 recover for the most part quickly when they are 
 placed in favourable circumstances. On the other 
 hand, certain cases of anaemia express an inherent 
 defect in the powers of assimilation and of blood- 
 making, and they tend to develop under conditions 
 not in themselves unfavourable. 
 
 These cases— sometimes called essential anaemias 
 — may be very obstinate, and may demand special 
 methods of treatment, both dietetic and medicinal. 
 In the nature of their treatment the dietetic means 
 adopted will be very similar to that employed in 
 
198 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 those cases whicli own a sufficient cause, and may 
 therefore be styled secondary. 
 
 Most cases of primary anaemia are innocent 
 enough, however troublesome ; but certain cases 
 show a progressive character, from bad to worse, 
 and are so fatal in their tendency that they are 
 named "pernicious." This minority of cases are 
 probably fundamentally different from the great 
 majority, and we shall relegate them absolutely 
 to the medical man's care. The following remarks 
 will not apply to them. 
 
 The cause of anaemia appears to lie imme- 
 diately in a deficiency of iron in the blood, and 
 this deficiency itself seems to depend upon a 
 faulty assimilation of the nutritive principles sup- 
 phed to the body. These nutritive principles con- 
 tain iron, and the deficiency of this element in 
 the blood may be in spite of an abundance of iron 
 in the food : the organism, so far as iron is con- 
 cerned, starving in the midst of plenty. Very 
 frequently digestive disorders coexist, and these 
 may in part explain the faulty assimilation. The 
 digestive disturbances may require special dietetic 
 and drug treatment, but independently of such local 
 
FOE COMMON AILMENTS. 199 
 
 treatment, which is more or less temporary, and 
 independently of general treatment by hygienic 
 measures— by rest in bed, if necessary, etc.— we 
 may note the following points as to diet : — 
 
 (1) That the regimen should be as full as the 
 digestive powers can manage, due regard being paid 
 to the digestibility of the dishes. 
 
 (2) That variety is desii-able, but that we 
 should tend to accentuate the administration of 
 albuminous foods, and should also seek to give 
 fats, especially if there be wasting as well as 
 anaemia. 
 
 (3) That the dishes should be tasty and 
 attractive, without being rich or highly spiced. 
 The free use of salt and the moderate use of 
 condiments and flavouring agents seem useful 
 More incentives are required by an ahmentary 
 tract lacking in tone than by a healthy tract 
 
 (4) The use of alcohol in moderation, in the 
 form of wines (not beers, because of the dyspeptic 
 tendencies), may be expedient. Stimulants taken 
 thus will belong to the class of incentives, and they 
 must be taken either with food or immediately 
 before it. 
 
« 
 
 200 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Cases needing complete rest in bed and frequent 
 administration of food in excessive quantities will 
 not be considered. 
 
 It will be seen from the above that, provided 
 we keep to the more digestible forms of butcher's 
 meat, birds, fish, and farinaceous foods, and are 
 careful that all flour preparations are thoroughly 
 cooked by boiling or baking (which practically 
 means the exclusion of cakes and pastry of all 
 kinds), and that vegetables of all kinds are thor- 
 oughly cooked, we do not need to be much more 
 explicit. The limits of administration are the 
 limits of a digestion lacking in tone. (Consult later 
 the section on Dyspepsia.) Beside the ordinary 
 meals composed as above, the addition of milk to 
 the dietary — say, a tumbler after each meal — may 
 be tried. 
 
 As to suitable forms of alcohol, we would re- 
 commend a good claret or Burgundy, or a small 
 quantity of whisky, with water. 
 
 In most cases a course of medicinal treatment 
 will be necessary, and artificial aids to digestion 
 may also be required. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 201 
 
 DIETARY TABLES FOR ANiEMIA. 
 
 First Day. 
 
 Breakfast, 
 
 Tea, Coffee, or Cocoa, with plenty of Milk. 
 Buttered Eggs. Toast. Tomato Salad. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Mutton Stew, with Vegetables. Creamed Rice, boiled. 
 Stewed Rhubarb. Milk. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Tomato and Turnip Soup. Rump Steak. 
 
 Fried Potatoes. Cauliflow^er. 
 
 Blancmange, with Cream. 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Tea, Coffee, or Cocoa. Chicken Livers and Bacon ; 
 
 or Toasted Bacon, and a Soft-Boiled Egg. 
 
 Toast and Butter. Stewed Prunes, with Milk. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 Tripe k la Coutance. Creamed Rice, Baked. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Boiled Halibut. Parsley Sauce. Plain Mutton. 
 Baked Potatoes. Apple Charlotte. 
 
202 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 RECIPES. 
 
 First Day. 
 
 Brea kfast, 
 
 Tea.—^e^ p. 81. Coffee.—See p. 89. Cocoa— See 
 p. 124. Buttered Eggs. — See p. 165. Toast. — See p. 162. 
 Tomato Salad. — See p. 162. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Mutton Stew with Vegetables. — A tasty stew for 
 luncheon may be made of the rib part of neck of 
 mutton that is usually sawn oflf when cutlets are re- 
 quired for family use. Pepper and salt the meat, and 
 put it into a stewpan which has a close-fitting lid. 
 Butter the pan inside, and place thinly sliced Spanish 
 onions under and over the meat. Put the lid on the 
 pan, and stew softly by the side of the fire for an hour 
 or more, shaking the pan occasionally to be sure that the 
 meat is not sticking to the bottom. If gently cooked, 
 the onion will yield enough moisture to make gravy. 
 Take up the meat, draw out the bones, and divide the 
 flesh into neat shapes. Take up the onions also, put 
 half a tumbler of cold stock to the gravy, and remove 
 the fat ; thicken it with a little flour, put into it the 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 203 
 
 meat, a potato cut into balls or cubes, and the onions. 
 Simmer very gently for twenty minutes longer, till the 
 potatoes are done enough, and serve. 
 
 Boihd Creamed Rice. — Wash two tablespoonfuls of 
 rice in two or three waters. This preliminary operation 
 will free it from the loose flour, and make it less likely 
 to bum. Drain it and cook it in a porridge-pan or 
 double boiler with three-quarters of a pint of milk 
 (adding another spoonful or two of milk if necessary), 
 until the grains are well swollen and quite soft. The 
 rice should cook slowly, and should take about three 
 hours. When ready, press it through a coarse sieve. 
 Return it to the saucepan, and put it again on the fire. 
 Have ready two lightly beaten eggs. When the rice 
 boils, add the eggs gradually, stirring all the time, also a 
 little sugar and a pinch of salt ; continue stirring until 
 the Qgg is lightly set and thickens. Pour the rice into a 
 dish, and serve. 
 
 Stewed Rhuharh. — If young rhubarb can be procured, 
 it need not be skinned. Wash the stalks well, and cut 
 them into three-inch lengths. For a pound of fruit make 
 a syrup by boiling six ounces of loaf -sugar with a quarter 
 of a pint of water till clear. Put in the rhubarb, 
 and stew very gently until it is soft without having 
 fallen. As the pieces become soft, lift them one by one 
 carefully into a glass dish, and when all are done, let the 
 S3rrup cool. Add two or three drops of cochineal, and 
 pour the syrup over the fruit. Forced rhubarb looks 
 very attractive when cooked thus. 
 
204 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Dinner, 
 
 Tomato and Turnip Soup. — Cut up a pound of 
 turnips, one onion, and three tomatoes, and boil tliem 
 gently in about a quart of stock. Add either a slice of 
 crumb of bread or two potatoes. When the turnips are 
 tender, rub the mass through a fine sieve ; add pepper 
 and salt, make hot, and serve. This soup should be as; 
 thick as double cream. If thicker add a little more stock. 
 
 Rump Steak. — Procure a slice of steak about an inch 
 and a half thick, and of even thickness throughout. In 
 order to broil well, it is necessary to have a clear, bright 
 fire ; and whenever broiling has to be done, judgment 
 has to be exercised concerning the condition of the fire, 
 and usually it has to be looked after a little time before 
 it is wanted. In frosty weather a steak should be kept 
 in a warm kitchen for a couple of hours before it is 
 broiled. Make a gridiron that has been kept specially 
 for meat hot over the fire, rub the bars first with a 
 piece of clean paper or rag, and afterwards with mutton 
 fat, and again make it hot. Season the steak with 
 pepper and salt, lay it on the gridiron, put it as near the 
 fire as possible, and with the steak-tongs turn it every 
 minute. When the outside is done, lift it a little farther 
 from the fire for a minute or two, but continue to turn 
 it frequently. It is scarcely possible to say how long a 
 rump-steak will take to broil, because the time will vary 
 with the heat of the coal, the condition and thickness of 
 the steak, and the weather. Under favourable conditions 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 205 
 
 a steak of the kind now under consideration will be 
 done enough in from eight to twelve minutes. When it is 
 black on the outside, and when it feels firm, not hard, to 
 the touch if pressed with the side of a fork, it is prob- 
 ably done. It ought to be red and full of gravy in the 
 middle, and plump in appearance, and dark brown, 
 almost black, on the outside. If liked, a pat of fresh 
 butter may be put under it, and another upon it ; while 
 the juice of half a lemon, and a tablespoonf ul of Harvey's 
 or Worcester Sauce may be put with it. The last-named 
 ingredients should, however, be heated separately in a 
 cup in the oven before being used. Or, if preferred, a 
 shallot finely shred may be put under the steak^ or finely 
 chopped parsley ; drops of lemon-juice may be sprinkled 
 over it, little pieces of butter may be laid here and 
 there on it, and it may be put in the oven long enough 
 to melt the butter ; or it may be garnished with sliced 
 lemon and parsley, or watercress. If daintily garnished, 
 a broiled steak may be made to look very attractive. 
 Fried potatoes are particularly suitable for serving 
 with it. 
 
 Fried Potatoes. — Kidney potatoes should be chosen 
 for this mode of cooking. For frying, potatoes may 
 either be cut into round slices about the thickness of a 
 penny-piece (in which case they would be called 
 "chips"), into square plugs about the thickness of a 
 finger, and two inches long ; into ribands (in which case 
 the tuber must be pared round and round as one would 
 pare an apple, being careful to break the ribands as little 
 
206 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 as possible) ; into wedges about the shape and size of a 
 quarter of an orange; or they may be cut thin and 
 puffed out like small balloons, when they will be Potato 
 Souffl^es. The variations named will depend chiefly 
 upon the mode of cutting them. The frying should be 
 done in a deep saucepan with a good depth of fat. Some 
 people have an idea that if potatoes are cooked in fat 
 they will be greasy. There is no necessity for this. It 
 the fat is at the right temperature, they will be crisp, 
 brown, and dry. When fried potatoes are gi-easy, the 
 reason usually is that the fat in which they were fried 
 was not hot enough. 
 
 Clarified dripping is the best fat that can be used for 
 frying, and the saucepan should be about one-third full. 
 Potatoes contain so much water that hot fat rises and 
 splashes when they are introduced into it ; and therefore 
 it is not safe to have the pan overfull. If a frying-basket 
 is available, the operation of frying will be much easier. 
 If it is not, the potatoes must be put intx) the fat a few 
 at a time, and taken up with a slice when brown. Even 
 when a basket is used, a single layer only of sliced pota- 
 toes should be fried at one time. 
 
 After being cut to the required shape for frying, the 
 potatoes should be laid in cold water for a while. This 
 will free them from the potato-flour, which is liable to 
 spoil the frying. They must, however, be thoroughly 
 dried afterwards, by being laid between the folds of a 
 cloth, or they will not become properly crisp When 
 the fat is hot — so hot that it is still, and a blue fume 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 207 
 
 rises from it — the potatoes may be lowered into it. 
 Thej should be shaken now and again, and when lightly 
 browned they are done, and can be put on paper and set 
 before the fire for a minute to ensure perfect dryness. 
 Before being served a little salt should be sprinkled over 
 them. 
 
 Potato Plugs and Potato Souffl^es must be finished 
 
 differently from other shapes. They must be fried 
 
 twice. For the first frying the fat must not be quite 
 
 as hot as usual, and in this they must be fried until 
 
 they are cooked without being brown ; they should then 
 
 be lifted out until the fat is made very hot, so hot that 
 
 it would register 400°. (For ordinary frying, it will be 
 
 understood, fat should rise to 345° Fahrenheit, the 
 
 homely sign of its having reached this temperature 
 
 being that it has ceased bubbling, and a blue fume rises 
 
 from it. When it reaches 400° the " fume " will become 
 
 more distinct.) When plunged into the fat a second 
 
 time the slices will inflate, and the plugs will become 
 
 crisp and brown. 
 
 Cauliflower. — See p. 153. 
 
 Blancmange with Cream. — Put about three-quarters 
 of an ounce of gelatine to soak in cold water to cover it 
 The quantity of gelatine required will vary with the 
 season. In hot weather an ounce of gelatine will be 
 needed for a pint of liquid; in cold weather half an 
 ounce will be sufficient. When it is neither very hot 
 nor very cold, three-quarters of an ounce will probably 
 be required for the quantities given here. On this point, 
 
208 DIET AND COOKE BY 
 
 however, it is necessary to exercise discretion, because 
 the excellence of blancmange depends upon its being 
 stiff enough to turn out without breaking, and at the 
 same time soft enough to melt in the mouth, without 
 needing to be bitten by the teeth. 
 
 Whilst the gelatine is soaking, take half an ounce of 
 sweet almonds, with three or four bitter ones. Blanch 
 them, and pound them in a mortar to a paste, and whilst 
 pounding keep sprinkling cold water over them to keep 
 them from oiling. Boil the soaked gelatine with a pint 
 of milk, and add a strip of lemon-rind, and an inch of 
 stick cinnamon ; if liked, these flavourings can be used 
 instead of the almonds, but the true old-fashioned blanc- 
 mange is always flavoured with almonds. Sweeten the 
 milk, and lay the almond paste in it ; let it stand till it 
 is pleasantly and rather strongly flavoured therewith. 
 Strain the milk through muslin or a thin napkin, stir 
 about a gill of cream to it, and mould it when it is 
 completely cold and beginning to thicken. Sometimes 
 blancmange is made with milk only, and cream is served 
 with it. 
 
 If preferred, blancmange may be made from cow- 
 heel instead of from gelatine, as follows : — Procure a 
 dressed cow-heel, and cut it up. Put the pieces into 
 an earthenware jar, pour a quart of milk over them, 
 cover closely, and stew in a gentle oven for a little more 
 than three hours. Blanch and pound half an ounce of 
 sweet almonds and three or four bitter ones, and put the 
 paste in the milk to extract the flavour. Sweeten 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 209 
 
 pleasantly, strain, and mould when the blancmange is 
 completely cold and beginning to thicken. Serve with 
 cream. 
 
 The meat of the cow-heel can be warmed with onion 
 sauce, and served separately. 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 ^ea.— See p. 81. Co/ee.— See p. 89. Cocoa.— See p. 124. 
 
 Chicken Livers and Bacon. — When fresh chickens' 
 giblets can be obtained (and they are sometimes to be 
 bought, while sometimes they are available in the 
 ordinary course of things) a tasty dish for an invalid 
 may be made from the livers. Cleanse them carefully, 
 washiner them in two or three waters. Cut them into 
 slices, the size of half-a-crown and about a quarter of an 
 inch thick, and take an equal number of pieces of fat 
 bacon. String them on short skewers, alternating the 
 pieces of liver and the pieces of bacon, dip them in melted 
 bacon fat or dissolved butter, wrap the skewers in 
 buttered paper, and bake very slowly either in a Dutch- 
 oven before the fire or in an ordinary oven till done. 
 Pour the gravy which runs from them over them, and 
 serve at once. Sometimes very thin slices of apple 
 and of onion are put in alternation with the liver and 
 bacon cooked thus. 
 
 Soft- Boiled Eggs. — If chicken livers cannot be 
 
210 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 obtained, a soft-boiled egg may be substituted for them. 
 Next to milk, an egg is perhaps the most valuable 
 food for invalids that we possess. Yet its excellence 
 depends, to a great extent, upon its being properly 
 cooked. If it is to be easily digestible, it must be 
 gently cooked. If cooked quickly at a high temperature 
 it will become tough and hard. Moreover, its quality 
 must be considered when calculating the time required 
 for cooking. The accepted rule that "an egg should 
 boil three minutes " does not answer for all eggs, stale 
 and fresh alike. New-laid eggs need four minutes to set ; 
 eggs that have been kept for some days will need 
 only three minutes. Also it is to be remembered that if 
 an egg is to be equally cooked, it must be freely covered 
 with water ; it does not answer to boil an egg in a small 
 quantity of water, so that the shell is only half immersed. 
 The proportion of water needed for one egg boiled in 
 a small saucepan is one pint, although a smaller pro- 
 portion of water can be used if a number of eggs are to 
 be boiled. 
 
 An approved way of cooking eggs for invalid use 
 is the following. Put enough water into a saucepan 
 to cover the eggs abundantly, and make it fully boil. 
 Lower the eggs gently into it, and place the saucepan 
 without the lid on the hearth, or at the back of the 
 stove, or in some other place where the water will cease 
 to boil, yet will not lose its heat too quickly. In ten 
 minutes the heat will have penetrated to the centre 
 of the egg, the white will be tender and firm, yet 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 211 
 
 sufficiently cooked, and not in the least tough, and 
 the yolk will be thick and delicate in flavour. Even 
 if the egg should, through inadvertence, be left a little 
 longer in the water than ten minutes, it will not become 
 hard unless the temperature be raised., 
 
 Toast—See p. 85. 
 
