jfc»^^iOJl 
 
Eating for Strength: 
 
 A BOOK COMPRISING: 
 
 1.— THE SCIENCE OF EATING. 
 
 2.— RECEIPTS FOR WHOLESOME COOKERY. 
 
 3.— RECEIPTS FOR WHOLESOME DRINKS. 
 
 4.— ANSWERS TO EVER RECURRING QUESTIONS. 
 
 
 ■^ ,> 
 
 MrLr HOLBEOOK, M.D., 
 
 Editor of the " EercUd of Health,"' *' Pa?'tttrUion, Without Pain," Etc. 
 
 AIDED BY 
 
 NUMEROUS COMPETENT ASSISTANTS. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 'WOOD & HOLBROOK, 
 
 13 & 15 Laight Street. 
 1875. 
 
 
A^: 
 
 / 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 
 
 M. L. HOLBROOK:, M.D., 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. 0. 
 
 Lanqe, Littlk & Co., 
 
 PBINTERS, ELECTR0TYPEE3 AND STEREOTYPHRB, 
 
 108 TO \\\ WoosTBH Street, N. Y. 
 
PEEFAOE. 
 
 The Autlior and Editor of this little work sends it on its mission 
 witli tlie earnest hope that in some degree it may prove useful and 
 acceptable. He would like to acknowledge his obligations to those 
 who have aided him in his labors in the department of Recipes, by 
 a mention of their names, but those to whom he is most indebted 
 do not desire thus to be brought before the public. He may say this, 
 however, that they are one and all practical experimenters and 
 deeply interested in the subject of preparing wholesome and pal- 
 atable food for our tables. Not one of all the number is a mere 
 theorizer, but could, if need be, themselves cook a most delicious and 
 healthful meal. 
 
 He also begs to acknowledge his indebtedness to several Health 
 Cookery Books, both English and American. 
 
 Many of the best Recipes, however, are those which have oeen 
 tried in our own kitchen, where they have stood the test of almost 
 constant use for years. 
 
 It will be observed that no Recipes are given for cooking meat or 
 fancy dishes, but our apology for this is, that there is no necessity for 
 doing so. Such Recipes are found in abundance in nearly every 
 cookery book, and this is not intended so much to supplant these 
 books as to supplement them. 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 It is suggested that in tlie use of Kecipes, a reasonable amount of 
 brains be mixed with them. The best will prove failures in careless 
 hands. Food, to be well cooked, must be under the eye of a thought- 
 ful person. It wiU not cook itself. It must be magnetized, so to 
 speak, by a living force, and Recipes must often be somewhat varied 
 to suit individual tastes and circumstances. The editor also suggests, 
 that those who read this book experiment and invent new methods of 
 their own. He will gladly print the results in the Herald of Health. 
 
 As to the other departments, it is hoped that they will furnish 
 numerous and acceptable hints for correct eating and drinking. 
 Should they not, the Author's hopes will not be realized. 
 
 M. L. H. 
 
 New Yobk, October 1, 1874. 
 
OONTEISTTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Preface 3 
 
 CHAPTER I. Functions of Food 7 
 
 II. Classification of Aliments 10 
 
 III. Tlie Amyloids 14 
 
 IV. Mineral Water 20 
 
 V. Values of Food 25 
 
 VI. Source of Muscular Strength 28 
 
 VII. Daily Wants of the Body 33 
 
 VIII, Digestion 38 
 
 PART 11. 
 
 CHAPTER I. General Directions 43 
 
 II, Choice Treatment of Foods 45 
 
 RECIPES— 
 
 Soups 47 
 
 Porridges, Including Mushes 50 
 
 Remarks, Rules and Recipes for Making Good Bread 51 
 
 To Cook Eggs , . 63 
 
 Preparations of Cheese Sandwiches 65 
 
 Cooking Vegetables 66 
 
 Pies and Pie Pastry 72 
 
 Custards 77 
 
 Puddings , 79 
 
 Cakes 83 
 
 Moulded Farinacea 84 
 
 Miscellaneous Dishes 85 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Liquid Foods 99 
 
 Simple Beverages from Fruits 101 
 
 Lemonades 102 
 
 Brinks from Various Substances 103 
 
 Ices 106 
 
 Milk 107 
 
 Tea 113 
 
 Cocoa 116 
 
 Chocolate 116 
 
 Methods of Preparing Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, etc. 117 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 Practical Dietetics, and Answers to Ever-recurring Questions 131 
 
 Index 153 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FUNCTIONS OF FOOD. 
 
 WHY do we eat at all ? Why do all animals on the 
 globe, from the simplest worm to the highest, 
 most civilized man, depend for life on food and drink ? 
 Why IS a child hungry, and if deprived of food for an hour 
 beyond the allotted time, ravenous for something to eat? 
 Why does a hard-working man enjoy his food so well, and 
 want so much of it ? Why do great men and powerful 
 thinkers need to eat so abundantly ? It does seem as if a 
 large part of the work of the world is to supply food for the 
 people. Why so many millions of acres of land devoted 
 to agriculture and horticulture ? Why so many more farm- 
 ers producing food than people of any or all other occupations ? 
 Simply because food is so important, and its functions in the 
 body are so necessary to life and health. What then is the 
 great office that food performs for us ? Let us see. Food per- 
 forms these functions : 
 
 1. It furnishes material with which to construct the body. 
 To the child this is very necessary. It would forever remain 
 a babe in stature, if this were not so. The food it imbibes from 
 its mother's breast increases the child's bulk; and if properly 
 fed till maturity, a large, powerful body is the result. Farm- 
 ers increase or diminish the size of their domestic animals, 
 within a certain limit, by increasing or diminishing the 
 amount of food supplied to them. The size, Avithin con- 
 stitutional limits, to which a child may attain is, to a great 
 extent, dependent on the supply of wholesome food it can 
 digest. Abundance of food, coupled with plenty of air, 
 
8 FUKCTIOKS OF FOOD. 
 
 exercise and sleep, insures a far greater size and development 
 than when the food is scanty. Farmers sometimes, by feed- 
 ing, produce enormous development of the bodies of oxen^ 
 sheep, and other animals. This abnormal development, how 
 ever, is not desirable in human beings, and should not be 
 sought for; but a normal development is desirable, and is 
 the legitimate aim of every parent for his child, and person 
 for himself. 
 
