Part 25

Add one pound of pine-apple grated fine to the yolks of eight eggs well beaten with one pound of sugar, one and a half pints of boiled cream, and a very little salt. Stir all together over the fire until it begins to thicken. When beginning to set in the freezer (having stirred it in the usual way), add a pint of cream (whipped). This addition of the whipped cream is a great improvement, although it is generally omitted. Put it into a form. When ready to serve, press the tuft of leaves, cut from the pine-apple and trimmed, in the top of the cream. Surround it with whipped and sweetened cream.

ICED RICE-PUDDING (_Francatelli_).

Wash and parboil half a pound of rice; then put it into a stew-pan, with a quart of milk and a pint of cream, two sticks of vanilla, three-quarters of a pound of sugar, and a little salt. Allow the rice to simmer very gently over or by a slow fire, until the grains are almost dissolved, stirring it occasionally with a light hand. When the rice is done, and while it is yet hot, add the yolks of six eggs; then stir all well together for several minutes, in order to mix in the eggs, and also for the purpose of breaking up and smoothing the rice. Let this rice custard be frozen like an ordinary ice-cream, stirring it from the sides until it is set, when put it into a mold, and immerse it in the ice and salt.

While the above part of the process is going on, a _compôte_ of twelve oranges should be prepared in the following manner: First, separate them into sections, and remove every particle of the white pith with a small knife, laying the transparent pulp of the fruit quite bare. When all the oranges are ready, throw them into a stew-pan containing about a pint of sirup (made with one pound of sugar and nearly a pint of clear water); allow the pieces of oranges to boil up gently in this for two minutes, and then drain them in a sieve. Boil the sirup down to about one-half of its original quantity; then add two wine-glassfuls of curaçoa and three table-spoonfuls of peach marmalade or apricot jam; mix all together, and pour this preparation over the oranges in a basin. When about to send the pudding to table, turn it out of the mold on a platter, dress the _compôte_ of oranges on the top and around the base, pour the sirup over it, and serve.

BISCUIT GLACÉS, IN SMALL CASES.

Beat well eight yolks of eggs, with ten ounces of sugar, and a very little salt; add one pint of cream. Stir over the fire until slightly thickened. Flavor with vanilla powder, the extract of almonds, lemon, or with coffee or chocolate. It may also be made by adding a _purée_ of peaches, strawberries, raspberries, or pine-apple to the custard. When just beginning to set in the freezer, stir in lightly one-half pint of cream (whipped); then partly fill paper cases with the mixture. Smooth over the tops. Set the cases in the freezer well dried, and allow them to harden until ready to serve.

BISCUIT GLACÉS (_Francatelli_).

Ingredients: One pint of clarified sirup, twelve yolks of eggs, two whole eggs, a large wine-glassful of maraschino.

Mix the whole of the ingredients in an earthen basin; then pour the preparation into an egg-bowl that has been previously warmed with hot water and wiped dry. Whisk the _soufflé_ briskly (the egg bowl being placed on a stove containing hot ashes) until it resembles a well-prepared, firm, sponge-cake batter. Fill the paper cases with the preparation, and smooth over the tops. Place them in a tin pail or in the freezer, surrounded with ice and salt, and half a pound of saltpetre mixed, and let them remain well covered for three or four hours at least, before serving, without stirring them. Or, they may be frozen all together in one mold, and some sifted macaroon powder or grated chocolate sprinkled over the surface, to imitate a baked _soufflé_.

NESSELRODE PUDDING (_Carême’s Receipt_).

Ingredients: Forty chestnuts, one pound of sugar, flavoring of vanilla, one pint of cream, the yolks of twelve eggs, one glass of maraschino, one ounce of candied citron, two ounces of currants, two ounces of stoned raisins.

Blanch the chestnuts in boiling water, remove the husks, and pound them in a mortar until perfectly smooth, adding a few spoonfuls of the sirup; then rub them through a fine sieve, and mix them in a basin with a pint of sirup, made from one pound of sugar, clarified, and flavored with vanilla; one pint of cream, and the yolks of twelve eggs. Set this mixture over a slow fire, stirring it _without ceasing_, until the eggs begin to thicken (without allowing them to curdle), then take it off. When it is cold, put it into the freezer, adding the maraschino, and make the mixture set; then add the sliced citron, the currants, and stoned raisins (these two latter should be soaked the day previous in maraschino, and sugar pounded with vanilla) to the whole. Thus mingled, add a plateful of whipped cream, mixed with the whites of three eggs beaten to a froth. When the pudding is perfectly frozen, put it into a mold, close the lid, place it again in the freezer, well surrounded with pounded ice and saltpetre, and let it remain until the time of serving, when turn it out of the mold.