 Siewed Prunes. — Wash the prunes, and if they are 
 very dry soak them all night in cold water to cover 
 them. Allow a pint of water and six ounces of loaf- 
 sugar for every pound of fruit. Boil the sugar and 
 water together for a few minutes to make a clear syrup, 
 put in the fruit, and simmer gently for a couple of 
 hours, or till the prunes are quite soft. Take them 
 up with a spoon, and put them into a dish ; boil the 
 syrup a little longer until it begins to thicken, then pour 
 it over the fruit, and serve when cold. See also p, 166. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Tripe d, la Coutaiice.— {For general remarks on 
 tripe, see p. 146.) Take one pound of thin tripe, and 
 blanch it as if it were going to be cooked in the ordinary 
 way. Drain it, wipe it dry, and cut it into pieces 
 two inches wide and four inches long, chopping finely 
 the following ingredients separately, then mixing them 
 well together — a shallot, a small onion, and two or three 
 sprigs of parsley. Take also half a pound of bacon, and 
 cut it into thin slices the same size as the strips of tripe. 
 Sprinkle a little of the savoury mixture over each piece 
 of tripe, with pepper and salt; lay a slice of bacon on the 
 
212 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 top, form into neat rolls, and fasten each either with 
 needle and cotton or string. The pieces must be straight 
 at the ends. 
 
 Put a pint of stock or water into a stewpan. Wash 
 and cleanse or scrape a carrot, a small onion, and 
 two or three mushrooms. Chop them small, and put 
 them, with a bunch of herbs and three or four pepper- 
 corns, into the stock. Stand the rolls of tripe round the 
 inside of the saucepan, and let the vegetables be in the 
 middle, bring to a boil, and simmer for two hours. Take 
 up the tripe, and strain the gravy, thicken it with 
 little flour and butter, add a few drops of liquid brown- 
 ing, a teaspoonful of Harvey, a teaspoonful of ketchup, 
 and a few drops of lemon-juice. Let the tripe get 
 hot once more in the sauce. Rub the carrot that has 
 been strained out of the sauce through a wire sieve. If 
 it is of a good colour it will look like red rice, and can 
 be used to garnish the rolls. Place the small rolls of 
 tripe on end upon a dish, with a little pur^e of carrot on 
 each, and cooked vegetables (mashed potatoes or cauli- 
 flower) in the centre. The string should not be removed 
 from the small rolls directly the tripe is taken up, or 
 they will fall. 
 
 Milky Bice. — Kice pudding made without eggs, and 
 prepared in such a way that when finished the milk is 
 thick and rich like cream, is very nourishing and whole- 
 some. In order to prepare it successfully, it must be 
 slowly baked ; that is, it must be put into an oven that 
 i.s so gentle that the grains will not simply become soft, 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 213 
 
 but that they will swell as they soften. A little knob of 
 butter the size of a threepenny-piece should be put with 
 it. It is to be remembered that so long as the rice cooks 
 at all, the more slowly it is cooked the better. Another 
 thing to remember is that the rice should be washed in 
 two or three waters before it is cooked ; it should have a 
 tiny piece of butter put into the dish with it, and it 
 should not be stirred after it is put in the oven. If 
 these precautions are observed, it will not be likely to 
 burn, even though it should be long in cooking. For a 
 milky pudding two tablespoonfuls of rice will be suffi- 
 cient for a quart of milk. A little sugar and a pinch of 
 salt should be mixed with the milk in the first instance, 
 and an inch of stick cinnamon and a little lemon-rind 
 may be allowed for flavouring. Kice that is very slowly 
 cooked is usually done when it is covered with a brown 
 skin. If the oven is over-hot, the pudding-dish may 
 be placed in a dripping-tin containing boiling water, 
 the supply of water being maintained. This will 
 moderate the heat. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Boiled Halihiit. — This fish is easy of digestion, and 
 has a delicate flavour. When quite fresh it furnishes 
 excellent food for invalids. Take the quantity of fish 
 that is required, wash it quickly, and divide it into 
 pieces convenient for serving. Put it into a wire 
 vegetable-basket, or lay it on a strainer, then lower it 
 into a saucepan of boiling salted water ; draw the pan 
 
214 DIET AND VOOKERY 
 
 back, and simmer till done. (A pound of fish will 
 probably need to simmer about fifteen minutes : the 
 exact time will depend on the thickness.) It must not 
 boil fast at any time. When done, lift it up, let it 
 drain, and serve it at once with a sauce made as follows 
 poured over it. 
 
 Simple Fish Sauce. — Put a tablespoonful of butter 
 and half a tablespoonful of flour into a small saucepan, 
 and let them simmer together for two minutes. Pour in 
 gi'adually half a pint of cold water, and stir it till it 
 boils. Add, off the fire, a tablespoonful of chopped 
 parsley, or the grated yolk of a hard-boiled Qgg^ a few 
 drops of essence of anchovy, or a little lemon-juice. Serve 
 at once. 
 
 Plain Boiled Mutton with Parsley SoMce. — Mutton 
 is most suitable meat for an invalid, and boiled mutton 
 is particularly so, because when well cooked it is very 
 easy of digestion. It is, however, very easily spoiled in the 
 cooking, and, therefore, it requires great carb A piece 
 from the best end of the neck of mutton is very suitable 
 for boiling. It is always well to cut off the scrag, 
 because this portion needs to boil longer than the chop 
 end. The joint should, however, have a good deal of 
 the fat trimmed away, as the fat will swell in cooking, 
 and will be very objectionable. The chojDS should be well 
 jointed also, and before being put into the pot a string 
 should be tied round them to keep them in position. 
 Plunge the mutton into boiling water sufficient to cover 
 it ; bring it to the boil, remove the scum, and afterwards 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 215 
 
 keep it simmering gently till clone. If it is allowed 
 to boil fast it will be spoilt. Fully a quarter of an 
 hour to the pound should be allowed for boiling. 
 The joint will look neater if the chine bone is cut 
 off before cooking, and if the ribs are shortened some- 
 what. 
 
 Parsley Sauce is the name usually given in England 
 to what is known in high-class cookery as Maitre d'Hotel 
 Sauce. For this recipe, see p. 194. 
 
 Baked Potatoes. — Seep. 150. 
 
 Apple Charlotte. — This dish is old-fashioned, but it 
 is both dainty and wholesome. Good cooking apples — 
 that is, apples that fall well — are needed for making 
 it. It can be most readily made in a mould ; a cake- tin 
 will answer the purpose. The apples should be peeled, 
 cored, and stewed to pulp, then tossed over the fire with 
 sugar and a little butter until the pulp begins to be 
 stiff. It is not possible to say how much butter oi 
 sugar should be put with the fruit, because apples vary 
 very much in sweetness and quality. What is wanted 
 is a pleasantly flavoured, smooth apple-sauce, mellowed 
 and enriched with butter. Take some fingers of stale 
 crumb of bread, and fry them lightly in butter. The 
 bread should be cut into shapes like the pieces of a 
 wooden pail, and should be arranged either to fit exactly 
 into the mould or to make the staves overlap each other. 
 The mould should then be filled with the apple-sauce. 
 Put a lid of lightly fried bread on the top, and bake for 
 about an hour, or until the bread and butter have 
 
216 DIET AND COOKERY. 
 
 assumed a golden-brown tinge ; then turn out carefully, 
 and serve with cream. 
 
 The above is the orthodox way to make Apple 
 Charlotta A much easier and simpler, yet a very 
 excellent, method is the following. Butter a pie-dish 
 thickly, and sprinkle plenty of brown sugar over the 
 butter, then line the bottom and sides with thin slices of 
 bread and butter. Fill the dish with good-falling apples 
 that have been peeled, cored, and cut into thick slices ; 
 sprinkle a little sugar over, and moisten with lemon- 
 juice. Put a lid of buttered bread on the top, and bake 
 in a good oven. The bread should be like toffee, crisp 
 and brown, but not at all burnt. It is essential that the 
 dish should be buttered and sugared thickly, and that 
 the Ciiarlotte should be cooked in a good oven. 
 
NEEVOUS PEOSTEATION, "NEEVES," 
 NEUEASTHENIA. 
 
 These terms may be taken as equivalents : they 
 represent less a tendency or vice than an actual 
 condition produced, and this condition is one of 
 exhaustion — of a ruined exchequer. The cause, we 
 shall readily believe, is prolonged strain or intensity 
 of strain, no matter of what kind. 
 
 Nervous prostration manifests itself in a great 
 variety of ways, and chiefly in a want of stabiHty or 
 balance of the nervous system ; hence arise the 
 manifold forms of hysteria, the neuralgias, the 
 inertias ; and in such states so commonly originate 
 the habits of drug-taking — alcohohsm, morphinism, 
 etc. 
 
 Sleeplessness is a very troublesome symptom in 
 this disease, and herein Hes the danger of the 
 habitual taking of sleeping-draughts. The serious- 
 ness of this condition consists, therefore, as much in 
 the temptations which it brings as in the complete 
 
218 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 unfitting of the subject for the duties of real life 
 In this state naturally kind-hearted people become 
 self-centred, and their moral being crystallises in 
 sharp-pointed needles of pure selfishness, which 
 wound in particular the inmates of the home. 
 These crystals, by-the-bye, grow most beautifully 
 in the medium of home life. 
 
 There is a good, healthy form of hysteria, or 
 "nerves," which well becomes the subject, the 
 physical condition being excellent. For this the 
 heated poker is the type of treatment. But there 
 is another form, in which the patients are thin and 
 obviously exhausted, and in whom, therefore, a real 
 basis of physical depression exists. This must be 
 treated ; and till we attack this stronghold it is 
 useless to preach morality — not even the outworks 
 will be thus gained. 
 
 First and foremost in the treatment of this 
 condition comes diet, though, in severe cases, yet 
 earlier will come the complete removal of the 
 patient from home surroundings. Isolation, rest 
 in bed, frequent feeding with excessive quantities 
 — these means have become familiar to us ; but 
 short of such extreme measures, we may in milder 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 219 
 
 cases endeavour to feed up the patient to a higher 
 level of vitahty. 
 
 One cannot say exactly that a special dietary 
 is needed in these cases, the simple prescription — 
 " feeding up " — indicating sufficiently the require- 
 ments ; but we may add that the use of meat and 
 of meat broths should be prominent : thus, soup or 
 meat broth twice a day, and meat at least once, 
 will be advisable. We shall thus secure that the 
 dietary is stimulant. 
 
 The intervals between meals may require to be 
 broken in these cases, and a cup of warm or hot 
 milk or of cocoa taken in the early morning, if the 
 patient wakes early ; also something about eleven 
 in the forenoon, again in the afternoon, and the 
 last thing at night. 
 
 A dietary such as this we could not venture 
 here : it must be on prescription, and adjusted to the 
 needs and digestive capabihties of the individual. 
 
 The moral of this section is that " nerves " in 
 general may mean that the sufferer has been allowed 
 to lapse into a low level of alimentation, and that a 
 judicious raising of this — feeding up — may suffice 
 to cure the malady. 
 
FEVER (ACUTE AND CHEONIC). 
 
 Practically, the dietetic treatment of the acute 
 febrile state will be in other hands than ours, but 
 we may be so circumstanced that for a longer or 
 shorter period the feeding will rest with us. In 
 such cases we shall always administer slop diet — 
 milk or meat broths, or both — and we shall act 
 thus for two reasons : (1) because the giving of solid 
 food may do positive harm ; (2) because it is useless, 
 for the digestive powers, even with moderate fever, 
 are too weak to deal with it, and the food remain- 
 ing undigested may excite the stomach to vomiting 
 or derange the intestines. As a rule, the patient's 
 own instincts will guide correctly, and lead him to 
 avoid solid food altogether. 
 
 On the whole, milk is the best food to give ad 
 interim; and we need only add that if an adult 
 takes and digests three pints in the twenty-four 
 hours, a child one pint and a half to two pints and 
 
VIET AND COOKERY. 221 
 
 a half, according to the age, we need not fear that 
 the patient will starve. For the rest, we must 
 refer back to what we have said in our first part 
 as to the methods of dealing with milk and with 
 meat broths. In the case of a short-lived feverish 
 attack occurring in the midst of health, we may 
 safely leave the adult to his own judgment, if 
 it counsel abstinence, for twenty-four hours. 
 
 Patients suffering from a fever which periodically 
 remits or intermits, and which is essentially chronic 
 — e.g. consumptive patients and the subjects of 
 malaria — may be able to take solid food with ad- 
 vantage, or may actually require it. The solid food 
 in these cases should be given, as far as possible, 
 during the periods of absence of fever, or when the 
 fever is at its lowest ; and if we have no thermo- 
 meter, we must look to the well-known symptoms 
 of feverishness to guide us. \Vhen the patient feels 
 at his best, we may know he is freest from fever, 
 and that that is our opportunity for more sub- 
 stantial feeding: this, in general, will be during 
 the forenoon. 
 
 In the case of malaria patients, it has been 
 observed that starvation treatment adds greatly to 
 
222 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 the mortality ; and whilst, as a general rule, it is 
 stated that the food in these cases should be light 
 and nutritious, it is not uncommon for a sufferer 
 from ague to be able to eat and digest a very 
 respectable meal shortly after recovering from 
 a paroxysm. 
 
 We cannot, however, give in any precise form 
 dietaries for chronic fever. In the treatment of 
 consumption as a form of scrofula we have already 
 spoken of the value of fat, and in particular of 
 milk. 
 
 Convalescence. 
 
 It is impossible to treat of this except in the 
 most general terms. Convalescence is as multiple 
 as disease, and the return to health is by as many 
 roads as the departure from health : each requires 
 a special leading. We can, therefore, only refer to 
 Chapter II. for guidance in the selection of foods, 
 starting from slop diet in its simplest forms, and 
 advancing up the scale to the food of robust health. 
 Put very shortly, we may thus set forth this 
 scale : — 
 
 Slop Diet — Milk and meat broths, modified or 
 mimodified. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 223 
 
 Farinaceous Foods. — Gruel, arrowroot, etc. ; 
 milk puddings, bread and milk, etc. 
 
 Eggs, lightly boiled or beaten-up. 
 
 Fish. — The white-fleshed, hghter kinda 
 
 Poultry. — Fowl. 
 
 Game. — Certain varieties. 
 
 Meat. — Mutton. 
 
 Vegetables — as accessories, as it were — will in 
 general come in last, though vegetable flavourmgs 
 — as essences, etc. — may come in fairly early. 
 
 Beginning with slop diet, we shall gradually 
 admit or substitute the groups as they succeed 
 each other; but no one dietary can be given as 
 embodying the dietetic treatment of convalescence, 
 since this will differ according both to the stage 
 of the recovery and the nature of the disease from 
 which recovery is taking place. 
 
DYSPEPSIA. 
 
 The trouble here is more localised, and it aifects 
 the alimentary tract. The stomach may be at 
 fault, or the intestine ; or, in addition, the special 
 organs — Uver and pancreas — may share in the 
 trouble, and impress their own characters upon 
 the digestive derangement. 
 
 Dyspepsia is not a good term; for whilst it 
 means to us difficult digestion — imperfect coction, 
 as the older writers put it — its etymological signifi- 
 cation would limit the meaning to an indifferent 
 peptic action — i.e. to a function gastric only. We 
 shall, however, use it here as synonymous with 
 indigestion, in whatever part of the alimentary 
 tract the cause be situated. 
 
 The first care in an ordinary case of dyspepsia 
 is to see that no dietetic error is being committed ; 
 that the meals are not too much crowded ; that the 
 intervals are not broken by the taking of food 
 
DIET AND COOKERY. 225 
 
 trifles ; that the food is not hurriedly swallowed, 
 and the hasty meal followed by undue exertion, 
 strain (physical or mental), etc. All these are 
 dietetic errors ; and having eliminated these, we 
 proceed to inquire as to the quality and quantity 
 of the food taken, and to amend the dietary. 
 
 It is possible to lay down general rules as to 
 what may be taken and what should be avoided. 
 The exceptions to these rules will concern the 
 things to be avoided rather than the things to be 
 permitted ; but very occasionally, in cases of idio- 
 syncrasy, so called, an article of diet reckoned 
 amongst the easiest of digestion will prove in- 
 digestible. In our scheme we cannot take count 
 of these exceptions: experiment alone can deter- 
 mine them. 
 
 A dyspeptic should in the first place be cautious 
 in the use of the bread and potato group — 
 thus : bread must be at least one day old and 
 thoroughly baked, to start with. White bread is 
 in general lighter than brown bread (whole-meal) 
 the latter tending in some cases to produce acidity, 
 in the same way that oatmeal porridge does. With 
 every saving clause introduced, bread should be 
 
226 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 taken in moderation, and thin dry toast, rusk, and 
 plain light water-biscuit mil often replace it with 
 advantage. In many cases it would be wise if the 
 patient would substitute in part a gluten bread for 
 ordinary bread. 
 
 Some forms of malted bread may be found 
 of use. 
 
 All forms of pastry, boiled or baked, and :flour 
 preparations, such as batter, must be absolutely 
 forbidden ; but well-boiled milk puddings, rice, 
 sago, tapioca, semolina, barley, etc., are admissible. 
 
 Porridge does not suit in many cases. 
 
 Potatoes are best avoided; if allowed in small 
 quantity, they should be thoroughly cooked by 
 roasting in their jackets. 
 
 Sugar and sweet preparations — preserves, jams, 
 etc. — should be avoided ; glycerine or saccharine 
 may replace sugar. 
 
 The dried pulses are not suitable — they tend to 
 cause flatulence ; but the Revalenta Arabica — a food 
 artijicially prepared from the meal of lentils, beans, 
 and peas — is reckoned digestible. 
 
 Vegetables are, as a class, inclined to produce 
 flatulence, and those allowed should be taken very 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 227 
 
 temperately. Of the pea group, very young and 
 tender green peas and French beans may be taken. 
 Of the cabbage tribe, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, 
 and Brussels sprouts will be the best. Of the 
 salad group, celery, endive, lettuce ; all thoroughly 
 well boiled. Further, asparagus (very young) and 
 seakale, both well boiled. Vegetables may with 
 advantage be given as purees. 
 
