A Comprehensive Guide-Book to Natural, Hygienic and Humane Diet

212. Orange Jelly

Wipe and thickly peel 5 oranges and 2 lemons, take 1-pt. of cold water, ½-lb. white sugar, and 1½-ozs. cornflour. Place the peel and water in a pan and simmer for 20 minutes with the sugar; strain the resulting juice. Place the cornflour in a basin and squeeze the juice of the fruit through a strainer on to it, then pour the boiling syrup on to this mixture; stir well, return to saucepan, and boil for 6 minutes. Pour out into cold wet mould. Garnish with orange.

213. Ginger Pudding

Take 6-ozs. of brown breadcrumbs (finely grated), 3-ozs. of butter, a saltspoonful of ground ginger, the juice of a lemon, and 4-ozs. of castor sugar. Stir these in a stewpan until the butter is melted. Chop 4-ozs. of preserved ginger and add to the mixture with the yolks of 2 eggs. Beat well together and set aside to cool. Whisk the whites of the eggs and stir into the pudding quickly. Fill a buttered basin with it, cover with a saucer (leaving room to swell) and steam for 3 hours. Serve with cream or fruit sauce (177).

214. Baked Coconut Custard

Beat 3 eggs and mix with 1½-pts. of milk, add 2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut, and a tablespoonful of sugar. Bake in a slow oven, and add some grated nutmeg.

215. Semolina Pudding

Boil a teacupful of semolina for 15 minutes in 2½ pts. of milk, stirring all the time. Flavour with vanilla. Turn out into a buttered pie dish, garnish with ratafia biscuits and bake in a moderate oven.

216. Strawberry Cream Ice

Take 1½-lbs. of ripe strawberries, 6-ozs. of castor sugar, ½-lb. of cream and a teacupful of milk. Put the strawberries through a sieve or strainer, mix the whole well together, and freeze.

Raspberry ice can be made in a simpler form by reducing the cream by one-half and by adding another teacupful of milk in which a dessertspoonful of cornflour has been boiled.

217. Vanilla Ice

Take 1 pint of milk, 1 gill of cream, the yolks of 3 eggs, and 3-ozs. of castor sugar. After heating the milk, mix ½-oz. of ground rice with a little cold milk and put it in the saucepan. Pour in the beaten yolks and cream, and the sugar; stir and simmer until the custard thickens, strain and set aside to cool; add vanilla to taste, and stir well; place in the freezing machine. To make this ice taste richer and more delicate, reduce the milk and increase the cream.

218. Lemon Cheese-Cakes

Put in a saucepan ¼-lb. butter, 1-lb. lump sugar, 6 eggs (leaving out 2 whites), 2 grated lemon rinds, and the juice of 3 lemons. Simmer until all is dissolved (gently stirring), and add a few dry biscuit crumbs. Serve on crisp pastry.

219. Lemon Jelly

Dissolve 1-oz. of isinglass in 1-¼-pts. of water. Add the grated peel of 2 lemons and ½-lb. of lump sugar. Boil for 10 minutes, stirring continually. Take off fire and add the juice of 1½ lemons. Strain and cool. Whisk well before turning into moulds.

220. Fruitarian Mincemeat

Take 7-ozs. Nutter, 12-ozs. raisins, 6-ozs. sultanas, 6-ozs. currants, ¼-lb. Demerara sugar, 1½-lbs. apples, ¼-lb. mixed candied peel, the rind and juice of 1 lemon, 6 almonds, 6 Brazil nuts, a few drops ratafia flavouring essence, and 3 teaspoons of mixed spice. Stone the rasins, finely chop all the fruit, and put the nuts and almonds through the nut mill. Now melt the Nutter in a saucepan, and gradually add all the other ingredients, stirring well, leave standing over night, and put in pots next morning. Cover closely, and this will keep a long time.

221. Short Pastry

Rub ½-lb. Nutter into 1-lb. flour and 2-ozs. Artox wholemeal, mix as dry as possible with water, and it is ready to make excellent biscuits, short cakes, or tart crusts. If whiter pastry is required use white flour.