ICED PUDDING.

Ingredients: One and one-half pints of custard, composed of the yolks of four eggs, a pint of boiled milk, four table-spoonfuls of sugar, a flavoring of vanilla, eight ounces of fruits, consisting of equal parts of dried cherries, pine-apple, dried pears, or apricots, all cut into very small squares. These fruits may be selected, or perhaps it would be more convenient to purchase half a pound of the French preserved dried fruits; or add one ounce of candied citron sliced, two ounces of currants, two ounces of stoned and chopped raisins, and half a pint of cream whipped.

Freeze the custard in the usual manner, then mix in the fruits and whipped cream. A gill of maraschino is an improvement to this pudding, but may be omitted. If added, it should be at the same time with the fruit. Put into a mold, and place it on ice and salt. Serve whipped cream around it.

TUTTI FRUTTI.

When a rich vanilla cream is partly frozen, candied cherries, English currants, chopped raisins, chopped citron, or any other candied fruits chopped rather fine, are added; add about the same quantity of fruit as there is of ice cream. Mold and imbed in ice and salt. It may be served surrounded with a whipped cream.

FRESH PEACHES HALF FROZEN.

An exceedingly nice dish for breakfast, lunch, or tea may be made of quarters of large fresh peaches, _half_ frozen, and then sprinkled with granulated sugar.

PEACHES AND CREAM FROZEN.

Peel and quarter the fresh peaches; mix them with sugar and cream to taste. Arrange some of the quarters of the peaches tastefully in the bottom of a basin, or _charlotte_ mold, then fill, and freeze the mass solid, without stirring. Turn it out to serve.

LEMON ICE.

Boil three pints of water and one quart of loaf-sugar until reduced to nearly one quart of liquid, skimming it when necessary. When cold, add the juice of seven lemons, and the thin-sliced yellow part of the rind of four of them. Let it infuse an hour. Strain it into the freezer without pressing. When beginning to set in the freezer, stir in lightly and well the beaten whites of four eggs. Put into a mold, and return it to a fresh relay of salt and ice. Or it may be frozen and served in the lemon-skins. A neat slice is taken off the top of the lemon. The juice, etc., is carefully removed. When the preparation is set in the freezer, the skins are filled, the tops fitted over, and all imbedded in the ice. I once saw at one of Delmonico’s dinners a course of these lemons (one for each person) filled with Roman punch.

CURRANT ICE.

Boil one quart of water and a pound of sugar until reduced about a pint--_i. e._, until a pint of water has boiled away; skim it, take it off the fire, and add a pint of currant-juice; when partly frozen, stir in the beaten whites of four eggs. Mold, and freeze again. A good ice for fever patients.

COOKERY FOR THE SICK.

I believe it is the general practice now to give a patient, in almost every kind of illness, food that is very nourishing, yet very digestible, that the system may become strengthened to throw off its disease.

I devote a chapter to “cookery for the sick,” as it is such a useful and delightful accomplishment to know just how to prepare the few available dishes for invalids, so that while they may be most suitable food for the recovery of the patient, they may at the same time be most agreeable to the taste and pleasing to the eye.

The three events of the day to the sufferer are the three meals. How gratefully is it remembered if they have been delicately and carefully administered! Let the mother or the wife prepare them with her own hands; let her never ask an invalid what he will have to eat, but with thought and ingenuity strive to vary the bill of fare each day, always providing proper nourishment. This is an art in itself which can be delegated to no one. It is worth as much to the suffering and beloved patient as is the medical prescription of the physician.

Never leave an article of diet in the sick-room: it is a good means of destroying the appetite, which should be encouraged and not weakened.

Whatever is served, let great attention be paid to giving the dish, after it is properly cooked, a dainty appearance. Place it on the choicest of ware in the house, with the cleanest of napkins, and the brightest of silver, even if that consists only of a tea-spoon.