 The root- vegetables and fruit- vegetables are not 
 suitable. 
 
 In bad cases of dyspepsia the whole class of 
 vegetables should be disallowed. 
 
 Fresh fruits are scarcely to be allowed ; grapes 
 form, perhaps, an exception. 
 
 Fruits stewed are more digestible — e.^. apples, 
 pears. The roast apple is excellent 
 
 The use of this class is thus very restricted. 
 
 Milk is, in general, suitable, but it often requu'es 
 some modification — e.g. by boihng, by the addition 
 of isinglass, arrowroot, etc. (see First Part) ; milk 
 as junket may be tried. 
 
 Fats in general are not well borne ; and cooked, 
 they are specially obnoxious. Frying is therefore 
 never to be allowed, unless all the browned and 
 
228 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 fat outside parts are carefully removed before 
 eating. 
 
 Butter may be taken in small quantity, but not 
 cream. 
 
 Cheese is indigestible. 
 
 Eggs may be tried. They should be lightly 
 boiled, by preference, but may be also tried beaten- 
 up in the raw state. 
 
 Fish (the white-fibred) are allowable ; in par- 
 ticular, whiting, sole, flounder, haddock, plaice, 
 brill. The fish should be boiled. 
 
 Oysters may be tried. They must not be 
 cooked. 
 
 The claw of the lobster is reckoned by some to 
 be digestible ; it may be tried. (The fibres of this 
 part are very short.) 
 
 Birds (the white-fleshed poultry) are allowed ; 
 also game. 
 
 Poultry should be boiled or roast ; game roast, 
 with free basting. 
 
 Of butcher's meat, mutton is the best ; but beef 
 (especially as tender rump-steak) will generally 
 prove both acceptable and digestible. Mutton 
 boiled or roast, or, as chop, grilled, also steak. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 229 
 
 grilled. Tripe and sweetbread will be found to 
 digest. They must be plainly dressed. 
 
 Soups (if allowed) should be clear, and taken 
 in sraall quantity. They should not contain 
 vegetables, though they may contain vegetable 
 flavouring. 
 
 Plain dressing and thorough cooking holds 
 all round for every class of food. Highly-spiced 
 foods are quite unsuitable, but a moderate use oi 
 condiments is not forbidden. 
 
 As to beverages : some plead specially for tea, 
 particularly if taken weak and brewed for a very 
 short time. In most cases this will be found to be 
 special pleading, and the forbidding of tea and coffee 
 is necessary. Cocoa (the thinner forms, or best, the 
 cocoa nibs) mav do as a substitute. Of milk we 
 have spoken. 
 
 The quantity taken should not exceed a break- 
 fast-cup at a meal, and a teacupful will be 
 preferable. 
 
 Plain water, cold or hot, or qualified with a 
 little good whisky (if ordered), will be the best 
 drink at the mid-day and evening meals. Half 
 to three parts of a tumbler should be the limit. 
 
230 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Wines and beers do not suit, especially the latter ; 
 nor do lemonades and drinks of this class. 
 
 It will be found in general that curtailing the 
 amount of liquid of all kinds is beneficial. 
 
 A great many dietaries have been written out 
 for dyspepsia, and some of these are very contra- 
 dictory; but a diet such as we have sketched out 
 will in the majority of cases give very good 
 results. In some cases limitation of the diet to 
 meats, almost entirely, gives the best results. We 
 shaU now proceed to illustrate this diet by 
 actual dishes, but before doing so, just one remark 
 may be permitted. Dyspepsia, though causing 
 extreme discomfort, is not a disease with any fatal 
 tendency : its victims may live long lives, but the 
 usefulness of the Hves led and the pleasure in life 
 are decidedly at stake. The dyspeptic lacks energy 
 and is a hypochondriac ; and, withal, there is the 
 epigastric accompaniment of discomfort, not to say 
 pain. The choice is before him, and with these 
 issues well in view, he is perfectly free to choose 
 the tempting dish — only let him not complain. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 231 
 
 DIETARY TABLES FOR DYSPEPSIA. 
 
 First Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 One cup of thin Cocoa or Cocoa-nib Infusion, or thinned 
 
 Milk Arrowroot. Toast with a very little Butter. 
 
 Lightly-boiled Egg. Baked Apple. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 A Tender Rump Steak, grilled, or Beef or Mutton 
 
 Collops, plainly dressed. 
 
 Milky Rice. Biscuit or Stale Bread. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Boiled Sole on Toast. Mutton Chop, grilled, or a Slice 
 
 from a Joint, with Stale Bread. 
 
 Boiled Celery. Devonshire Junket. 
 
 One or two tablespoonfuls of Whisky in half a tumbler 
 
 of plain Water may assist at luncheon and dinner. 
 
 Second Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Cocoa as above, or thinned Milk Arrowroot. 
 
 Flaked Haddock. Toast or Gluten Bread. 
 
 A Baked Pear (if too sweet, substitute a Baked Apple). 
 
232 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Mutton Cutlets. One Roast Potato (in jacket) or 
 Stale Bread. Cup Custard. 
 
 Dinner, 
 
 Clear Soup. Roast Partridge or Roast Pigeon. 
 
 French Beans or Asparagus. 
 
 Lemon Jelly. 
 
 Plain Water Biscuit or Rusks, with a little Butter 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 233 
 
 RECIPES. 
 
 First JDanf, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 Cocoa. — See p. 124. 
 
 Thinned Milk Arrowroot. — (Hospital recipe — from 
 " Thin Foods," by Dr. and Miss Bullar.)— " Take three 
 teaspoonfuls of the best arrowroot (none but the best 
 will answer for this recipe) and half a pint of milk. 
 Mix in the arrowroot quite smooth, and boil it up, 
 stirring it well until it is quite cooked. It will be very 
 thick. Take it off the fire, and let it stand till it is 
 cool enough to drink ; beat it up with a fork or whisk, 
 and stir in well half a teaspoonful of maltine ; in about 
 half an hour it will become quite thin, and will be ready 
 for use. A little cinnamon boiled in the milk wiU make 
 a good flavouring." 
 
 Toast. — See p. 85. Egg^ Boiled.— ^ee p. 210. Apple, 
 Baked—See p. 89. 
 
 ZUNCHEON. 
 
 Rump Steak, Broiled. — See p. 204. BeeJ Collops, — 
 See p. 139. Milky Rice.— See p. 212. 
 
 Dinner. 
 Sole on Toast. — See p. 136. Mutton Chop. — See 
 p. 105. 
 
234 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Boiled Celery. — Celery is a favourite vegetable, and 
 it is miicli more digestible when boiled than when eaten 
 raw. Choose heads that are well grown, and not woolly 
 inside. Out off the outer sticks, and trim the roots 
 neatly, then cut them into pieces about four inches long. 
 Wash them very carefully, and blanch them by boiling 
 them in salt and water for a few minutes ; drain, wash 
 again, and boil gently till quite tender in well-salted 
 milk and water. Use the liquor in which they are 
 boiled to make sauce by thickening it with a little flour. 
 Dish the celery neatly on toast, pour the sauce over, and 
 serve. 
 
 Devonshire Junket. — See p. 141, 
 
 Second Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Flaked Haddock. — Boil a fresh haddock in the usual 
 way (see p. 126), and when cooked lift the flesh from the 
 bones, and let it fall into flakes. Season it daintily with 
 pepper and salt, and sprinkle a little lemon-juice over it. 
 Have ready a little plain fish-sauce (see p. 214) ; for 
 a cupful of prepared fish a cupful of sauce will be 
 needed. Toss the fish and the sauce together, arrange 
 the mixture on a dish that can be sent to table, put 
 bread-raspings on the surface, and bake in a hot oven for 
 about a quarter of an hour. 
 
 Toast. — See p. 162. Gluten Bread. — See p. 106. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 235 
 
 Baked Pears. — Choose large, sound iron pears ; peel, 
 halve, and core them, and put them in an earthenware 
 jar with some thin strips of lemon-rind, half a pound of 
 sugar in lumps, and as much water as will nearly cover 
 them. Put them in the oven when the cooking for the 
 day is done, let them remain all night, and cook gently 
 till tender. To make hard baking pears red without 
 using cochineal it is necessary to bake them a long time 
 — say, about twenty -four hours. If cooked even longer 
 than this they will not hurt, if only thev are gently 
 
 baked. 
 
 Luncheon 
 
 Mutton Cutlets. — See p. 187. 
 
 Roast Potato. — See p. 149. 
 
 Cwp Custard. — Boil half a pint of milk with a 
 quarter of an inch of stick cinnamon, and when it rises 
 in the pan, pour it upon a lightly-beaten ^^^^^ that has had 
 the speck taken from it. Add a pinch of salt, and sugar 
 to sweeten the custard agreeably, strain into one large 
 or two smaller cups, place them in a deep baking-tin 
 in the oven, pour boiling water round them, and let 
 them steam thus till firm in the centre. If properly 
 cooked, the custard will be smooth throughout, like 
 cream, not at all " honeycombed " or watery, and very 
 wholesome and digestible. Instead of stick cinnamon, 
 the custard may be flavoured with a variety of sub- 
 stances, amongst which may be named grated lemon- 
 or orange-rind, grated nutmeg, almond or vanilla ex- 
 tract. Cup custard mav be served hot or cold. 
 
236 DIET AND GOOKEB:c 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Clear Soup. — See p. l '^'^ 
 
 Roast Partridge. — See Roast Rheasant, p. 263, allow- 
 ing for the size of the bird. 
 
 Roast Pigeons. — Take two young pigeons. Procure 
 house pigeons if they are to be had, and be careful that 
 the birds are young and freshly killed. They quickly 
 lose their flavour if kept. Put inside each a forcemeat 
 ball made of bread-crumbs, a little butter, chopped 
 parsley, pepper and salt. Truss firmly with the legs 
 forward, the wings to the side and points turned over 
 the back, and pass string round the skewers. Hang 
 the birds back to back, breast downwards, baste freely 
 with good dripping or butter, and draw gradually nearer 
 the fire. Ten minutes before taking them up, turn the 
 birds, so that the backs may be cooked. When the 
 steam draws to the fire it is a sign that they are 
 done. They will take from twenty to twenty-five 
 minutes. Serve on a hot dish with a little gravy 
 over them, and more in a tureen. 
 
 French Beans. — These should be young and small ; 
 they can then be cooked whole, and will not need to 
 be strung. Have ready plenty of fast-boiling salted 
 water, throw them in, and boil quickly, with the lid 
 off the pan, till tender. They will take about a quarter 
 of an hour. Drain thoroughly, and serve hot. 
 
 French beans are greatly improved by being tossed 
 in butter after boiling. They are then named French 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 237 
 
 P>eans Saute, Melt a slice of butter in the pan (two 
 ounces of butter will be needed for each pound of beans), 
 throw in the drained vegetables, and toss them over the 
 fire for five or six minutes. A little lemon-juice may be 
 added last thing. This mode of cookery is scarcelj" 
 suitable for the dyspeptic. 
 
 When scarlet-runners are provided, they must be 
 "strung," then cut into thin strips lengthwise, and 
 boiled like French beans. 
 
 Asparagus. — See p. 97. 
 
 Lemon Jelly. — Soak half an ounce of gelatine in one 
 pint of water for an hour. Prepare the very thin rind of 
 the lemon (the rind should be cut so thinly that it 
 can be seen through, or till it is equally yellow on both 
 sides). Take also the strained juice of two small lemons, 
 two ounces of sugar, or more according to taste. Put 
 all these ingredients into a saucepan, with the whisked 
 white and crushed shell of one egg, and stir until the 
 liquid rises in the pan. Let it simmer a minute, draw 
 it back, and let it stand for a quarter of an hour, then 
 pour it into a jelly-bag or napkin, and, without dis- 
 turbing the sediment, let it drip through. When quite 
 clear, add a glass of sherry and a tablespoonful of brandy, 
 if approved, and mould the jelly when it is on the point 
 of setting. Sometimes a couple of cloves and a tiny 
 piece of stick cinnamon are used for flavouring as well 
 as lemons. 
 
BILIOUSNESS. 
 
 This term is popular, but exceedingly vague. It 
 is applied to the temperament, but the tempera- 
 ments are of the past ; to the complexion, when 
 this is more or less sallow; to certain forms of 
 vomiting and diarrhoea, in which an excess of 
 bile is present in the stomach and intestines, and 
 characterises the egesta ; lastly, to a certain group 
 of symptoms characterised by loss of appetite, 
 nausea (generally terminating in sickness), headache, 
 furred tongue, constipation. 
 
 The last mentioned is that which concerns us 
 most — ^viz. the " bilious attack " — though it is by 
 no means clear what part the bile or the liver 
 plays in its production. In most cases the attack 
 is nothing but an acute dyspeptic seizure, some- 
 times brought on by errors in diet, but sometimes 
 of distinctly nervous origin — the so-called nervous 
 or sick headache. 
 
 The dietetic treatment for this passing seizure 
 
DIET AND COOKERY. 239 
 
 is negative — viz. by abstinence or by the taking of 
 the very hghtest forms of diet — such as milk and 
 soda-water, water or milk arrowroot, or such like. 
 There is no memo for the attack. 
 
 To prevent the occurrence of the attack, we 
 observe the general rules already laid down for 
 dyspeptics, and especially as regards the use of 
 fat and rich dishes, and of pastry in every form ; 
 sugar also, and sweet foods, must be taken in 
 great moderation, or abstained from altogether. 
 Thus there is nothing fresh to be said on the 
 subject of prevention. The avoidance of the list 
 of the other dietetic errors abeady mentioned will, 
 of course, hold. It must not be forgotten, however, 
 that many subjects of bihous attacks do not seem 
 to suffer otherwise from dyspepsia in the intervals. 
 These should not live richly, it is true, but they 
 need not be over-strict, for in them it may be 
 that the " attack " is simply the manifestation of 
 a nerve-storm, the causes for which are outside 
 the ahmentary tract. 
 
 Note on Gallstones. — A patient who is the 
 subject of gallstones may, subsequently to an attack, 
 
240 DIET AND COOKERY. 
 
 and in the hope of avoiding further attacks, adopt 
 certain measures, hygienic and dietetic. These have 
 been summarised for us by a master of the heaUng 
 art as follows : — " He (the patient) must rise early, 
 and take plenty of exercise in the open air, sleep in 
 an airy bedroom, live sparely, drink little or no 
 wine, and avoid all rich, fatty, and saccharine food 
 and malt liquors." 
 
(t r 
 
 rOEPID" OE '* SLUGGISH" LIVEE. 
 
 Other vague terms; but they mean something, 
 and the hver is accused because, in addition to the 
 usual troubles — dyspeptic— referred to the pit of 
 the stomach or under the heart, the region of the 
 Hver, just above and below the right margin of the 
 ribs, is now the seat of discomfort — fulness, weio-ht 
 aching. Pain in these cases is often referred to the 
 right shoulder-blade or to the right shoulder. The 
 complexion may be more or less sallow, and the 
 whites of the eyes appear tarnished. There will 
 probably be constipation. These are the principal 
 symptoms. 
 
 The real nature of the symptoms at work here 
 is by no means clear, and there is not lacking evi- 
 dence to show that a certain relation exists between 
 this group of symptoms and the group of affections 
 already spoken of under the headings Gout, Gravel, 
 Stone (uric acid). 
 
242 DIET AND COOKERY, 
 
 Leaving the matter to the physician to solve, 
 what we do know more - definitely is that excessive 
 eating and drinking may cause the symptoms of 
 " torpid " liver, and that certain articles of diet are 
 specially noxious. Such are : Fatty and saccharine 
 matters, and all forms of pastry ; also all malt 
 liquors, particularly the stronger or fuller kinds ; 
 the fuller -bodied wines: port, sherry, Madeira; 
 sweetened spirits, and liqueurs. A highly animal- 
 ised diet will not suit these cases, and any meat 
 taken must be of the lighter kinds, and the dressing 
 must be very plain. 
 
 This will apply to the routine diet of life, but 
 during the actual persistence of the symptoms 
 enumerated above, it would probably be best also 
 to withdraw butchers' meat wholly from the 
 dietary, for the time being. We thus note that 
 the dietetic treatment will partake of the treatment 
 of the dyspeptic and of the gouty, and, judging by 
 the treatment, we are justified in regarding the 
 •' torpid " or " sluggish " liver as a symptom of 
 the gouty-dyspeptic. 
 
VOMITING. 
 
 The treatment of vomiting will certainly be in the 
 hands of the medical man, and pending his arrival 
 we shall either give no food or food in its simplest 
 forms — e.g., a little iced milk, milk and soda, thin 
 arrowroot made with water or milk, barley-water, 
 etc. A teaspoonful of brandy added may some- 
 times help to stay the stomach. 
 
 There l« no dietary which we need consider. 
 
DIAERHCEA. 
 
 The treatment of this affection also will be mostly 
 outside our limits, but for passing disturbances of 
 this kind a few simple dietetic observances may 
 suffice. 
 
 The diet must be reduced to its simplest terms : 
 Milk (preferably boiled) and milk foods, such as 
 arrowroot, corn-flour, gruel, etc. Milk puddings — 
 sago, rice, tapioca — are very suitable. Egg, beaten 
 up or lightly boiled, may be taken. The addition 
 of some spice, such as cinnamon or clove, is gene- 
 rally found grateful, and also the addition of a 
 small quantity of brandy. 
 
 Food should not be taken hot, but either sHghtly 
 warm or (if preferred) of the normal atmospheric 
 temperature. There is no call to ice the food, as 
 has been advised, unless the stomach is also very 
 irritable. 
 
 Should the patient fancy it, a little meat jelly 
 
DIET AND COOKERY. 245 
 
 or meat juice, or even a little beef tea or mutton 
 broth, thickened with sago, or rice, or tapioca, might 
 be tried. 
 