222. Puff Pastry

Ingredients: – 1-lb. flour, ¾-lb. Nutter, cold water. Method: – Rub ¼-lb. Nutter into the flour, mix to a rough dough with cold water, stand in a cool place for ten minutes. Roll out and "spot" over with ¼-lb. Nutter broken in small pieces; fold over, roll out and stand 10 minutes. Roll out again and spot over with the remaining ¼-lb. Nutter; fold over and roll out, and after standing 10 minutes it is ready for use.

223. Chestnut Cream

Take from 20 to 30 chestnuts, remove the shells and skins. Put the chestnuts in a saucepan with 2 teacups full of water, sugar to taste, the juice of 1 lemon, and simmer slowly until they are quite soft. Pass through a sieve or potato masher, and when cold pile in a dish, and cover with whipped cream.

224. Coconut Cream

A nice addition to Trifles, Fruit Salads, etc., can be made by using Mapleton's Coconut Cream. Mix 2 ozs. of the cream with 1/8-pt. of boiling water; when softened beat for a minute or so with the egg-beater, then pour on a dish. In 2 hours it will have set and can be used to fill sponge sandwiches, or eaten with stewed fruit. To form a thick cream (less solid) beat up 2½ to 3 ozs. Coconut Cream with ¼-pt. of hot water.

THE BREAD PROBLEM

Pure wholemeal bread, so made as to be light and well baked, is a virtual necessity for every abstainer from flesh-food. Food-Reform presents many difficulties, and every dietetic reformer has to grapple with them. Insufficient knowledge, defective sources of provision, digestive troubles, inherited organic weakness, and unfavourable environment, are only a few of these. I want, therefore to emphasize the importance of a perfect bread supply, which I am convinced is the key to the problem so far as many are concerned.

It is not sufficient merely to pray for "our daily bread," and then to leave its provision entirely to Providence. We need also to think and to take some personal trouble about it – remembering that Heaven helps those who help themselves. Yet this is what very few people do. One may safely affirm that four persons out of every five are content to use defective and innutritious bread every day of their lives. Yet this should be made a real staff of life.

The whole grain of wheat, if of good quality, contains nearly all that is needful for the perfect nutrition of the body. With the addition of a small amount of fat (easily found in nut or dairy butter, cheese or oil), and of grape sugar and purifying acids (obtainable in fruits), pure wheatmeal, if properly ground in stone mills, and well made into delicious home-baked bread, enables one to be almost independent of other foods, and therefore almost ensures one against a breakdown in health if there is difficulty in obtaining a varied and well proportioned dietary from other sources.

Instead of securing and using bread such as this, the majority of the community complacently eat white bread – emasculated, robbed of its gluten (which is equivalent to albumen) and of the phosphates and mineral salts that are stored in the inner part of the husk of the grain. It is composed almost entirely of starch, with the addition of such adulterants as the baker or miller feels inclined to introduce for commercial reasons, and is not conducive to the proper operation of the digestive and eliminative organs.

It is difficult for bakers or the public to buy really good wholemeal. The meal that is on the markets often consists of cheap roller-milled flour with some sweepings of bran or seconds thrown in. And even if the entire grain is supplied, the outer cuticle of the wheat, when rolled (in the modern steel-roller mills that for reasons of economy have superseded the good old-fashioned stone grinding mills), instead of being so reduced as to be capable of complete digestion, is left with rough edges called spiculae, which irritate the digestive tract, cause relaxation, and arouse prejudice against the 'brown' loaf. Such wholemeal cannot be perfectly assimilated because the bran is not properly broken up, and, in addition to this fact, the cerealine, which acts like diastase in the conversion of starch into sugar, is not liberated and rendered available as an aid to digestion.

