We have not space to go into the question of beverages at any length. A few good "drinks" are given under Invalid Dietary, and I would just say that the juice of a squeezed lemon, orange, or other fruit juice is much better than any effervescent or chemicalised beverage. There are, however, some excellent pure fruit-juices now on the market, among which one may mention
Pattinson's Fruit Syrups
and essences for various temperance drinks as being specially good. Many are proscribed on the score of health, &c., from the use of
Tea and Coffee,
but as these will remain first favourites for a long time to come, the first essential is to have them properly prepared, so that there is little if any ill effect. Where tea is most largely and constantly used, as in China and Japan, it is said to be quite innocuous. This may be partly owing to the more wholesome and rational way in which those people live, partly also to the finer quality of tea available, but very largely to the method of preparation. Various devices have been patented to save trouble in changing from one pot to another, but as most of these are rather complicated for daily use, we are glad to learn of a tea which can be prepared in the old comfortable handy way without any ill effects, and this boon seems to be furnished in the
Universal Digestive Tea,
prepared at the Colonial Warehouse, Kendal. By a process—which, by the way, is not kept secret—the tea is treated with oxygen in such a way that the hurtful tannin is neutralised, while none of the other properties are affected in any way. There is certainly no loss of flavour, and no difference that one can discern from the usual, but specially good tea—a fact which will appeal to ordinary tea-drinkers, of whom there are still a majority. For any further information regarding this tea, I would recommend readers to a little pamphlet compiled by Albert Broadbent, Esq., food specialist and lecturer, whose writings on the food question, &c., are well known. It is entitled "The cup that cheers." It explains the process of treatment, and gives medical and analytical testimony in its favour from various authorities of very high standing. The best proof is in the drinking, however, and one may have a sample pound or more carriage paid.
The whole of the previous part of this book has been devoted to the contriving of the several meals usual in a work-a-day household and under ordinary circumstances. But exceptions will occur in the "best regulated families," and although much may be done to prevent illness by pure, nourishing, well-cooked food, one must be prepared for emergencies as they come.
Of course, most of our friends will be only too ready to pounce upon us when illness comes into the house, with their "I told you so" comments. In the first place it will be owing to their low diet and want of proper nourishment that father has got influenza, or Tommy mumps or measles—beef-fed personsneverhave these affections—(which shows what an enormous proportion of vegetarians there must be)—and in the second place, now that there is illness, youmustfall back on beef-tea, port-wine, and other "generous diet," to get up and sustain the patient's strength. However callous or deaf you might be to the supplication for the flesh-pots from those in health, you cannot, must not shut your heart to the call of the weak or suffering.
And woe betide us if we are heretic, and the patient does not recover so quickly as we could wish (if he does, we shall be suspected of having surreptitiously called the orthodox nostrums to our aid, but that by the way), so that it behoves us to give the critical and censorious as little room for their strictures as possible.
Now, what are we to get for that erewhilesine qua nonof the sick room,
Beef Tea?
Well, before we come to the non-flesh substitutes, which are more similar in some ways to the ordinary beef-tea, we will consider what is given in the earlier stages when the stomach rejects nearly all nourishment.
Pure Fruit Juices
can usually be retained and assimilated by the most debilitated. The refreshing and restorative properties of orange, grape, and similar fruit juices are generally appreciated, though many people hold the extraordinary belief that these are best when almost all the nourishment has been fermented out of them as in ordinary wine; but not so many even of the more advanced among us, as yet, realise the wonderful healing and anti-toxic possibilities of fresh fruits, more especially grapes. Pure grape juice has been found to act with such destructive force upon disease germs of various kinds as would appear little short of miraculous.
To prepare, press out with squeezer and strain, dilute or not with hot or cold water according to the condition of the patient. The juice of an orange to a tumbler of water makes an excellent tonic drink where there is feverishness and debility of the digestive organs, and a teaspoonful or more of lemon juice may be used in the same way.
Rhubarb Juice
is very good when made from fresh, naturally-grown rhubarb. Wipe and cut small, put in covered jar in oven or steamer till the juice flows freely. This will not be ordered where there is rheumatism or the like. For such, an alkaline beverage is wanted instead of an acid.
Celery Milk
is exceedingly good, and I claim to have discovered it for myself. Wash and trim some sticks of celery. Cut small and simmer for an hour or longer in milk and water. Bruise well to get all the goodness out, and strain through jelly-bag. When fresh celery is not to be had, celery seeds may be used. Simmer in water, strain, and add milk.
Cocoanut Milk
is also very good, and will sometimes be retained when ordinary milk is rejected. Select a juicy cocoanut, pierce a hole and drain out the milk. Break and remove from shell, and pare off the brown skin very finely, so as not to lose any of the oil. Grate or run through mincer, add two cupfuls boiling water, and beat with a wooden spoon from ten to fifteen minutes; then squeeze through a cloth or potato masher. Put the cocoanut into a saucepan with more boiling water, mash over the fire for a few minutes, and squeeze again very thoroughly. If it has been squeezed in a masher the liquor may need to be strained again through a cloth or hair sieve.
For a bland soothing drink, invaluable in practically every form of internal irritation and debility, Barley Water reigns supreme, and in its preparation Robinson's Patent Barley will be found invaluable.
Smooth one or two spoonfuls to a cream with cold water. Pour on boiling water, stirring all the while, and boil gently for five to ten minutes. When cool it will be a firm jelly, and can be diluted as required with hot or cold water, milk, fruit-juice, "Extract," &c., &c.
To come now to what more closely resembles beef-tea, we can have a liquid practically undistinguishable made from
Brown or German Lentils.
Take a teacupful of these, look over and pick very carefully so that no stones or dirt may escape notice. Scald with boiling water, and put to simmer with plenty of boiling water in a saucepan or stewing jar. Add a shallot, a bit of celery, teaspoonful ground rice, tapioca, &c., and, unless prohibited, seasoning to taste. A blade of mace, a slice or two of carrot, beetroot, &c., might be added at discretion. Simmer gently, or better still, steam for an hour. Strain, without any pressure, and serve with fingers of crisp, dry toast. Equal quantities of German lentils and brown beans may be prepared exactly as above to make Savoury Tea, as also a mixture of brown and white beans. A delicious
Invalid Broth
is made thus:—Wash well a cupful of butter peas or haricot beans and one or two tablespoonfuls pot barley. Put in saucepan or double boiler with water, and cook for two to three hours. Season and strain. Celery, onion, parsnip, &c., may be added if desired. Some milk may also be added, and, if wished specially rich and strengthening, one or two eggs beaten up. Warm up only as much as is needed at one time, and serve with toast or triscuits. Variety of flavour, &c., may be contrived by mixing lentils, dried green peas, &c., with the haricots, or instead of these, tomatoes may be sliced and added ten minutes before straining.