 The idea prevails that meat broths do not suit 
 in diarrhoea cases, but some attacks, especially in 
 children, are best treated exclusively on meat 
 juices. 
 
 Meat broth, if allowed, should be taken cool or 
 sUghtly warmed. 
 
 As the attack passes off there is a gradual return, 
 by tentative steps, to ordinary diet. 
 
CONSTIPATION. 
 
 This — a very common and habitual trouble — may 
 sometimes be successfully combated by dietetic 
 means alone. In every case we should first try 
 such means before having recourse to medicine^ 
 We may state very briefly the needful obser- 
 vances : — 
 
 (a) Fresh fruit and vegetables should be intro- 
 duced liberally into the diet. Kipe fruit (apple, 
 pear, orange) is best taken before breakfast — the 
 first thing in the morning. Stewed figs and stewed 
 prunes may be tried in their stead, if necessary. 
 Ripe or stewed fruits may also accompany the lun- 
 cheon and dinner. Fresh vegetables may be taken 
 as salads, but there is more scope for the use of 
 cooked vegetables — in particular, green vegetables 
 The Spanish onion (boiled) appears to be of special 
 value 
 
 (h) A coarse whole-meal bread should veplaoo 
 
DIET ANB COOKERY. 247 
 
 the finer white breads, and a plate of coarse oat or 
 wheat-meal porridge may be taken daily. This will 
 of course, come into the breakfast meal. 
 
 (c) Oils and fats appear to act beneficially ; and 
 hence, cream, butter, salad oil may be liberally par- 
 taken of. 
 
 (d) Milk and eggs are held to constipate : they 
 do so less in the uncooked state. 
 
 (e) Rice, sago, tapioca, and some other farinacea 
 are also held to constipate. 
 
 (/) Tea may be replaced by coffee or cocoa, both 
 of which are comparatively free from astringency. 
 
 For the rest, ordinary food may be eaten with- 
 out let or hindrance. 
 
 Unfortunately, constipation is too often associated 
 with dyspepsia of some form or other, and then we 
 may be unable to try the above-mentioned articles 
 of food. The limitations of such dyspepsia will be 
 the same as those already set forth. 
 
 As in the case of dyspepsia, so in the case of 
 constipation : we must make sure that no errors of 
 Hving are being committed — e.g., want of exercise 
 of routine attention to the action of the bowels, 
 etc. If present, we must first correct these. 
 
248 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 DIETARY TABLES FOR CONSTIPATION. 
 
 Ripe fresh fruit or a tumbler of cold water taken 
 regularly the first thing in the morning. If fresh fruit is 
 not available, an excellent substitute may be obtained by 
 soaking a prune or a fig all night in a tablespoonful of 
 best olive oil. 
 
 First Day, 
 
 Breakfast, 
 
 Oatmeal Porridge^ coarse variety best. 
 
 Coffee or Cocoa. Bacon. 
 
 Brown Bread and Butter. Tomato Salad. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Mutton Collops and Onion Sauce. Baked Apple. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Celery Soup. Marengo of Chicken. Potatoes. 
 
 Mixed Salad, with salad-oil dressing, freely. 
 
 Water Toast with Compdte of Apples. 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Breakfast, 
 
 Porridge, or Hot Oatmeal Muffins, 
 
 Cocoa or Coffee. 
 
 Sardines preserved in oil. 
 
 Tomato Sandwiches. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 249 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Raw Oysters. Brown Bread and Butter. 
 
 Baked Pears. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Fried Sole. Braised Mutton, 
 
 Boiled Spanish Onions, or some other vegetable if 
 
 preferred. 
 
 Hydropathic Pudding. 
 
 Celery with Cheese and Biscuits. 
 
250 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 RECIPES. 
 
 First JDay 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Oatmeal Porridge. — Seep. 124. Coffee. — See p. 89. 
 Cocoa. — See p. 181. Bacon, — See p. 129. Tomato 
 Salad. — See p. 162. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Mutton Collops. — See p. 191. Onion Sauce. — See 
 p. 147. Baked Ajyple. — See p. 89. 
 
 I?INNEIi. 
 
 Celery Soup. — Wash a single head of celery, cut it 
 into inch lengths, put it into a saucepan with a small 
 onion, and a slice of butter. Cover closely, and let the 
 vegetables " sweat " for a few minutes over the fire to 
 draw out the flavour ; and shake the pan now and again 
 to keep them from burning. Drain off the fat, and in 
 its place put about a pint of water or the stock in which 
 a leg of mutton or a fowl has been boiled, and simmer 
 till tender. Kub the soup through a sieve. Mix a 
 dessertspoonful of flour to a smooth paste with cold 
 water, and add boiling milk to make a pint of white 
 sauce. Mix this with the celery pulp, add pepper and 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 251 
 
 salt and a quarter of a pint of creara j make hot, and 
 serve. 
 
 Marengo of Chicken. — See p. 152. 
 
 Potato Snow. — See p. 190. 
 
 Mixed Salad. — See p. 86. 
 
 Water Toast. — Toast four thin rounds of bread. 
 Have ready a little boiling water well salted. Dip 
 each slice quickly in and out of the water, then butter 
 it well, and pile the slices one upon another in a silver 
 or metal dish that has been made very hot. Serve as 
 hot as possible. If the toast is allowed to get cold and 
 clammy, it will be disagi'eeable, but if hot and slightly 
 crisp it will be excelleitt eaten with apple. 
 
 Ajyple Compote. — Wash, pare, and core without 
 breaking any number of good well-flavoured apples 
 of an equal siza Stew them gently in a pie-dish with 
 water that does not quite cover them, and allow 
 a thin strip of lemon rind and two large lumps of 
 sugar for each apple. Cover the apples while in the 
 oven, and bake them gently until they are soft, but not 
 broken. Look at them frequently; when nearly done, 
 take them out of the oven before they can fall, and put 
 them in a glass dish. Boil the syrup with a pinch of 
 soaked gelatine and half a glass of sherry, and pour it 
 round the apples when cold. Put a little bright-coloured 
 jelly or a knob of cream on the top of each apple. 
 Wellington apples answer excellently for this dish, 
 because they are very white when cooked, and therefore 
 look pretty 
 
252 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Second Day, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Porridge. — See p. 181. 
 
 Oatmeal Muffins. — Take a cupful of cooked oatmeal 
 (cold porridge that is thoroughly well boiled and rather 
 dry will do for this purpose) ; beat the oatmeal well with 
 a cupful of milk, added gradually. Stir into it a salt- 
 spoonful of salt, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, a pint of 
 flour that has been well mixed with two teaspoonfuls of 
 baking powder, and a lightly-beaten egg. Add more 
 milk if necessary ; a moderately thick batter is required. 
 Last of all, stir in a tablespoonf ul of bu\:ter melted ; beat 
 for half a minute, and bake immediately in well-greased 
 pans or muffin-rings in a hot oven for half an hour. 
 These muffins are to be eaten hot. 
 
 Cocoa. — See p. 124. 
 
 Coffee.—See p. 89. 
 
 Sardines with Oil and Vinegar. — Take as many 
 sardines as are likely to be wanted from the tin, drain 
 them well, remove the skin, and take up the flesh in 
 fillets. Cleanse thoroughly a small quantity of lettuce, 
 or a little mustard-and-cress. Dry it perfectly by toss- 
 ing it in a dry napkin, and shred it finely. Mix the 
 salad with oil and vinegar, put it on a dish, arrange the 
 fillets of sardines upon it crosswise, to make a sort of 
 trellis, and sprinkle chopped gherkins on the top. 
 
 Tomato Sandwiches. — Seep. 138. 
 
FOE COMMON AILMENTS. 253 
 
 ZUNCHEOJV. 
 
 Raiv Oysters. — See p. 94-. 
 Baked Pears. — See p. 235. 
 
 Dinner, 
 
 Fried Sole.— See Y>. 162. 
 
 Braised Mutton. — See p. 163. 
 
 Boiled Spa7iish Onions. — Take the requisite number 
 of Spanish onions of uniform size, peel them, and boil 
 them gently in salted water for two or three hours till 
 tender. Drain them, and put them in a hot dish. Have 
 ready a little Maitre d'Hotel butter, put a piece about 
 the size of a filbert on each onion, and serve. 
 
 Maitre d^ Hotel BiUter. — Pick some leaves of parsley 
 from the stems, wash them well, and chop finely. After 
 chopping, wash a second time by putting the parsley in 
 the corner of a cloth, dipping it in cold water, and 
 wringing it dry. The second washing removes the acrid 
 taste which is sometimes present in fresh parsley. Put 
 the parsley on a plate with its bulk in fresh butter, a 
 little pepper and salt, and a few drops of lemon-juice. 
 Work the ingredients together with the point of a knife 
 till the mixture is smooth, and of the consistency of very 
 thick cream, when it will be ready for use. If the butter 
 is prepared before it is wanted, it must be kept in a cool 
 place, as if melted it would oil and be spoUt. In order 
 to avoid this mischance, it is necessary to mix it in a 
 cool place. 
 
 Hydropathic Pudding. — See p. 132. 
 I* 
 
BETGHT'S DISEASE. 
 
 The treatment of this disease, dietetic as well as 
 other, will be wholly in the hands of the doctor 
 during the acute stage ; but when the disease has 
 lapsed into a chronic condition, and in those cases 
 which, beginning insidiously, never have an acute 
 stage, the patients are more or less at large, and 
 undertake more or less the duties and responsi- 
 bihties of social life. To these, dietetic rules become 
 of much importance, and by their means, amongst 
 others, the patients may avoid the dangers which 
 beset them on all sides. 
 
 Bright's disease includes several forms of depar- 
 ture from health, but of all we may say that the 
 kidneys are at fault — if not primarily, or perhaps 
 even mainly, in every case, yet decidedly at fault — 
 and the endeavour has always been to lighten, as 
 far as possible, the labours of this important excre- 
 ting organ. Now, a very essential function of the 
 
VIET AND COOKERY. 255 
 
 kidneys is the separation from the body of the 
 waste products derived from the brealdng up of 
 albuminous, nitrogenous compounds ; and hence, 
 to lessen the in-take of foods rich in albumen has 
 hitherto been made an essential feature of the 
 dieting. Theory urges this upon us, and experi- 
 ence is supposed to have established the theory ; 
 and we see no reason at present to depart from 
 the usual lines of treatment ; but of late some 
 doubts have been thrown upon the wisdom of the 
 practice, and experiments have quite recently been 
 brought forward to show that a full nitrogenous 
 diet is beneficial, and not harmful. Under the cir- 
 cumstances, whilst advising that the usual dietetic 
 precautions should be adopted, we would urge that 
 they should not be persisted in if the patient does 
 not thrive, and that then a more hberal dietary 
 might be tried. In any case, such a change should 
 be under medical advice. 
 
 The following are the diets adopted in cases of 
 Bright's disease : — 
 
 (1) Milk only. The patient while adopting this 
 should be under observation. The milk may be 
 unmodified, and taken cold or warm, to the patient's 
 
2ft6 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 taste ; or it may be skimmed. In the latter case, 
 constipation is more likely to arise. Four, five, or 
 even six pints of milk may be taken in the twenty- 
 four hours. The use of modified milk — e.^., whey 
 and koumiss — has been advocated in place of 
 milk. 
 
 (2) A modified milk diet, in which milk is still 
 the basis of the regimen ; but by various means — 
 farinaceous thickenings and various flavourings — 
 the monotony is relieved. 
 
 (3) A mixed dietary. This is the dietary most 
 often adopted when the disease has become con- 
 firmed ; and it is in the earlier stages of the trouble, 
 or in stages half-way between the acute trouble and 
 the established disease, that the stricter diets are 
 more successful. 
 
 In the mixed dietary, the bread, rice, and potato 
 group may be freely used, but the cooking must be 
 thorough ; and for this reason all pastries should be 
 avoided. Milk puddings and bread puddings may 
 replace pastry. Thoroughly cooked oatmeal or 
 wheatmeal porridge may be allowed at breakfast. 
 
 Sugar in moderation is permissible, but sweets 
 — e.g., jams, preserves — are best avoided. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 257 
 
 The dried pulses are questionable : they are, 
 of course, rich in nitrogen, but their chief dis- 
 qualification is that they are difficult of digestion. 
 The prepared meal (Revalenta Arabica) may be 
 tried, and we cannot forbid trial of even the 
 unprepared bean meals. 
 
 The entire group of green vegetables — the 
 pea group, in the green and very young state, 
 the salad group, also seakale, asparagus, the 
 green and Jerusalem artichoke, the onion, 
 marrow, tomato — all may be partaken of to the 
 extent of their digestibility in each individual 
 case. 
 
 Fresh ripe fruit is suitable. 
 
 Milk in any form : butter, cream. Cheese should 
 not be taken. 
 
 Eggs are regarded by some as unsuitable. 
 
 Fish : the white kinds ; the white-fleshed poultry ; 
 game. Of these the albuminuric patient may 
 partake in moderation. 
 
 Of butcher's meat, if any be allowed, it will be 
 mutton ; but in general the whole group will be 
 avoided or partaken of very sparingly. 
 
 Fat bacon may be allowed, well toasted. 
 
258 DIET AND GOOKEBY 
 
 It will be seen, then, that the special character- 
 istics of this dietary are the limitation of the solid 
 albuminous foods, both as to quality and quantity, 
 and the accentuation of the use of milk. 
 
 As to beverages other than milk : the use of tea 
 and coffee will depend upon their toleration, and in 
 certain cases where dyspepsia is prominent these 
 will both have to be forbidden. Cocoa may then 
 be substituted, and best, the cocoa from the nibs. 
 
 Alcohol in general is not well tolerated, and if 
 allowed, should be taken as claret or hock ; or a 
 light beer may be tried. Water is best in the 
 majority of cases. We would insist again that the 
 effects of diet in the individual case must be most 
 carefully watched, and in not a few cases the wisest 
 physician will interfere least by diet or otherwise 
 with the patient. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 259 
 
 DIETAKY TABLES FOR BRIGHT'S DISEASE. 
 
 First Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Porridge, with plenty of Milk. 
 Cocoa. 
 Brown or White Bread, or Toast, with Butter. 
 Baked Slips. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Tripe, and Onion Sauce. 
 Tapioca Cream, with Stewed Fruit. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Milk Soup. 
 
 Calf's Sweetbread, or Roast Pheasant. 
 
 Mashed Potatoes. Vegetable Marrow. 
 
 Milky Rice and Baked Apples (the pudding to be very 
 
 Milky). 
 
 Second JDay, 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Porridge with Milk, or Thickened Milk. 
 
 Boiled Fresh Herrings, with Dry Toast. 
 
 Stewed Fruit and Cream 
 
260 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Filleted Haddock, with Brown Bread and Butter. 
 Apple Snow. 
 
 Dinner. 
 Grilled Chop, or Roast Chisken. 
 Bread Sauce. 
 Duchess Potatoes and Salad. 
 Bread Pudding with Fruit Sauca 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 261 
 
 RECIPES. 
 
 I Irst Day. 
 
 Breakfast, 
 
 Porridge. — See p. 181. 
 
 Cocoa. — See p. 124. 
 
 Baked Slips. — Soles too small for frying or filleting 
 are usually called " slips " in the market. They are sold 
 at a lower rate per pound than the larger fish, but they 
 are very sweet and delicate. Scrape but do not skin 
 them, and let them lie between the folds of a cloth to 
 make them quite dry. Brush them on the white side 
 with dissolved butter, sift bread-crumbs over them, and 
 lay them white side uppermost in a buttered baking- 
 tin, and bake till the flesh leaves the bones easily. Thus 
 prepared, the fish will not need any sauce. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 
 Tripe and Onion Sauce. — See p. 146. 
 
 Tapioca Cream. — Stew a brimming tablespoonful of 
 pearl tapioca in half a pint of milk ; sweeten and flavour 
 with cinnamon, and set it away to cool ; just before serv- 
 ing add a gill of cream which has been whipped till firm. 
 Serve with stewed fruit. 
 
 Stewed Fruit. — When fruit is allowed . at all for 
 invalids, nearly every kind may be used that is sound 
 
262 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 and in good condition, provided it is daintily stewed. 
 Fruit should be cooked in an earthenware or porcelain 
 saucepan. The harder sorts should have a little water 
 put with them. Fruit stewed in the French way — that 
 is, made into a compote, is generally found to be ac- 
 ceptable to invalids. According to this method the 
 amount of sugar needed is boiled first to a clear syrup 
 with a little water ; the fruit is then put in and sim- 
 mered gently till soft, when it should be lifted into a 
 glass dish, the syrup boiled a few minutes longer, and 
 poured over it when cool. Compotes should always be 
 made with fine loaf sugar. They are delicious and re- 
 freshing, and fruit cooked thus — that is, not over-cooked 
 — retains its flavour well. The time required varies 
 with the nature of the fruit. The softer sorts, such as 
 raspberries and strawberries, need to simmer for a few 
 minutes only. 
 
 jD/NJV£J?. 
 
 Milk Soup. — Take two large potatoes, or three small 
 ones, a leek or a small onion, one ounce of butter, an 
 ounce and a half of crushed tapioca, and a little pepper 
 and salt. Set a quart of water to boil. Prepare the 
 potatoes and onion, cut them into slices, and throw them 
 into the boiling water. Add an ounce of butter and 
 half a saltspoonful of salt, and boil for an hour. Kub 
 the soup through a sieve, return it to the saucepan, and 
 let it boil again, and put with it half a pint of boiling 
 milk. Sprinkle into it gradually an ounce and a half of 
 crushed tapioca, boil till clear, and serve. 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 263 
 
 Sweetbread. — See p. 136. 
 