 2. Still another function of food is to supply the waste 
 that goes on in the body from its daily wear and tear. This 
 varies greatly with different persons, and with the amount 
 of work done. Great workers wear out and use up every 
 day several pounds of the blood and tissues of the body. 
 New food is demanded to take its place, to make good this 
 loss. Those who work but little require less food. A month 
 of sickness sometimes wastes away a third of the weight of 
 the body. The patient becomes thin, emaciated and bony. 
 But a hearty appetite and plenty to eat soon restore it to 
 its full size. There are some men of powerful frames who, 
 if they do a hard day's work, waste many pounds of their 
 avoirdupois, and must eat as much to make it up. Small 
 workers, and lazy, idle people eat less ; and there are a few, 
 mainly corseted and inactive young women, and foppish, idle 
 young men, who waste very little of the tissue of the body 
 by effort, and consequently eat but little. It is, then, no bad 
 sign to see healthy people eat heartily — they must do it to 
 work and live. 
 
 3. Still another function of food is to maintain animal 
 heat. So important a function is this, that it has been com- 
 puted that four-fifths of the food of the body is used to 
 maintain its temperature of nearly one hundred degrees. If 
 any one would appreciate the heat-producing power of his 
 food, let him in cold weather go without eating for a day 
 and still continue exposing himself to the weather, and he 
 will learn that a good meal will do more to warm his body 
 
FUNCTIONS OF FOOD. 9 
 
 than clothing or fire. It furnishes the fuel which, consumed 
 or burnt in the body, maintains a comfortable temperature. 
 
 4 The last and most wonderful property of food is to fur- 
 nish to the body strength. Strength comes in no other way. 
 When plants grow they store up the energy of the sunshine, 
 and when we consume these plants, that energy is transferred 
 to our bodies. It manifests itself in many ways. First, 
 in the form of motion, the ability to move from place to 
 place, or to move other things from one place to another. 
 Then in the form of sensation, feeling, seeing, hearing, and 
 thinking. The ability to do any or all of these things is 
 conferi'ed by our food. Thought, motion, heat, as manifested 
 in the body, are all conferred by food. The body has the 
 peculiar power of abstracting these things from bread and 
 meat. Go without food, and all these functions of the body 
 gradually die away, and life becomes extinct. Perhaps this 
 point may be made more clear by an illustration. You give 
 your child a good hickory bow and arrow. He bends the 
 bow on its string, adjusts the arrow and pulls the string 
 back a few inches. Now what has he done ? Why simply 
 stored up in the bow a part of the strength of his arm. 
 But how did he get that strength ? The sunshine of last 
 summer stored it up in the bread, meat, and potatoes he ate 
 for breakfast. His body has the power to unfasten this 
 force and apply it to bending the bow. When he lets go the 
 string the arrow flies away, and the force is, so far as he is 
 concerned, lost. The food we eat does for us what the coal 
 does for the engine on the railroad train, it furnishes the 
 motive power, only the body is a living machine and can 
 think and feel, which the engine cannot do. 
 
 Now we see why we eat. It is, first, to increase the size 
 of the body; second, to supply the waste or loss by the daily 
 wear and tear ; third, to maintain a proper degree of warmth 
 for the body, and fourth, to supply the energy by which we 
 move, think and feel. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 CLASSIFICATIOiq" OF ALIMENTS. 
 
 THE classification of foods now accepted by men of sci- 
 ence is perfectly simple and easy. All the substances 
 used come under one of four heads. These are : 
 
 1. Proteids. 
 
 2. Fats. 
 
 3. Amyloids. 
 4 Minerals. 
 
 The proteids are generally known as albuminous, or nitro- 
 genous substances. They take first rank in the material for 
 building up the fleshy part of the body. They include the 
 gluten of wheat, the albumen of white of egg, the muscle of 
 flesh, the casein of cheese, and a few other unimportant sub- 
 stances. 
 
 The fats include all oils and fats, whether animal or vege- 
 table. They are called the non-nitrogenous articles of diet, 
 because they contain no nitrogen. Butter, fat meat, vege- 
 table and animal oils, oily nuts, etc., etc., are of this class. 
 They are also called hydro-carbons. 
 
 The amyloids include starch, dextrine, sugar and gums. 
 They are also non-nitrogenous and hydro-carbons ; but the 
 hydrogen and oxygen are in the form of water, while in the 
 fats the oxygen is not in sufficient quantity to satisfy the 
 affinity of the hydrogen. 
 
 The minerals are water and certain salts of alkalies, and 
 other substances, such as go to make up the bones and teeth. 
 They act as regulators of nutrition. 
 
 None, however, of these substances alone will perfectly 
 
CLASSIFICATION OF AUMElSTTSi 11 
 
 nourish tlie body. All of them must be present. The food 
 which Nature has provided for the newborn babe is the only 
 one which perfectly illustrates a combination of them all. 
 
 1. The curd of milk is Skproteid. 
 
 2. The cream or butter of milk is a faf. 
 
 3. The sugar of milk is an amyloid. 
 
 4. The water, magnesium, potassium, iron, sodium, lime, 
 phosphorus, etc., are the minerals. 
 
 Is this not simple and beautiful ? How perfectly good 
 milk nourishes the young. If in after years, when we eat 
 and drink what we please, we were to choose food so wisely 
 adapted to our wants as the Creator does for the child, it 
 would save much suffering. 
 
 THE PROTEIDS. 
 
 Now let us look at the functions of the different kinds of 
 food. This subject is not so well understood as we wish it 
 was ; still what is known will help to decide somewhat as 
 to the choice of articles of diet. First in the list come the 
 proteids. What is their function in the body ? One point 
 at least seems settled, that their chief value is to construct 
 and repair the tissues of the body. The nerves, the muscles, 
 the glands, the secretions of the mouth, stomach and ali- 
 mentary canal Avhich help to transform our food, are all pro- 
 teids. Parke says that every structure in the body in which 
 any form of force is manifested, as heat, electricity, or mechan- 
 ical action, is mainly built up of these proteids. This is so 
 the Avorld over. May Ave not, then, safely conclude, that the 
 main function of the proteids is to build up and repair cer- 
 tain tissues of the body ? It is also believed that by oxidation 
 they develop some heat, and a small portion of the strength 
 of the frame. If the proteids are cut off the functions of 
 the body languish. If we wish to increase the power of the 
 body to do work, we must invariably increase the consump- 
 tion of proteids. 
 