I need not here give recipes for ordinary oatmeal gruel, but
Lentil Gruel
may be new to some. Take a dessert-spoonful lentil flour—the "Digestive" lentil flour is always to be depended on—smooth with a little cold milk or water in a saucepan. Add three teacupfuls boiling milk or barley-water and simmer for fifteen minutes. A little extract such as "Carnos" or "Marmite" may be added to this or any of the foregoing broths.
These extracts, "Carnos" and "Marmite," are exceedingly useful in the sick-room, as they can be so easily and quickly prepared. "Carnos" being a fluid extract, is especially handy. A teaspoonful of that, or a half teaspoonful "Marmite" to a cupful boiling water makes a delightful cup of savoury tea. Be careful not to make too strong. Such extracts may also enter with advantage into
Savoury Custard.
Beat up an egg, and add to it half a teacupful milk, and either a teaspoonful "Carnos" or rather less of "Marmite," the latter dissolved in a little boiling water. Add pinch salt. Turn into a buttered cup or tiny basin, cover with buttered paper, and steam gently for seven or eight minutes till just set.
The following is a very dainty and novel
Egg Flip.
Separate the white from the yolk of an egg and beat up the white quite stiff. Beat up the yolk and add to it the strained juice of an orange or some "Nektar." Mix all lightly together and serve in a pretty glass or china dish.
White of Egg
may be made more attractive for little folk if poached by spoonfuls for a minute or two in boiling milk, and served with a little pink sugar dusted over.
Orange Egg Jelly.
Rub 2 ozs. loaf sugar on the rinds of 2 oranges till it gets as much flavour as possible, then put in a basin with the strained juice and a teaspoonful lemon juice. Bring a very small quantity of vegetable gelatine—previously soaked for an hour in cold water—to boil in a breakfastcupful of water. One-eighth of an oz. of this gelatine is enough as it is so strong. Stir till quite dissolved and strain over the sugar, &c. When cool add the yolks of two eggs beaten up, and whisk till white and frothy. Beat the whites very stiff and add them. Beat all thoroughly, and when just about to set pour into a wet mould. Or allow to set and then pile up by rocky spoonfuls in a glass dish.
When an invalid is getting past the "sloppy" stage and is able for solid nutriment
Steamed Barley
is perhaps the most valuable food of any, and dyspeptics who experience difficulty in getting any kind of food to agree would do well to go on a course of this—not for one day or two, but for weeks and months together. Wash well in cold water a teacupful ofpotbarley. Put on in clean lined saucepan with plenty of cold water, bring to boil slowly, and if there is the least suspicion of mustiness, drain and cover with clean water. When it comes a boil again, turn into a pudding basin or double boiler, cover and steam for at least six hours. Twelve hours is much better, and it is safest to put on one day, what is wanted for the next. Onions, celery, tomatoes, &c., may be added at discretion. When to be used, this barley should turn out firm enough to chew, and may be eaten with thin dry toast or "Triscuits."
Besides these home-made preparations, there are many valuable foods to be had ready for use, or requiring but little preparation, thus affording change and variety, not only to the patient, but to the nurse or cook, who must often be heartily tired of making up the same gruels and mushes for weeks or months together. The Barley Mint, Patriarch Biscuits, and Barley Malt Biscuits to be had from the Wallace Bakery, 465 Battersea Park Road, London, S.W., come in very handy. The Barley Malt Meal can be made into a gruel or porridge, while Barley Malt itself may be added to any ordinary preparation to aid digestion. Barley Malt Meal Gruel has been found a sovereign remedy for constipation, obstinate cases yielding to it when all other treatment had failed. Make in usual way and add one or two large spoonfuls treacle or honey. The biscuits may be grated and made into a mush with hot milk, &c., or they may be soaked over night in as much hot water, milk, or diluted Extract as they will absorb, and then be put in the oven to warm through. Gluten Meal is another among many valuable Invalid Foods which there is space only to mention here; while the value of Robinson's Patent Groats for gruel is widely appreciated.
For diabetic and anaemic patients there are one or two other valuable foods now on the market specially prepared to nourish and enrich the blood, while at the same time starving the disease. Barley Malt Meal is specially good, also a recent "Wallaceite" product, "Stamina Food."
The "Manhu" Diabetic Foods
are well known and highly recommended. The following
"Manhu" Diabetic Savoury
will be welcome to those whose dietary is of necessity so restricted. 1/2 pint Savoury Tea (p. 90) or diluted "Extract," 1 egg, 1 tablespoonful "Manhu" Diabetic Food, 1/2 oz. butter, salt and pepper.
Melt butter in saucepan, add the food, and mix over slow fire till butter is absorbed. Add the savoury liquid, cook for a few minutes, add seasoning, beat in yolk of egg, then the white stiffly beaten. Mix lightly. Pour into pie-dish, and bake in quick oven for 15 minutes.
* * * * *
A Realised Ideal In Food Production.
Ideal Food Reform means much more than "going without meat." It means the use of only such foods as will thoroughly nourish the body without injuring it.
For instance, most popular biscuits are made from an impoverished white flour, and raised with chemicals, which injure the system. Again, white bread is an artificial one-sided food, and is raised with yeast. Yeast is a ferment, the product of brewery vats, and is not expelled from the loaf by baking.
Thorough-going Food Reform demands bread, biscuits, &c., made with entire whole wheat flour, and free from chemicals, yeast, and other impurities. This is a high ideal: can it be realised?
It has been realised. The Wallace P.R. Foods Co. was founded expressly for-the purpose of making bread, biscuits, cakes, and other foods on scientific principles, which a great London "daily" has described as
100 Years in Advance of the Age.
In this model bakery the only flour used throughout is an entire wheatmeal ground to a marvellous fineness; and all other ingredients are the very best and purest. Chemicals, cheap fats, and yeast are banished.
Thousands have proved that the regular daily use of the P.R. Biscuits, Bread, &c., not only delights the palate, but eradicates many stubborn diseases, and brings about a steady improvement of health in cases where drugs, patent medicines, and all other unnatural methods have failed.
30 Samples of delicious Bread, Cake, Biscuits, and Coffee, 1/6 carr. paid.
Box Biscuits and Coffee only, 1/3 carr. paid.
_P.R. Specialities are stocked by all Health Food Stores.
Sole Makers:_
The Wallace P.R. Foods Co.
465 Battersea Park Rd., London, S.W.
* * * * *
"COW & GATE" Dried Pure English Half-Cream Milk
The Superiority of Dried Milk over Fresh Cow's Milk was strikingly demonstrated by the experiments of the Sheffield Corporation Scheme for Reducing Infantile Mortality, given in a paper by ALBERT E. NAISH, M.A., M.B., B.C., Cantab., Assistant Physician, Sheffield Royal Hospital, in the September 3rd issue of theMedical Officer. For the purpose of these experiments our milk was used with that of two other makers.
can be supplied in a much fresher condition than Foreign or Colonial makes. Besides the fact of our supplying several Infant Milk Depots and Creches, we have Thousands of Letters from grateful mothers, from all parts, who testify to the splendid results from feeding their babies on our Dried English Milk.
West Surrey Central Dairy Co. GUILDFORD.