 Pheasant. — Pluck, draw, and truss the bird, and 
 either lard it or pass it through hot fat, before puttmg 
 it down to the fire, and baste it well whilst it is being 
 cooked. It should be well done, the time required to 
 be regulated by the size of the bird. It is usual to allow 
 three-quarters of an hour for a good-sized bird ; rather 
 less for a small one. Send bread sauce and brown gravy 
 to table with the pheasant. 
 
 Mashed Potatoes. — Take three or four cooked potatoes, 
 and break them smoothly, or, better still, press them 
 through a wire sieve. Put two tablespoonfuls of milk 
 and a knob of butter into a saucepan ; boil, then stir 
 in the potatoes, add a pinch of salt, and beat briskly 
 over the fire for a minute or two till the mixture is dry. 
 Serve very hot. 
 
 Milky Pice. — See p. 212. Vegetable Marrow. — See 
 p. 190. 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Thickened Milk. — Break an egg into a bowl, and put 
 with it a pinch of salt and a little sugar. Beat it till it 
 is light, but not foamy ; then pour on it a tumblerful of 
 boiling milk. Stir it well, add a little flavouring if liked, 
 and serve when cool in a tall glass. 
 
 Boiled Fresh Herrings. — Boiled fresh herrings are 
 not as well known as they deserve to be. They are 
 
264 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 very delicate and easy of digestion, and less rich than 
 when fried or broiled. To prepare them, wash, scale, and 
 empty the fish, dip them into vinegar, and skewer them 
 in a ring with their tails in their mouths. Lower them 
 gently into boiling salted water, draw the pan back 
 immediately, and simmer softly till done. They will be 
 cooked in six or eight minutes, and should be taken up 
 the instant they are ready, as even a little over-boiling 
 will spoil them. They should be drained, served on a 
 hot dish, and garnished with parsley. For other ways 
 of cooking fresh herrings, see Rheumatic Gout. 
 
 Luncheon. 
 Filleted Haddock. — See p. 93. 
 Apple Snow. — See p. 155. 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 Grilled Chop. — See p. 105. 
 
 Roast Chicken. — Truss a chicken firmly, and cover it 
 with well-greased kitchen paper, or, if preferred, bind a 
 slice of bacon over the breast. Put it neck downwards 
 to a clear fire, and baste it well with butter or dripping. 
 A few minutes before it is cooked remove the bacon or 
 paper, and let it brown well. A chicken would need to 
 roast about half an hour, a large fowl one hour. Brown 
 gravy, made of stock or of the giblets, should be served 
 with the fowls. 
 
 When a chicken has been procured specially for^the 
 use of an invalid, it is a good plan to divide the bird into 
 two portions by cutting it down the middle with a sharp 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 265 
 
 knife. The two halves can be cooked in different ways, 
 to furnish two hot dishes. One half of a chicken may be 
 roasted or baked, and the other may be broiled, boiled, 
 or stewed. 
 
 Bread Sauce. — Prepare some bread-crumbs by rubbing 
 stale crumb of bread through a wire sieve. Pour on it an 
 equal measure of boiling milk, cover it, let it soak for a 
 quarter of an hour or so, then turn it into a delicately 
 clean saucepan, season with salt and white pepper, and 
 boil it for a few minutes, stirring it constantly the while. 
 Add a spoonful of cream, boil once more, and serve. 
 Sometimes a mild flavour of onion is liked in bread 
 sauce. When this is the case, an onion may be boiled 
 in the milk that is to be poured over the crumbs. If 
 approved, the onion may be finely chopped and mixed 
 with the sauce. 
 
 DiLchess Potatoes. — Bake half a dozen large potatoes, 
 then peel them and rub the white part through a sieve. 
 The pulp of baked potatoes will be dry and mealy, and 
 that is what is wanted. Mash them lightly and quickly 
 with a little piece of butter, pepper and salt, an egg^ 
 and, if necessary, a spoonful of cream to form a firmish 
 paste. Roll this on the pastry board to make a flat cake, 
 about the third of an inch thick ; cut it into oblono- 
 squares or rounds, brush them over with milk, and bake 
 in a greased baking-tin in a quick oven till lightly 
 browned. Serve at once. 
 
 Salad. — See p. 86. 
 
 Bread Pudding with Fruit Sauce. — Take as many 
 
266 DIET AND COOKERY. 
 
 fine bread-crumbs as are required for the size of the 
 pudding. Supposing there are crumbs to fill a gill 
 measure, make a custard with half a pint of milk 
 daintily flavoured, and the yolks of two eggs, and sugar 
 to taste. Pour this over the crumbs, and let them soak 
 for a while, then add a pinch of salt and a small lump of 
 butter, and beat well. Just before cooking, add the 
 whites of the eggs that have been whisked to a froth. 
 Carefully butter the inside of a large breakfast cup or 
 small basin, pour in the mixture, lay a round of greased 
 paper on the top, and place the basin in a saucepan with 
 as much boiling water in it as will reach half-way up 
 the side. Steam gently for about three-quarters of an 
 hour, let it stand a few minutes, turn it out carefully, 
 and send a liberal supply of fruit sauce to table with it. 
 
 Fruit Sauce. — Stone some plums or blackberries, put 
 with them a slice of toasted bread, a glass of claret, and 
 a little water, and simmer gently till soft. Rub the whole 
 through a sieve or colander to keep back skin or seeds, 
 sweeten pleasantly, and add a little lemon juice. Make 
 the sauce hot for serving. It is obvious that the claret 
 may be omitted, if desirable, and water can be used in 
 itii place. 
 
HEAET DISEASE. 
 
 In a great variety of general affections the heart 
 follows suit, indicating its sympathy by disturbed 
 action. The dyspeptic, the obese, the gouty, the 
 anaemic may all suffer from heart symptoms — such 
 as breathlessness, palpitation, and the like. The 
 treatment for this secondary affection of the heart 
 is the treatment of the primary general disturbance ; 
 but in a considerable group of heart affections this 
 organ is damaged mechanically, and the mechanical 
 failure assumes the character of a primary disorder. 
 The distinction should always be made between 
 heart disease and heart failure. The heart may be 
 diseased — e.g., there may be some damage to a 
 valve, involving more or less faulty action, but the 
 faulty action may be more or less completely 
 compensated for by adaptation : the powers of 
 the heart to adapt itself are remarkable. On the 
 other hand, the disease may have progressed to 
 
268 DIET AND COOKE EY 
 
 such an extent that adaptation fails. The fault is 
 then no longer compensated for, and heart failure 
 is established. 
 
 So long as there is no heart failure, we do not 
 treat heart disease as such, either medically or 
 dietetically, though we shall, of course, lay down 
 such rules as shall maintain the general health at 
 its best and spare the heart most ; but the moment 
 the heart fails it must be treated. 
 
 Heart failure invariably means a feeble circula- 
 tion, with congestions or stagnations of blood. The 
 alimentary tract, and in particular, its important 
 appendage, the liver, sutFer such congestions, and 
 the process of digestion is more or less impaired. 
 At times the digestive disturbance assumes the 
 character of crises of acute dyspepsia : such are the 
 gastric crises, so called. 
 
 It cannot be said that there is any specific 
 dietetic treatment for heart failure. The food 
 must be light and nutritious ; but this statement 
 means very little, and, in point of fact, we shall 
 have to range from a purely milk or slop diet during 
 a gastric upset, up through the milk and farinaceous 
 diet, the fish and poultry diet, to the full diet, in- 
 
FOE COMMON AILMENTS. 269 
 
 eluding a liberal allowance of butcher's meat. The 
 dietetics of dyspepsia in general will be the dietetics 
 of the impaired digestion of heart failure. We must 
 therefore refer back to the section on Dyspepsia. 
 
 Limiting the liquids is sometimes found very 
 helpful — e.g., one tea-cupful in place of two, and a 
 tea-cup to replace the breakfast-cup ; a half- tumbler 
 at luncheon and dinner. The patient soon gets 
 accustomed to the drier diet. 
 
 In cases of heart disease, dyspepsia, etc., a 
 point is sometimes made of the time for the chief 
 meal, the mid-day (1 to 1.30) being selected as the 
 most suitable. This — other things being equal — 
 is the best time, but much Avill depend upon 
 previous habit and upon the exigencies of the 
 day's routine, and it is not wise to lay down the 
 law too rigorously. 
 
BRONCHITIS. 
 
 Bronchitis is frequently a secondary trouble, and 
 referable to a vice of system — e.g., the gouty; or to 
 disease elsewhere — e.g., heart disease. Where this 
 is demonstrable, the dietetic treatment must recog- 
 nise the underlying vice or the diseased organ 
 primarily at fault. Where such is not demonstrable, 
 it calls for little that can be regarded as special 
 treatment. We may summarise very briefly the 
 needful : — 
 
 (1) In general, the patient needs supporting, 
 and the diet should include the moderate use of 
 cordials — preferably, a littlo good spirit (whisky or 
 brandy) ; but a dry sherry or port (if there be no 
 gouty tendencies) may be allowed, also an occasional 
 glass of dry champagne. 
 
 (2) The mid-day is in most cases the best time 
 for the chief meal. (See previous remarks.) 
 
 (3) The diet, though supporting, should be 
 
DIET AND COOKERY. 271 
 
 easy of digestion : Milk and milk foods ; eggs, 
 beaten up with milk or in the tea or coffee, with or 
 without a small quantity of spirit ; a small quantity 
 of strong soup once or twice a day ; white fish ; 
 poultry (white-fleshed); mutton; the more diges- 
 tible vegetables, thoroughly cooked, etc. 
 
 (4) In some cases limitation of the fluids is 
 found beneficial. Bearing in mind the principle of 
 the diet— supporting and stimulant, but easy 
 of digestion — we need not repeat at length 
 the list of suitable foods, or plan out a special 
 dietary. 
 
ASTHMA. 
 
 In the treatment of asthma also we shall proceed 
 on similar lines : the food should be light, but 
 nutritious. The asthmatic has often a very sensi- 
 tive stomach, and disturbance here by bulky 
 or by indigestible food is very Hable to provoke 
 an attack. The night is the period in which 
 the attack is most liable to occur. On these 
 counts we shall be careful (1) to select the diet on 
 the lines already laid down with reference to dys- 
 pepsia ; and (2) we shall endeavour to secure the 
 completion of the digestive process, or reduce this 
 to a minimum of strain, before retiring to bed. 
 Late suppers or late dinners are therefore to bo 
 avoided. The mid-day meal must be the principal 
 one, and what food is subsequently taken must be 
 light. We can help this plan of lightening the 
 evening task by making the breakfast rather more 
 substantial, but even this and the mid-day meal 
 
DIET AND COOKERY. 273 
 
 should be comparatively light, the diet in general 
 being " spare." 
 
 Cocoa, as beverage, will often advantageously 
 replace tea and coffee. The latter is a valuable 
 agent in treating the attack itself, but its use may 
 be reserved for such emergencies, or, at any rate, 
 be occasional only. 
 
 Stimulants may be required, but as a rule the 
 patient is better without them. If allowed, a small 
 quantity of good spirit, moderately diluted, will 
 probably be the best form. It will, of course, be 
 taken as a digestive aid at meal-time. 
 
 Asthma is so enigmatical, not to say paradoxical 
 a disease, that we must be prepared for any freak, 
 however strange, in matters dietetic as well as 
 hygienic ; but the general run of cases will be met 
 bcbt as above described. 
 
LIQUID AND SEMI-LIQUID FOODS, 
 OE "SLOP DIETAEY." 
 
 Fever patients are limited to " slop diet," which is 
 also advisable or even necessary during the feverish 
 stages of many other complaints, not popularly 
 considered fevers, though the character of their 
 onset is well understood by medical men. Also 
 during many stages, even of convalescence, the 
 patient may be unable to bear more than this kind 
 of food. It is therefore desirable, in a work like 
 this, to collect here the best recipes for food ot 
 this general description. 
 
 MEAT TEAS, BROTHS AND SOUPS. 
 
 Beef Tea. — Freshly-killed, lean, juicy beef is re- 
 quired for making beef tea. Shin of beef is often chosen, 
 but it contains more gelatine than gravy. Fine steak, 
 or the roll of the blade-bone of beef, are perhaps the best 
 portions that can be chosen for the purpose. Take 
 away every morsel of fat, skin, gristle, etc., and leave 
 
BIET AND GOOKEEY. 276 
 
 nothing but the lean fibre ; cut this into very small 
 pieces, put it in a jar, and pour cold water over it, 
 allowing, as a rule, a pint of water for a pound of 
 meat. Let it soak foi an hour, when the water should 
 be red and the meat white ; then cover it closely, and set 
 the jar in a deep saucepan with boiling water to come 
 half way up its height. Simmer by the side of the fire 
 for two or three hours. Pour it out, skim from the 
 surface with a spoon any particles of fat that may be 
 seen, and take away the remainder with a sheet of clean 
 paper. Season agreeably, and the beef tea is ready. If 
 more convenient, the jar can be set in a cool oven instead 
 of being placed in a saucepan of water. 
 
 Beef Tea. — (Another way of making it. ) Prepare the 
 meat as in the last recipe, and pour cold salted water 
 over it. Let it soak for an hour or two, turn it into a 
 perfectly clean saucepan, place it on the fire, and just 
 before it begins to simmer skim it once carefully ; put 
 on the lid, and simmer for about a quarter of an hour. 
 Strain through a coarse colander to keep back the meat 
 only. When cold, remove the fat, and stir the broth 
 before serving it. ''' 
 
 Beef Tea Quickly Made. — Mince half a pound of the 
 lean fibre of beef, and put it into a saucepan with half 
 a pint of water. Let it come slowly to the boiling point, 
 simmer for a few minutes (as long as can be allowed), 
 season, strain, clear from fat, and serve. 
 
 Beef Tea Slightly Thickened. — When the addition is 
 allowed, beef tea may be thickened by having a little 
 
276 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 rice, barley, tapioca, or sago boiled with it. A tablespoon 
 ful of any one of these grains may be allowed for each 
 quart of tea. They should be well washed and drained, 
 then cooked in the liquid from the beginning, that they 
 may be completely incorporated therein. Sometimes beef 
 tea is thickened with a little arrowroot or cornflour. 
 Very coarse oatmeal that has been soaked in water over- 
 night, and simmered in beef tea till it is reduced to 
 jelly, is sometimes much liked by invalids. 
 
 Beef Tea Flavoured, — Beef tea may be pleasantly 
 flavoured by boiling in it a pinch of mixed herbs, a bay 
 leaf or a little onion, carrot, turnip, or celery, and a few 
 peppercorns. The roots should either be chopped small 
 or be scraped to pulp, before being put into the broth. 
 
 Beef Tea with Egg. — Pour a cupful of hot beef tea 
 upon a beaten egg, and serve. 
 
 Beef Juice. — In cases of exhaustion, the pure juice 
 of meat is frequently administered. There are one or 
 two ways of making it. It will not keep well ; there- 
 fore a small quantity should be made at once. 
 
 Take freshly-killed meat full of gravy, remove skin, 
 fat, and gristle, and cut the lean part into thin strips. 
 Put it into a bottle or jar, cover closely, set it in a 
 saucepan of cold water, and heat gradually for an hour. 
 At no time should the heat rise above 1G0° Fahr. Press 
 the meat, strain out the juice and gravy, add a little salt, 
 and serve. The liquid should be red and clear, not 
 brown. Half a pound of fine beef should yield about 
 four tablespoonfula of gravy. Beef that is lightly 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 277 
 
 broiled before being cut up yields more gravy than can 
 be obtained from raw beef. The meat when done 
 should be pink throughout, not brown, and the heat 
 should have penetrated to the centre. When cut it may 
 be squeezed in a lemon squeezer. 
 
 Another way of preparing beef juice or beef pulp 
 is to mince it finely, put it into a basin, and pour a 
 small quantity of cold water over it (half a pint of 
 cold water to four ounces of minced beef) ; then pound it 
 with a spoon till smooth. Let it stand a quarter of 
 an hour, rub it through a wire sieve, add a little salt^ 
 and serve. This may be flavoured to taste. 
 
 To make beef juice with hydrochloric acid, take half 
 a pound of good beef, free it from skin, fat, and gristle, 
 and mince it finely. A satisfactory way of doing this is 
 to pass it twice through a mincing machine. Put into a 
 basin a cup of water and five drops of dilute hydrochloric 
 acid. Stir the beef into this, and set it in a cool place. 
 Strain, season, and serv^e cold. The hydrochloric acid 
 for this purpose should be obtained *' chemically pure." 
 The dilute solution may be made " by mixing it in the 
 proportion of five and one-half fluid ounces to fourteen 
 ounces of water," or, more conveniently, the dilute 
 hydi'ochloric acid of the British Pharmacopoeia may be 
 obtained from the chemist and used. ^ 
 
 Various expedients are adopted to make beef juice 
 look inviting, and to hide its raw taste from the patient. 
 For these purposes tlie juice is served in a red glass, or 
 coloured with a few drops of browning, and it is 
 
278 DIET AND OOOKEEY 
 
 flavoured with Liebig's extract, a few drops of Harvey's 
 sauce, or milk in which celery or onion has been boiled. 
 It must be remembered that beef juice must be ad- 
 ministered in spoonfuls, and that it may either be cold 
 or warmed to a comfortable drinking, not sipping, 
 temperature, say, 110° to 120" Fahr. If it is made 
 too hot it will be spoilt ; if it boils it will curdle. But 
 when it is to be warmed it should be put in a cup, and 
 set in a saucepan of warm water on the fire, and allowed 
 to heat gradually. In order to get the whole value of the 
 meat, it is necessary either to convert the meat fibre into 
 a pulp, as described above, by rubbing the meat through 
 a fine wire sieve, after first mincing and then soaking 
 it; or to predigest the meat by pancreatic or peptic 
 ferments, directions for which are always given 
 along with the ferment, to be obtained from the 
 chemist. 
 
