Chapter 5

1/4 lb. butter, 1/2 lb. castor sugar, 1/2 lb. Manhu flour, 1 oz. rice flour, 6 ozs. crystallised ginger, 4 eggs.

Cream butter and sugar, adding eggs, two at once, not beaten. Beat each time after adding eggs, add rice flour, ginger, and lastly flour. Bake in moderate oven.

10. MANHU HOMINY PUDDING.

1-1/2 teacupfuls of boiled Hominy (see below), 1 pint or less of sweet milk, 1/2 teacupful of sugar, 2 eggs (well beaten), 1 teacupful of raisins, spice to taste.

Mix together and bake twenty minutes in a moderately hot oven. Serve hot with cream and sugar or sauce.

11. PARKIN.

2 ozs. butter, 2 ozs. moist sugar, 6 ozs. best treacle, 1/2 lb. medium oatmeal, 1/4 lb. flour, 1/2 oz. powdered ginger, grated rind of 1 lemon.

Some people prefer the addition of carraway seeds to lemon rind. If these are used a level teaspoonful will be sufficient for the quantities given above. The old-fashioned black treacle is almost obsolete now, and is replaced commercially by golden syrup, many brands of which are very pale and of little flavour. To make successful Parkin a good brand of pure cane syrup is needed. I always use "Glebe." This is generally only stocked by a few "high-class " grocers or large stores, but it is worth the trouble of getting. Some Food Reform Stores stock molasses, and this was probably used for the original Parkin. It is strongly flavoured and blacker than black treacle, but its taste is not unpleasant. For the sugar, a good brown moist cane sugar, like Barbados, is best. Put the treacle and butter (or nutter) into a jar and put into a warm oven until the butter is dissolved. Then stir in the sugar. Mix together the oatmeal, flour, ginger and seeds or lemon rind. Pour the treacle, etc., into this, and mix to a paste. Roll out lightly on a well-floured board to a 1/4 inch thickness. Bake in a well-greased flat tin for about 50 minutes, in a rather slow oven. To test if done, dip a skewer into boiling water, wipe, and thrust into the Parkin; if it comes out clean the latter is done. Cut into squares, take out of tin, and allow to cool.

12. PROTOSE CUTLETS.

1 lb. minced Protose, 1 lb. plain boiled rice, 1 small grated onion, 1/2 teaspoon sage.

Mix the ingredients with a little milk; shape into cutlets, using uncooked macaroni for the bone, and bake in a moderate oven about 45 minutes.

13. PROTOSE SALAD.

1 breakfast-cupful Protose cubes, 1/3 breakfast cup minced celery, 1 hard-boiled egg, 3 small radishes, juice of 2 lemons.

Cut Protose into cubes, chop the hard-boiled egg, slice the radishes. Add to the minced celery. Pour over these ingredients the lemon juice and allow the mixture to stand for one hour. Serve upon fresh crisp lettuce.

14. RISOTTO.

3/4 lb. rice, 1/2 lb. cheese, 4 large onions.

Slice and fry the onions in a stew-pan in a little fat; when brown, add 1-1/2 pints water and the rice. Let it cook about an hour, and then add the grated cheese.

This dish may be varied with tomatoes when in season.

15. ROYAL NUT ROAST.

1/2 lb. pine kernels, 2 medium-sized tomatoes, 1 medium onion, 2 new-laid eggs.

Wash, dry and pick over the pine kernels and put them through the macerating machine. Skin and well mash the tomatoes. Grate finely the onion. Mix all together and beat to a smooth batter. Whisk the eggs to a stiff froth and add to the mixture. Pour into a greased pie-dish. Bake in a moderate oven until a golden-brown colour. It should "rise" like a cake. It may be eaten warm with brown gravy or tomato sauce, or cold with salad.

16. STEWED NUTTOLENE.

Slice one half-pound nuttolene into a baking dish, adding water enough to cover nicely. Place it in the oven, and let it bake for an hour. A piece of celery may be added to give flavour, or a little mint. When done, thicken the water with a little flour, and serve.