It can be obtained of most Chemists and Health Food Stores, in Tins andPackets, 1/1. each.
We make Dried, Full-Cream, and also Separated Milk, as well as the above.Prices on application.
* * * * *
Savoury Gruel.
Dissolve about 1-1/2 teaspoonfuls vegetable extract—"Marmite," "Carnos," Mapleton's Nut Extract are all good—in 3 gills boiling water. Have a tablespoonful of either Gluten Meal, Barley Malt Meal, Banana Oats, &c., made smooth with a little cold water—add seasoning, a little grated onion, celery, &c.—and mix it with the "Extract" tea. Boil all together, stirring constantly for 5 or 10 minutes, then strain.
This savoury gruel may be acceptably varied from time to time by substituting Robinson's Patent Barley or Groats for the above.
Almond Cream Whey.
One pint milk, 1 dessertspoonful lemon juice, 1 tablespoonful Almond cream or Cashew nut cream. Bring milk nearly to boiling point, and add lemon juice. Let stand till it curdles. Strain and stir in the nut cream, also sweetening to taste.
"Nutter" Milk
(For Wasting Diseases, in place of Cod Liver Oil).
Put 1 oz. "Nutter," or other good vegetable fat, in small enamelled saucepan, and pour on 1/2 pint of milk. Heat very slowly nearly to boiling point. Stir or beat with wooden spoon till cool enough to drink. Pour into warm glass and sip slowly. If not all used at once, heat slowly, and mix well each time to be used.
Almond Milk Jelly.
Make up 1/2 pint almond milk by shaking up 1 tablespoonful Mapleton's concentrated almond cream with 2 gills water. Soak 1/8 oz. vegetable gelatine in cold water for an hour. Strain off the water and put in saucepan with the almond milk, rind of 1/2 lemon and juice of whole one, also 2 ozs. sugar. Stir over gentle heat till gelatine is dissolved. Strain and mould in usual way.
Onion Gruel (for a Cold).
One lb. onions, 1 apple, a little sugar, salt, ground cloves or mace, and white pepper, 1/2 gill boiling water, 2 tablespoonfuls "Cow and Gate" dried milk, 1 oz. butter or vegetable fat. Peel and chop the onions and scald with boiling water. Put on to simmer, with the apple chopped small, the water, butter, &c.—all except the dried milk. Cover and cook gently till tender. Sprinkle in the dried milk, and cook for a few minutes longer. Serve very hot.
The dried milk—full cream, half cream, or separated according to need of patient—may be added to any of the foregoing recipes where concentrated nourishment is required.
Mushroom Ketchup.
Fresh mushrooms—those just past the cooking stage for preference—spread not too thickly on flat dish. Sprinkle liberally with salt and let stand from 24 to 30 hours. Strain off liquor, pressing mushrooms thoroughly. Boil and bottle. If preferred, spices may be added, but we prefer it "unadulterated."
"Reform" Cheese.
(Mrs C. LEIGH HUNT WALLACE, London.)
The following is an original recipe for cheese without rennet given me byMrs Wallace, a well-known pioneer in Food Reform.
Put the strained juice of 3 lemons into a quart of boiling milk, then remove immediately and set aside to cool. Place a wet cheese-cloth in a hair sieve and place in the contents of the saucepan. Let drain, shape by gathering the cloth together, compress and leave for a little. Garnish with parsley. Eaten with raw tomatoes and oatcakes it is delicious. The whey, if sweetened to taste, forms to those who like it a pleasant, cooling, and health-giving beverage.
Manhu Wheat Yorkshire Pudding.
Three tablespoonfuls Manhu Wheat, 2 eggs, a little over half a pint of milk; salt to taste; 1 oz. butter.
Put the wheat in a basin, mix with milk until it forms a nice batter; add a little salt. Beat up the eggs very lightly, and add to the batter. Put the butter in a small baking tin in the oven, and, when hot, pour in the batter. Bake about 20 minutes in a sharp oven.
Breakfast Savoury.
Allow 1 egg, 1 small tomato, 1/4 oz. butter or vegetable butter, to each person. Scald, peel, and slice tomatoes, and fry till quite cooked in the butter. Add seasoning to taste—salt, pepper, little grated onion, pinch herbs, a little Vegetable Extract or Ketchup—any or all of these—and the eggs, which may either be dropped in or slightly beaten up. Scramble till set, and serve heaped up on hot buttered toast. A pleasing variety of flavour is produced by substituting walnut butter for the other. The toast might also be spread with a very little "Marmite."
Brown Soup. Nut Omelette. Almond Custard with Stewed Fruit.
Hotch-Potch. Sausage Rolls. Canary Pudding with Appel-Moes.
Clear Soup. Savoury Lentil Pie. Lemon Cream.
Tomato Soup. Scotch Haggis. Cobden Pudding.
Mock Hare Soup. Kedgeree. Provost Nuts Pudding.
White Soubise Soup. Sea Pie. Banana Custard.
Split Green Pea Soup. Macaroni Egg Cutlets. German Tart.
NOTE.—The above is only an outline. Vegetables, &c., will be added as they are in season.
* * * * *
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Nut Soup.
One pint boiling water, 3 tablespoons grated walnut or walnut meat preparation, some onions sliced, spoonful gravy essence, 1/2 lb. sliced tomatoes, a little "Nutter." Make the fat hot and fry onions lightly, add sliced tomatoes and grated nuts, and stir for a few minutes. Pour boiling water over, and allow all to simmer for 20 to 30 minutes; season to taste, and serve.
Split Green Pea Soup.
One lb. split green peas, 1/2 lb. onions, 1/2 lb. carrots, 2 quarts boiling water; scald peas with hot water, and put on with the 2 quarts (8 breakfast cupfuls) boiling water, and the onions chopped small. Simmer for an hour, and add the carrot flaked or chopped small. Cook for another hour, add seasoning, herbs, parsley, &c., and it is ready for use. This is a most delicious and nourishing soup, and very quickly and easily prepared. Can be varied by using tomatoes instead of the carrots, or by the addition of any other vegetables as cauliflower, leeks, spring onions, &c., also by substituting 4 to 6 ozs. rice or barley for same quantity peas.
Simple White Soup.
One large onion, 1 large potato, 1 tablespoonful oatmeal, 1 tablespoonful butter. Boil gently 1 hour in 2 breakfast cupfuls milk and 1 of water. Pass through a fine sieve, and serve very hot. May be varied by substituting Provost Nuts or Marshall's "Cerola" for the oatmeal.
Plasmon Vegetable Soup.
Two carrots, 2 turnips, 1 leek, 1 onion, 1-1/2 oz. butter, 1 teaspoonful celery seed, 2 lumps sugar, 1 bay leaf, 1 pint Plasmon white stock, 1 oz. flour, 1 gill milk, salt and pepper. Shred vegetables into thin strips. Melt butter, and add Plasmon stock while boiling. Cook till vegetables tender. Blend flour and milk smoothly, and add gradually, also seasoning. Boil a few minutes longer. For
Plasmon Stock,
put 1 oz. Plasmon in saucepan, and add gradually half a pint lukewarm water, stirring continuously. Place over the fire, and boil for two minutes. When cold, this should be a thin, semi-transparent jelly.