 Mutton Broth. — Take one pound of neck of mutton 
 as lean as can be procured, or lean meat from any other 
 part of the animal may be taken. Cut away all fat, 
 skin, and gristle, and divide the meat into small pieces, 
 put it into a stewpan witli a quart of cold water, and 
 simmer gently for three hours. Carefully remove the 
 scum as it rises. Strain the broth, remove the fat 
 first with a spoon, afterwards with paper; season, and 
 serve hot. If there is time for the broth to go cold 
 before being used, the fat can be more easily removed. 
 To vary the flavour of mutton broth, a dessertspoonful 
 of pearl barley or of rice (if allowed), a turnip, an onion, 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 279 
 
 a little celery, a pinch of herbs, or a couple of bay 
 leaves may be stewed with the meat. 
 
 Veal Broth. — Cut a pound of knuckle of veal into 
 small pieces, place these in a stewpan with three pints of 
 water, and two tablespoonfuls of rice. Boil very gently 
 for an hour and a half, or longer. If liked, to vary 
 the taste, a few parsley leaves, a sprig of thyme and 
 a lettuce leaf may be chopped small and simmered with 
 the veal for five or six minutes — not longer, or the 
 flavour will be spoilt — or a small blade of mace, a sprig 
 or two of parsley, and one of thyme and marjoram, can 
 be used. 
 
 Chicken Broth. — Pluck a fowl, draw it carefully, and 
 remove everything that is not quite dainty — all fat, for 
 example, and skin, if the bird is fully grown. Remove 
 the head and feet also, wash the bird well, and cut 
 the flesh into neat pieces ; put these into a stewpan with 
 rather less than two quarts of water. The liver and 
 gizzard, after being carefully cleansed, may be cut into 
 slices, and put with the rest. Simmer gently for two 
 or three hours. Take out the pieces of fowl, and leave 
 the broth until the next day. Take off the fat, and 
 serve. Pepper and salt should be added by the nurse 
 or invalid. If flavoured broth be desii^ed, three or four 
 sticks of celery, a blade of mace, and a sliced onion may 
 be stewed with the meat. 
 
 The name of this drink, " chicken broth," is rather 
 misleading, for a more nourishing broth can be obtained 
 from a fully-grown fowl than from a young chicken. 
 
280 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Chicken and Rice Broth. — Stir a tablespoonful of 
 cooked rice (if allowed) and a beaten egg into a cupful of 
 hot chicken broth. Stir over the fire for a minute, but 
 do not let the sonp boil. 
 
 Chicken Milk. — Clean a fowl carefully, cut it into 
 small pieces, and break the bones. Put it into an 
 enamelled saucepan with two or three peppercorns and a 
 little salt, and the white part of a head of celery, barely 
 cover it with cold water, bring it slowly to the boil, and 
 simmer gently for four hours or more. Strain the 
 broth into a bowl, and leave it till cold, when it should 
 form a stiff clear jelly. Carefully remove the fat from 
 the top by wiping this jelly with a napkin dipped 
 into hot water and squeezed dry. Take equal quantities 
 of the jelly and milk, put them into an enamelled pan, 
 boil, skim, and serve. 
 
 Chicken Broth made from Giblets. — For the sake of 
 economy, chicken broth is frequently made from the 
 giblets of the bird — that is, from the feet, throat, gizzard, 
 and liver. When this is done the fowl can be cooked to 
 make a separate dish, and excellent results can be 
 obtained in this way. Cleanse the giblets thoroughly, 
 and be particularly careful to skin the feet, first pouring 
 boiling water over them, and letting them lie in it 
 for about a minute to loosen the skin. Put the cleansed 
 giblets into a small saucepan with a pint of cold water, 
 adding, if approved, a sprig of parsley, a small onion, a 
 slice of carrot, and a little celery. Simmer very gently 
 for two hours, then strain for use. If approved, this 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 281 
 
 broth may De flavoured with a tablespoonful of sherry and 
 a squeeze of lemon juice, or it may have a teaspoonful of 
 sago, rice, or tapioca boiled in it to give it consistency. 
 
 Veal and Tapioca Broth. — Break into small pieces a 
 pound of knuckle of veal or a calf's foot, and simmer in a 
 •juart of water until the liquid is reduced by one half. 
 Strain and skim. Turn it into a clean saucepan with a 
 tablespoonful of soaked tapioca, and simmer for half an 
 hour. Salt to taste. When the tapioca is clear, take it 
 off the fire, add an Qgg lightly beaten and three table- 
 spoonfuls of cream. Stir over the fire for a minute or 
 two, long enough to set the egg, and ser^-e. The broth 
 must not boil after the egg is put into it. 
 
 N.B. — The several methods of treating beef in order 
 to obtain the greatest amount of nourishment from the 
 meat may each and all be applied to mutton, veal, 
 chicken, or any other wholesome m«at. 
 
 It is to be remembered that the only methods which 
 ensure the whole value of the meat are those in which 
 the pulp is prepared, or the meat is pre-digested by a 
 suitable ferment. The ingenuity of the cook or nurse 
 will show itself in covering any taste of rawness, or in 
 rendeiing palatable what would else be insipid. On 
 these points again consult the beef preparations. 
 
 Oyster Broth. — Take six or eight fresh oysters, chop 
 them small, put them with their liquor into an enamelled 
 saucepan, pour over them a cupful of cold milk, and 
 bring the liquid slowly to the point of boiling. Simmer 
 for a minute or two, strain through a fine sieve, season 
 
282 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 with salt and wliite pepper, add a teaspoonful of cream, 
 and serve. 
 
 Sometimes, instead of broth, a little soup is required 
 for the invalid. For these the following suggestions are 
 given. 
 
 Clear Soup is generally acceptable. The recipe for 
 making it will be found on page 150. It is to be 
 remembered that the recipe may be followed when a 
 small quantity of soup only is needed, if all the ingre- 
 dients are reduced in the same proportion. 
 
 When preparing the vegetable soups for which re- 
 cipes are here given, it should be remembered that if 
 necessary the flour thickening can be omitted. In 
 Diabetes, for example, this may be advisable. The 
 flour is merely put in to make the soup smooth and 
 bind the ingredients together. It is not indispensable. 
 
 Celery Soup. — "Wash a single head of celery, and boil 
 it in as much salted water or chicken broth as will cover 
 it. When quite tender rub it tlirough a sieve. Mix a 
 dessertspoonful of flour to a smooth paste with a little 
 cold water, and pour on it three-quarters of a pint of hot 
 milk. Season with pepper and salt, add the celery pulp, 
 and a quarter of a pint of cream. Boil up once and 
 serve. This soup may be flavoured with nutmeg. 
 
 Artichoke Soup is made in the same way. Half a 
 bay leaf, and a little lean ham, or the bone of a rasher 
 should be boiled with the artichokes. 
 
 Asparagus Soup is also made in the same way. The 
 points of the asparagus should be cut off" and put aside, 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. ' 283 
 
 then thrown into the soup and boiled till tender, just 
 before serving. 
 
 Onion Soup. — Boil a large onion with two ounces of 
 stale crumb of bread. Cook till the onion is tender. 
 Rub the whole through a sieve, add a pint of hot milk, 
 season with pepper and salt, and serve. Onions are to 
 be used with caution for invalids ; sometimes they are 
 beneficial, sometimes they hinder digestion ; but in this 
 soup they are likely to be as little harmful as can be 
 expected. 
 
 Bice Cream Soup. — Wash two tablespoonfuls of 
 Carolina rice, and then boil it gently in a pint of stock 
 for about two hours, or till quite soft. A short time 
 before it is done, put a slice of onion and a stick of 
 celery into a pint of milk, and simmer. When the milk 
 is pleasantly flavoured pour it over the rice, press the 
 whole through a sieve, and add pepper and salt. Make 
 the soup hot, stir a gill of scalded cream into it, and 
 serve. 
 
 Tapioca Cream Soup. — Follow the above recipe, but 
 substitute pearl tapioca that has been soaked overnight 
 for the rice. 
 
 Vegetable Soup. — Take some cauliflower, asparagus, 
 peas, or any vegetable that may be preferred, and cook 
 it in the ordinary way. Drain it, put it in a sauce- 
 pan and cover it well with milk. Let it simmer for a 
 quarter of an hour, rub it through a sieve, season with 
 salt and pepper, and serve. 
 
 Apple Soup. — Boil any quantity of apple in water 
 
284 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 kill quite soft, and crush it to pulp. For each half pint 
 of water used allow a teaspoonful of corn-flour; mix it to 
 a smooth paste with cold water, and add as much sugar, 
 salt, and powdered cinnamon as will flavour the soup 
 agreeably. Stir the paste into the apple, boil five 
 minutes, and serve hot. 
 
 It is most important that soups and broths should 
 never be sent to an invalid with globules of grease 
 floating on the surface. It is generally easy to remove 
 fat from broth by skimming. If the liquid is allowed 
 to go cold, the fat can be skimmed off" with a spoon ; and 
 should small particles still remain, pieces of thin white 
 paper should be laid for a couple of seconds on the sur- 
 face of the broth, and to these the grease will adhere. 
 As the pieces of paper one after another become charged 
 with grease, fresh pieces should be used until no more 
 grease remains. When broth is hot, the grease may be 
 made to rise quickly by plunging the vessel which con- 
 tains it into cold water for a few minutes. 
 
 Milk is a food of great value in sickness (see p. 24). 
 When it does not digest readily, it is often necessary to 
 dilute it with whey or lime water. When it is desirable 
 to add to its stimulating qualities, a little good beef tea 
 may be put with it. 
 
 TFAe?/.— Put a pint of milk into a saucepan, warm it 
 to a little more than blood heat, or 100° Fahr. ; then 
 put with it two teaspoonfuls of essence of rennet, 
 and set it in a warm place till the milk is set. Put the 
 saucepan on the fire, and boil the milk again ; the curd 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 285 
 
 will then harden and shrink, and can be removed with a 
 spoon. 
 
 Whey can also be made by boiling a pint of milk 
 with a teaspoonful or two of lemon juice or vinegar, 
 or with a glass of sherry. The curd can then be 
 separated from the whey by straining. 
 
 Lime water can be bought at the druggists'. 
 
 jellip:s. 
 
 Jellies may be regarded as liquid foods, because they 
 melt when put into the mouth. They are often very 
 acceptable to invalids. 
 
 Many people have an idea that although it may be 
 allowable to make jelly of gelatine for table use, it is 
 necessary to stew down calf's feet when making jelly 
 for an invalid. This involves an expenditure both of 
 time and trouble, and it is not an advantage if only the 
 gelatine that is used is pure. Gelatine is always of 
 animal origin, and it simply affords a medium for the 
 presentation of food in an acceptable form. Its value 
 depends more ujjon what is put with it, than upon the 
 material itself. The following dishes are therefore made 
 with gelatine. 
 
 Jelly for invalids should never be made hard and 
 very stiff. Though firm, it should be tender and soft so 
 that it will dissolve quickly. 
 
 Beef Jelly. — Prepare beef tea or beef juice in the 
 usual way, and either boil with it a pound of knuckle 
 
286 DIET AND GOOKERY 
 
 of veal, chopped, or add a teaspoonful of soaked gelatine 
 to each quarter of a pint of tea. The gelatine should 
 be boiled until dissolved, and stirred into the beef tea, 
 which may then be left till firm. 
 
 Chicken Jelly is made of chicken broth, made firm 
 with gelatine. 
 
 Wine Jelly, — Soak a tablespoonful of gelatine in a 
 tablespoonful of cold water for an hour. Simmer a 
 clove and a small piece of stick cinnamon about the 
 size of a clove in half a pint of water till the liquid is 
 well flavoured, then take out the spices, bring the water 
 to the boil, and put in the soaked gelatine. Boil and 
 skim well. Add sugar and sherry to taste, or, if ap- 
 proved, sherry and a small quantity of brandy may be 
 used. Strain the jelly through a fine napkin, and when 
 cool mould it in china, and set it in a cool place till firm. 
 Sometimes the juice of half a lemon is substituted for 
 the spice in this recipe. As jelly does not keep well, it 
 is advisable not to make much at once. 
 
 Citric Acid Jelly. — Soak half an ounce of gelatine in 
 a gill of water for an hour. Boil three ounces of loaf- 
 sugar in half a pint of water, and remove the scum as it 
 rises. Put in the soaked gelatine, and boil for five 
 minutes, again removing the scum. Pour the liquid 
 into a basin, stir in it until dissolved the eighth of an 
 ounce of lump citric acid, skim again, add a glass of 
 sherry, and mould it when it is quite cold and beginning 
 to set. 
 
 Iceland Moss Jelly. — "Wash an ounce of Iceland 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 287 
 
 moss in cold water, and soak it all night in as much 
 water as will freely cover it, and to which has been 
 added a small pinch of carbonate of soda. This will 
 tend to take away the unpleasantly bitter taste. Take the 
 moss out of the soda and water, and squeeze it dry, and 
 boil it gently in a quart of water for five hours or more 
 until the liquid is reduced to a pint. Strain it, sweeten, 
 and flavour it with sugar, lemon juice, and wine, and 
 mould when beginning to get firm. Iceland moss jelly is 
 often made with milk instead of water. 
 
 Irish Moss Jelly. — Follow the above recipe exactly. 
 Iceland moss jelly, and Irish moss jelly, and ivory 
 dust jelly, the recipe for making which is below, 
 are often ordered for people sufiering from lung 
 diseases. 
 
 Ivory Dust Jelly.— Buy half a pound of ivory dust 
 from the druggist. Stir it into two quarts of water, and 
 boil it gently all day, until the liquid part is reduced 
 to one pint. Pour it into a basin, and let it get cold ; 
 take up the jelly part, leaving the sediment behind ; 
 flavour and clarify in the usual way, and mould when 
 the jelly is beginning to set. 
 
 It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to say that to 
 cla^fy jelly we allow one egg for each pint of liquid j 
 beat up the whi/^ and the crushed shell, stir it into 
 the melted stock, and whisk over the fire until the jelly 
 rises in the pan, draw it back, and let it stand a few 
 minutes; then pass it through a jelly-bag or napkin, 
 disturbing the crust as little as possible. 
 
DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Hartshorn Jelly. — Follow the recipe given for ivory 
 dust jelly. 
 
 Lemon Jelly. — Soak a tal)leRpoonful of gelatine in 
 water to cover it for an hour. Put it into a saucepan 
 with half a pint of boiling water, stir it until melted, 
 and add the strained juice of a large lemon, two table- 
 spoonfuls of sugar, and a tablespoonful of brandy. Boil 
 a few minutes, and remove the scum as it rises. The 
 precise quantity of lemon juice and sugar used must 
 depend on the taste of the patient. 
 
 If it is thought desirable to have the jelly bright 
 and clear, it must be clarified. {See Ivory Dust Jelly.) 
 The lemon juice will, however, clarify it to some extent, 
 and the removal of the scum will assist the process. 
 
 Orange Jelly. — Follow the above recipe, but instead 
 of using half a pint of boiling water, iise a tablespoonful 
 of lemon juice, six tablespoonfuls of orange juice, water 
 to fill the half-pint measure, and sugar to taste. 
 
 Coffee Jelly. — Soak half an ounce of gelatine in half 
 a pint of water for an hour, dissolve, and add a breakfast- 
 cupful of strong, clear cofiee. Sweeten to taste, mould, 
 add a little cognac if liked, and serve when firm. 
 
 Tea Jelly. — Follow the recipe for cofiee jelly, su1> 
 stituting strong freshly made tea for cofiee. Tea and 
 coffee jellies would not be nourishing, they would he 
 simply reviving, and might serve to stimulate tiio 
 appetite ; invalids frequently like them very much. Tlioy 
 are more nourishing when made with milk instead of 
 water, and they are sometimes enriched by the addition 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 289 
 
 of a little cream. Whipped cream may also be served 
 with them. 
 
 Fresh Fruit Jelly. — Draw out and sweeten agreeably 
 the juice of any kind of fruit. Add the juice of a 
 lemon and half an ounce of soaked and dissolved gelatine 
 for each tumblerful of juice. 
 
 Tapioca Jelly. — Soak half a cupful of pearl tapioca in 
 two cupfuls of water overnight. Turn into a double 
 saucepan, or put in a jar, and set in a saucepan of water, 
 and cook gently till clear. Add sugar to taste, and 
 a little more water if too thick, and when taken off 
 the fire, strain in the juice of a lemon and a little wine, 
 if approved. Serve cold with milk or cream. 
 
 Arrowroot Jelly. — Mix two teaspoonfuls of Bermuda 
 arrowroot to a smooth paste with cold water ; stir into it 
 half a pint of boiling water, and boil for three or four 
 minutes. Sweeten agreeably, flavour with lemon juice, 
 and serve cold. 
 
 Arrowroot Blancmange. — Follow the above recipe, 
 but substitute milk for the water. 
 
 Tapioca Custard. — Soak half a cupful of pearl 
 tapioca overnight in slightly salted water that will barely 
 cover it. Next day turn into a double saucepan with 
 two cups of milk, and cook gently, stirring frequently. 
 When the tapioca is clear and quite tender, pour the 
 preparation upon the yolks of two eggs which have been 
 beaten with two tablespoonfuls of castor sugar. Mix 
 well, then stir over the fire for a minute or two to cook 
 the eggs. Turn into tumblers, and serve cold. 
 
290 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 Tajnoca Cream. — Stew a tablespoonful of small 
 tapioca in half a pint of milk, sweeten and flavour 
 with cinnamon, and set away to cool. Just before 
 serving add a gill of cream which has been whipped till 
 firm, and a tablespoonful of brandy if approved. 
 
 Blancmange. — See p. 207. 
 
 GRUELS. 
 
