Part 33

=Sweet--Better than Cake=--Spread crackers or thin universal biscuit with butter and honey.

English walnuts, raisins, sugar, white of egg, vanilla; put between crackers and heat in oven.

Brazil nuts, pecans or almonds, with figs or dates.

Orange pulp, shredded mint, sugar, sweet dressing or whipped cream.

Grated or desiccated cocoanut, moistened with cream, with sliced or ground dates, figs or raisins and vanilla.

Equal quantities chopped dates and raisins; grape juice to moisten.

Almond butter, sugar or not, vanilla, ground or fine sliced citron.

Butternuts or nut butter, date, fig or raisin pulp, crackers or pastry wafers.

Thin slices of banana between slices of bread spread with cream and honey mixed, with or without a few chopped nuts. Sponge cake instead of bread, sometimes.

Quince jelly, chopped hickory or pecan nut meats.

Boston brown bread, raisins or dates, English walnuts or pecans, cocoanut cream or Brazil nut butter, or no butter.

Pastry crust, prick with fork, cut in any desired shape, bake; spread with chopped almonds mixed with peach marmalade or any desired sweet or jelly and put two pieces together.

=Rolled=--Plain or scented bread and butter.

Figs steamed, ground, cream and vanilla.

Roll buttered bread from corner over slender stalks of crisp celery. The small inside stalks are preferable. Turn the leaf ends of the stalks so that they will show at each end of the roll. A lengthwise strip of cucumber may be substituted for the celery, and parsley used for garnish.

OPEN SANDWICHES--CANAPES

These are daintily arranged bits of bread cut into rounds, ovals or any fancy shape; sometimes toasted on one side; served most suitably at a luncheon or supper and eaten with a fork. Crackers are more suitable for some coverings. Much taste may be displayed in the arrangement of canapes.

=Mushroom Canapes=

Toast rounds of bread on one side, lay toasted side down on individual plates and cover the other side with chopped mushrooms cooked in a small quantity of water with butter, and lay one small broiled mushroom (or one that has been cooked the same as the chopped), cup side up, in the center. Garnish with lettuce, chervil, spinach or parsley.

=Trumese and Egg Canape=

Moisten hashed trumese with a little rich cream or brown sauce. Toast diamonds of bread on one side and dip the other side in melted butter. Scramble eggs soft and fine and place in center of toast, diamond shape, then cover the remainder of the toast with the trumese, making a diamond shaped border of it. Lay a piece of green string bean cut in diamond shape in the center; set in the oven a moment, serve on individual plates.

=Indian Canapes=

Mince trumese salad entrée fine and rub hard boiled yolks of eggs with some of the dressing; spread on untoasted side of strips of bread or thin wafers. Garnish plate with slices of lemon and tomato sprinkled with chopped parsley or with a leaf of parsley or spinach on each.

=Russian Canapes=

Drain Chili sauce and rub through strainer, place pulp in center of large wafer, surround with salted, riced yolk of hard boiled egg, finishing with a wreath of the riced white of egg sprinkled with chopped parsley. A leaf of green may be laid in the center of the Chili sauce. Toasted bread may be used.

=Cottage Cheese Canapes=

Cover crackers or circles of toast with creamy cottage cheese. Make a border on cheese of small leaves of parsley and place a star or other shape of boiled red beet or carrot in the center. Serve with lettuce salad.

Ripe olives may be combined with cheese for canapes. Pastry wafers may be used.

An oxeye daisy, p. 31, may be placed in center of canape, in the wreath of parsley.

Sweet canapes may be prepared in great variety. The sandwich filling of cocoanut moistened with cream, with dates, figs or raisins would be very pretty if wafer were spread with the sweet pulp, then covered with cocoanut decorated with citron or angelica and candied cherries in fancy shapes or chopped. Pastry wafers would be especially suitable for some of the sweet canapes.

=Sandwich à la Salade=

Roll strips of trumese salad entrée in crisp lettuce leaves, fasten with Japanese toothpicks and serve on crackers or strips of zwieback or with crescent sandwiches of bread and butter; or the salad without the toothpick may be snugly rolled in a bread and butter or bread and oil sandwich.

=Sister Starr’s Tomato Sandwich=

Chop together scrambled egg, oil and drained tomato (raw or canned), not forgetting the salt, add cracker crumbs to make of the right consistency and serve between crackers or slices of bread.