Cream of Barley Soup.
Prepare a white or clear stock (p. 11), or make a hasty stock by boiling some lentils, split-peas, or haricots with a good quantity of chopped onion till of the strength required. Failing any of these, a spoonful or two of vegetable extract will do very well. Bring to boil, and season to taste. In a basin smooth some of Robinson's Patent Barley to a cream with cold water or milk, allowing one tablespoonful to the pint. Pour on to this the boiling stock, stirring all the time. Return to saucepan, boil up, and allow to simmer for at least ten minutes. More milk may be added if desired, and this soup can be varied and enriched by the addition of the yolks of one or two eggs. These should be well beaten up and put in tureen before dishing. I may say here that the Patent Barley is must useful for thickening any kind of soup, stock, or gravy.
Nut Soufflee.
A teacup each of grated walnuts, brown bread crumbs, and milk, a beaten egg, pepper and salt. Mix well, grease a tin mould, pour in mixture, and steam for an hour. Serve with Tomato Sauce. When cold, it can be cut in slices, rolled in egg and bread crumbs, and fried a nice brown.
NOTE.—The above can be varied by using a different kind of nuts or Mapleton's Nut-meat Preparation, and by the addition of a little grated onion, minced parsley, and one or two teaspoonfuls Vegetable Extract.
Savoury Nut Omelette.
A large cup of grated walnuts or Brazil nuts, a cup of brown bread crumbs, pepper and salt to taste, a little grated onion, 2 teaspoonfuls finely chopped parsley; also 2 eggs well beaten, and a cup of milk. Mix all the ingredients together. Have ready an omelette pan with a good layer of hot fat or butter. Pour in the mixture, slowly brown on one side, cut in 4 or 6 pieces when they will be easily turned, then brown on the other side. Serve hot, with brown sauce, vegetables and potatoes in the usual way. A still simpler way is to bake in shallow baking tin in brisk oven 30 to 40 minutes. Use plenty of fat.
NOTE.—The above can be very easily prepared by using Mapleton's Nut-meat Preparation instead of the grated nuts. Walnut or brown Almond meal would be especially suitable.
Sea Pie.
Cook together a variety of tender spring vegetables—carrots, turnips, cabbage, pens, French beans, &c. First brown some onions with "Nuttene," add water with some vegetable extract—"Marmite" or "Carnos"—also some ketchup and seasoning. When boiling, add the carrots and turnips—not too small—then a fair-sized cabbage cut in four pieces, the peas shelled, or French beans cut lengthwise. The carrots and turnips should be cooking for some time before the cabbage, &c., is put in. See that there is plenty of liquid to cover, and put on the following paste:—Take four heaped tablespoonfuls self-raising flour, a piece of "Nuttene" or butter the size of a small egg. Rub in very lightly with the tips of the fingers, add pinch pepper and salt, and mix to a soft dough with a little water. Flour well and roll out lightly to not quite the size of round stewpan to leave room for swelling. Make a hole in centre, add quickly to contents of pan while fast stewing, keep lid very close, and cook for 3/4 of an hour. Serve very hot. Sea Pie may also be made with mushrooms stewed till tender, with teaspoonful "Extract" and tablespoonsful ketchup. Have plenty of liquid.
NOTE.—The above is exceedingly good, very simple to prepare, and may be varied in innumerable ways. For those who prefer to dispense with chemical raising materials, I may say that the paste is very good made with ordinary flour, or with a mixture of wholemeal and flour. An eggmaybe beaten and mixed in, but it rises very well without. The same paste can be put over any stew—German Lentil, Haricot Bean, &c.—great care being taken that there is plenty of liquid.
Scotch Oatmeal Pudding.
One lb. oatmeal, 1/4 lb. onions, 1/2 lb. vegetable suet or 1/4 lb. each of suet and pine kernels; pepper and salt. Run the pine kernels through nut-mill, and put with suet in frying-pan. When hot, add the onions finely chopped, and after these have cooked for a few minutes add the oatmeal, which should be crisp and not too fine. Cook all for some time, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Wring a pudding cloth out of boiling water, flour well, and put the oatmeal, &c., in, and tie up at each end in the form of a roll, leaving a little room to swell. Plunge in fast-boiling water, and boil for 3 to 4 hours. Turn out of cloth carefully so as not to break. It may be served as it is, but is much nicer if put in a baking tin, basted with hot fat, and baked till brown and crisp. Serve with brown sauce or nut gravy.
This may be divided into a number of small puddings. These are particularly good if allowed to cool, and then brushed over with a little white of egg before being toasted.
Hasty Oatmeal Pudding.
Make some vegetable fat very hot. Add a little onion, grated or very finely chopped, and stir till nearly cooked. Allow a teacupful oatmeal to each tablespoonful of fat, and stir in along with a little salt and pepper. Cook over very moderate heat till crisp and brown all over, turning about almost constantly as it is very ready to burn. Shredded Wheat Biscuit crumbs, Granose Flakes, or Kornules may be used in place of the oatmeal. Less fat will be required.
Walnut Mince.
Six ozs. grated nuts, 4 ozs. breadcrumbs, 1 oz. Nut butter. Make fat hot in saucepan, add nuts, and stir till lightly browned, taking great care not to burn. Add breadcrumbs and seasoning to taste—large spoonful grated onion, pinch herbs, &c.—also ketchup or vegetable extract—"Carnos" or "Marmite"—with boiling water to make up 2 gills—rather less if a dry consistency is preferred. Simmer slowly for 15 minutes. Serve with sippets of toast or fried bread. Brazil, peccan, or hazel nuts may be used instead of walnuts.
Savoury Lentil Pie.
With the help of the above mince quite a number of delicious savouries can be contrived with but little extra trouble. The following pie will be found delicious:—Wash well 8 ozs. red lentils, and put on to cook with 2 ozs. each of chopped or flaked carrot, turnip, and onion, 1 oz. butter, pinch herbs, ditto curry powder, teaspoonful sugar, and usual seasonings. Cover with just as little water as will cook the lentils without burning, and simmer or steam closely covered for about half-an-hour till lentils a thick puree. Some ketchup, "Extract," or tomato is an improvement; add nut mince prepared as above, mix well and simmer a few minutes longer. It should be of the consistency of a thick mush. Put in pie-dish, and set aside to cool. Cover with
Batter Paste
made with 6 ozs. self-raising flour, 2 eggs, 1-1/2 gills milk, 3 ozs. butter or vegetable fat. Rub the butter into the flour, and make into stiff batter, with the eggs well beaten, and the milk. Pour over contents of pie-dish and bake till well risen and a nice brown in fairly brisk oven.
Nutton Pie.