If tea and toast be served, put the tea, freshly drawn, into the daintiest of tea-cups. Every family might well afford to buy one little, thin china cup and saucer, to use in case of illness; put a square of loaf-sugar into it. A few drops of cream are easily saved for the patient’s tea from a small quantity of milk; and cream in small quantities is considered more digestible than milk.

All cooks think they can make toast. There is about one person in ten thousand who really does know how to make it; who actually appreciates the difference between a thin, symmetrical, well-yellowed, crisp piece of toast with the crust cut off, and just from the fire, and a thick, unshapely slice, unevenly crisped on the outside, and of doughy softness in the centre. One is digestible; the other is exceedingly indigestible. The _scientific_ mode of making toast is explained on page 67.

Of the laxative articles of diet, undoubtedly one of the most important is the oatmeal porridge. The chemists say, “Oatmeal stands before all other grains in point of nutritive power.” I do not mean to serve gruel, but a thicker preparation, of considerable consistence, which is more palatable. The mode of making it is explained on page 74. Put a heaping table-spoonful of this on a thin saucer; pour some cream over it; then sprinkle over this a little granulated sugar. Now place the saucer on a little salver, on which is spread the whitest of napkins.

Always remember that in cooking any of the grains, as, for instance, corn-meal, oatmeal, hominy, cracked-wheat, etc., let them be thrown into _salted boiling_ water. This makes very great difference in the flavor of the dish. Make every thing in small quantities, so that the patient may always have his dishes _freshly_ made.

A very nourishing, digestible, and excellent dish for invalids is a raw, fresh egg, the receipt for administering which is given among the invalid receipts (see page 322).

In regard to rice, Dr. Lee remarks: “We regard rice as the most valuable of all the articles of food in cases of the derangement of the digestive organs. It nourishes, while it soothes the irritable mucous membrane; and while it supports strength, never seems to aggravate the existing disease. For acute or chronic affections of the alimentary canal, rice-water for drink and rice-jelly for food seem peculiarly well adapted, and appear to exert a specific influence in bringing about a recovery. These preparations are invaluable also in convalescence from acute fevers and other maladies, and in the summer complaints of young children.”

Jellies made with gelatine or calf’s feet are very appetizing, but must not be relied on as furnishing much nourishment. They afford a pleasant vehicle for administering wine, of which the stimulating properties are often very advantageous. I copy a short article from Booth’s “Chemistry” on the subject:

“Gelatine in domestic economy is used in the forms of soup and jelly as an aliment; but though experiments seem to show that when mixed with fibrous, albuminous, and caseous substances it becomes nutritive, this conclusion is yet doubtful; for the theory of respiration proves that histrose, which produces the gelatine, has accomplished its part in the animal organization, and can no longer afford sustenance thereto. One fact, however, seems positive, and that is its inability alone to yield nourishment to carnivorous animals. The feeble nutritive power of a gelatinous matter seems to be owing to the destruction of its organization.”

On the same subject of the dietetical value of gelatine, Professor Youmans says: “It is regarded as a product of the partial decomposition of albuminous bodies in the system, but as incapable of replacing them when taken as aliment. The French attempted to feed the inmates of their hospitals on gelatinous extract of bones. Murmurs arose, and a commission, with Magendie at their head, was appointed to investigate the matter. They reported gelatine as, dietetically, almost worthless.”

Graham bread, corn bread, or the Boston brown-bread, made with part rye flour, are much more nourishing than breads made from bolted wheat. The whiter the wheat flour, the more starch it contains, and the less gluten, which is separated in bolting, and which is the nutritious or flesh-producing portion. The rich Boston brown-bread is especially good cut into thin, even pieces, with a little cream poured over it.

The value of corn-meal for invalids who are thin and incapable of maintaining their natural warmth is scarcely appreciated. Indian-corn contains a large percentage of oil, which is nourishing and fattening. Fat is the heat-producing power.

As to the meats, it seems to me a mistake that that from the ox, with his wholesome food, cleanly habits, sweet breath, and clear eye, is not the most wholesome and digestible of aliments. No meat is so tender and juicy as the cut from the tenderloin or the porter-house steak.

Pork should be avoided in every form by invalids.