 Gruels are cooked mixtures of grain, or preparations 
 of grain and water. After cooking, milk (sometimes 
 wine) and various flavour ers are added, but these extra 
 ingredients should not be introduced until thorough 
 cooking in water has first taken place, and the gruel 
 should not be allowed again to reach the boiling point 
 after milk, cream, or wine have been mixed with it. 
 
 Superior Gruel. — Take half a teacupful of coarse 
 Scotch oatmeal, mix it smoothly with about a pint and a 
 half of water, pour it into a saucepan, and set it by 
 the side of the fire to cook gently for a considerable 
 time, three or four hours. Stir it briskly from time 
 to time, and add a little water now and again if it 
 becomes very thick. When done, rub it patiently through 
 a hair sieve, and do not use portions that will not 
 go through. Boil it, mix an equal measure of boiling 
 milk and a little cream with it, and serve. Sugar 
 and flavouring can be added at discretion. It is to 
 be remembered that though a little sugar much improves 
 the taste of gruel, very sweet gruel is disliked by nearly 
 all sick people. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 291 
 
 Plai7i Gruel. — Put a pint of water on the fire to 
 boil. Mix one tablespoonful of the best patent groats to 
 a smooth paste with cold water. When the water on 
 the fire is quite boiling, stir the paste into it, and con- 
 tinue to stir it for ten minutes. Season, and the gruel 
 will then be ready for use. 
 
 Another Way. — Mix a tablespoonful of oatmeal to 
 a smooth paste with cold water, add gradually a pint of 
 boiling water, and boil for a quarter of an hour, or 
 longer if there is time, stirring well to prevent the 
 formation of lumps. Strain, season with salt or sugar, 
 and add cream, wine or brandy, or the yolk of an egg if 
 approved, and serve. 
 
 Another Way. — Put a cupful of oatmeal into a basin, 
 and pour cold water over it to cover it. Stir it well, 
 let it stand a few minutes, and pour off the thin liquid 
 into a saucepan, leaving the sediment behind. Cover 
 again with cold water, and repeat the above process 
 two or three times until the water is no longer charged 
 with meal. Boil the liquid for half an hour longer, 
 season, and for every cupful allow half a cupful of cream. 
 When pouring off the liquid it will, of course, be 
 necessary to be careful lest any of the rough parts of the 
 meal should escape into the saucepan. 
 
 Barley Gruel. — Barley is a nutritious grain, and a 
 drink made from it is in some cases very acceptable. 
 Gruel may be made both from whole barley and froDo 
 barley flour. 
 
 To make it from pearl barley, take two ounces of the 
 
292 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 barley, wash it well in one or two waters, and boil 
 it gently in a quart of water for about two hours, or 
 until the liquid is reduced by half. Strain it, and put it 
 in a cool place. When wanted, season or sweeten it, 
 and mix cream, milk, port wine, lemon juice, or flavour- 
 ing with a small quantity only of the gruel. Barley 
 gruel does not keep well, therefore it is a mistake to 
 prepare much of it at one time. 
 
 To make barley gruel from barley flour, mix a table- 
 spoonful of the prepared meal to a smooth paste with a 
 small quantity of cold water, pour on a pint of boiling 
 water, boil for ten minutes, strain, flavour, and serve 
 very hot. 
 
 Barley Water. — Wash two ounces of barley, or, 
 better still, boil it for a few minutes to cleanse it, and 
 pour the water away ; then simmer it gently in three 
 pints of water for an hour or rather less. When half 
 done put into it a piece of lemon peel and a little sugar. 
 Strain, and it is ready for use. 
 
 Arroivroot. — Mix a dessertspoonful of Bermuda 
 arrowroot to a smooth paste with cold water, pour on 
 half a pint of boiling water or boiling milk, and stir 
 it well. Put the preparation into a saucepan, stir till it 
 is on the point of boiling ; sweeten, flavour, and serve. 
 Arrowroot may be flavoured with lemon rind or juice, 
 nutmeg, cinnamon, wine, etc. 
 
 Rice Caudle. — Mix a tablespoonful of ground rice to 
 a smooth paste with cold water, add a pint of boiling 
 water, and boil for a quarter of an hour, stirring well. 
 JSvv^eeten or season, flavour, and serve. 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS, 293 
 
 DRINKS. 
 
 Water. — In many illnesses cold water is allowed to 
 be used freely as a drink. It should, however, invariably 
 be boiled and allowed to go cold before being diiink, and 
 as boiling renders it somewhat "flat" and tasteless, it 
 should, after boiling, be passed through a good filter 
 which is well cleansed and recharged at stated periods 
 (otherwise filters are quite useles.s), as this will aerate it 
 again to some extent. To keep water cold in a sick 
 room, put it in a stone jug, and wrap the vessel in a cloth 
 kept constantly wet. Drinks for the sick are almost 
 always most valuable when cool, rather than icy cold. 
 
 Toast Water. — This simple beverage is rarely well 
 made. Take a slice of stale bread (crust is to be pre- 
 ferred, as the crumb will sooner turn sour), and toast it 
 slowly all through without burning it. Let it go cold, 
 then pour over it a quart of boiling water, and let it 
 stand covered till cold. Strain it through muslin before 
 serving it. 
 
 Toast Water and Cream. — Mix a tablespoonful of 
 cream with half a tumbler of toast water. Add a 
 little sugar, and serve cold. 
 
 Rice Water. — Wash two tablespoonf ills of rice, let it 
 boil with a pint of water for ten minutes. Strain it 
 off, and add a little more water, and repeat until there is 
 no more goodness in the rice. If liked, an inch of stick 
 cinnamon or a piece of ginger may be boiled with the 
 rice, or a little salt may be added. A spoonful of sherry 
 
294 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 or port may be mixed with the rice water if the patient 
 may take or needs stimulants. 
 
 Lemonade. — Lemonade is the one beverage that is 
 more popular with invalids than any other, yet it varies 
 very much in quality. This is partly explained by the 
 fact that some lemons are much juicier than others; 
 therefore the cook in making it must, to some extent, be 
 guided by her own judgment. For superior lemonade, 
 it may be calculated that when lemons are large and 
 juicy three lemons will be needed for a pint of water ; 
 when lemons are small or not juicy, four lemons will 
 not be too much. The quantity of sugar employed must 
 depend upon taste. In average cases, for lemons of 
 moderate acidity, an ounce of sugar will probably be 
 required for each lemon used. It is to be remembered 
 also that though lemonade is frequently made with cold 
 water, it has a better flavour when boiling water is used 
 for it. When soaking the rind for the sake of its 
 flavour, it should not be forgotten that the minutest 
 portion of white pith, and also the pips, are likely to 
 impart bitterness if allowed to remain. Many cooks do 
 not seem able to realise that thin lemon rind ought to be 
 so thin that it can almost be seen through. 
 
 When the quantity of lemons named is considered 
 unnecessary, the following recipe may be used : — Pare 
 off the yellow rind of a fresh lemon, and be careful 
 not to take any of the white pith, as it would make the 
 lemonade bitter. Put the thin rind into a jug with the 
 strained juice of two lemons and about an ounce of loaf- 
 
FOR COMMON AILMENTS. 295 
 
 sugar. Pour over all a pint and a half of boiling water, 
 and let the liquid stand till cold. Strain and serve. To 
 make lemonade look inviting, nurses sometimes cut a 
 very thin slice from the middle of the lemon before 
 squeezing it, and when it has become cold serve it in 
 a tumbler with the slice of lemon floating on the top. 
 
 A plainer lemonade, which ought, perhaps, to be 
 named lemon drink rather than lemonade, may be 
 made thus : — Peel thinly a large juicy lemon, and let the 
 rind soak in water to cover it for an hour. Strain 
 it, add the clear juice of the fruit and a pint and a half 
 of boiling water. Strain when cold, and serve. 
 
 Lemonade made with barley water or with rice water 
 is occasionally much liked. 
 
 Milk Lemonade. — Put a tablespoonful of loaf-sugar, 
 two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, and two tablespoonful s 
 of sherry into a bowl, and pour on a cupful of boiling 
 water. Stir till the sugar is dissolved, add half a pint of 
 cold milk, and stir again till the milk curdles. Strain 
 for use. 
 
 Apple Water. — Slice without peeling a pound of 
 a}>ples, and boil in a quart of water till the fruit is soft. 
 Strain through muslin, sweeten to taste, and serve when 
 cold. 
 
 MUk and Soda Water. — Fill a glass half full of milk 
 with soda water. Use at once. 
 
 Fruit Juice and Soda Water. — Express the juice from 
 any sort of ripe, sound, fresh fruit, such as strawberries, 
 raspberries, currants, oranges, apricots, peaches, apples, 
 
296 DIET AND COOKERY 
 
 etc. The best way to do this is to put the fruit in a jar 
 with a closely-fitting lid, set the jar in a saucepan with 
 boiling water round it, and let it stew till the juice flows 
 freely. The firmer fruits will need to have a little water 
 stewed with them. A little sugar should be added to 
 the juice according to its acidity. When the fruit is 
 melted, drain the juice from it without squeezing it ; put 
 about two tablespoonfuls of the syrup into a tumbler, 
 and fill the vessel with soda water. If a couple of table- 
 spoonfuls of cream may be used as well as the fruit, 
 a delicious drink will be produced. 
 
 Coffee and Soda Water. — Strong coffee mixed with 
 cream and soda water is occasionally liked by invalids. 
 
 EGG DRINKS. 
 
 Egg Beaten up with Brandy, Wine, or Milk. — Break 
 an egg and take out the speck. Put with it a dessert- 
 spoonful of white sugar and a pinch of salt, and beat 
 it until well mixed, but not long enough to make the 
 QgQ frothy. Add a cup of slightly warm milk and one 
 or two tablespoonfuls of brandy, or two tablespoonfuls of 
 sherry without the milk. Strain into a soda-water glass, 
 and serve immediately. 
 
 Mulled Wine and Egg. — Put a gill of water, one 
 clove, and a piece of stick cinnamon the size of a thumb- 
 nail into a saucepan, and boil for ten minutes. Add 
 a gill of wine, and let the mixture barely reach the 
 boiling point. Have ready an egg beaten with a table- 
 spoonful of white sugar. Pour the boiling liquid gently 
 
FOB COMMON AILMENTS. 297 
 
 into the egg, and stir well. The preparation should be 
 of the consistency of cream. In very cold weather it 
 may need to be put on the fire for another minute 
 to finish cookinfj the egfSf. 
 
 White of Egg and Milk. — (Sometimes valuable in 
 diarrhoea.) Beat the white of an egg, and mix with it a 
 tumbler of milk, a teaspoonful of brandy, and half a 
 tumblerful of soda-water. 
 
 Egg Lemonade, — Shake together in a bottle the white 
 of an egg, a tumblerful of cold water, the juice of half a 
 small lemon, and a teaspoonful of white sugar. Or beat a 
 whole egg lightly, and add a tumblerful of strong sweet 
 lemonade. 
 
 Egg Soup.—Be&X, an egg lightly, and stir it into a 
 breakfast cupful of hot broth of any kind. Season with 
 pepper and salt. 
 
 Egg Gruel. — Beat an egg, add pepper and salt, and 
 pour on, stirring briskly, a teacupful of boiling water. 
 
 Egg Cordial. — Beat the white of an egg to a froth, 
 add a tablespoonful of cream and a tablespoonful of 
 brandy. Mix thoroughly. 
 
 Egg Drink. — (This drink has often been found ac- 
 ceptaV>le in cases of dryness of the throat.) Mix a table- 
 sjjoonful of the best arrowroot to a smooth paste with 
 cold water. Add two tablespoonfuls of white sugar and 
 the whites of two eggs which have been whisked with a 
 little water. Add boiling water to make up the quan- 
 tity to there pints, boil up once quickly, and stir whilst 
 boiling. 
 
298 DIET AND COOKERY. 
 
 Detiime^s Solution of White of Egg. — (Specially use- 
 ful in many children's illnesses.) The whites of two 
 eggs dissolved in, or diffused through, one and a half 
 pints of water sweetened to taste. Cognac may be 
 added to this according to the physician's prescription. 
 Without the cognac the solution will be drunk as, and 
 mistaken for, sweetened water. 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adults, Milk for, 54 
 Age and Food, 52 
 Aged, Food for, 55 
 Alcohol, 3, 56, 57 
 Ale, 61 
 
 Almonds, Salted, 116 
 Almond Biscuits, 111 
 
 Cakes, 110 
 
 AmLer Pudding, 191 
 Anaemia, Rules of Diet for, 197 
 
 , Dietary Tables for, 201 
 
 Appetite, 22 
 
 Apple, 49, 50 
 
 , Baked, 89, 162 
 
 Charlotte, 215 
 
 , Compote, 251 
 
 Mould, 140 
 
 Sauce, 185 
 
 Snow, 155 
 
 Soup, 283 
 
 , Stewed, 127 
 
 Water, 295 
 
 Apricots, Stewed, 127 
 
 with Rice, 171 
 
 Arrowroot, 292 
 
 Blancmange, 289 
 
 Jelly, 289 
 
 Thinned Milk, 233 
 
 Artichokes, Jerusalem, 164 
 Artichoke Soup, 282 
 Articles of Diet, 63 
 Asparagus, 97, 282 
 
 Ass's Milk, 27 
 
 Asthma, Rules of Diet for, 272 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon, Chicken Livers and, 20f 
 
 , Rashers of, 129 
 
 , Value of, as Food, 75 
 
 with Kidneys, 183 
 
 Baking, 47 
 
 Barley Gruel, 291 
 
 Water, 292 
 
 Batter Puddings, 186 
 Beans, French, 236 
 Beef, 45 
 
 CoUops, Minced, 139 
 
 , Fillet of, Saute, 87 
 
 Jelly, 285 
 
 Juice, 276 
 
 Steak, Broiled, 204 
 
 Stew, 167 
 
 Tea, Flavoured, 35, 276 
 
 Tea and Milk, 32 
 
 Tea, Various Ways of 
 
 Making, 274, et seq.' 
 
 Tea, Varieties of, 32 
 
 Biliousness, Rules of Dieting for, 
 
 238 
 Birds as Food, 43 
 Birds' Nest Pudding, 129 
 Biscuits, Almond, 111 
 Blancmange, 137, 207, 289 
 
300 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Blanche Sauce, 153 
 Boiling, 46 
 
 Brains, Value of, as Food, 74 
 Bran Bread, 107 
 
 Cakes, 109 
 
 Brandy and Egg, 296 
 
 and Milk, 26 
 
 Bread, 50 
 
 , Bran, 107 
 
 , Brown, 51 
 
 , Diabetic, 106 
 
 , Gluten, 106 
 
 Pudding, 265 
 
 Sauce, 265 
 
 , Stale, Digestibility of, 50 
 
 , Whole Meal, 51 
 
 Bright's Disease, Dietary Tables 
 for, 259 
 
 Bright's Disease, Rules of Diet- 
 ing for, 254 
 
 Broccoli, 128 
 
 Bronchitis, Rules of Dieting for, 
 270 
 
 Broth, 30 
 
 , Chicken, 279, 280 
 
 , , and Rice, 280 
 
 , Mutton, 278 
 
 , Oyster, 281 
 
 , Veal, 279 
 
 , , and Tapioca, 281 
 
 Brown Sauce, 189 
 
 Butter a la Maitre d'H6tel, 253 
 
 Buttered Eggs, ld6 
 
 C. 
 
 Cabbage with Partridge, 113 
 Cabinet Pudding, 164 
 Cakes, Almond, 110 
 
 , Bran, 109 
 
 , Sponge, 61 
 
 Calf's Feet, 74 
 Foot Jellies, 35 
 
 Calf's Head, 74 
 Caudle Rice, 292 
 Cauliflower in Sprigs, 88 
 Celery, Boiled, 234 
 
 , Fried, 88 
 
 Soup, 250, 282 
 
 Chicken and Rice, 280 
 
 Boiled, 130 
 
 , Broiled, 168 
 
 Broth, 279 
 
 , , fi-om Giblets, 280 
 
 , , with Rice, 280 
 
 , Fricassee of, 170 
 
 Fried with Chives, 96 
 
 JeUy, 286 
 
 Livers and Bacon, 209 
 
 , Marengo of, 152 
 
 Milk, 280 
 
 Roast, 264 
 
 Children's Food, 53, 54 
 Childi-en with Chest Delicacy, 
 
 Food for, 54 
 Chocolate, 125 
 
 Pudding, 195 
 
 Chop, Broiled, 10-3 
 Citric Acid JeUy, 286 
 Clear Soup, 150, 282 
 
 , with Poached Eggs, 112 
 
 Cocoa, 42 
 
 Made from Nibs, 124 
 
 from Prepared Powder, 125 
 
 Coffee, 42, 89 
 
 Jelly, 288 
 
 , Soda Water and, 296 
 
 ,Various Ways of Making, 92 
 
 Collops, Beef, 139 
 
 , Mutton, with Tomatoes, 191 
 
 Compote of Apple, 251 
 Condiments, 49 [246 
 
 Constipation, Dietary Rules for, 
 
 , Dietary for, 248 [176 
 
 Consumption, Rules of Diet for, 
 , Dietary Tables for, 180 
 
INDEX. 
 
 301 
 
 Cream, Rice, 203 
 
 , Tapioca, 261 
 
 , Toast, 192 
 
 Croutons for Soup, 187 
 Cup Custard, 235 
 Custard Sauce, 196 
 
 , Savoury, 112 
 
 , Tapioca, 289 
 
 Cutlet, Mutton, with Eeforme 
 
 Sauce, 187 
 , Veal, a la Talleyrand, 115 
 
 D. 
 