12 CLASSIFICATION OF ALIMENTS. 
 
 THE FATS AND THEIR FUNCTION, OR USE. 
 
 The fats are, in the scientific works on food, called hydro- 
 carbons. They contain some oxygen, but never enough to 
 satisfy the affinities of the carbon and hydrogen. For this 
 reason they are powerful generators of heat. An ounce of 
 fat burned in the fire generates a large amount of heat. An 
 equal weight of it when burned will produce two and a half 
 times as much heat as dry starch, or sugar. Some idea of its 
 wonderful heating properties may be gained by the fact that 
 ten grains of fat burned so as to save all its heat, will raise 
 the temperature of twenty-three pounds of water one degree. 
 This is sufficient to raise 18,000 pounds weight one foot high. 
 Their two great uses, then, are first, to maintain animal heat ; 
 and second, to generate force. It is very easy to see how it 
 does the former, by burning in the body ; but how heat be- 
 comes force is not so easy to see. That it does in the steam- 
 engine is evident, and the same is true in the body. The 
 man who does a hard day's work, does so by virtue of the 
 fact that he is, so far as his labor is concerned, an engine. 
 The muscles do not furnish the strength, they only transmit 
 it. The wheels of the engine do not furnish the strength, 
 that is the power behind them. Not only the heat of the 
 body, but the working power of it, is largely due to the con- 
 sumption of fat. (The reader must not confound fat with 
 fat meat alone, butter is a fat, and so are oils and oily nuts.) 
 
 Still another use of fats is that, like the proteids, when 
 taken into the body, they enter into its structure, forming 
 in all cases an essential part of muscle, nerve, brain, and 
 other organs; and also entering largely into the adipose 
 tissue. 
 
 Besides these important and principal functions of fat, 
 it has minor uses in the processes of digestion, assimilation, 
 and nutrition, and, it is believed, in the formation of bile. 
 Food digests more readily if fat is mixed with it. It also 
 
CLASSIFICATION OF ALIMEISTS. 13 
 
 plays an important part iu the formation of cells, blood 
 corpuscles, and even the generation of blood. It is present 
 in large quantities in the tubules of tlie nerves; and in all 
 the nervous centers serves some highly important function 
 in nervous action. 
 
 Indeed the distribution of it in every tissue and its accu- 
 mulation around certain organs, serves to fill up the cavities 
 of the body and give roundness to the form, equalizes the 
 external pressure, and diminishes friction ; and, by its bad 
 conducting property, retains animal heat. Fat, therefore, 
 must ever be regarded as highly important to the physical 
 development of the body, and any system of diet that ex- 
 cludes it is faulty and to be condemned. 
 
 An interesting case of the evil effects of the non-use of 
 fats was recently brought to our notice. A gentleman of 
 education and refinement, in rather feeble health, put him- 
 self under the care of a physician Avho ordered him to ab- 
 stain from all butter, sugar, salt, milk and meat, and to live 
 exclusively on fiirinaceous articles and fruits. The result 
 was that he lost rapidly in flesh and strength, and soon took 
 to his bed. The physician insisting that he would in the 
 end be better for this course, advised him to continue it. 
 The patient thinking that hickory nuts were not forbidden, 
 purchased a quantity and ate freely of them. Being very 
 rich in fatty matter, they supplied the place of butter and 
 fat meat perfectly, and he soon became much better and be- 
 lieved he had made a great discovery in the dietetic value of 
 this nut. We may add, this nut is excellent food for those 
 who can digest it and for those who abstain from animal 
 fats it will often prove to be very valuable. "Where oily foods 
 are not used, the proteids exist in excess in the blood, and 
 furnish more nitrogen than can be used. The result is that 
 the system is poisoned and seriously sufiers. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE AMYLOIDS. 
 
 THE word "amyloid" is from two Greek words, which, 
 taken together, signify "resembling starch." The prin- 
 cipal amyloids are starch in its various forms,. as arrow-root, 
 corn-starch, potato-starch, etc. ; sugar in the form of grape- 
 sugar, milk-sugar, cane-sugar ; honey and cellulose. Cellu- 
 lose is the woody substance of plants, after all other mat- 
 ter in their composition is dissolved and washed away. 
 
 The amyloids, like the fats, discussed in the last chapter, 
 are destitute of nitrogen, and are composed of only oxygen, 
 hydrogen, and carbon. They are the true hydro-carbons. 
 (A hydro-carbon is a substance in which the hydrogen and 
 oxygen are in the proportion to form water ; and, to make 
 the matter perfectly simple, we might call them water-car- 
 bons — hydro meaning water.) Liebig divided foods into two 
 great classes, nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous, and fats 
 and amyloids come under the latter head ; but as they are 
 very different in their chemical composition, and in their 
 uses, they have more recently been subdivided. Liebig 
 thought their use was to support animal heat, and this they 
 do to a certain extent ; but, as before remarked, they do 
 not equal the fats in this respect. The reason of this is, 
 that the fats contain a great deal of hydrogen in excess of 
 what, with its oxygen, forms water, and this excess, when 
 burned, helps to maintain heat. The following table will 
 make this clear : 
 
THE AMYLOIDS. 15 
 
 CALORIFIC POWER OF TEN GRAINS OF THE SUBSTANCE IN 
 ITS NATURAL STATE. 
 
 Lbs. of water raised 1° F. 
 
 Grape sugar 8.42 
 
 Lump sugar 8.61 
 
 Arrow-root 10.06 
 
 Butter 18.60 
 
 Beef fat 20.91 
 
 From the above instructive table it will be seen that fat 
 
 is over twice as valuable a heat-producing agent as starch. 
 