I can not but believe that rare-cooked, tender beef is the most valuable dish in the culinary _répertoire_ for invalids; yet Dr. Beaumont, after experimenting with St. Martin, ranks venison, when tender and in season, as the most digestible and assimilable of meats. He classes mutton second; then beef. Lamb is less digestible than mutton. Veal should be avoided as well as pork. Fatty substances are also difficult of assimilation. Poultry is less digestible than beef. Then, again, the manner of cooking beef has a great influence on its digestibility. The best modes are broiling and roasting. Potatoes roasted or baked are digested an hour sooner than potatoes boiled.

Before beginning the receipts for especial dishes, I will copy a little story, which furnishes an illustration that the simplest modes of cooking are, after all, the most satisfactory.

“The Vicomte de Vaudreuil, when appointed _chargé d’affaires_ of France to the Court of St. James’s, brought over with him a young cook, an _élève_ of the highest schools of the _cuisines_ of Paris. This young culinary aspirant to fame, shortly after his arrival in London, obtained permission of his master to go and witness the artistic operations of that established _cordon-bleu_, Monsieur Mingay, the cook to Prince Esterhazy, who had been brought up under the Prince Talleyrand’s famous _chef_, Louis, and previously under that most _bleu_ of all _cordons_, the great Carême. On the _élève’s_ return, the Vicomte, hearing that his cook was in a state of astonishment from something he had witnessed in Prince Esterhazy’s kitchen, summoned him to his presence, and said, ‘What is this culinary miracle, which I have heard astonishes you, and casts into the shade all other triumphs of the art?’ Vatel’s follower replied, ‘Oh, Monsieur le Vicomte, when I entered the _cuisine_ at Chandos House it was near the time of the prince’s luncheon, for which his excellency had ordered something which should be very simple and easily digestible, as he was suffering from languor. The _chef_, Mingay, accordingly cut from under a well-hung rump of beef three slices of fillet, and rapidly broiling them, he placed the choicest-looking in the middle of a hot dish, and afterward pressing the juice completely out of the remaining two, he poured it on the first! Oh, monsieur, how great the prince! how great the cook!’”

RECEIPTS FOR THE SICK-ROOM.

TEA.

Tea is best, made fresh in the sick-room. A little _tête-à-tête_ china service is a pretty ornament for a bedroom, and it is a convenient and tasteful arrangement for serving tea to invalids. If one has no little tea-pot like that belonging to the service here referred to, a small one of any other kind is desirable.

Put two tea-spoonfuls of tea-leaves into the small tea-pot; pour two tea-cupfuls of _boiling_ water over it; cover it closely, and let it steam for a few moments.

With a small table at the side of the invalid’s bed, it is a decidedly pleasant little diversion to make tea in this manner, being sure at the same time that it is perfectly fresh. However it is made though, do not present a cupful of tea to a sufferer with a part of the tea spilled into the saucer.

* * * * *

To avoid having fat left in the soups, it is safer to allow them to get entirely cold, when the fat can be easily skimmed off. Just enough can be heated each time the soup is served.

BEEF TEA, OR ESSENCE OF BEEF.

Cut, say, a pound of perfectly lean beef into small pieces, put them into a wide-mouthed bottle (a pickle-bottle answers the purpose), cork it tightly, and place it in a pot of _cold_ water in which there is a saucer at the bottom. Heat it gradually, then let it boil slowly for two or three hours, when all the juice will be drawn out of the meat.

Now pour off the juice, season it with salt carefully, as it requires very little. When it is cold, skim off all the globules of fat.

This is an invaluable aliment for invalids who are very ill, or for weak infants, when they need much nourishment in small compass. This beef tea can then be given by the tea-spoonful at regular intervals, administering it as medicine.

ANOTHER BEEF TEA (_for Convalescents_).

Soak three-quarters of a pound of small-cut pieces of lean steak (say a cut from a round steak) in a pint of cold rain-water for half an hour, squeezing the beef occasionally; then put it on the fire, cover it, and boil it slowly for ten minutes, removing the scum. Season with salt, and serve hot. Serve Albert biscuit, or thin wafers (see page 72), with it. The addition of a little boiled rice makes a pleasant change.

BEEF JUICE.