One-and-half lbs. "Nutton," [Footnote: A very fine Nut Meat, put up by R. Winter, City Arcades, Birmingham.] cut in dice, 1/2 lb. tomatoes, 1/4 lb. cooked macaroni, 1-1/2 lbs. cooked potatoes, sliced. Dust with pepper and salt, pour in stock to within 1/2 inch of top; cover with good whole-meal crust, made with Winter's cooking "Nutbut"; bake.
Nutton Chops.
One lb. No. 1 "Nutton," minced through a food chopper, 3/4 lb. zweiback bread crumbs, 2 ozs. macaroni, cooked and finely chopped, pepper and salt to taste. Mix with egg and form into chops; use a piece of uncooked macaroni for the bone; brush with egg and bread crumbs and bake, or fry, with nutbut—this quantity should make 8 chops.
Nutton Meat for Mock Sausage Rolls.
One lb. No. 8 "Nutton," put through a food chopper, 1/2 Spanish onion boiled and finely chopped, 2 teacupsful zweiback bread crumbs, a little sage, salt to taste. Have quantity required of puff pastry, roll out and divide into squares, putting a little sausage meat in the centre, wet the edges and fold over. Place in a hot oven and bake 10 minutes to 1/4 hour.
Stewed Onions.
Select about a dozen good hard onions, as nearly of a size as possible, and weighing 6 or 8 to the lb. Make 2 ozs. or so vegetable fat—"Nutter" is very good—smoking hot in large stewpan, add the onions, and stir about till nicely browned all over; be careful not to burn; if fat not all absorbed pour it away. Cover with boiling water, add seasoning, pinch herbs, &c., cover and stew gently till cooked—about an hour. There should be a rich brown gravy, so that this makes a most appetising dish to serve with a dry savoury.
Cheese Moulds.
One pint milk, 1/2 lb. grated cheese, 3/4 lb. wheaten bread crumbs, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoonful salt, 1/4 teaspoonful mustard, 1/4 teaspoonful pepper. Put milk, cheese, and crumbs into a pan and bring them almost to the boil, add seasoning and eggs, and stir till thick, but do not let it boil. Butter some small dariole moulds and sprinkle them with some chopped parsley. Press in the mixture, dip in hot water, and turn out.
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PER LB.S. D.Walnut Butter 1 0Cocoa Nut Butter 1 0Cashew Butter 1 0Almond Margarine 1 2Nut Margarine 0 10Blended Nut Margarine 0 10Honey & Nut Margarine 1 0Pea Nut Butter 0 9Almond Cream 1 10Hazel Cream 1 4Cocoa Nut Cream 0 10Nut Milk 1 4Cooking Nutter, 1-1/2 lb. carton 0 11Nutter Suet 0 8Cooking Nut Oil 1 0H.M.R. Nut Oil 1 6Walnut Oil 2 6Olive Oil 1 5Salted Almonds (packet) 0 11Blanched Almonds 1 3Cooking Almonds 1 0Jordan Almonds 1 8Twin Jordan Almonds 1 2Walnut Halves 2 0Broken Walnuts 0 8Pine Kernels 0 11Roasted Pine Kernels 1 0Pea Nuts 0 4Roasted Pea Nuts 0 5Blanched Pea Nuts 0 6Cashew Nuts 0 9Hazel Nuts 0 10Monkey Nuts 0 4Almond Meal 1 6" (Unblanched) 1 3Hazel Meal 1 0Walnut Meal 0 11Chestnut Meal 0 4Desiccated Cocoa Nut 0 5Pea Nut Meal 0 7Roasted Pea Nut Meal 0 7Banana Meal 0 6Dried Bananas 0 6Figs 0 4Dried Pears 0 9Orange Peel 0 5-1/2Lemon Peel 0 5-1/2Citron Peel 0 9Malted Almonds and Hazels 1 9Cereal Cream 0 6Nut Graino 0 3-1/2Wholemeal (3-1/2-lb. bag) 0 6Malt Extract 6-1/2d. and 1 0Nut Extract 0 7-1/2Malt Extract & Nut Oil 0 7Powdered Dried Herbs 0 1Gravy Essence 6d. and 1 0Nut Gravy 1 0Finest Honey 1 0Finest Cocoa 2 0Pure Coffee 1 10Banana Coffee 1 2Nut Coffee 1 0Lapee Cereal Coffee 0 9Rich Wholemeal Sultana Cake 0 10Nut Cakes (each) 0 6Nut Milk Chocolate 1 0Nut Milk and Fruit Chocolate 1 0Nut Milk Chocolate with Marzipan 1 0Milk Chocolate 2 0Nucolate (packet) 0 1Honey & Nut Caramels 1 2Toasted Corn Flakes 0 5Dates and Nuts 0 1Egg Beaters (each) 1 0Nut Mill " 16 6Nut Graters " 1 6Unpolished Rice 2d. and 0 3
SAVOURY NUT MEATS.S. D.White Almond Meat 1 0Walnut Meat 0 10Pine Kernel Meat 0 10Brown Almond Meat 0 10Savoury Meat 0 10Red Savoury Meat 0 10White Fibrose Nut Meat 1 0Brown Fibrose Nut Meat 1 0Potted Tomato and Nut (tin) 1 0Nut Meat Preparation (4 kinds)
S. D.Water Wheat (3 lb.) 0 11Shortened Wheat " 1 0Malt Wheat " 1 0Nut Wheat 1 0Short Wheat 0 5Nut Wheat Crackers 0 6Hazel 0 6Milk 0 6Oat Flake—Sweet 0 8Oat Flake—Plain 0 8Ginger Cake 0 8Weinmost (13 kinds)Mostelle (3 kinds)Preserved Ginger 0 9Hallowi Dates 0 3Sair Dates 0 2
S. D.Apricot and Nut 0 6Pear and Walnut 0 6Plum and Nut 0 6Cherry and Nut 0 6Muscatel and Almond 0 6Almond and Raisin 0 6Extra Rich 0 6Cocoa Nut Sandwich 0 6Chocolate Sandwich 0 5Popular Variety 0 6Raisin and Cocoa Nut 0 5Muscatel and Cocoa Nut 0 5Date and Orange 0 4Date and Lemon 0 4Date and Ginger 0 4Date and Hazel 0 4Date and Pine Kernels 0 4Fig and Raisin 0 4Fig and Citron 0 4Fig and Ginger 0 4Carraway 0 4Date and Cocoa Nut 0 3Date and Nut 0 3Date and Walnut 0 3Fig and Cocoa Nut 0 3Fig and Nut 0 3Date and Almond 0 3Date Caramels 0 4Fig Caramels 0 6
(In place of Cheese).
PER PKT.S. D.Almond 0 9Pine Kernel 0 7Honey and Nut 0 6Pea Nut and Cocoa Nut 0 5
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RODBOURN'S Health Foods Depot
40 Hanover St., Edinburgh
VEGETARIANS, or intending Vegetarians, should write or call for our List of over 400 varieties.
We have the most varied stock of Health Foods in Scotland, and can give early delivery.
Families catered for at a distance. Small orders from manufacturers are often costly. Avoid worry and save time and money by buying your goods in one lot.