That the distasteful and often indigestible brown or wholemeal bread (so-called) usually sold by bakers is either defective or adulterated, can easily be proven by anyone. Let any reader procure some stone-milled entire wheatmeal that is guaranteed pure (I use the 'Artox' and 'Ixion' brands myself, because I believe them to be of genuine quality and properly stone-ground); then make some thin loaves as described in the following recipe. The result, if the bread is skilfully made, will be a delicious and nutritive loaf of the farmhouse type with a sweet nutty flavour. Instead of quickly getting 'stale,' such a loaf is enjoyable when four days old, and it only needs to be compared with ordinary bakers' bread to reveal the fact that it is an entirely different article of food. Its sustaining power is wonderful, and it proves an effectual preventive of starved nerves as well as other ailments.

225. How to make Wholemeal Bread

The yeast must be quite fresh, and the bread should be raised in separate tins in a warm place or cupboard; the oven must be hot at first, but the heat should be much reduced after 10 minutes. Mix 6-lbs. of wholemeal with 1-lb. of household flour. Then mix 3-ozs. of fresh yeast with a tablespoon of treacle, adding 2 tablespoons of olive oil when it is quite dissolved. Put this into the flour with about 2-pts. of lukewarm water. Mix it with a wooden spoon till it does not stick. Knead for 10 minutes, adding more water if necessary but keeping the dough firm and spongy. Put it into flat baking tins (well greased) about 2½ inches deep, covering the tins to the depth of about 1 inch only. Let it rise for 1 hour, or till it reaches the tops of the tins. Then bake first in a quick oven, and afterwards in a slower. A gas oven is most reliable for baking bread, as the heat is more easily regulated. The bread should be a rich dark golden brown when well baked.

226. White Bread

Make as Recipe 225, but substitute household flour for wholemeal. The shape and size of the loaves should be changed occasionally. Loaves baked in small tins are often lighter than bread made into large loaves.

227. Plain Currant Bread and Buns

To 2-lbs. of good wholemeal or white flour add a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoonful of sugar, and ½-lb. of currants or sultanas; also rub in 2-ozs. of olive oil or nut-margarine. Mix 1-oz. of yeast with a little golden syrup and add lukewarm water. Stir this into the flour, and add sufficient warm water to make a nice dough. Shape into loaves or little buns, set to rise for 1 hour or longer, then bake in a quick oven and brush with egg and milk.

228. Dinner Rolls

Delicious dinner rolls can be made as follows: – Take 1-lb. of white flour, 1-lb. of wholemeal, 3-ozs. butter, and 1-oz. of yeast. Mix the yeast with a dessertspoonful of treacle, ¾-pt. of milk and water. Rub the butter into the flour, and put in the yeast to rise. Knead, form into small rolls, raise for half-an-hour, bake in a quick oven.

229. Sultana Cake

Sift into ½-lb. of flour 1 teaspoonful of baking powder. Grate the rind of a lemon on to an egg and beat it well. Cream together 3-ozs. nut-margarine and 3-ozs. sugar; add the egg, beating still, then stir in lightly the flour and 3-ozs. sultanas; add milk to make a soft dough. Pour into a well-buttered cake tin, put in a hot oven, and bake for about half-an-hour, reducing the temperature considerably.

230. Sultana Rice Cake

Put 3-ozs. of Nut-margarine in a warm oven. Grate the rind of a lemon on to an egg and 3-ozs. of castor sugar, beat well, then add the warmed Nutter and beat again till it is creamy. Now sift together 5-ozs. of ground rice, 3-ozs. of flour and 1 teaspoonful of baking powder. Beat this gently into the mixture, add 4-ozs. sultanas and enough milk to make a proper consistency. Put in a hot oven, gradually reducing the temperature, and bake for about ¾ of an hour.

231. Cheese Straws

Mix 6-ozs. flour and 6-ozs. grated cheese well together, then rub in 2-ozs. butter, add a little cayenne pepper and salt, bind with the yolk of an egg, roll out about a quarter of a inch thick, cut into long narrow fingers, and bake in a sharp oven for 10 minutes.

