Salt understood
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.
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.
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.
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 andtomato sprinkled with chopped parsley or with a leaf of parsley or spinach on each.
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.
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.
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.
Chop together scrambled egg, oil and drained tomato (raw or canned), not forgetting the salt, add cracker crumbs to make ofthe right consistency and serve between crackers or slices of bread.
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.
Spread butter on loaf and cut in just as thin slices as possible roll, fold, or place slices together.
Broil thin slices of trumese and place between them, scrambled eggs, or fine sliced onions or celery; garnish.
“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 theAmerican Medical Journalsays: “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.’”
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.
Boil butter in a generous amount of water thoroughly. Cool, remove from the top of the water and drain.
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 otherheavy 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,educatingourselves and othersawayfrom 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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. 77and513: “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 foodferments, making aninebriateof thewater 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 waterwhen thirsty.”
PureDistilled Wateris unquestionably the best drink.Mineral Waterssometimes 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 Wateris 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 ofFresh Juicy Fruitshelps 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.
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.
Syrup—3–4 cups water, ½ cup sugar, boil; add ½ cup lemonjuice, 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.
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.
Add sections of orange to lemon syrup without the banana.
Add shredded mint to orange nectar.
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.
Beat the white of 1 egg with the juice of 1 large sweet orange, strain.
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, seepp. 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.
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.
The bulk of the so-called “cereal” drinks on the market have some commercial coffee in them, as well as chicory. There are a few, however, made of combinations of grains, or of fruits, nuts and grains, only. Those containing chicory require a long boiling, according to the directions on the packages, to destroy the rank, harsh flavor of the chicory; and the ones made of parched grains without caramel in any form are improved by long steeping to develop the mild flavor. But it is a great mistake to boil those having a characteristic, agreeable flavor any more than we used to boil Java or Mocha. To make these, put the cereal (from 1 teaspn. to 1½ tablespn. to each cup of water according to taste) into perfectly boiling water, allow it to just boil up, then stand on the back of the range where it cannot boil, for from 5–10 m. Serve with nice rich sterilized cream (hot better). When cream is not obtainable and the drink must be served, hot scalded milk gives a better flavor than unscalded milk, but as a rule, it is better to omit the coffee when you have no cream.
Never make cereal coffee in a tin coffee pot that commercial coffee has been made in. It would ruin the flavor.
We do not advise the drinking of even cereal coffee, but use it to win people from injurious beverages.
It is very convenient to know how to make a cereal coffee, though if one’s time is worth much and a good coffee is to be obtained, it is cheaper to buy it. The following recipe is one that I have used for years and it is excellent. None of the whole grains equal bran for the drink.
Mix bran and corn meal and pour over them the molasses and hot water which have been combined. Rub all together with the hands until smooth; set in a warm oven and stir occasionally until well dried out, then increase the heat of the oven, stirring the mixture often; at the last have the oven very hot and stir almost constantly until cereal is a dark chestnut brown, which will take but a short time at the last. Remove from the oven and stir until cooled a little so that it will not brown more by its own heat, and put into a close covered can.
When preparing to serve, use ½–1 cup of the coffee to each quart of boiling water, let it just boil up and stand for 5 m. Different combinations of grains are browned and ground for drinks. Barley is much liked by some, rye by others. Carrot and celery roots dried and browned are good, and browned peas are excellent.
Celery and raspberry leaf tea have been served in some of the restaurants in New York City for several years and are both good. Either the tops (fresh or dry) or seeds of celery may be used. Crush the seeds before steeping. I have also used mint, anise, tarragon, catnip and thyme for tea and found them all pleasant drinks. Steep them for 15–20 m., strain and serve with cream only. You will be surprised I am sure when youtry them. Do not allow catnip tea to stand with the leaves if to be re-heated.
Brown bran delicately. Take 2 tablespns. for each cup of water, boil up well or steep for 20 m. Dried unbrowned bran may be used with longer cooking.
Pour hot coffee over cream or cream and sugar. Cool. For luncheon or supper.
1 egg, ½–¾ cup of milk, 1 teaspn. or no sugar, flavoring or not. Beat or shake until foamy, pour into glass and serve with or without whipped cream on top. Eggnog does not necessarily contain liquor.
Beat 1 egg with or without a teaspn. of sugar and a few drops of vanilla. Pour ½–¾ cup of hot milk over, stirring. Turn into warm glass and serve at once.