17. WELSH RAREBIT.

Cheese, butter, bread, pepper.

Cut thin slices of cheese and put them with a little butter into a saucepan. When well melted pour over hot well-buttered toast. Dust with pepper. Put into a very hot oven for a few minutes and serve.

18. YEAST BREAD.

7 lbs. flour, salt to taste (about 3/4 ounce), 1 ounce yeast, 1-1/2 quarts of warm water.

Put the flour into a pan or large basin, add salt to taste, and mix it well in. Put the yeast with a lump of sugar into a small basin, and pour a little of the _warm_ water on to if. Cold or hot water kills the yeast. Leave this a little while until the yeast bubbles, then smooth out all lumps and pour into a hole made in the middle of the flour. Pour in the rest of the warm water, and begin to stir in the flour. Now begin kneading the dough, and knead until the whole is smooth and damp, and leaves the hand without sticking, which will take about 15 to 20 minutes. Time spent in kneading is not wasted.

Set the pan in a warm place, covered with a clean cloth. Be careful not to put the pan where it can get too hot. The fender is a good place, but to the side of the fire rather than in front. Let it rise at least an hour, but should it not have risen very much--say double the size--let it stand longer, as the bread cannot be light if the dough has not risen sufficiently.

Now have a baking-board well floured, and turn all the dough on to it. Have tins or earthenware pans, or even pie-dishes well greased. Divide the dough, putting enough to half fill the pans or tins. Put these on the fender to rise again for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake in a hot oven, about 350 degrees (a little hotter than for pastry).

Bake (for a loaf about 2 lbs. in a moderate oven) from 30 to 40 minutes. Of course the time depends greatly on the size of the loaves and the heat of the oven.

The above recipe produces the ordinary white loaf. Better bread would, in my opinion, result from the use of a very fine wholemeal flour such as the "Nu-Era," and the omission of salt.

XIV.--UNFIRED FOOD.

The true unfired feeder is an ideal, _i.e.,_ he exists only in idea, at least so far as my experience goes! To be truly consistent the unfired feeder should live entirely on raw foods--fruit, nuts and salads. But most unfired feeders utilise heat to a slight extent, although they do not actually cook the food. In addition, most of them use various breadstuffs and biscuits which, of course, are cooked food. "Unfired" bread is sold by some health food stores, and is a preparation of wheat which has been treated and softened by a gentle heat.

Cereals should never be eaten with fruit, but may be eaten with salads and cheese. The mid-day meal of the unfired feeder should consist of nuts or cheese and a large plate of well-chopped salad with some kind of dressing over it; olive oil and lemon-juice or one of the nut-oils and lemon-juice. Orange-juice or raw carrot-juice may be used if preferred. When extra nourishment is desired a well-beaten raw egg may be mixed with the dressing. Fresh cream may also be used as dressing.

Fruit is best taken at the evening meal, from 1-1/2 to 2 lbs. Nothing should be taken with it except a little nut-cream or fresh cream and white of egg.

Distilled water is a great asset to the unfired feeder, because it softens dried fruits so much better than hard water. It can be manufactured at home, or the "Still Salutaris" bought through a chemist or grocer. The "Still Salutaris" water is about 1/3 per gallon jar. If the water is distilled at home, a "Gem" Still will be needed. (The Gem Supplies Co., Ltd., 67, Southwark Street, London S.E.). It is best to use this over a gas ring or "Primus" oil stove. The cost of the water comes out at about one penny per gallon, according to the cost of the fuel used.

Distilled Water should never be put into metal saucepans or kettles, as it is a very powerful solvent. A small enamelled kettle or saucepan should be used for heating it, and it should be stored in glass or earthenware vessels only. It should not be kept for more than a month, and should always be kept carefully covered.