=Variegated Sandwiches=

Make three equal sized loaves of universal crust, one tinted a delicate pink with fruit color, one left white, and the third made of part graham flour with a little dark brown flour in the sponge.

When old enough, cut in slices, butter, pack together--brown, pink and white--and set in refrigerator with weight on top.

To serve, cut in slices, then in any desired shape.

=English Bread and Butter Sandwiches=

Spread butter on loaf and cut in just as thin slices as possible roll, fold, or place slices together.

=★ Trumese Sandwiches--non-starch=

Broil thin slices of trumese and place between them, scrambled eggs, or fine sliced onions or celery; garnish.

MILK, CREAM, BUTTER AND CHEESE

“The time has not come to say that the use of milk and eggs should be wholly discarded.”

“But because disease in animals is increasing, the time will soon come when there will be no safety in using eggs, milk, cream or butter.”

“If milk is used, it should be thoroughly sterilized; with this precaution there is less danger of contracting disease from its use.”

State Boards of Health and Experiment Stations declare that from fifteen to thirty per cent. of the cows from which our cities draw their milk supply are affected with tuberculosis. In one locality it was found that 65 per cent. of the best milk that was presented was tubercular.

“Examination has determined that cream has from 10 to 500 times as many bacteria in a given quantity of milk as mixed milk. The bacteria nearly all rise to the top with the cream.”--_“Life and Health,” April, 1909._

In considering the question of appendicitis, a writer in the _American Medical Journal_ says: “The chief sources of tuberculosis infection of the alimentary tract are the ingestion of milk, butter and cheese from tuberculous cows....

“These authors (of the Experiment Station in Washington) consider that a very large amount of butter infected with tubercle bacilli is daily consumed by our people....

“Measure for measure, infected butter is a greater tubercular danger than infected milk.... Tests show that in the ordinary salted butter of commerce the Koch bacillus ‘may live and retain virulence practically four and a half months or longer.’”

=To Pasteurize Milk=

Place a dairy thermometer, or one in an unpainted tin case, in the milk; heat, preferably in double boiler, as quickly as possible, to a temperature of not less than 140 degrees F. and keep it there for 40 m., or raise to 158 degrees F. for 10-20 m. Cool rapidly. The rapid heating and cooling are necessary because a warm temperature is most favorable for the development of germs and the spores of germs which (spores) are not destroyed by this treatment of milk.

When milk is to be kept for several hours it should be heated in air-tight bottles or in bottles which have stoppers of sterilized cotton, by starting them in cold water and keeping them at a temperature of 149 degrees F. for a half hour after bringing the water to that point.

Pasteurizing milk does not give it the cooked taste that a higher temperature does.

When it is not possible to carry out these directions, just bring milk to the boiling point, or set bottles of milk or cream in cold water, bring the water to boiling and boil for 10-20 m. Of course the bottles should have something underneath them, to keep them from touching the bottom of the vessel in which they are standing.

=To Sterilize Butter=

Boil butter in a generous amount of water thoroughly. Cool, remove from the top of the water and drain.

=Sterilized Butter=

Pasteurize sweet cream the same as milk, cool quickly, let stand covered in a cold place for at least 4 hrs; whip or beat in a deep vessel, the inner cup of a double boiler or a pitcher, (some think it easier to shake the cream in a tightly corked, wide mouthed bottle or jar) until like whipped cream; then set the dish in slightly warm water, to raise the temperature of the cream enough to cause the butter to separate but not enough to make it oily. Remove the dish from warm water just as soon as butter begins to separate; pour off buttermilk and pour pure cold water over the butter. Work a little and pour water off; next pour on water with a little salt (1 teaspn. to the quart) and let it stand from 10 to 15 m. Remove butter to cold dish, add salt, about ½ tablespn. to the pound, if unsalted butter is not preferred; work a little, cover with a cloth wrung out of salt water, and let stand a few hours in a clean airy place. Then work a little and shape as desired. Do not work enough to spoil the grain and make the butter oily.

This is the method with which I have had the best success. The regular temperature for churning cream is from 58 to 60 degrees by the thermometer. Sterilized butter should be made fresh every day.