232. Sultana Bun Cakes

Sift together 8-ozs. of flour, 3-ozs. Paisley flour and 2-ozs. of sugar; rub in 4-ozs. olive oil, and add 4-ozs. of sultanas. Mix all with a well beaten egg and a little milk, roll out, shape with a cutter and bake at once in a quick oven.

SUMMER AND WINTER DRINKS

The following recipes and suggestions concerning a few beverages which can be used as substitutes for more stimulating drinks may prove useful to many readers: —

233. Barley Water

Mix a tablespoonful of Pearl Barley with a pint of water and boil for half-an-hour. Flavour with lemon, cinnamon or sugar, according to taste, and allow the mixture to cool. For invalids requiring nutriment a larger quantity of barley should be used.

Barley Water is equally suitable for winter use and can be taken hot.

234. Wheatenade

Simmer 1-lb. of crushed wheat in 1-qt. of water for about an hour, stirring it occasionally. Strain, add lemon juice and sugar to taste, for use in summer, or milk and sugar if the drink is taken hot in winter. Good and clean bran can be substituted for crushed wheat. This is a capital drink for children with a tendency to rickets, or for persons suffering from nervous prostration caused by malnutrition.

235. Oatenade

Simmer ¼-lb. of coarse oatmeal in the same manner as described in the previous recipe, then flavour to taste. This drink will be slightly richer in fat than the previous one, and it makes a good winter drink.

236. Gingerade

Take 1-dr. essence cayenne, 4-drs. essence of ginger, 2-drs. essence of lemon, 1-dr. burnt sugar, ¾-oz. of tartaric acid. Add 3-lbs. lump sugar and 5-qts. boiling water. Bottle ready for use. Dilute to taste.

237. Fruit Drink

Lime juice, if pure, makes a cooling and wholesome drink. The "Montserrat" is one of the purest brands upon the market; some of the liquid sold as lime juice is only a chemical concoction. The weaker the solution the better it tastes. A dessertspoonful to the tumbler is generally enough. Dole's Pineapple juice is also an excellent fruit drink.

238. Rice Water

Boil some once-milled rice in water, and add lemon juice and sugar to taste. The beverage should not be made too thick. As rice is often used in most households a supply of this nutritious drink is easily provided. It is very good for children.

Tea and Coffee Substitutes

Those who find tea and coffee undesirable should try "Wallace P. R. Coffee," "Lifebelt Coffee," "Salfon," or "Horlick's Malted Milk." Another good substitute is "Hygiama," which, unlike tea and coffee, is not a stimulant, but a nutrient. On the other hand its effect on the system is distinctly stimulating in a right and healthy sense. That is to say, the valuable nourishment which it contains is very easily and quickly digested and an immediate sense of invigoration is the result. Unlike cocoa, it is not clogging or constipating or heavy.

HOW TO FEED INVALIDS

In all cases of sickness the patient will have a better chance of recovery if the diet is light and wisely selected.

When inflammation and fever exist, fruit and cooling drinks should be given, and but little nitrogenous food.

An eminent physician writes thus: "The fever patient, like the over worked man, digests badly. He has no appetite; his salivary glands do not secrete, or secrete very imperfectly. The gastric juice formed under bad conditions is almost inert, poor in pepsine and hydrocloric acid. The liver no longer acts if the fever is high and serious; the intestinal secretions are partially exhausted… The fever patient must then be fed very little."

When the hydrocloric acid is deficient, proteid food should be given very sparingly – one of the best forms being Casumen in solution (see 224) or white of egg. Milk is not advisable in such a condition, unless malted, or in the dried form. Fats are objectionable, and if the salivary secretions are defective, starches should be given in dextrinized (super-cooked) form, or well toasted. Fruit sugars, which are Carbohydrates in a digested form, are better still, and may be given freely to patients of nearly all kinds. They are abundantly provided in figs, dates, stoneless raisins and sultanas, and in other sweet fruits, such as bananas, strawberries and apples.