NOTE.—We pay carriage up to 50 miles by goods train on 10/- orders; £2 parcels sent carriage paid anywhere.
Remember, what a wrong diet causes a right diet will cure.
RODBOURN'S, 40 Hanover Street, EDINBURGH
National Telephone. 5055
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Considerable difficulty seems to be experienced in many quarters in getting really good bread free from chemicals and other deleterious matters. In some households the problem is solved by subsisting solely on certain approved kinds of biscuits, one I heard of keeping exclusively to Shredded Wheat Biscuits and Triscuits, while another stood by the "Artox" Biscuits. Besides these there are several other specially good whole-wheat biscuits, among which may be mentioned Chapman's Nut Wheat Biscuits; Winter's "Mainstay" series of Diet Biscuits, including some dozen varieties, all excellent, ranging in price from 4d. to 8d. per lb.; and the "P.R.," a Wallaceite specialty. Among the latter the "Barley Malt," "Crispits," "P.R. Wheatmeal," "New P.R. Crackers," &c., are to be specially recommended. Most people, however, prefer to have something more in the way of a loaf, and those who can make
Home-Made Bread
should have no difficulty in providing a toothsome and, at the same time, perfectly wholesome article. Directions for Wallace Egg Bread are given on page 74, and for Wheatmeal Gems, made with meal and water only, page 73. The following is a still simpler method:—Get a reliable whole-wheat flour; Hovis, Manhu, and Artox are each excellent, and will commend themselves severally to different tastes and requirements. The latter, it is useful to know, is used exclusively in the Wallace P.R. Bakery—a guarantee for its purity and wholesomeness. To prepare, take amount of flour required, and allow 1 or 2 ozs. vegetable butter or nut oil to the lb. Salt or not to taste. Rub in the butter and make into a stiff dough with cold water. Run two or three times through an ordinary mincer to aerate, and form into a long roll, but without pressure of any kind. Divide into suitable pieces or put in loaf pans, and bake in well-heated oven for 30 minutes to 1-1/2 hours, according to size. Most people will prefer small crusty loaves or rolls which get baked right through. For ordinary
Home-Made "Hovis" Bread
take 3-1/2 lbs. Hovis flour, 4-1/2 gills warm water, 1 oz. German yeast, 1 oz. salt, teaspoonful sugar. Mix salt with dry flour, dissolve yeast with sugar; make a hollow in centre of flour, put in yeast and pour on the warm water; mix well, folding in the flour from the outside to the centre, and let stand about 30 minutes in a warm place. Knead a very little, divide into small loaf pans, and allow to rise for another 15 minutes. Bake in very hot oven about 30 minutes, reduce heat, and bake 15 minutes longer. The above quantity will make five 1-lb. loaves.
The following are a few additional recipes for cakes and scones, most of which include one or other of the numerous Health Food specialties and dainties now upon the market, but which are not nearly so well known as they deserve to be.
Bruce Cake.
(Miss MACDONALD, Diplomee, Teacher of Cookery.)
1 lb. wheaten flour, 5 ozs. soft sugar, 2 ozs. butter or "Nutter," 4 ozs. sultanas, 4 ozs. currants or candied peel, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 1/2 teaspoonful mixed spice. Cream sugar and butter. Add flour, fruit, spice, and baking powder. Mix with just enough water to moisten. Bake in good steady oven for about an hour.
Tweedmont Sultana Cake.
1/2 lb. butter or "Nutter," 3/4 lb. flour, 1/2 lb. soft sugar, 6 eggs, 1 lb. sultanas. Beat butter or "Nutter" to a cream, add the sugar, and beat for twenty minutes longer. Add two eggs, and beat again till thoroughly mixed, adding a little flour to prevent curdling, and repeat till all the eggs are in. Then sift in the flour, and add the sultanas cleaned and rubbed with flour. Mix lightly and pour into well greased cake tin. Bake in slow oven 1-1/2 hours.
Murlaggan Cake (Steamed).
1 cup whole-wheat meal, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoonful ground ginger, 1 teaspoonful mixed spice, 1 cup Sultanas or stoned raisins, 2 tablespoons "Nutter," 1/2 teaspoonful baking soda, 2 tablespoonfuls syrup or treacle, or 1 of each; 1 egg, a very little sour milk. Rub "Nutter" or butter into flour, mix all dry things. Beat up egg, and add, with just enough sour or butter-milk to mix. Turn into greased pudding-bowl, and steam for about 2 hours. This should be a very light, wholesome cake, and is especially useful when one has not an oven. It may be varied to advantage, as by using Banana flour in place of the other, chopped dates or fruitarian cake in place of raisins, &c. A handy holiday cake.
Swiss Roll.
4 ozs. sifted sugar, 2 eggs, 4 ozs. Pattinson's banana cake flour, some jam, 1/2 teaspoonful Pattinson's baking powder or small teaspoonful home-made baking powder, 2 tablespoonfuls milk or orange juice. Put sugar and eggs in a basin, and switch up with "Gourmet" pudding spoon or a couple of forks for fifteen minutes. Add the milk and beat again, then the flour, previously mixed with the baking powder and sifted in. Beat all very thoroughly. Grease well a flat baking-tin, cover with greased paper, and pour in the mixture. Bake for not more than 5 minutes in very hot oven. Turn out on a paper sprinkled with sifted sugar, remove the greased paper, spread with jam or marmalade, and roll up very quickly.
Sponge Sandwich.
Prepare mixture exactly as above. Put half in well-greased sandwich tin, colour the other half pink with a few drops of carmine, and put into a second tin. Bake as before, turn out on a cloth or sieve. Spread the under side of one with either jam, marmalade, chocolate mixture, &c., and put the other one on top. Dust over with sugar, or coat with a thin icing. For this Mapleton's Cocoanut Cream is very good.
Banana Buns.
1/2 lb. Pattinson's banana flour, 1-1/2 ozs. "Nutter," 1/2 teaspoonful baking powder, 2 ozs. sugar, 1 egg, a little milk. Mix dry ingredients, rub in the "Nutter." Beat up egg, and add with a very little milk to make a rather firm dough. Divide into small pieces, flour the hands, and roll into balls. Have a teaspoonful sugar dissolved in a few drops of hot milk on a saucer. Dip in each bun, and place with sugared side uppermost on greased tin or oven plate. Bake for about 10 minutes in rather hot oven.
Banana Flour Scones.
1 lb. banana flour, 2 ozs. butter or "Nutter," 2 ozs. sugar, 1 teaspoonful baking powder, milk. Mix flour—the banana flour sold by the lb. is best—sugar, and baking powder. Rub in butter, make into a light dough with milk. Cut into small scones, and bake in good oven about 15 minutes.
These scones are exceedingly good, and quite different from those made with ordinary flour. They may be varied by adding a few Sultanas or a beaten egg.
Manhu Crisps.