“Protein is the most costly of the food ingredients and the one most likely to be lacking in inexpensive meals, and is the nutrient which skim milk supplies in a cheap and useful form.”--_R. D. Milner, Ph. B. Farmers’ Bulletin, 363, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture._

“Sour milk is the safest form to use if milk is not Pasteurized, as the acid of the milk kills all the germs except the lactic acid germ.”--_Dr. Rand._

“People who cannot digest fresh milk or in whom it produces a feeling of heaviness and discomfort, can eat large quantities of curdled milk without inconvenience.”--_W. Brown, M. B., Ch. B., in Edinburgh Medical Journal._

“Lactic acid precipitates the casein (clabbers the milk) but does not affect the fats and salts. Its effect on the casein is to improve the digestibility of this important compound, the meat element, which is the most valuable constituent of milk.... As a matter of fact, sour milk is really a more healthful food than sweet milk, digesting more rapidly and more completely.”--_W. M. Esten, in Storr’s Bulletin, No. 59._

Directions for making artificial buttermilk come with the tablets and preparations sold for that purpose.

As milk is a hearty food it should not be taken with other heavy foods such as nuts, legumes or eggs, but with bread, zwieback, crackers or rolls, parched or popped corn and other cereals.

Clear milk is coagulated by the gastric juice and should be taken slowly, in small amounts, so that the acid may have a chance to mix with it and form the curd in small particles. When drank rapidly, the curd will form in large pieces and be difficult of digestion, often causing distress and disease.

Some can digest sweet milk better if an acid is taken with it, but, as a rule, such individuals would better take nut milk and cream, preferably nuts, and plenty of juicy fruits.

In fact, considering the increase of disease among animals, it were better for us all to be learning more and more how to prepare foods without milk and eggs, _educating_ ourselves and others _away_ from them.

The next thing to copper or re-tinned vessels for heating milk to the boiling point without scorching, is a nice clean iron frying pan or round bottomed iron kettle. I have used a stone milk crock.

Brush the inside of whatever dish milk is to be heated in with oil or butter, as a still further precaution against scorching, for scorched milk is unusable.

Wash all utensils used for milk first in cold water, then with warm soapsuds, and then scald with perfectly boiling water. Wipe with clean dry towels and if possible put them in the sun.

When hot water is poured into vessels before they are washed clean, the casein is glued into the crevices, ready to make mischief with the next lot of milk.

Condensed milk, containing cane sugar, is thought by many physicians to be the cause of the great increase of diabetes, especially among children.

A pinch of salt added to rather thin cream will cause it to whip up light. Whip cream in a pitcher, the inner cup of a double boiler or even in a tin can, something deep and small around. Of course the cream and utensils should be very cold. Stop whipping while cream is smooth, before it begins to have any rough appearance.

=Scalded, Devonshire or Clotted Cream=

Let milk stand undisturbed in a cool, well ventilated place for 12 hours in summer, 24 in winter. Then set the pan carefully in some place over the fire where it will heat very slowly almost to the boiling point; it must not boil. (It is better to set the pan in water which will come up on the sides as high as the milk.) Let stand again in a cool place for 12 hours or until thoroughly cooled. Divide with a knife into squares, and skim by folding these squares over and over in rolls. Set in a cool place. This is a most delightful substitute for butter on bread, and it may also be used with cereals and fruits.

The cream may be placed by skimmerfuls in layers on a plate instead of being rolled.

USES OF SOUR CREAM WITHOUT SODA

Sour cream may be used without soda in--Pie Crust; Shortcake Crust; Dumplings for Pot Pies; Steamed Puddings, and all places where universal crust is used; Salad Dressings in all places where sweet cream is used; Soups, just before serving; Stewed Cabbage and Stewed Tomatoes; Gravy; Macaroni; Cottage Cheese--much better than sweet cream; Dominion Salad Dressing; Crackers; Cream Lemon Sauce; Lemon Cream Sauce; Sauce Antique; Pie Filling and Cake Fillings. With Green Peas, mixed with a little flour before putting it in, it can not be distinguished from sweet cream; and the same with all vegetables with which I have tried it excepting string beans: in those it tastes a little tart. It may be poured over Trumese in half-loaves or in slices to bake; and Whipped, when the slight tartness is desirable.