For salads it is not necessary to depend entirely upon the usual salad vegetables, such as lettuce, endive, watercress, mustard and cress. The very finely shredded hearts of raw Brussel sprouts are excellent, and even the heart of a Savoy cabbage. Then the finely chopped inside sticks of a tender head of celery are very good. Also young spinach leaves, dandelion leaves, sorrel and young nasturtium leaves. The root vegetables should also be added in their season, raw carrot, turnip, beet, onion and leek, all finely grated. A taste for all the above-mentioned vegetables, eaten raw, is not acquired all at once. It is best to begin by making the salad of the ingredients usually preferred and mixing in a small quantity of one or two of the new ingredients. For those who find salads very difficult to digest, it is best to begin with French or cabbage lettuce and skinned tomatoes only, or, as an alternative, a saucerful of watercress chopped very finely, as one chops parsley.

1. COTTAGE CHEESE.

Allow the juice of two medium-sized lemons to 1 quart of milk. Put the milk and strained lemon-juice into an enamelled pan or fireproof casserole and place over a gas ring or oil stove with the flame turned very low. Warm the milk, but do not allow it to boil. When the milk has curdled properly the curds are collected together, forming an "island" surrounded by the whey, which should be a clear liquid. Lay a piece of cheese-cloth over a colander and pour into it the curds and whey. Gather together the edges of the cloth and hang up the curds to drain for at least thirty minutes. Then return to the colander (still in cloth) and put a small plate or saucer (with a weight on top) on the cheese. It should be left under pressure for at least one hour. This cheese will keep two days in cold weather, but must be made fresh every day in warm weather. The milk used should be some hours old, as quite new milk will not curdle. The juice from one lemon at a time should be put into the milk, as the staler the milk the less juice will be needed. _Too much_ juice will prevent curdling as effectually as too little.

This cheese is greatly improved by the addition of fresh cream. Allow two tablespoonsful of cream to the cheese from one quart of milk. Mash the cheese with a fork and lightly beat the cream into it.

_Note_. Cheese-cloth, sometimes known as cream-cloth, may be bought at most large drapers' shops at from 6d. to 8d. per yard. One yard cuts into four cloths large enough for straining the cheese from one quart of milk. Ordinary muslin is not so useful as it is liable to tear. Wash in warm water (no soap or soda), then scald well.

2. DRIED FRUITS.

These should be well washed in lukewarm water and examined for worms' eggs, etc. Then cover with distilled water and let stand for 12 hours or until quite soft and swollen. Prunes, figs, and raisins are all nice treated in this way.

3. EGG CREAM.

2 tablespoons fresh cream, the white of 1 egg.

Put the white of egg on to a plate and beat to a stiff froth with the flat of a knife. (A palette knife is the best.) Then beat the cream into it. This makes a nourishing dressing for either vegetable salad or fruit salad. Especially suitable for invalids and persons of weak digestion.

4. PINE-KERNEL CHEESE.

Wash the kernels and dry well in a clean cloth. Spread out on the cloth and carefully pick over for bad kernels or bits of hard shell. Put through the macerator of the nut-butter mill. Well mix with the beaten pulp of a raw tomato (first plunge it into boiling water for a few minutes, after which the skin is easily removed). Raw carrot juice, or any other vegetable or fruit juice pulp may also be used.

5. RAW CARROT JUICE.

Well scrub a medium sized carrot and grate it to a pulp on an ordinary tinned bread grater. Put the pulp into a cheese cloth and squeeze out the juice into a cup.

6. TWICE BAKED BREAD.

Cut moderately thin slices of white bread. Put into a moderate oven and bake until a golden colour.

Granose biscuits warmed in the oven until crisp serve the same purpose as twice-baked bread, _i.e.,_ a cereal food in which the starch has been dextrinised by cooking. But the biscuits being soft and flaky can be enjoyed by those for whom the twice-baked bread would be too hard.

XV.--WEIGHTS AND MEASURES AND UTENSILS.

If possible sieve all flour before measuring, as maggots are _sometimes_ to be found therein; also because tightly-compressed flour naturally measures less than flour which has been well shaken up.

1 lb. = 16 ozs. = 3 teacupsful or 2 breakfastcupsful, closely filled, but not heaped.