Beat 1 egg to a foam, add 1 tablespn. white sugar and pour a pint of boiling hot milk over, stirring briskly. Prepare at night for morning.
Pour 1 pt. boiling milk on beaten yolk of 1 egg mixed with 2 tablespns. cold milk. Set back on the stove to scald but not boil.
“Food should not be washed down. No drink is needed with the meals. Eat slowly and allow the saliva to mingle with the food. Hot drinks are debilitating. Do not eat largely of salt; give up bottled pickles; keep fiery spiced food out of your stomach; eat fruit with your meals, and the irritation which calls for so much drink will cease to exist. But if anything is needed to quench thirst, pure water drunk some little time before or after a meal is all that nature requires.”
“Diet in the hands of an expert is far more effective than drugs. I speak from a large experience in both systems.”—“Food and Condition.” Dr. Yorke Davis, London.
“In many cases of sickness the very best remedy is for the patient to fast for a meal or two, that the overworked organs of digestion may have an opportunity to rest.”
“A fruit diet for a few days has often brought great relief to brain workers.”
“Many times a short period of entire abstinence from food, followed by simple, moderate eating, has led to recovery through nature’s own recuperative effort. An abstemious diet for a month or two would convince many sufferers that the path of self-denial is the path to health.”
“There are some who would be benefited more by abstinence from food for a day or two every week than by any amount of treatment or medical advice. To fast one day a week would be of incalculable benefit to them.”
Whatever food is taken to the sick should be prepared and served daintily and neatly. If the tray cloth is ever so coarse or only a paper napkin, have it clean; use the daintiest and prettiest china to be found and serve the food in small quantities, without any drops or streaks on the edge of the dishes. A flower or leaf by the side of the plate, will give zest to the food.
Food should be simple, nutritious and easily digested. Suitable dishes are scattered all through the book. Among the soups are the broths and others, supplying the needs of different cases. There are toasts in variety; they may be served in delicate squares, triangles and crescents.
Rice flour blanc mange, sea moss blanc mange, buttermilk,parched grains, egg creams, fruit whips and ices are suggestive of some of the especially suitable dishes. Fruits and fruit juices are nearly always indicated. Baked apples, sweet and sour, without sugar, are staple invalid dishes. Before serving grapes, remove the seeds with two silver forks on a plate, then put the pulp and juice into a sauce dish or glass. Serve the pulp only, of oranges. (p. 42.)
The most desirable gruels are those made of the dextrinized or parched cereals, but when the undextrinized grains are used they should be cooked as long as for porridges, in a somewhat larger quantity of water, strained, and thinned with milk, or cream and water. They may sometimes be cooked in milk. Cold porridges may be used.
Cook granella in water to soften, strain, add malted milk, cream and salt which have been blended; heat, serve.
Poached yolks of 3 eggs, 1–2 cups milk. Rub yolks of eggs smooth, add hot milk, gradually, strain, reheat, salt, serve.
Pour hot milk over parched corn meal or cracked parched corn; let stand 5–10 m., strain. May use water and cream.
1 tablespn. almond butter, 1 cup water, salt. Mix butter with water, add salt, boil, serve.
Boil 1½ cup raisins in 1 qt. milk and water, equal parts, for ½ hour; strain, squeezing well, thicken with 1–2 teaspns. flour blended with water, add salt.
Dissolve the whites of 2 or 3 eggs in a glass of water and give a few teaspoonfuls every 2 or 3 hours.
“Sugar clogs the system. It hinders the working of the living machine.”
Children are not naturally fond of sweets, but with few exceptions their taste has been educated to them from the cradle. I have known children who were so unaccustomed to candies that if they were given them they would merely play with them, never thinking of putting them into their mouths, and others who would say when a sweet dessert was given them, “I don’t like that, it is too sweet.”
Much life-long suffering would be avoided if children were given plenty of good ripe fruit, sweet and sour, instead of confections. If, however, it seems best sometimes to make something in this line, select the simplest and least harmful.
Mix unsalted roasted nut butter with powdered sugar and a little vanilla, form into pieces the size and shape of date stones and put inside each date; roll in sugar or not, serve on grape or maple leaves.
Serve with wafers, or with rolls and cereal coffee, sometimes.
Almond or Brazil nut butter may be used instead of peanut butter, and rose or other flavoring. Grated cocoanut may be mixed with the almond butter. Fill the dates with marshmallow paste for Marshmallow Dates.