Ample nourishment can be provided by these, supplemented by egg dishes (chiefly white); flaked and super-cooked cereals, such as Granose Biscuits, Kellogg Wheat Flakes, Wallace P. R. and Flakit Biscuits, Archeva Rusks, Melarvi Crisps, and toasted or wholemeal bread; flaked or malted nuts; legumes soufflé; well-cooked farinaceous puddings; Horlick's Malted Milk and many other proprietary health-foods; and vegetable broths – for which see Recipes 1-23, as well as those which conclude this section on pages 123 and 124.

One of the most important of these latter is 'Haricot Broth,' which is a perfect substitute for "beef tea," being far more nutritious and also free from the toxic elements which are contained in that dangerous and superstitiously venerated compound.

The Beef Tea Delusion. Dr. Milner Fothergill stated that probably more invalids have sunk into their graves through a misplaced confidence in the value of beef tea than Napoleon killed in all his wars. It is, in reality, a strong solution of waste products and of uric acid, consisting largely of excrementitious matter which was in process of elimination from the system of some animal, through the minute drain pipes which form an important cleansing medium or "sewage system" in all animal flesh. To make "beef tea," these poisonous substances are stewed out to form the decoction, while the animal fibrin, the portion of the meat that has some nutritive value, is thrown away.

Beef tea consequently acts as a strong stimulant, tends to increase inflammation and fever, and in all such cases lessens the chance of the patient's recovery, as the system is already battling against toxic elements in the blood. To add to the amount of the latter is obviously unwise and dangerous. These remarks apply also to 'meat essences' and to 'beef extracts,' which are frequently made from diseased flesh which has been condemned in the slaughterhouses.

Meals provided for invalids should be very simple, but served in a very dainty manner. A spotless serviette and tray cloth, bright silver, a bunch of flowers and a ribbon to match them in colour for tying the serviette (the colour of which can be changed from day to day) should not be forgotten. The food should be supplied in small quantities; half a cupful of broth will often be taken when a cupful would be sent away untouched, and the wishes of the patient should be respected so far as it is safe and wise to do so. It is also a good plan to serve two or three small separate courses, rather than to put everything that is provided on a tray together.

Stewed French plums and figs are valuable in the sickroom because of their laxative effects, and dainty sandwiches will be found acceptable by most invalids – made with flaked nuts and honey, dried milk (Lacvitum), potted meat, etc.

Don't Overfeed Invalids. One of the greatest evils to be avoided by those who are nursing the sick is that of over-feeding. When nature is doing her best to meet a crisis, or to rid the body of microbes or impurities, it is a mistake to cause waste of vital energy by necessitating the expulsion of superfluous alimentary matter. Invalids should not be unduly persuaded to take food. The stomach generally requires rest, and is often in such a condition that digestion is impossible.

Much of the suffering and inconvenience endured by sick persons is simply the result of erroneous diet. Judicious feeding will do far more than drugs to alleviate and cure most maladies, in fact drugs and stimulants are seldom required. The great healing agent is the Life-force within – the "Vis medicatrix Naturæ" – and the wise physician will see that this power has a fair chance. He will encourage hopeful mental influence, and advocate pure air, pure food, and pure water, combined with a cessation of any physical transgression which has been the cause of the malady in question.

Care should be exercised lest invalids partake too freely of starch foods, especially if such are insufficiently cooked. Wholemeal bread should be light and well baked, and in most cases it will be more easily assimilated if toasted. Granose and other similar biscuits (which consist of entire wheatmeal in a super-cooked form, so that the starch is already transformed into 'dextrin') will be easily digestible and are slightly laxative in their effect. They are just the right thing to be taken with broth or soup or porridge. The following recipes will be found helpful.

239. Brown Haricot Broth

(A perfect substitute for 'Beef Tea.')