 This might be inferred by throwing an ounce of each into 
 
 the fire, and noticing the difierence in the amount of blaze 
 
 they produce. 
 
 There is also the same difference in the amount of work 
 
 these substances will do when burned, as the following table 
 
 will show : 
 
 MOTIVE POWER OF TEN GRAINS OF THE SUBSTANCE IN ITS 
 NATURAL STATE. 
 
 Lbs. lifted one foot high. 
 
 Grape sugar 6,500 
 
 Lump sugar 6,647 
 
 Arrow-root 7,766 
 
 Butter 14,441 
 
 Beef fat 16,142 
 
 That the above may be made perfectly clear, it must be 
 understood that any substance which, when burned, will 
 heat a pound of water one degree, will, by another mode of 
 action, raise 772 pounds one foot high. This seems marvel- 
 ous at first sight ; but the marvel will disappear when we 
 consider the wonderful power that a little coal generates in 
 the engine of an ocean steamer, and in this case much of 
 the power is lost, as no engine has yet been made perfect 
 enough to save all the force generated by the fire under the 
 boiler. 
 
16 THE AMYLOIDS. 
 
 But the amyloids have other important uses in the sys- 
 tem besides the generation of heat. In the first place, they 
 may be converted into fat, and stored up in the system for 
 future use. This has been abundantly proved by numerous 
 experiments. Perhaps as good an illustration of its truth is 
 the one familiar to most, that the negroes of the South al- 
 ways become fat from the sweets they eat during the season 
 for gathering the cane and manufacturing its juice into 
 sugar. Indeed, it is generally thought that most, if not all, 
 of the fat of the system is produced from the amyloids of 
 the food we consume. Other uses still remain for the amy- 
 loids. In the processes of digestion and circulation, they 
 are converted into lactic acid, found both in the stomach 
 and in the flesh, and into butyric, formic, and acetic acids, 
 found in the sweat. These acids have their uses in the vari- 
 ous reactions of the fluids of the system — the blood being 
 alkaline, while most of the secretions are acid. They also 
 assist in the solution of effete matter in the system, and ren- 
 der it more easy of removal. 
 
 MIKERAL MATTER. 
 
 The bodies of men and animals contain a very con- 
 siderable amount of mineral matter, and this comes from 
 the food we eat. Minerals constitute one of the important 
 divisions of food as now divided. The bones and teeth are 
 largely composed of mineral matter. They also constitute 
 an important element of the blood, and of many of the secre- 
 tions. Nearly every tissue contains a small amount of min- 
 eral matter. The principal minerals of the body are calcium 
 (the base of lime), magnesium, potassium (base of potash), 
 sodium (base of soda), iron, chlorine, phosphorus, and sul- 
 phur ; water is also included in this list. The minerals are 
 equally important with the proteids, fats, and amyloids. 
 Lime, chiefly in the form of phosphate, is absent from no 
 
THE AMTLOIDS. 17 
 
 tissue. No cell growth can go on without it. Lime and 
 magnesia are necessary to bone growth. 
 
 Potash and soda, combined in the form of phosphates and 
 chlorides, are important. They are thought to be concern- 
 ed in the molecular currents. They form parts of nearly all 
 tissues. Potash seems to constitute an important part of 
 the formed tissues, while soda is contained in the fluids that 
 bathe them. 
 
 Chlorine and phosphoric acid exist in* considerable quan- 
 tities. Chlorine is found combined with sodium, and also 
 in a most important acid, the hydrochloric ; and has a spe- 
 cial action on the proteids. The phosphoric acid produces 
 important actions with the alkalies. Nearly all food con- 
 tains them. 
 
 Iron is found in all foods, and is an important constituent 
 of red blood corpuscles, and in the coloring matter of red 
 flesh. A small amount of iron is found in nearly every 
 tissue. 
 
 Sulphur and phosphorus exist in the tissues as important 
 constituents of the proteids, or albuminates. 
 
 Silica is present in the integuments, the hair, nails, 
 etc., and in the lower animals is more important than in 
 man. 
 
 It has been one of the most difficult problems of physioL 
 ogists to discover the uses of some of the minerals of the 
 blood. It was easy enough to discover th» uses of lime to 
 build up the bones and teeth ; but the other minerals had 
 uses more difficult to find out. Even yet there is doubt 
 and uncertainty about it. Still much is known, and it is 
 pretty certain that the mineral constituents of blood are 
 largely concerned in the constant changes going on in the 
 body. In the first place, the food, as it goes into the 
 stomach for digestion, could never be digested or absorbed 
 through the microscopic absorbing vessels if not rendered 
 perfectly fluid, and this is done by the minerals contained 
 
18 THE AMYLOIDS. 
 
 in the gastric and pancreatic juices. They give a soluble 
 form to those substances which would otherwise be semi- 
 fluid, like glue or jelly. They maintain this fluidity in the 
 blood that it may circulate through the arteries and veins 
 and capillaries. It is very curious, but probably true, that 
 as the nutrient material leaves the blood and is converted 
 into tissue, this too is done by means of the help of the 
 mineral constituents of the blood. In the blood, which is 
 alkaline, the proteids remain fluid ; but in the flesh, which 
 is acid, they lose their fluidity and become solid. 
 
 Then, again, when auy tissue is worn out and must be re- 
 moved from the system, it needs become fluid again, and 
 this is accomplished by the action of mineral substances. 
 
 Letheby says : " As to the special functions of each of the 
 saline (or mineral) constituents of food, little can be said ; 
 but it is a remarkable fact that the alkaline (or basic) phos- 
 phate of soda is invariably found in the blood, while the acid 
 phosphate of potash is the chief constituent of the juice of 
 flesh ; and," he continues, " most likely the former is con- 
 cerned in preserving the liquid condition of albumen and 
 fibrin, and so keeping them from being lost by secretion, 
 while the latter is engaged in an opposite duty." 
 