Make a roll the size of the stone of confection cream and insert in date. The roll may be larger and allowed to show in the opening.
Stuff pulled figs by removing the inside and mixing it with sweetened and flavored nut butter or with coarse chopped Englishwalnuts, almonds and pecans, one or all, and replacing in the skin.
Pile in the center of a dessert plate and surround with sticks or beaten biscuit. Serve with or without cereal coffee.
Soak and steam choice, plump California prunes until tender, cover close until cool, remove stones and fill space with a paste made by kneading together almond butter, white of egg and powdered or confectioner’s sugar.
1 part each Brazil nuts, almonds and hickory nuts or filberts or English walnuts, and 1 or 2 parts raisins, figs or dates. Grind fruit through finest cutter of mill and mix with nut butter or meal or chopped nuts. Form into caramel shape, small rolls or cones, or into a large roll and slice. Two or more of the sweet fruits may be used, sometimes a little citron. Or, 3 parts chopped hickory nut meats, 2 parts figs and other fruits.
1 lb. each of figs, from which the stems and hard part have been cut, stoned dates and raisins; mix and grind through food cutter; sprinkle board with confectioner’s sugar, knead mixture, roll to ½ in. thick, cut into any desired shape and size and roll in sugar.
Whites of 6 eggs, 1 cup powdered sugar. Beat the whites of eggs with a little salt, adding the sugar gradually while whipping until the mixture is stiff enough to hold its shape; add flavoring if desired and drop by spoonfuls on to paraffine paper laid on boards of a size to fit the oven, or on baking tins. Dry in warm oven for about an hour, then brown slightly. If the oven is too warm, they may now be put into the warming oven or on a shelf over the stove until thoroughly dried. If the kisses stick to the paper, turn them over and moisten the paper slightly and they will come off in a little while.
2 cups granulated sugar, ½ cup milk, 1 cup shredded cocoanut. Boil sugar and milk together for 4 m., add cocoanut, flavor to taste and cool in buttered tins.
Boil sugar and water till they spin a heavy thread, then pour the syrup over the stiffly-beaten whites of the eggs, stirring constantly. When all the syrup is in, beat until the mass begins to harden; add flavoring and nuts, mix thoroughly and place by teaspoonfuls on buttered plates.
Beat the white of an egg to a stiff froth, add gradually 8 tablespns. sifted powdered sugar, beat well together and flavor with vanilla or any desired flavoring. Or, one half its bulk of water may be added to the white of egg without beating, with enough confectioner’s sugar to make stiff enough to mold into balls. Different colors and flavorings may be used in cream.
Halve English walnut or pecan meats and put confection cream between the halves; press together and set away to harden.
Add a little cocoanut to second confection cream, and form into small potato shapes, making dents for eyes; roll in fine powdered coriander or anise seed, or in brown sugar with a little anise mixed with it.
Another recipe gives 2 cups powdered sugar and the white of 1 egg only, with the other ingredients.
Soak the gum arabic in the water until soft, strain into innercup of double boiler, add sugar and cook, stirring until thick and white. Try in ice water and when it will form a firm, not hard, ball, remove from the fire and chop and beat in the stiffly-whipped whites of the eggs with the flavoring. Turn the paste into a shallow pan covered thick with corn starch, leaving it 1 inch in thickness. When cool or in about 12 hours, cut into inch cubes, dust with confectioner’s sugar and pack in boxes. Marshmallows are better to be made as soft as they can be handled.
2 cups molasses, 2 cups granulated sugar, 1 tablespn. butter. Boil over not too hot fire until a little will harden as soon as it drops into cold water. Pour into buttered tins and pull when cool enough to handle. Candy may have hickory nut or black walnut meats pressed into it when partly cooled, without pulling.
The most important thing for the candy is to get a good flavored molasses. The real Porto Rico is best. Do not be induced to add soda to the syrup. It spoils the rich golden color which belongs to molasses candy, besides making it more unwholesome. Brush the kettle with butter before putting ingredients in.
Boil until a little dropped in water will make fine, brittle threads; pour into buttered pans ¼–⅓ in. thick and cut in squares.
Boil sugar and water until nearly done; add lemon juice and cook until a little will harden in cold water; flavor and turn on to buttered plate. Fold the edges toward the center as they cool and pull as soon as cool enough to handle.