Take ½-lb. of brown haricot beans. Wash and stew them with 1-qt. of hot water and some small onions for 3 hours, stewing down to 1-pt. Strain, and add pepper, celery-salt and butter when serving. This bean tea or broth, so prepared, will be found to be very savoury and of the same taste and appearance as beef tea, while being much richer in nutriment.

240. Mock Chicken Broth

A valuable substitute for chicken broth, which is in every way superior to the decoction obtained by stewing the flesh and bones of the bird, can be made by stewing and serving white haricots in the same manner as in the previous recipe.

241. Hygiama Apple Purée

Select two or three sound ripe apples, wash and rub in hot water, remove core and all bruised or dark parts, but not the peel, cut in small pieces, place in a covered jar or casserole with a cupful of water, or sufficient to prevent burning. Cook gently until apples are soft; then rub all through a fine sieve. Mix a tablespoonful or more of Hygiama with just enough water to form a paste, mix this paste into the apple, with just a touch of cinnamon or nutmeg if liked, and serve with pieces of dry toast, twice-baked bread or rusks.

242. Oat Cream

A most excellent recipe for invalids and anæmic patients is prescribed by Dr. Oldfield, as follows: Boil 1 pint milk, sift into it a large handful of crushed oats. Simmer until it is thick as raw cream. Strain and serve; the patient to take ½-pint, sucking it through a straw slowly.

243. Linseed Tea

Few persons realize the good qualities of linseed tea. It is useful for weak, anæmic and delicate persons; it produces flesh, is soothing in bronchial cases, and laxative. If made thin, and flavoured with lemon, it is quite palatable, and many persons get fond of it. The seed should be whole and of best quality, and it only requires stewing until the liquor is of the consistency of thin gruel.

244. proteid Gruel

A good liquid food can be quickly made by warming a dessertspoonful of "Emprote" or "Malted Nuts" in a glass of milk, and flavouring to taste. A large teaspoonful of "Casumen" (pure milk proteid) dissolved in a breakfastcup of barley water, coffee, or vegetable soup, also readily provides much nutriment in a simple form.

245. Lentil Gruel

This is a useful and nutritious food for invalids. To make the gruel, take a dessertspoonful of lentil flour, mixed smooth in some cold milk, add nearly 1-pt. of milk which has been brought to the boil. Boil for 15 minutes and flavour with a little cinnamon or vanilla. Serve with toast. This is the same as the much prescribed "Revalenta Arabica" food, but the lentil flour, without a long scientific name, only costs 3d. a pound, instead of half-a-crown.

246. Malted Milk Prune Whip

One cup of prunes, 2 tablespoonfuls Horlick's Malted Milk, 1 tablespoonful sugar, lemon sufficient to flavour, white of egg. Wash well, and soak the prunes until tender. Boil with small piece of lemon until soft. Add sugar, remove stones, rub through colander; add the Horlick's Malted Milk, beat well; add the white of egg, well beaten. Cool, and serve with whipped cream. Flavour with vanilla if desired.

247. Malted Milk Jelly

Phosphated gelatine 1 teaspoonful, Horlick's Malted Milk 2 to 4 teaspoonfuls, sugar and flavouring to suit. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour, then dissolve in just sufficient hot water. Add the Horlick's Malted Milk dissolved in 2 cups of hot water, and sweeten and flavour to taste.

248. Malted Milk with Iced Fruit

Take of Horlick's Malted Milk 1 heaped teaspoonful, crushed fruit 1 tablespoonful, crushed ice 1 tablespoonful, 1 egg, acid phosphate twenty drops, grated nutmeg to flavour, water to make a cup. Mix the Malted Milk, crushed fruit and egg, beating the same for five minutes. Add the phosphate and crushed ice, stirring all for several minutes. Strain, and add ice-cold water or cold carbonated water, and grated nutmeg to flavour.

249. Effervescent Malted Milk

Put some finely cracked ice into a glass. Fill it half full of soda, Vichy or Syphon water, and immediately add the desired amount of Horlick's Malted Milk in solution. Drink while effervescing. Brandy may be added if necessary.