CHEESE

The process of “ripening” in cheese is a process of decay, and poisonous ptomaines are often developed. I have no doubt but it would be better if cheese were never taken into the human stomach. Our Father has given us such an abundance of clean, wholesome foods to select from that we can well afford to disregard the questionable ones.

=Cottage Cheese=

Skim a pan of well thickened sour milk, cut it carefully into 2-in. squares and set into a cool oven on an iron ring, or something to keep it from the bottom of the oven, and leave the door open. Turn the pan occasionally but do not stir the milk. Be careful not to let it get too warm. It should never be hot, only a little above blood heat. I have sometimes made it in the summer by setting the pan in the sun. When the curd and whey have separated, turn all into a bag and hang up to drain. Do not drain the curd too dry. Season with sweet or sour cream and a little salt; pile in a rocky mass in a glass dish and set in a cool place.

Pass Chili sauce, Sauce Amèricaine or improved mayonnaise dressing with it, in serving.

Thick strained stewed tomato may be used instead of or with the cream.

If milk is stirred while thickening or while heating, it will yield only about ⅓ as much cheese as it would otherwise.

If properly made the cheese will be soft and creamy, instead of rough, dry and tasteless. It should never be used in anything that is to be raised to a high temperature, as that would make it hard and indigestible.

Cottage cheese is a strong meat food, being the casein of the milk separated from the water.

=Zeiger Cäse=

1 gallon fresh milk, 1 pt. thick sour milk, 3 eggs. Beat eggs, and sour milk together and stir slowly into sweet milk just as it begins to boil. When curd rises to top, skim into colander and drain.

DRINKS

“Two-thirds of all the patients that come to my office come because they drink tea and coffee. When I can get them to give up tea and coffee, they can get well.”--_Dr. Foote. Omaha._

Tea and coffee hinder the digestion of all the food elements, both nitrogenous and carbonaceous. They cause extreme nervousness and irritability.

“To a certain extent, tea produces intoxication.”

“The second effect of tea drinking is headache, wakefulness, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, trembling of the nerves and many other evils.”

“The influence of coffee is in a degree the same as that of tea, but the effect upon the system is still worse.”

Theobromine, the essential element of cocoa and chocolate, is identical with the thein and caffeine of tea and coffee.

“Some of the best authorities claim that the quantity of theobromine in chocolate is greater than that of theine or caffeine in tea or coffee, and also that in equal quantities, theobromine is a stronger drug than caffeine or theine.”--_Dr. George._

A. B. Prescott, Ph. D., M. D., for many years Dean of the chemical department of the University of Michigan, says in his “Organic Analysis,” published by D. Van Nostrand Co., New York City in 1892, pp. 77 and 513: “Coffee contains 1 per cent. of caffeine.” “Dry cacao seeds contain 1.5 per cent. of theobromine.” “The physiological effects of theobromine are like caffeine but are obtained by smaller doses.”

The increasing use of chocolate and cocoa in and with everything is alarming, and we feel that we must raise our voices in warning against this “habit,” since many are innocent in regard to its nature.

“The use of unnatural stimulants is destructive to health and has a benumbing influence upon the brain, _making it impossible to appreciate eternal things_.”

As our bodies are made up so largely of water it is necessary to take a sufficient amount to keep the tissues bathed and built up, but it should not be taken with our meals, for solid foods cannot be digested until the liquids have been absorbed, and when retained in the stomach too long food _ferments_, making an _inebriate_ of the _water drinker_.

Fluids also dilute the digestive juices so that they lose their power to act. Do not drink for a half hour or more before meals, or within 1 to 3 hours after--persons with slow digestion or subject to acidity, 3 hours.

If very cold or hot drinks are taken, the temperature at which digestion is carried on is affected, causing another delay.

As a rule, the body gets the greatest benefit from water taken early in the morning.

Pastor Kneipp recommended the use of small quantities of water (1 teaspoonful), often. If one is situated so as to be able to take a few swallows frequently, it is better than to deluge the stomach three or four times a day; as a steady, gentle rain is more beneficial than a torrent.

Hot water, at one time the great panacea, is responsible for many cases of serious indigestion by causing the muscles of the stomach to relax and become weak. A cup of hot water occasionally, when one feels that he has taken a little cold, will help to ward off the cold but it should not be often repeated.

The advice of one doctor of great sense and considerable reputation was “Drink cold water _when thirsty_.”