Shell, blanch and chop the walnuts; boil sugar and milk until syrup will harden when dropped into water but will not become brittle; just before it is done, add the butter and vanilla; then the chopped nuts, stirring them in well; pour into buttered pans and with sharp knife mark off the squares. Cool.
Another recipe says dark brown sugar and ½ cup only of cream.
Boil sugar and water rapidly for 5 m. after they begin to boil, add the flavoring and remove from the fire. Stir briskly until the mixture begins to thicken and to have a whitish appearance, then drop on to a cold tin dish, oiled paper or a marble slab as fast as possible, in as large or small lozenges as desired. If the mixture hardens too rapidly, set the dish in a pan of hot water. Do not place the lozenges so close that they will run together. The wintergreen drops may be tinted pink with fruit color.
Boil all together for 12 m., pour into another dish, stir until mixture thickens, pour into buttered tins and cut in squares.
3 cups water, 2 oz. dried hoarhound, 3 lbs. (2¼ qts.) brown sugar. Steep the dried herb in the water for a half hour; strain, add the sugar and boil until a little will harden when dropped in cold water; pour on to buttered tins and when sufficiently cool cut into sticks with oiled knife.
“Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!”
“Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength and not for drunkenness.” Eccl. 10:16, 17.
Many have been greatly benefited by eating the first meal, breakfast, 3–5 hours after rising, according to their work.
“Eat only when hungry, drink only when thirsty.”—E. H. D.
“Three meals a day and nothing between meals, not even an apple should be the utmost limit of indulgence. Those who go further violate nature’s laws and will suffer the penalty.”
“If you would give it a trial, you would find two meals better than three.”
“The stomach, when we lie down to rest, should have its work all done, that it may enjoy rest as well as other portions of the body. The work of digestion should not be carried on through any period of the sleeping hours. If you feel that you must eat at night, take a drink of cold water and in the morning you will feel much better for not having eaten.”
“It is not well to eat fruit and vegetables at the same meal. If the digestion is feeble, the use of both will often cause distress, and inability to put forth mental effort. It is better to have the fruit at one meal and the vegetables at another.”
As a rule, it is better to serve fruits at the close of a meal.
“In order to have healthy digestion, food should be eaten slowly.... If your time to eat is limited, do not bolt your food, but eat less and eat slowly.”
Masticate food to creaminess. “Enjoy to the full every mouthful of food as long as any taste remains in it.”—C. C. H.
“Custom has decided that the food shall be placed upon the table in courses. Not knowing what is coming next, one may eat a sufficiency of food which perhaps is not the best suited to him. When the last course is brought on he often ventures to overstep the bounds and take the tempting dessert, which, however, proves anything but good for him. If all the food intended fora meal is placed on the table at the beginning, one has opportunity to make the best choice.”
For some time I have practised either putting the food all on the table or having what was not on the table in sight on the sideboard, or letting guests know in some way the full menu, as I have always felt that while teaching temperance, we were encouraging intemperance by the customary manner of serving.
When working hard, eat light; do not overwork the whole body at the same time.
Perfect rest without sleep for 15–30 m. after meals is a great aid to digestion.
“We should not provide for the Sabbath a more liberal supply or a greater variety of food than for other days. Instead of this, the food should be more simple and less should be eaten inorder that the mind may be clear and vigorous to comprehend spiritual things. Overeating befogs the brain. The most precious words may be heard and not appreciated because the mind is confused by an improper diet.”
“Do not have too great a variety at a meal; three or four dishes are a plenty. At the next meal you can have a change. The cook should tax her inventive powers to vary the dishes she prepares for the table, and the stomach should not be obliged to take the same kinds of food meal after meal.”
Three or four dishes, each perfect of its kind, are more satisfyingthan a great number, not one of which is perfectly prepared and served.
The suggestive menus given will admit of variation according to the season and circumstances.
Nut, olive or cooking oil with salt; nut butter of any kind; or cream, may be used instead of dairy butter.
Macaroni baked in cream sauce left from dinner may be heated and served for the next morning’s breakfast with the addition of tomato or more milk.
Where the two pies are served for dessert, two small pieces should be served on one plate. They introduce to the guests two kinds of crust without lard, and mince pie without meat.
When a hearty soup or dessert are on the menu the other dishes of the meal may be lighter.
Dainty dishes and spotless linen, will have much to do in fitting for that city which has foundations of precious stones and the paving of whose streets is gold.