1/2 lb. = 8 ozs. = 1 breakfastcupful, closely filled, but not heaped.

1/4 lb. = 4 ozs. = 1 teacupful, loosely filled.

1 oz. = 2 tablespoonsful, filled level.

1/2 oz. = 1 tablespoonful, filled level.

1/4 oz. = 1 dessertspoonful, filled level.

4 gills = 1 pint = 3-1/2 teacupsful, or nearly 2 breakfastcupsful.

1 gill = 1 small teacupful.

10 unbroken eggs weigh about 1 lb.

1 oz. butter = 1 tablespoon heaped as much above the spoon as the spoon rounds underneath.

USEFUL UTENSILS.

BAKING DISHES.--Earthenware are the best.

BREAD GRATER.--The simple tin grater, price 1d., grates bread, vegetables, lemon rind, etc.

BASINS.--Large for mixing, small for puddings, etc.

EGG SLICE.--For dishing up rissoles, etc.

EGG WHISK.--The coiled wire whisk, price 1d. or 2d., is the best.

FOOD CHOPPER.--See that it has the nut-butter attachment.

FRYING BASKET and stew-pan to fit.

FRYING AND OMELET PANS.--Cast aluminium are the best.

GEM PANS.

JARS.--Earthenware jars for stewing.

JUGS.--Wide-mouthed jugs are easiest to clean.

JELLY AND BLANC MANGE MOULDS.

LEMON SQUEEZER.--The glass squeezer is the best.

MARMALADE CUTTER.

NUT MILL.

NUTMEG GRATER.

PALETTE KNIFE.--For beating white of egg, scraping basins, etc.

PASTE BOARD and ROLLING PIN.

PESTLE and MORTAR.

PRESERVING PAN.--Copper or enamelled.

RAISIN SEEDER.

SAUCEPANS.--Cast aluminium are the best.

SCALES AND WEIGHTS.

SIEVES.--Hair and wire.

STILL.--For distilling water.

STRAINERS.

TINS.--Cake tin, qr. qtn. tin, vegetable and pastry cutters.

XVI.--MENUS.

The menus given below do not follow the conventional lines which ordain that a menu shall include, at least, soup, savoury and sweet dishes. The hardworking housewife can afford neither the time nor the material to serve up so many dishes at one meal; and the wise woman does not desire to spend any more time and material on the needs of the body than will suffice to keep it strong and healthy. Lack of space will not allow me to include many menus. I have only attempted to give the barest suggestions for two weeks. But a study of the rest of the book will enable anyone to extend and elaborate them. Three meals a day are the most that are necessary, and no woman desires to cook more than once a day. If possible the cooked meal should be the mid-day one. Late dinners may be fashionable, but they are not wholesome. If the exigencies of work make the evening meal the principal one, let it be taken as early as possible.

WARMING UP.

It often happens that while the father of a family needs his dinner when he comes home in the evening, it is necessary to provide a mid-day dinner for the others, especially if children are included. Many housewives thus go to the labour of preparing a hot dinner twice a day, but this may be avoided if the following directions are carefully carried out:--Prepare the mid-day meal as if the father were at home, and serve him first. Put his portion--savoury, vegetables and gravy--in one soup plate, and cover it immediately with another. Do the same with the pudding, and put both dishes away in the pantry. A good hour before they are wanted put into a warm oven. (If a gas oven is used, see that there is plenty of hot water in the floor pan.)

When quite hot the food should not be in the least dried up. This is ensured by having the oven warm, but not hot, warming up the food slowly, and, in the first place, covering closely with the soup plate while still hot, so that the steam does not escape. I have eaten many dinners saved for me in this way, and should never have known they were not just cooked if I had not been told. Of course, a boiled plain pudding or plum pudding can be returned to its basin and steamed and extra gravy saved and reheated in the tureen.

SUNDAY AND MONDAY.