 The following table will show the relative amounts of dif- 
 ferent minerals in human blood : 
 
 Phosphoric acid 31.79 
 
 Alkalies.. 55.66 
 
 Alkaline earths 3.33 
 
 » Mineral acids and oxide of iron 9.22 
 
 100.00 
 
 Just how much of each mineral our food should contain 
 for each day is not so easy to answer; but Dr. Edward 
 Smith says that a full-grown man requires daily from 32 to 
 79 grains of phosphoric acid, 51 to 175 of chlorine (equal to 
 
THE AMYLOIDS. 19 
 
 from 85 to 291 of common salt), 27 to 107 of potash, from 
 80 to 171 of soda, and from 3 to 6 of lime, and 2 to 3 of 
 magnesia. 
 
 According to La"wes, these minerals are not stored up in 
 the system to any extent. He found that of every 1 1 lbs. 
 taken into the body, but 12 oz. remained, the rest be- 
 ing unabsorbed, or used in the work of secretion and ex- 
 cretion. 
 
 From what has been said, the reader must feel that the 
 subject of food, and eating, and drinking, is a very elaborate 
 one. The system, to do the best work, requires each day a 
 certain amount of a great variety of substances. Excess of 
 one and deficiency of another may cause serious disease, or 
 prevent the full play of all the faculties. Too much of the 
 proteids poison by an excess of nitrogenous matter. Too 
 little of the fats and amyloids prevents the generation of 
 heat and force, and reduces the heat and vigor of the body, 
 while their excess produces coi*pulency, and other diseases — it 
 may be fevers, colds, etc. ; while an excess of the minerals 
 produces gout, gravel, rheumatism, and their deficiency pre- 
 vents the full play of secretion and excretion. 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MI]SrERAL MATTER CONTINUED. 
 
 !N" our last chapter the function of mineral matter was dis- 
 cussed ; before closing this subject we desire to add a few 
 words concerning common salt. The value of this mineral 
 has been stoutly denied by a few modern hygienists, and 
 there will be no doubt many readers of this book inclined 
 to take this view of the question, and perhaps many of 
 them never use it. It is not our intention to enter into 
 any discussion on this subject, but to present briefly the 
 points in its favor put forward by those who maintain that 
 it has a normal relation to the healthy action of the body. 
 Salt does not enter into the composition of the tissues, but 
 it is a large constituent of every one of the secretions, the 
 saliva, gastric juice, bile and sweat, and exists in the blood 
 in larger amounts than any other mineral matter. Indeed, 
 about one-half of the mineral matter of the blood is salt. 
 This amount in the blood cannot be much increased. If one 
 should use a very large amount of it with his food, any 
 excess beyond a certain amount is immediately thrown out 
 in the excretions. Letheby says : " It is a curious fact that 
 common salt has the faculty of forming crystallizable com- 
 pounds with most of the organized and eflete constituents 
 of the body ; " and inquires, " May it not therefore be an im- 
 portant agent of diffusion ; and be thus concerned in the 
 phenomena of absorption and secretion ? for albumen and 
 fibrin cannot pass through the walls of the intestines, or the 
 blood-vessels. It may well be that through the agency of 
 common salt and the free acid of the gastric juice, they 
 
MEtTEEAL MATTER. 31 
 
 temporarily assume a condition in which they can be ab- 
 sorbed and secreted." 
 
 Tlie same author also adds that "The experiments of 
 Boussingault on animals have shown that, although salt 
 mixed with the fodder does not much affect the quantity of 
 flesh, fat, or milk obtained from them, yet it seriously affects 
 their appearance and general condition ; for animals de- 
 prived of salt other than that naturally contained in the 
 food soon get heavy and dull in their temperament, and have 
 a rough and staring coat." 
 
 Eeulin states that animals which do not find it in their 
 food or drink become less prolific, and the breed rapidly 
 diminishes in number. 
 
 Dr. Le Saine says that salt increases the fertility and 
 doubles the power of nourishing the foetus, and renders the 
 milk more abundant and nutritive. It also gives a finer 
 condition to the skin, and the flesh of animals is more 
 digestible and better flavored which partake of it. Probably 
 one use of salt is to increase the amount of saliva and gastric 
 juice secreted. That it does this is certain. Salty food is 
 sure to excite the salivary glands to intense action, they 
 throwing out large quantities of saliva. If the amount of 
 salt in food, however, is too great, this object is partly de- 
 feated, as we are apt to swallow the food too rapidly and 
 before it is well chewed and incoi*porated with the juices ; 
 and this is a serious evil. 
 
 Such are a few of the views of eminent writers on the 
 value of salt. 
 
 The instinct for salt, seen almost everywhere, is vividly 
 related by many writers. It is said that on the coast of 
 Sierra Leone brothers will sell their sisters, husbands their 
 wives, and parents their children for it. Another writer 
 adds, that on the gold coast of Africa a handful of salt will 
 buy one or two slaves. It is said, in barbarous times the 
 most horrible punishment was to feed criminals on food 
 
23 MINKEAL MATTER. 
 
 without salt. We are, however, inclined to believe that 
 there is a good deal of extravagance of statement in all such 
 stories. At any rate, what is true of savages and of animals, 
 whose choice of food is narrow and meagre, is no rule for 
 civilized beings who have a great variety of food, rich in 
 mineral matter. Moreover, we have known many persons 
 to refuse to eat salt with their food for weeks and months, 
 and declare they were improved by abstinence from it. We 
 are of the opinion that while a moderate use of salt may be 
 advisable, most people eat far too much of it ; in this way 
 corrupting the appetite and taste, and taxing to far too 
 great an extent the excretory organs in getting rid of it. 
 Then, too, those who live on foods rich in mineral matter 
 would naturally^need less of this mineral. So, too, a con- 
 stantly improving agriculture improves our foods. By using 
 salt largely on certain crops as a fertilizer they may probably 
 be made to contain more of it, and thus it will be introduced 
 into our systems as a constituent of our food, and not as a 
 condiment. That its use on almost everything, and the un- 
 savoriness of foods without it, is a mere habit, and not an 
 instinct, cannot be doubted. 
 
 In using salt, therefore, we advise moderation. Learn to 
 use some articles of diet without it, and others with but 
 little ; and make up for any deficiency of this article by such 
 foods as are rich in mineral matter, of such kinds as are im- 
 portant in the animal economy. 
 
 CONDIMENTS. 
 