Choose a thick cut of fine, fresh, juicy steak without fat. Broil it over the coals for only a minute, or long enough to merely heat it throughout. Put it over a warm bowl set in a basin of hot water; cut it in many places, and squeeze out all the juice with the aid of the meat-squeezer (see page 56). Salt it very slightly. It should be served immediately, freed from every atom of fat, and accompanied with a wafer cracker.

CHICKEN BROTH.

Cut up a fowl, and crack the bones. Put it into three pints of cold water. Boil it slowly, closely covered, for three or four hours, or until the meat falls in pieces. Strain it, then add two table-spoonfuls of rice which has been soaked for half an hour in a very little warm water, also a chopped sprig of parsley, if you have it. Simmer it for twenty minutes longer, or until the rice is thoroughly cooked. Season with salt and pepper, but not too highly. Serve with crackers, which should be broken into the broth the last minute.

CHICKEN CUSTARD.

Ingredients: One half-pint of chicken broth, beaten yolks of three eggs, a little salt. Mix well, and cook it in the custard-kettle (as for boiled custard) until it has thickened. Serve in custard-cups.

CHICKEN PANADA.

Roast a small chicken, and take out the breasts, or use more of the meat if preferred, and add a little salt; chop it as fine as possible, pound it, and pass it through a colander. Soak half the amount of the crumb of French rolls, or good bread (not too fresh), in tepid milk; squeeze it nearly dry, and mix it with the chicken. Thin it with a little strong chicken broth (which may be made with the remainder of the chicken) or with boiling water. Serve it in a custard-cup, to be eaten with a spoon. For convalescents, a very little finely minced parsley may be added.

MOLD OF CHICKEN JELLY.

Cut half a raw chicken into small pieces, and break the bones; put it on the fire with a quart of cold water. Boil it slowly until it is reduced to less than half; season with salt and a little pepper, if the invalid is not too ill for pepper. Strain it first through a colander, then a jelly-bag, into a mold or a bowl. If the chicken is quite tender, broil carefully the breast of the other half of it; cut it into dice, or put it whole into the mold or bowl, and cover it with the liquid. When the jelly has hardened, scrape off the layer of fat at the top of the mold before turning the jelly on a little oval platter.

CHICKEN AND CEYLON MOSS.

Cut a small fowl (two pounds) into small pieces, and put it over the fire with three pints of cold water, four ounces of Ceylon moss (which can be obtained at the drug-stores), and half a tea-spoonful of salt. Boil all together an hour; then strain it through a jelly-strainer or napkin into little cups or molds.

MUTTON BROTH

may be made in the same manner as chicken broth, allowing a quart of cold water to each pound of meat.

VEAL AND SAGO BROTH (_Marian Harland_).

Ingredients: Two pounds of knuckle of veal cracked to pieces, two quarts of cold water, three table-spoonfuls of best pearl sago soaked in a cupful of cold water, one cupful of cream heated to boiling, and the yolks of two eggs beaten light.

Boil the veal and water in a covered saucepan very slowly until reduced to one quart of liquid; strain, season with salt, and stir in the soaked sago (having previously warmed it by setting for half an hour in a saucepan of boiling water, and stirring from time to time). Simmer half an hour, taking care it does not burn; beat in the cream and eggs. Give one good boil up, and turn out.

BEEF AND TAPIOCA BROTH.

Soak one pound of beef, cut into pieces, in a quart of cold water for half an hour; then boil it slowly, keeping it closely covered for two hours. Strain it. The last half hour, add half a cupful of tapioca (which has been soaked an hour in a little water), a small sprig of parsley, and a thin cut from an onion. When done, remove the parsley and onion; season with a very little pepper and salt, and two or three drops only of lemon-juice. When just ready to serve, put into the soup an egg, carefully poached in salted water, the white being merely set.

If patients are not too ill, any kind of beef soup made from stock, as explained on page 80, ought to be advantageous.

HOW TO PREPARE AN UNCOOKED EGG.

This is a delicate, strengthening, and valuable preparation for an invalid.

Beat well the yolk and a tea-spoonful of sugar in a goblet; then stir in one or two tea-spoonfuls of brandy, sherry, or port wine. Add to this mixture the white of the egg beaten to a stiff froth. Stir all well together. It should quite fill the goblet. If wine is not desired, flavor the egg with nutmeg. It is very palatable without any flavoring at all.

TAPIOCA JELLY.