The cook needs a day of rest once a week as well as other people. And this should be on a Sunday if possible, so that she may participate in the recreations of the other members of her family. This is more easily attainable in summer than in winter, for in hot weather many persons prefer a cold dinner. But even in winter, soups, vegetable stews, nut roasts, baked fruit pies, and boiled puddings can all be made the day before. They will all reheat without spoiling in the least.

Monday is the washing-day in many households, and no housewife wants to cook on that day. In flesh-eating households cold meat forms the staple article of diet. The vegetarian housewife cannot do better than prepare a large plain pudding on the Saturday, boil it for two hours, put it away in its basin, and boil it two hours again on Monday; with what is left over from Sunday, this will probably be sufficient for Monday's dinner.

BREAKFASTS.

A sufficient breakfast may consist simply of bread and nut butter, with the addition of an apple or other fresh fruit. A good substitute for tea and coffee is a fruit soup. Where porridge and milk are taken, this would probably not be needed. Eggs, cooked tomatoes, marmalade, and grated nuts are all welcome additions.

HIGH TEAS.

If tea is taken, let it be as weak as possible. Do not let it stand for more than three minutes after making, but pour it immediately off from the leaves into another pot. See that the latter is hot.

Some of the simpler savoury dishes (omelets, etc.) may be taken at this meal if desired. Also lentil and nut pastes, salads, Wallace cheese, raisin bread, oatcake, sweet cakes and biscuits, jams, etc.

DINNERS.

SUNDAY.--Hot nut roast and brown gravy; steamed potatoes and cabbage; fruit tart and custard.

MONDAY.--Cold nut roast and salad; bubble and squeak; plain pudding and golden syrup.

TUESDAY.--Haricot rissoles and tomato sauce; baked potatoes; milk pudding and stewed fruit, or apple and tapioca pudding.

WEDNESDAY.--Lentil soup; jam roll.

THURSDAY.--Lentil soup; fig pudding.

FRIDAY.--Hot pot; roasted pine kernels; steamed potatoes and cauliflowers; railway pudding.

SATURDAY. Irish stew; boiled rice and stewed prunes.

SUNDAY. Vegetable stew; batter pudding; steamed potatoes and cauliflower; summer pudding.

MONDAY. Stewed lentils; baked tomatoes or onions, and sauté potatoes; milk pudding and stewed fruit.

TUESDAY.--Stewed celery or other vegetable in season; roasted pine kernels; mashed potatoes; apple dumplings.

WEDNESDAY.--Barley broth; treacle pudding.

THURSDAY.--Barley broth; Bombay pudding.

FRIDAY.--Macaroni and tomatoes; chip potatoes; nut pastry.

SATURDAY.--Toad-in-the-hole; baked potatoes; jam tart.

NOTE. The same soup is indicated on two consecutive days in order to save labour. Few persons object to the same dish twice if it is not to be repeated again for some time. And unless the family be very large, it is as easy to make enough soup for two days as for one.

INDEX.