 A discussion of foods and drinks which should omit con- 
 diments would be very incomplete. According to Dr. 
 Letheby, " they are merely stimulants of the digestive 
 organs, promoting the flow of saliva, gastric juice, and other 
 intestinal secretions, and increasing the peristaltic movement 
 of the viscera. * Thus they aid in the processes of digestion, 
 and by giving flavor to the food they whet the appetite and 
 
MINERAL MATTER. 23 
 
 BO increase the relish for it. Food is made more palatable, 
 and digestion promoted." 
 
 Many eschew condiments entirely, and to manifest advan- 
 tage. William Cullen Bryant, in a letter published a couple 
 of years ago in The Herald of Health, said : " Even with 
 my food I do not take the usual condiments, such as pepper 
 and the like." 
 
 They contain no nutriment. Where used, they should be 
 free from adulteration, of the best quality, and of the finest 
 kinds. Pot herbs are used often for condiments, especially 
 for broths and soups. The best of condiments used in 
 moderation are doubtless useful, though not essential to 
 high health. Flint, in his great work on physiology, says of 
 them: "The refinements of modern cookery involve the use 
 of articles which cannot be classed as alimentary principles. 
 Pepper, capsicum, vinegar, mustard, spices, and articles of 
 this class, which are so commonly used, with the various 
 compound sauces, have no decided influence on nutrition, 
 except in so far as they promote the secretion of the diges- 
 tive fluids. * * * The various flavoring seeds and leaves, 
 truffles, mushrooms, etc., have no physiological importance, 
 except as rendering articles of food more palatable." 
 
 In addition to the above we give the following from Pro- 
 fessor F. W. Newman. It appeared in the January number 
 of The London Dietetic Reformer. "In the writings of 
 several leading vegetarians it is noticeable that they profess 
 to take no condiments but salt. Mr. G. Dornbusch does not 
 even take salt. I feel that this subject needs more light 
 thrown on it. Salt being a mineral seems, at first sight, to 
 need a justification. I find it in the fact that horses and 
 cows love grass which has a taste of salt, and the American 
 bisons make long pilgrimages to lick the salt rocks ; in the 
 notorious fact that it kills worms in children. Hence it 
 may be inferred that a certain portion of it is healthful, and 
 preservative from ailments. When instinct and common 
 
34 MINERAL MATTER. 
 
 sense point to a conclusion it is satisfactory to have corro- 
 boration from science. And here we find that the gastric 
 juice is reported to us as containing muriatic acid, for wliich 
 salt, being muriate of soda, gives a supply. Besides, salt is 
 one of the ingredients of blood. Thus salt is really food, 
 though any excess of it is of course mischievous. 
 
 " But that vegetarians should sweepingly renounce vege- 
 table condiments comes to me as a paradox. So much of 
 condiments as tends to thirst I warmly deprecate, and with 
 difficulty bear a very minute taste of cayenne pepper or 
 curry. But are we to foreswear mint, sage, mace, cloves, 
 cinnamon, caraway, ginger, pepper, and all spices ? Where 
 shall we stop ? What of mustard and cress, and watercress, 
 celery, orange, and citron peel ? As a special example, rice 
 is so tasteless that the hardiest rustics (Turks and Arabs) 
 reject it unless some condiment be added. Salt and butter 
 are their ordinary demand, and then they call it pilau (pro- 
 nounced pilow). The English generally expect milk with 
 it, or milk and sugar. All watery vegetables seem to need 
 some condiment. Salt may suffice, but it is difficult to 
 understand why other tasty articles are to be banished from 
 our tables." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 VALUES OF FOOD. 
 
 AT this point of our studies it will be well for us to 
 carefully look iuto the heating power derived from 
 food, as well as the mechanical force extracted from it. We 
 shall draw freely from the works of Franklaud, Letheby, 
 Parkes, and other writers, whose experiments are of recent 
 date and most reliable. 
 
 HEATING POWER OF FOOD. 
 
 * Lbs. of water 10 gra. will heat 
 
 NAME OF FOOD. 1« when burned in the body. 
 
 Butter 18.68 
 
 Cheshire cheese 11.20 
 
 Oatmeal 10. 10 
 
 Wlieat flour 9.87 
 
 Pea meal 9.57 
 
 Ground rice 9.53 
 
 Yolk of egg 8.50 
 
 Lump sugar 8.61 
 
 Grape sugar 8.43 
 
 Boiled eggs ; 5.86 
 
 Lean beef 3.66 
 
 Lean veal 3.01 
 
 Potatoes , 2.56 
 
 White of egg 1.48 
 
 Milk 1 . 64 
 
 Carrots 1.33 
 
 Cabbage 1.08 
 
 Theoretically, the amount of work which can be done by 
 foods, that is, the number of pounds that can be raised one 
 foot high is 772 times the number of pounds of water it 
 will, by burning, heat one degree. Therefore, to find the 
 
26 VALUES OF FOOD. 
 
 comparative value of foods to support strength, multiply the 
 above figures by this sum. It must not be supposed, how- 
 ever, that these figures are yet fixed beyond improvement, 
 though it is certain they are very nearly correct. It is, of 
 course, understood that when these vahies are got out of 
 foods, they must all be digested, and completely absorbed 
 and converted into nutriment; and this is never done. No 
 invention ever made is so perfect as this. The human 
 body, perfect as we think it is when in robust health, is 
 not perfect enough to get all the virtue out of food. A 
 working diet of 4|- ounces of perfectly dry nitrogenous mat- 
 ter, and 22|- ounces of dry carbonaceous matter— equivalent 
 to a daily allowance of some six pounds of ordinary food — 
 possesses, theoretically, a working value sufficient to raise 
 10,874,136 pounds one foot high, yet the most work that 
 can actually be got out of this amount of food is — •includ- 
 ing the beating of the heart, and respiration — not over 
 1,610,206 pounds. From this it will be seen that there is 
 a vast difference between the theoretical and the actual 
 value of food in work. No allowance, however, is here made 
 for the food used up in thought, in feeling, emotion, and 
 the molecular movements of the body. This cannot, in the 
 present state of science, be calculated — if it ever can. 
 