1 lb. Manhu whole-wheat flour, 1 oz. cocoanut butter, pinch salt. Rub butter into flour, and make into a dough with as little water as possible; then run twice or three times through an ordinary mincer. Form into twelve or more rolls or twists with as little handling as possible, and bake in hot oven for ten to fifteen minutes.
Manhu Scones.
1 lb. Manhu Flour, 1/2 teaspoonful carb. soda (not heaped), sour milk or butter milk to make a soft dough. Bake on a girdle if possible.
Hovis Scones.
1 lb. Hovis Flour, 1 oz. nut butter, pinch salt, 1 tablespoonful treacle, 1/2 teaspoonful carb. soda, butter milk or sour milk. Mix dry things, rub in butter, add treacle and enough sour milk to make a fairly soft dough. Mix thoroughly and quickly. Roll out not too thin, and bake in good oven about 15 minutes. The treacle may be omitted.
Hovis Gingerbread.
8 ozs. Hovis Whole-Wheat Flour, 8 ozs. ordinary flour, 4 ozs. Nuttene, 8 ozs. stoned raisins, 8 ozs. treacle, 6 ozs. sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoonful ground ginger, 1-1/2 do. mixed spice. Melt together the sugar, butter, and treacle. Mix dry things together. Beat egg and pour hot treacle among it, then add to dry things. Mix and beat well. Pour into greased tin lined with buttered paper, and bake in very moderate oven 1-1/2 hours, or, if divided in two smaller tins, 3/4 of an hour will do. Golden syrup may be used instead of treacle, in which case use little or no sugar.
Strawberry Shortcake.
Make a good short crust (p. 75) with 1/2 lb. flour—plain, wheaten, or Banana flour, as preferred—1 oz. almond meal, and 4 ozs. "Nuttene." Roll out 1/2 inch thick, cut sharply round, flute edges, and bake in hot oven till a nice brown and crisp right through. Split open, inserting a sharp-pointed knife right round and pulling apart. When cool, cover under-half thickly with strawberries, well crushed and mixed with plenty of sifted sugar. Put on top half, dust with sugar, serve cold with cream or nut cream. Another very good shortcake is made as for "Jumbles," page 79. Add a little milk or fruit juice to mixture to make less crumbly. Bake in two sections and put strawberries between.
Scotch Oatcakes.
Scotch oatmeal, 2 ozs. nut butter to lb., pinch salt, hot water. Pat oatmeal in basin, melt fat in fairly hot water, and mix in quickly to make a stiff dough. Knead to thickness required. Bake on hot girdle, and toast in front of fire.
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73 North Hanover Street, EDINBURGH.
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"Provost Nuts" Pudding.
This is one of the very best puddings I know, and will, I feel sure, be welcomed by all who wish for something at once novel, simple, and wholesome. It will be found a change both from the usual "steamed" and the familiar "milk" pudding. 4 ozs. "Provost Nuts," 4 ozs. stoned raisins, 3 ozs. sugar, 3 gills milk, 1 or 2 eggs, a little spice or flavouring. Put "Provost Nuts," raisins, and sugar in basin. Bring milk to boil, pour over, cover, and allow to stand till cool. Beat up yolks and add, also flavouring, then the whites whipped stiffly. Mix well, and bake about 45 minutes in moderate oven. This pudding is also very good steamed. Use rather less milk. The yolk and white of egg need not be separated. May be varied by substituting currants, sultanas, or chopped "Fruitarian" cake for the stoned raisins.
"Provost Nuts" Walnut Pudding.
3 ozs. "Provost" Nuts, 3 ozs. grated walnuts, 3 ozs. sugar, 2-1/2 gills (i.e., teacupfuls) milk, vanilla essence. Bring milk to boil, pour over the "Provost" Nuts, and soak till cool. Put in saucepan along with the grated walnuts, bring to boil, and simmer gently for five minutes. Remove from fire, and when cold add the beaten yolks, sugar, and vanilla; lastly the whites beaten very stiff. Mix well, pour into buttered dish, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes in moderate oven. This is by no means an expensive pudding—at least when eggs are reasonable—and is dainty enough to grace even a festive occasion.
"Hovis" Walnut Pudding
is made by substituting 4 ozs. "Hovis" Bread crumbs for the "Provost Nuts." This will not require soaking, but can be put at once in saucepan with milk and grated walnuts.
"Hovis" Fruit Pudding.
3 ozs. "Hovis" flour, 3 ozs. semolina, 2 ozs. sugar, 4 ozs. currants or stoned valencias or sultanas, or equal quantities of all three, 3 ozs. chopped nut suet or pine kernels, 2 ozs. treacle, 2 ozs. coarse marmalade (see p. 83), 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoonful carb. soda, and a little spice. Sour milk to mix. Mix all the dry things; beat egg and add, also treacle, marmalade, and enough sour milk to make fairly moist. Steam for 2-1/2 to 3 hours in basin, well greased and dusted with sugar.
Farola Pudding.
3 ozs. Farola, 4 gills milk or nut cream milk, 2 eggs, sugar, flavouring. Smooth Farola to a cream with a little of the milk. Put remainder on to boil and pour over Farola in basin, stirring the while. Return all to saucepan, and cook gently for a few minutes. Beat up eggs with sugar, remove Farola from fire, and add, also flavouring. Pour into buttered pudding-dish, and bake gently for half-an-hour, or steam in buttered mould for 1 hour.
To make Farola Blanc-Mange use only 3 gills milk, and omit the eggs.
Semolina Syrup Pudding.
3 ozs. Marshall's Semolina, 3 ozs. golden syrup, 1 pint milk. For a simple, inexpensive pudding, the following is excellent, and it will, I think, be new to many. Make the Semolina in usual way—that is, bring milk to boil and sprinkle in the Semolina as if making porridge, cook gently for a few minutes with lid on, then pour into steamer-bowl. Allow to stand till cold, then put the syrup on top, and put on to steam for about 1-1/2 hours. The syrup will find its way through, and the pudding should turn out a lovely golden brown with the syrup for a sauce. No eggs, other sweetening, or flavouring required. Farola or corn flour may be done same way.
Syrup or Treacle Tart.
Cover a flat ashet with either rough puff paste or short crust, and fill in with a mixture composed of 1/4 lb. golden syrup, 2 ozs. bread crumbs, the juice and grated rind of 1 lemon. Ornament with criss-cross strips of paste, and bake in hot oven. For a homely tart make a plain paste with wheat meal, and fill in with treacle and bread crumbs.
Plasmon Custard or Blanc-Mange.
This can be made with addition of Plasmon to any of the custard recipes given, or with the Plasmon and Blanc-Mange Powders. If the latter, to each powder add 1 pint of milk. Stir till custard thickens, but do not allow to boil.
Plasmon Sweet Sauce (for Puddings).
1/2 pint Plasmon stock, 1 oz. butter, 1/2 oz. flour, 1-1/2 ozs. sugar, flavouring of lemon rind, nutmeg, cinnamon, or bitter almonds. Melt butter; remove from fire, and mix in flour till smooth. Add Plasmon stock gradually, cook for a few minutes very gently, then add flavouring. Very good with stewed fruit or any steamed pudding.