Almonds, Roasted Apple, Charlotte Dumpling Sandwich and Tapioca Apples, Stewed Artichoke Asparagus Barley Broth Cream of Barley Water Batter Pudding Beef Tea Substitute Beet Beverages Blancmange Bombay Pudding Bread, Cold Water Egg Gem Hot Water Raisin Shortened Twice Bated Bread and Fruit Pudding Broad Beans Broccoli Biscuits Browning for Gravies and Sauces Brussels Sprouts Bubble and Squeak Buttered Eggs Rice and Peas Cabbage Cake Mixture Cherry Cocoanut Corn, Wine and Oil Cakes Lemon Cake, Madeira Manhu Seed Short Sponge Sultana Sussex (without eggs) Cakes, Small Carrot Juice (Raw) Casserole Cookery Cauliflower Celeriac Celery Soup Cheese Chestnut, Boiled Pie Rissoles Savoury Soup Chocolate Jelly Cocoanut Biscuits Cornflour Shape "Corn, Wine and Oil" Cake Cucumber Currant Sandwich Curries Curry Powder Curried Eggs German Lentils Vegetables Custard, Boiled Hogan Date Pudding Devilled Eggs Distilled Water Dried Fruits Egg Boiled for Invalids Egg Bread Egg, Cream Buttered Curry Devilled Poached on Tomato Sauce Scrambled with Tomato Fancy Biscuits Fig Pudding French Beans French Soup Fruit Nut Filling Fruit Salad Fruit Soup Gem Bread German Lentil Curry Ginger Nuts Gravy, Brown and Thick Green Peas Haricot Beans, Boiled Rissoles Soup Hogan Custard Hominy, Boiled (Manhu) Pudding Hot Pot Irish Stew, Vegetarian Jam Vegetable Marrow Without Sugar Roll Sandwich Jelly, Chocolate Orange Raspberry and Currant Leek Lemon Cordial Curd Sauce Short Cake Lentil and Leek Pie Paste Rissoles Soup Lentils, Stewed Lime Juice Cordial Macaroni Cheese Soup and Tomato Macaroons Manhu Health Cake Marmalade Meat Substitutes Menus Milk Pudding Mincemeat Mushroom and Tomato Nettle Nut Cookery and Lentil Roast Roast, Royal Paste Pastry Rissoles Roast Nuttolene, Stewed Oatcake Oatmeal Biscuits Gruel Omelet, Plain Savoury Sweet soufflé Onions, Baked--Fried--Steamed Orange Cordial Jelly Parkin Parsley Sauce Parsnips Pastry, to make Pastry, Nut Puff Short Pea Soup Pine Kernels, Roasted Pine Kernel Cheese Plain Pudding Plum Pudding (Christmas) Poached Eggs on Tomato Potatoes Baked, Chips, Fried, Mashed, Sauté, Steamed Potato Soup P.R. Soup Protose Cutlets Salad Radish Railway Pudding Raisin Loaf Raspberry and Currant Jelly Rice, Boiled and Egg Fritters Savoury Buttered and Peas Risotto Sago Soup Sago Shape Salad Sauce, Brown Egg Lemon Parsley Tomato White Savoury Dishes Scarlet Runner Scones, Sultana Sea Kale Soup, Barley Celery Chestnut Convalescent's Soup, French Fruit Haricot Lentil Macaroni Pea Potato P. R. Sago Tomato Vegetable Stock Spinach Stock Summer Pudding Sunday and Monday Swede Tomato Sauce Soup Stuffed Toad-in-the-hole Turnip Treacle Pudding Trifle Unfired Food Useful Utensils Vegetable Curry Marrow Stuffed and Nut Roast Pie Stew Stock Vegetables, to Cook Wallace Cheese Warming Up Weights and Measures Welsh Rarebit Xmas Pudding Yeast Bread Yorkshire Pudding (see Batter)

Concerning Advertisements.

The Publisher of the "Healthy Life Cook Book" desires to make the advertisement pages as valuable and helpful as the subject-matter of the book. To this end, instead of following the usual plan of first "catching" the advertisement, and then requesting the author of the book to "puff" it, he only solicits advertisements from those firms that the author already deals with and here conscientiously recommends.

T. J. Bilson & Co.

I have dealt with this firm for some years with perfect satisfaction. They stock all the goods mentioned in this book, and I should like to draw special attention to their unpolished rice and seedless raisins, both of which are exceptionally good. To those about to invest in a Food-Chopper I would recommend the 5/- size. The other is inconveniently small.

Emprote.

Emprote and the other proteid foods produced by the Eustace Miles Proteid Foods Ltd., is a valuable asset to the vegetarian beginner, who too often tries to subsist upon a dietary deficient in assimilable proteid.

Energen.

The Energen Foods are another very useful asset to the vegetarian suffering from deficiency of proteid in his dietary and those who are unable to digest starchy foods.

Food Reform Restaurant.

I have often enjoyed meals at the above restaurant. They cater, and cater well, for the ordinary Vegetarian, but with a little care in the selection of the menu, abstainers from salt, fermented bread, etc., can also obtain a satisfactory meal.

"The Healthy Life."