 It has been found by experiments on a large number of 
 men, that the carbonic acid exhaled and urea secreted daily 
 in the amount of food mentioned above, really should sup- 
 ply force sufficient to raise 7,720,000 pounds one foot high, 
 while the actual work is only about one-sixth of this amount. 
 What becomes of the other force? Is it lost,. or used up in 
 mental and molecular labor, which cannot be measured? 
 It must be the latter. 
 
 AlSr INTEKESTIIS'G COMPAKISON". 
 
 Letheby in his work says: "In the steam engine, ac- 
 cording to Sir William Armstrong, only a tenth part of the 
 
VALUES OF FOOD. 27 
 
 actual powei* of the fuel is realized in work. The human 
 machine is therefore more economical of its force than a 
 steam engine; in fact it is assumed by Heidenham that 
 less than half the force applied to the living muscles, as it 
 is developed in their tissues, is realized. But although the 
 animal machine is so much more economical of force than 
 the steam engine, yet on account of the costliness of its food 
 (fuel), it is far more expensive." Taking, for example, a 
 steam engine of one-horse power, it will take two horses to 
 do the same work for ten hours a day, or twenty-four men. 
 Now, the cost for fuel for the engine will be about twenty 
 cent's worth of coal; for the horses, about $2 worth of 
 hay and oats ; and for the men about $10 worth of bread, 
 butter and meat." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SOUECE OF MUSCULAR STRENGTH. 
 
 IK a general way we have already shown that our strength 
 of body comes from our food. It is proper now for ua 
 to inquire whether it comes from the proteids, fats, amyloids, 
 or salts. Liebig taught us that all muscular strength exerted 
 was at the expense, the breaking down, using up, metamor- 
 phosis, or oxydation of the muscular tissue. So much mus- 
 cle destroyed, so much strength exerted. Now the proteids, 
 that is, the albumen, fibrin, gluten in our food go to make up 
 muscular structure ; and Liebig taught, and all physiolo- 
 gists accepted his doctrine, that during exercise the des- 
 truction of the muscles was the source of the strength exer- 
 ted. This would be very much like a theory that a saw-mill 
 received all its power to saw logs from the wear and tear 
 of itself. His theory made it necessary that the proteids of 
 our food should be converted into muscle, and then during 
 exertion destroyed, new proteids constantly, during rest, 
 being converted into muscle for further use. Liebig also 
 taught that the fats and amyloids were only necessary 
 to supjily heat for the body ; but it seemed never to have 
 entered his head that they were the source of muscular 
 power. 
 
 In the present state of science this is all changed. Now 
 the muscles are not regarded as the source of strength, 
 but the veJiide to convey or exert it. In exercise they are 
 not metamorphosed, or oxydized, or used up to an extent 
 sujfficient to account for all the streixgth ; but their destruc- 
 
SOURCE OF MUSCULAR STRENGTH. 29 
 
 tion is comparatively small. Now the theory is that the 
 proteids supply the material for building up, constructing 
 the body, and especially the muscles ; but the main source 
 of muscular strength is the fats and amyloids. 
 
 How came about this change of view ? In this wise. It 
 was found that men could do very hard work for awhile 
 when deprived of proteids in their food. It was also found 
 that the urea in the urine was not in sufficient quan- 
 tity to account for all the force exerted, nor was it much 
 more (often less) during long continued exercise than 
 during repose. As long ago as 1861 Troube asserted that 
 all muscular strength was derived from the oxydation of 
 the fats and hydro-carbons ; and in 1864 Donders was con- 
 vinced that the transformation of muscle was not sufficient 
 to explain all the force exerted in the body. Soon after, 
 Dr. Edward Smith showed that while the amount of urea 
 in the urine (urea is the product of the oxydation of mus- 
 cle) was not increased by exercise the amount of carbonic 
 acid (carbonic acid is a product of the oxydation of the car- 
 bon of the fats and hydro-carbons) was greatly increased, 
 shoAving that during the manifestation of muscular power 
 there was a great increase in the destruction of fats and 
 amyloids. The most powerful argument, however, against 
 Liebig's theory was yet to be given, one which Liebig 
 himself saw the force of, and never satisfactorily ans- 
 wered. It is the argument, or rather the result of the experi- 
 ments of Fick and Wislicenus, made in August, 1866. The 
 results of these experiments were carefully and elaborately 
 printed in The Herald of Health for September of that 
 year. In order to make the subject clear, a very brief state- 
 ment of these experiments is necessary. On the 29th day of 
 August, 1866, these gentlemen prepared themselves for the 
 work of climbing to the top of one of the Bernese Alps 
 mountains, called the Faulhorn, 6,417 feet above Lake 
 Brentz. Their object was to see if their muscular strength 
 
30 SOURCE OF MUSCULAE STRENGTH. 
 
 could be supported in this arduous uudertakiug on fats and 
 amyloids and without nitrogenous food, which could be 
 converted into muscle and then oxygenized. To prepare 
 themselves for the work, for seventeen hours before they 
 commenced their ascent they ate only solid food, composed 
 of starch, fat and sugar, compressed into solid cakes. They 
 began their ascent by the steepest and most dangerous route 
 at 5.30 in the morning, and at twenty minutes past one in 
 the afternoon they had, loithout fatigue, finished their jour- 
 ney. Now what was the result ? 
 
 1. That they had, without a nitrogenous diet, easily 
 accomplished their task. 
 
 2. That the amount of nitrogen excreted was one-third 
 less during the hours of vigorous exercise than the hours 
 before and afterward. 
 
 This not wholly unexpected result was almost conclusive 
 proof that the source of muscular power is mainly found in 
 fats and amyloids, and not in the proteids. 
 
 Now let us glance at the work done. 
 