 Demme's Solution of Egg, 37, 298 
 Devonshire Junket, 141 
 Diabetes, Dietary Tables for, 101 
 
 , Rules of Diet for, 99 
 
 Diabetic Bread, 106 
 
 Diarrhoea, Dietary Rules for, 244 
 
 Diet, Articles of, 63 
 
 Diet, Kinds of, 21 
 
 Digestion, 1-5 
 
 Digestion, Imperfect, 13 
 
 Drinks, 293 
 
 , Egg, 296 
 
 Duchess Potatoes, 265 
 
 Ducks, 71 
 
 Dyspepsia, Dietary Rules for, 224 
 
 , Tables for, 231 
 
 E. 
 
 Egg, 36, 53 
 
 and Brandy, Wine or Milk, 
 
 296 
 
 ■ and Tomato on Toast, 84 
 
 and Wine, Mulled, 296 
 
 , Boiled, 209 
 
 , Buttered, 165 
 
 , Cordial, 297 
 
 Egg, Demme's Solution of, 37, 
 
 298 
 
 Drink, 296-7 
 
 Flip, 38 
 
 Gruel, 297 
 
 Lemonade, 297 
 
 Ox Eyes, 146 
 
 , Poached, with Clear Soup, 
 
 112 
 
 , Savoury, 184 
 
 Soup, 297 
 
 , White of, and Milk, 297 
 
 Extracts of Meat, 34 
 
 F. 
 
 Fever, Dietary Rules for, 220 
 Fish, 41 
 
 Haddock, 93, 126, 234 
 
 Halibut, 213 
 
 Herrings, 161, 263 
 
 Lobsters, 70 
 
 Mussels, 70 
 
 Oysters, 41, 70, 94, 281 
 
 Plaice, 114, 138 
 
 Sardines, 166, 252 
 
 SheU Fish, 70 
 
 SHps, 261 
 
 Sole, 86, 130, 136, 163, 193 
 
 Turbot, 155 
 
 , Boiled, Digcstibihty of, 41 
 
 , Broiled, , 42 
 
 , Fried, , 42 
 
 Roe, 70 
 
 , Salted, 70 
 
 Sauce, Simple, 214 
 
 , Smoked, 70 
 
 Flour, Wheaten, 51 
 Fluid Meats, 34 
 Food and Age, 52 
 
 and Digestion, 1 
 
 Groups, 1 
 
802 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Food for Children, 63 
 
 for Children with Chest 
 
 Delicacy, 54 
 
 for the Aged, 55 
 
 and Stimulants, 59 
 
 Forms, Best for Health, 4 
 
 , Quantities of, Necessary for 
 
 Health, 4 
 Foods, Classification of, 64, et seq. 
 
 , Liquid, 274 
 
 Fowl, 43 
 
 , Boiled {See also Chicken), 
 
 130 
 Fruit, 47-9 
 
 Almonds, 116 
 
 Apples, 89, 127, 140, 155, 162, 
 185, 216, 251, 283, 295 
 
 Apricots, 127, 171 
 
 Lemon, 153, 165, 237, 288, 294, 
 297 
 
 Nuts, 60 
 
 Orange, 288 
 
 Prunes, 166 
 
 Peaches, 127 
 
 Pears, 235 
 
 Raspberry, 98 
 
 Rhubarb, 203 
 Fruit JeUy, Fresh, 289 
 
 Juice and Soda Water, 295 
 
 Sauce, 266 
 
 , Stewed, 261 
 
 , Stone, 49 
 
 G 
 
 Gallstones, 239 
 
 Game, 43, 113, 128, 236, 263 
 
 Gastric Juice, Function of, 8-10 
 
 Gelatine, Value of, 31 
 
 German Sauce, 165 
 
 Gluten Bread, 106 
 
 Goat's Milk, 27 
 
 Gout, Rheumatic, Dietary Rules 
 
 for, 158 
 
 , Tables for, 160 
 
 Gouty Habit, Dietary Rules for, 
 
 117 
 
 , Tables for, 122 
 
 Gravel and Stone, Dietary Rules 
 
 for, 133 
 
 , Tables for, 134 
 
 Greens, 140 
 
 Grenadines of Veal, 194 
 Gruel, 290 
 
 , Barley, 292 
 
 , Egg, 297 
 
 , Oatmeal, 290 
 
 H. 
 
 Haddock, Fillets of, 93 
 — , Flaked, 234 
 
 , Plainly Boiled, 126 
 
 Halibut, BoQed, 213 
 
 Hare, Value of as Food, 74 
 
 Haricot Soup, 186 
 
 Hartshorn Jelly, 288 
 
 Heart Disease, Dietary Rules for, 
 
 267 
 Heart as Food, LidigestibiHty of, 
 
 73 
 Herrings, Fresh, Baked, 161 
 
 , Boiled, 263 
 
 Hydropathic Pudding, 132 
 
 Iceland Moss Jelly, 286 
 Indigestible Foods, 71 
 Indigestion, Causes of, 15 
 Infancy, Food for, 52, 63 
 Intervals between Meals, 20 
 Irish Moss Jelly, 287 
 Ivory Dust Jelly, 287 
 
INDEX. 
 
 303 
 
 J. 
 
 Jellies, 285 
 
 Jelly, Arrowroot, 289 
 
 , Beef, 285 
 
 , Calf's Foot, 36 
 
 , Chicken, 286 
 
 , Citric Acid, 286 
 
 , Coffee, 288 
 
 , Fresh Fruit, 289 
 
 , Hartshorn, 288 
 
 , Iceland Moss, 286 
 
 , Irish Moss, 287 
 
 , Ivory Dust, 287 
 
 , Lemoo, 237, 288 
 
 , Meat, 35 
 
 , Orange, 288 
 
 , Baspberry, 98 
 
 , Savoury, 116 
 
 , Tapioca, 289 
 
 , Tea, 288 
 
 , Wine, 286 
 
 Jxilienne Soup, 150 
 Junket, Devonshire, 141 
 
 K. 
 
 Kidneys and Bacon, 183 
 
 and Mushroom, 114 
 
 , Yalue of as Food, 73 
 
 Koxuniss, 25, 28 
 
 L. 
 
 Lamb, 45 
 
 , Value of, 72 
 
 Ladywell Pudding, 157 
 Lemon JeUy, 237, 288 
 
 Eice Pudding, 153 
 
 Sauce, 165 
 
 Lemonade, 294 
 
 and Egg, 297 
 
 and Milk, 295 
 
 Lettuce, 48 
 Lime Water, 286 
 
 Lime Water and Milk, 26 
 
 Liquid Foods, 274 
 
 Liver as Food, Value of, 73 
 
 , Torpid or Sluggish, Dietary 
 
 Eules for, 241 
 Livers, Chicken and Bacon, 209 
 Lobsters, 70 
 
 M. 
 
 Maitre d'H6tel Butter, 253 
 
 Sauce, 194 
 
 Malt Liquor, Limitation of 
 
 Quantity, 61 
 Marrow, Vegetable, 47 
 
 Saute, 190 
 
 Soup, 130 
 
 with Savoury Mince, 111 
 
 Mastication, 6, 8 
 
 Meals, Intervals between, 20 
 
 , Number of, 20 
 
 Meat Broths, 30 
 
 , Cured, Value of, 46 
 
 Extracts, 34 
 
 , Fluid, 34 
 
 Jellies, 35 
 
 Juices, 34 
 
 Meats — 
 
 Bacon, 75, 129, 183, 209 
 
 Beef, 32, 35, 45, 87, 139, 167, 
 204, 274, 276, 285 
 
 Lamb, 45, 72 
 
 Mutton, 45, 72, 105, 156, 163, 
 187, 191, 202, 214, 278 
 
 Pork, 45, 73 
 
 Veal, 45, 72, 116, 194, 279, 281 
 
 Venison, 46, 74 
 
 , Peptonised, 33 
 
 , Salted, 46, 75 
 
 Milk, 24, 284 
 
 and Beef Tea, 32 
 
 and Lime-water, 26 
 
304 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Milk, Arrowroot Thinned, 233 
 
 , Ass's, 27 
 
 and Brandy, 26 
 
 and Chicken, 280 
 
 , Composition of, 25 
 
 , Dilution of, 26 
 
 • for Adults, 54 
 
 , Goats', 27 
 
 , to Render Digestible, 26 
 
 , Human, 27 
 
 and Lemonade, 295 
 
 , Nutrition in, 29 
 
 , Peptonisation of, 27 
 
 Puddings, 40, 42, 53 
 
 , Quantity for Children, 53 
 
 Soup, 262 
 
 and Soda, 295 
 
 , Super-added, 29 
 
 , Thickened, 263 
 
 and White of Egg, 297 
 
 — , Whole, 28 
 
 Mince, Savoury, with Vegetables, 
 
 111 
 Muflins, Oatmeal, 252 
 Mushroom Sauce, 131 
 Mushrooms and Kidneys, 114 
 
 , Stewed, 135 
 
 Mussels, ludigostibility of, 70 
 Mutton, 45, 72 
 
 , Boiled, 214 
 
 , Braised, 163 
 
 Broth, 278 
 
 Chop, Broiled, 105 
 
 Collops with Tomatoes, 101 
 
 Cutlet, 187 
 
 ■ , Loin of, Boned and Rolled, 
 
 156 
 
 , Stewed, with Vegetables, 
 
 202 
 
 N. 
 
 Nervous Prostration, Nerves, 
 Neurasthouia, Dietary Rules 
 for, 217 
 
 Number of Meals, 20 
 Nutrition in Milk, 29 
 Nuts, 50 
 
 O. 
 
 Oatmeal Gruel, 290 
 
 • Muffins, 252 
 
 Obesity, Diet Tables for, SO 
 
 , Dietarj' Rules for, 76 
 
 Omelet, 154 
 Omelette Souflice, 95 
 Onion Sauce, 117 
 
 Soup, 283 
 
 Onions Boiled, Spanish, 253 
 Orange Jelly, 288 
 Oyster Broth, 281 
 Oysters, 41, 7<), 94 
 Ox Eyes (Eggs), 146 
 Ox Tail Soup, 167 
 
 P. 
 
 Palatability of Food, 4 
 
 Pancakes, 51 
 
 Partridge Braised with Cabbage, 
 
 113 
 Pastry Unwholesome, 51 
 Peaches, Stewed, 127 
 Pears, Baked, 235 
 Peptonization of Milk, 27 
 Peptonized jMeats, 33 
 Pheasant, 263 
 Pigeons, Roasted, 236 
 Piquant Sauce, 87 
 Plaice, Baked, lU 
 
 , Filleted, 138 
 
 Pork, 45, 73 
 Porridge, 181 
 Potato Cakes, 195 
 
INDEX. 
 
 305 
 
 Potato Plugs, 207 
 
 Puff, 170 
 
 Snow, 190 
 
 Souffl<^es, 207 
 
 Potatoes, 48, 53, 148 
 
 k la Duchesse, 265 
 
 , Baked, 150 
 
 ■ , Browned, 157 
 
 , Fried, 205 
 
 , Maslied, 263 
 
 , New, Boiled, 149 
 
 , Old, BoHed, 148 
 
 , Roasted, 149 
 
 , Steamed, 149 
 
 Poultry — 
 
 Chicken, 96, 152, 168, 170, 209, 
 264, 279, 280, 286 
 
 Fowl, 43, 130 
 Princesse Pudding, 192 
 Primes, Stewed, and Crearn, 
 
 166 
 Ptarmigan, 128 
 Pudding, Amber, 191 
 
 , Apple, Chai-lotte, 215 
 
 , Apple, Mould, 140 
 
 , Apple Snow, 155 
 
 , Batter, 51, 186 
 
 , Bird's Nest, 129 
 
 , Bread, -n-ith Fruit Sauce, 
 
 265 
 
 , Cabinet, 164 
 
 , Chocolate, 195 
 
 , Cup Ciistard, 235 
 
 , Hydropathic, 132 
 
 , Ladywell, 157 
 
 , Lemon Rice, 153 
 
 , Little Batters, 186 
 
 , Princesse, 192 
 
 , Rice Creamed, 203 
 
 , Rice, Milky, 212 
 
 , Rice, Plain, 126 
 
 — — , Rico, with Apricots, 171 
 — — , Sago shape, 139 
 
 a 
 
 Quantities of Food Necessai-y for 
 Health, 4 
 
 R 
 
 Rabbit, Value of, as Food, 75 
 Raspberry Jelly, 98 
 Reforme Sauce, 189 
 Rlieiunatic Gout, Dietary Rules 
 
 for, 158 
 
 , Tables for, 160 
 
 Rheumatism, Dietary Rules for, 
 
 142 
 
 , Tables for, 145 
 
 Rhubarb, Stewed, 203 
 Rice as Vegetable, 139 
 
 and Chicken Broth, 280 
 
 Caudle, 292 
 
 , Creamed, 203 
 
 Cream Soup, 283 
 
 , Milky, Pudding, 212 
 
 Pudding, Plain, 126 
 
 , Savoury, 185 
 
 with Apricots, 171 
 
 Water, 293 
 
 Rickets, Dietary Rules for, 17? 
 
 Roasting, 47 
 
 Rump Steak, Broiled, 204 
 
 Saccharine, 105 
 Sago Shape, 139 
 Salad, 86 
 
 , Sardine, 252 
 
 , Tomato, 162 
 
 Salted Almonds, 116 
 Sandwiches, Tomato, 13S 
 Sardines, 166, 252 
 Sauce, Apple, 18.3 
 
306 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Sauce, Blanche, 153 
 
 , Bread, 265 
 
 , BrowB, 189 
 
 , Custard, 196 
 
 , Fish, 214 
 
 , Fruit, 266 
 
 , German, 165 
 
 , Lemon, 165 
 
 , Maitre d'Hotel, 194 
 
 , Mushroom, 131 
 
 , Onion, 147 
 
 , Piquante, 87 
 
 , Reforme, 189 
 
 Sausage Cakes, 184 
 Savoury Custard, 112 
 
 Egg, 184 
 
 Jelly, 116 
 
 Mince, with Vegetables, 
 
 111 
 
 Rice, 185 
 
 Scrofula, Consumption, Dietary 
 
 Rules for, 176 
 
 , Tables for, 180 
 
 Seakale, 116, 157 
 
 Shellfish, Indige&'ibility of, 70 
 
 SHps, Baked, 261 
 
 Slop Dietary, 274 
 
 Sole, FiUets of, Baked, 130, 193 
 
 , BoUed, 86 
 
 , Fried, 162 
 
 on Toast, 136 
 
 Soda Water and Coffee, 296 
 — — and Fruit Juice, 295 
 
 and Milk, 295 
 
 Soup, Apple, 283 
 
 , Artichoke, 282 
 
 , Asparagus, 282 
 
 , Celery, 250, 282 
 
 , Clear, 112, 150, 282 
 
 , Croutons for, 187 
 
 , Egg, 297 
 
 , Haricot, 186 
 
 , Julienne, 150 
 
 Soup, Milk, 263 
 
 , Onion, 283 
 
 , Ox-Tail, 167 
 
 , Rice Cream, 283 
 
 , Tapioca Cream, 283 
 
 , Tomato and Turnip, 204 
 
 , Vegetable, 283 
 
 , Vegetable Marrow, 130 
 
 Spinach, 131 
 
 Stimulants, 3 
 
 Stone Dietary, Rules for, 133 
 
 , Tables for, 134 
 
 Sweetbread, 46, 74, 136 
 
 T. 
 
 Tapioca Cream, 261, 290 
 Soup, 283 
 
 Custard, 289 
 
 JeUy, 289 
 
 Tea, 42, 81, et seq. 
 
 , Afternoon, 20 
 
 Jelly, 288 
 
 Thickened Milk, 263 
 
 Time required for Digestion, IS 
 Toast, 85, 162 
 , Cream, 192 
 
 and Water, 293 
 
 , Water, 251 
 
 , , and Cream, 293 
 
 Tomato and Egg on Toast, 84 
 
 and Turnip Soup, 204 
 
 , Mutton CoUopa with, 191 
 
 Salad, 162 
 
 Sandwiches, 138 
 
 Tongue, Cured, 46, 74 
 Tiipe, 46, 74 
 
 ^ la Coutance, 211 
 
 , Boiled, 146 
 
 Tm-bot, Boiled, 155 
 Turnip Tops. 137 
 
INDEX. 
 
 307 
 
 V. 
 
 Veal, 45, 72 
 
 and Tapioca Broth, 281 
 
 Broth, 279 
 
 Cutlets a la Talleyrand, 115 
 
 , Grenadines of, 19-i 
 
 Vegetable Soup, 283 
 Vegetables, 47 
 
 Artichokes, Jerusalem, 164, 
 
 282 
 Asparagus, 97, 282 
 Beans, French, 236 
 Broccoli, 128 
 Cabbage, 113 
 Cauliflower in Sprigs, 88 
 Celery, 88, 234, 250, 282 
 Greens, 140 
 
 Mushrooms, 114, 131, 135 
 Onions, 147, 253, 283 
 Potatoes, 48, 53, 148, 149, 150, 
 
 157, 170, 190, 195, 205, 207, 
 
 263, 265 
 SeakaJe, 116, 157 
 
 Vegetables — {continued). 
 
 Salad, 86, 162, 252 
 
 Spinach, 131 
 
 Tomatoes, 84, 138, 162, 191, 204 
 
 Marrows, 47, 111, 130, 190 
 Venison, 46, 74 
 Vomiting, Dietary Eulea for, 243 
 
 W. 
 
 Water, 1, 40, 293 
 
 Toast, 251 
 
 When Should Food Be Given, 4 
 Whey, 25, 40, 284 
 Whiting, FiUets of, Boiled, 127 
 Whole Milk, 28 
 
 Meal Bread, 61 
 
 Wine and Eggs, 296 
 JeUy, 286 
 
 Wines, Limitation of Quantity, 
 
 62 
 , Mulled, and Egg, 296 
 
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