This is an age of seeking after health, and many and various are the means proffered to that end. Drugs, serums, medical and surgical appliances, baths, waters, fearfully and wonderfully conceived methods of exercise, rigid and drastic schemes of dieting, &c., &c., crowd upon each other's heels until the prevailing idea in the mind of any one seeking to solve the health problem is one of hopeless mystification. Life would be too short to give them all a fair trial, even if any one could be found either foolish or courageous enough to attempt the task (I believe somedotry everything by turns but nothing long), so one is driven perforce to make a selection; and while dismissing nine-tenths of the nostrums urged upon us as unworthy of any sane and rational consideration, we know the truth lies somewhere, and will be found by those who seek it on simple, common-sense lines. Doctors differ like the rest of us, but there is a broad general ground of agreement upon which we can all go, namely, that cleanliness, in its widest sense, including pure air, food, and water; plain, easily-digested, nourishing food; with rest and exercise in proper proportion, are the main essentials for right living, and so furnish the key to the problem. No one of these is of itself sufficient. All are necessary and inter-dependent, and it is the want of recognising this principle which so often leads to failure and consequent abandonment, or even wholesale denunciation, of the regimen followed. Thus a person may be advised to adopt certain foods, the rules and regulations regarding which he follows to the letter, but acts unhygienically in other ways, as by shutting out the fresh air, inattention to cleanliness, over-exertion or want of sufficient exercise, eating when exhausted, and so on. The food, at least if it has gone in any way against the inclination or prejudice, will of course be blamed, while really it may be quite innocent.
One might multiply instances to show how so many not only fail to find health by their unreasonable methods, but bring ridicule and disrepute on certain of the measures followed. There is no need to waste further time, however, in demonstrating the obvious. One would hope that all readers are genuinely interested in health principles, and sufficiently in earnest to promote these intelligently.
Our business in these pages lies with the food question, and in this chapter I purpose to deal specially with
Health Foods,
of which there are a large and ever-increasing number now upon the market. How people can complain of want of variety with such a seemingly endless category to choose from passes my comprehension, for the difficulty I find is to do justice to even a small proportion of them. If one were to sample a different dish every day it would take months to get over them, and great as is the outcry in these days for variety, I do not think this constant chopping and changing by any means desirable. As I have been at some pains to find out a number of really reliable Health Foods, and can speak of these from personal experience, the information given in this chapter may serve as a guide to their selection, and save considerable time and trouble. I may say that I am indebted to a number of friends and others with whom I am in correspondence for the benefit of their experience, as well as my own. It is always good to have as wide a consensus of opinion as possible, for one finds that tastes and ideas regarding the merit of the several articles vary with the individual, and with the conditions under which used.
It is difficult to know where to begin when so much claims attention. Perhaps the class of foods which have come most largely into the public eye of late years are the so-called
Breakfast Foods,
consisting generally of cereals, pro-digested or so treated as to be easy of digestion. Several of these, such as Shredded Wheat Biscuits, have been frequently referred to in different parts of the book, so that no further words are needed to commend them. If any are sceptical, or even curious, regarding "what they are," a demonstration recently described by a Manchester friend might serve to reassure them. It was quite on the American "pig and sausage" lines, for one saw the whole wheat grain going in at one part of a machine and coming out at another in the form of a "Triscuit" ready for use.
Among other specially good foods are
Granose Flakes.
These consist of the entire wheat-kernel in the form of delicious, crisp flakes, ready for use, with cream, stewed fruit, &c., or in any way in which bread crumbs may be used. They are very handy to have in the general storeroom to sprinkle over cauliflower or any dish servedau gratin. That they are at once nutritious and easily digested is attested by the fact that physicians of high standing put their patients on a diet of "Granose." I have known personally of cases of extreme gastric debility where the patients were put on this food almost exclusively for months together.
They may also be had in the form of
Granose Biscuits,
and these are excellent for general use. Toasted for a few minutes and then buttered—or the butter may be put on while toasting—they furnish a delicacy which few will fail to appreciate.
Avenola, Toasted Wheat Flakes, Nut Rolls, and Gluten Meal, containing 30 per cent. to 60 per cent. Gluten, are among the other products of the same firm—the International Health Association, Stanborough Park, Watford, Herts—which I have space here only to name.
In the chapter on Breakfast Foods and elsewhere the various products of theLondon Nut Food Co., 465 Battersea Park Road, London, S.W.—GrainGranules, Gluten Meal, &c., are mentioned, besides which they have agreat variety of
Nut Cream Rolls and Nut Cream Biscuits,
made from pure wheat meal and shortened with nut butter. They are aerated and free from yeast and chemicals. In the way of
I should like to specially commend
Banana Oats
as being something quite new and appetising. It is very easily prepared, requiring only about 10 minutes' cooking. It is put up in threepenny packets, with which full directions for cooking are given. I may say that I generally make of a stiffer consistency than quantities given, and cook longer in double boiler.
Another good porridge for those who cannot take the regular oatmeal can be made with
Robinson's Patent Groats.
This is best, to my thinking, when made as under:—Smooth two or three tablespoonfuls groats in a basin with a little milk or water. Pour on boiling milk or water—a cupful to each spoonful of groats—stirring the while. Return to saucepan and cook gently for 10 to 15 minutes, or in double boiler for about half an hour.
Manhu Wheat or Barley Porridge.
Take 1 part of the flaked wheat or barley to 2 parts water. Have the water boiling and salted to taste. Add the cereal all at once, and boil for 5 minutes; only stir sufficiently to keep it from burning. It may now be served, but is better if steamed half an hour or so longer in double boiler. Serve with milk or cream and sugar, or salt as preferred. When served with stewed fruit this makes a very wholesome dish. A mixture of the wheat and barley makes a very good porridge.
The value of
Provost Oats
for porridge is too well known to need comment here. I would only remind everyone that Provost Oats are prepared from the finest Scotch grain, and Scotch oats are the finest in the world. But Provost Oats is not the only product upon which Messrs Robinson & Sons rest their fame. More recently they have put upon the market a very fine cereal food known as
Provost Nuts.
This is a highly concentrated and nutritious and sustaining food, but can be digested very easily, and so is suitable in one form or other for every one. It is a grain food scientifically prepared from a combination of wheat, barley, and malt. Being cooked and ready for use it may be served simply with a little cream, milk, or stewed fruit; or cyclists or other travellers may munch them dry, and so compass the simple life right away. Besidesau naturel, however, they may enter with advantage into quite a variety of dishes—to thicken and enrich soups, to take the place of bread crumbs in savouries, and to contrive quite a number of new and excellent puddings. Recipes for the latter are given, p. 108, and I am sure they need only be tried to become first favourites.
Kornules
are a somewhat similar preparation, and can be used in the same way.
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HEALTH FOODS DEPOT and REFORM FOOD RESTAURANT.
RICHARDS & CO., 73 N. Hanover St., EDINBURGH.
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