Pure _Distilled Water_ is unquestionably the best drink. _Mineral Waters_ sometimes have a beneficial effect when used for a short time, but that is lost by their continued use and after a few weeks the individual begins to suffer with serious stomach and kidney difficulties.

“_Very Hard Water_ is not only unpleasant to the skin and difficult to make into a lather, but, what is more important still, it exerts a more or less harmful influence upon the digestive system. Constipation is not infrequently the direct result of the constant use of hard water. Wherever possible apparatus should be used for the purpose of distilling hard water. If this is impracticable, boiling the water will materially reduce the hardness. The flatness of boiled water is easily and quickly remedied by aerating it. Pouring water back and forth from one glass to another will speedily restore its oxygen.”--_English Good Health._

The liberal use of _Fresh Juicy Fruits_ helps out in the amount of fluids. I have known a few people who ate no meat and almost no vegetables, but did use juicy acid fruits in abundance, who never felt the pangs of thirst, and they were in exceptionally good health, with great powers of endurance.

The change of water in travelling affects many people unfavorably and often it is difficult to obtain pure water. The substitution of juicy fruits at such times banishes the difficulties.

=Fruit Nectars=

We make “fruit nectars” by adding lemon juice, sugar and water (the less sugar the better, a sugar syrup is preferable) to pure fruit juices and to combinations of fruit juices. Some, such as grape and black raspberry, will bear a good deal of water, but pineapple and other delicate flavored juices very little.

If pineapple is combined with another juice, let it be something without a strong, positive flavor (as orange or strawberry), or the pineapple juice will be wasted. A strong and a neutral flavored juice, red raspberry and currant for instance, go well together. Lemon juice gives character to all. Peach and grape juice, or apple and grape juice are good combinations.

To fully enjoy the flavors, do not serve drinks ice cold.

=Banana Lemon Nectar=

_Syrup_--3-4 cups water, ½ cup sugar, boil; add ½ cup lemon juice, cool. Cut 1 large banana in small pieces; pour syrup over, let stand in refrigerator 2 hours or longer; strain or not; serve with thin slices of lemon.

=Orange Banana Nectar=

Cut half a small orange into sections, rind and all and add to banana syrup about 20 m. before serving. Before straining, put sections into glasses, pour the strained syrup over them and serve.

=Orange Nectar=

Add sections of orange to lemon syrup without the banana.

=Mint Orange Nectar=

Add shredded mint to orange nectar.

=Lemonades=

Lemonade, with but little sugar, has no equal as a drink because of the purifying effect of the lemon juice upon both the water and the individual.

A strong lemonade requires less sugar in proportion than one having a large quantity of water. A sugar syrup is best for sweetening, and the less used the better.

_Mint_--Sprinkle fine cut spearmint into lemonade 10 to 15 m. before serving. Very cooling and refreshing.

_Egg_--1 egg, 2 tablespns. sugar, 2½ tablespns. lemon juice, water to make 2 glasses. Beat egg and sugar, add lemon juice and beat, then add water.

_White of Egg_--2-2½ tablespns. lemon juice, white of 1 egg, 1 tablespn. sugar. Beat white of egg and sugar, add lemon juice, then water.

_Milk and Egg_--1 egg, ¼-½ cup milk, 1 teaspn. or more lemon juice, a little grated rind of lemon. Beat yolk of egg and add cold milk, turn into glass; beat white of egg with a trifle of salt and add half the lemon juice; add remainder of lemon juice to the yolk and milk, lay white on top and serve at once.

=Egg Orangeade=

Beat the white of 1 egg with the juice of 1 large sweet orange, strain.

=To Prepare Fruit Juices=

The most desirable juices for drinks are made from fresh, ripe, uncooked fruits by crushing, and straining through a cloth. It is better to pour cold water over some fruits and let them stand for a while before straining. Apples may be sliced or chopped and water added.

For canning fruit juices, see pp. 60, 61. The liquid from soaking acid dried fruits in water for several hours (without cooking) is refreshing; also the juice in which chopped raisins have been steeped.

=Cranberry Juice=

Crush or grind 1 qt. of cranberries, pour 1 qt. of boiling water over, cool; add sugar after straining and stir until it is dissolved.

=Cereal Coffees or Drinks=