 Fick, weighing 145|- pounds, had climbed 6,417.5 feet 
 high. This was equivalent to raising 933,746 pounds one 
 foot high. Wislicenus, weighing 167.5 pounds, had climbed 
 to the same height, which was equivalent to raising 1,074,931 
 pounds one foot high. In addition, however, to the mere 
 labor of ascending the mountain, was the labor of the beat- 
 ing of the heart, and respiration. Now, according to the 
 calculations of Bonders, each heart beat is estimated to be 
 equal to raising 4.65 pounds one foot high, and each respira- 
 tion equal to 4.56 pounds one foot high. Let us then add 
 this to the other work done. Fick says that during his 
 ascent the heart beat at the unusual rate of 120 per minute, 
 while his respirations were 25 per minute. There then 
 must be added to the other work for this man 220,968 
 pounds for heart and respiration work ; and if Wislicenus 
 was in the same proportion there must be added for him 
 
SOURCE OF MUSCULAR STRENGTH. 31 
 
 257,796 pounds. Adding these sums together we liavc the 
 work done as follows : 
 
 Fick, in 5^ hours' work, 1,154,714 pounds raised one foot 
 high ; Wislicenus 1,332,727 pounds one foot high. Kow 
 the amount of urea excreted in Fick shows a destruction of 
 muscle which, perfectly oxygenized, would only have raised 
 498,525 pounds one foot, while Wislicenus shows the des- 
 truction of even less, namely sufficient to only raise 481,618 
 pounds one foot high. These results show conclusively 
 that, in their cases at least, by far the larger source of mus- 
 cular strength was derived, not from tlie destruction of 
 muscle and nitrogenous food, but from the destruction of 
 fats and amyloids ; the proportion being about two-thirds 
 of the latter to one-third of the former. 
 
 Recent experiments confirm the general result of those 
 above given. From an economical point of view, these re- 
 sults are interesting. If the source of muscular strength 
 is entirely the destruction of muscular tissue, then the 
 labor of assimilation, the constant repair of destroyed muscle 
 would be very much greater than economy would dictate, 
 for all the nitrogenous food would have to be converted into 
 muscle before available. But if the source of strength is 
 largely fatty and amylaceous matter, then much is saved, 
 for they become oxydized and give out their virtues in the 
 capillaries when they meet the oxygen. 
 
 Whether brain and nerve energy has the same origin is 
 not yet settled, but there is little doubt that, to a certain 
 extent, they have ; though it is likely the addition of phos- 
 phorus, and perhaps other substances, are necessary for this 
 work. 
 
 The practical value of these facts might be very great, if 
 properly applied. We shall discuss this point as we proceed. 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE DAILY WANTS OF THE BODY. 
 
 THE requirements of the body vary wibli age, sex, occupa- 
 tion, health, work done, climate, and race. Therefore 
 any attempt to decide just how much any person should eat 
 would be fruitless. Still some facts may be useful and in- 
 structive. In the first place it may be stated that as a 
 general rule a healthy man requires from 700 to 800 pounds 
 of perfectly dry food in a year. This amounts to about two 
 pounds of solid matter daily. In addition to this are re- 
 quired from five to six pounds of fluid. So, again, a man 
 cannot live well on the meagre diet of a pound of bread 
 daily, with water, but will become thin and weak. It is 
 said that the poor needle-women of London almost starve 
 on a daily allowance of a pound and a half of bread and an 
 ounce and a half of butter daily. 
 
 It is well known that farm laborers have a good appetite 
 and eat heartily. Dr. Edward Smith made inquiries into 
 the food allowance of some hundreds of families in Eng- 
 land, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, and formed the following 
 tables : 
 
 AVERAGE DAILY DIET OF FARM LABORERS IK GREAT 
 BRITAIN". 
 
 England 
 
 Dry Nitrogenous 
 
 Matter. 
 
 3.18 ozg 
 
 Dry Carbonaceous 
 Matter. 
 29.32 ozs. 
 
 Wales 
 
 , 4.13 " 
 
 35.51 " 
 
 Scotland 
 
 4.76 " 
 
 36.30 " 
 
 Ireland 
 
 4.94 " 
 
 34.26 " 
 
THE DAILY WANTS OF THE BODY. 33 
 
 Dr. Playfair, who also made extensive observations in the 
 same field of inquiry, gives in his valuable Avork the follow- 
 ing table : 
 
 DAILY DIET ACCORDING TO WOEK DONE. 
 
 Flesh-formers. Fat. Starch and sugar. 
 
 Subsistence diet 2.0 0.5 12.0 
 
 Quietude 2.5 1.0 12.0 
 
 Moderate exercise 4.2 1.8 18.7 
 
 Active labor 5.5 2.5 20.0 
 
 Hard work 6.5 2.5 20.0 
 
 According to Voit and Pettenkofer, an adult working- 
 man requires daily five ounces of nitrogenous matter and 
 twenty-three ounces of carbonaceous matter (calculated as 
 starch). 
 
 According to Liebig, the Bavarian wood-choppers, who 
 live five and a half days in the forests, are allowed three and a 
 half pounds of fat, eight pounds of meal, and four and a half 
 pounds of bread for five days' rations. This equals four and 
 one-third ounces of nitrogenous matter and fifty ounces of 
 carbonaceous matter. The Eussian peasant has his yearly 
 rations apportioned to equal five and two-thirds ounces of 
 nitrogenous matter and forty-two and a half of carbona- 
 ceous. The Chinese laborer eats daily four and two-thirds 
 ounces of dry nitrogenous and thirty-six and one-third 
 ounces of carbonaceous. 
 
 These statements will not, perhaps, enlighten our readers 
 much, unless they carry them further. This, however, is 
 certain, the working-man requires about six times as much 
 carbonaceous food as nitrogenous. Children, however, who 
 have bodies to build up, require a larger proportion of nitro- 
 genous ; and so do those who are run down in flesh, and need 
 building up, while, on the other hand, those who suffer from 
 a lack of animal heat, require perhaps more carbonaceous. 
 
 Now it becomes a matter of some importance how we are 
 to eat, so as to combine in our foods the right proportions 
 
34 THE DAILY "WANTS OF THE BODY. 
 
 of these different elements, and also mineral matter. This 
 is no easy task. Science may aid us in the decision, but we 
 must rely largely on good judgment and instinct, provided 
 the former is instructed by science and the latter not per- 
 verted by bad habits and depraved tastes. 
 
 Science teaches, according to Letheby, that the best pro- 
 portions of food for the body are, of fat, nine parts ; of 
 flesh-forming material, twenty-two parts; and of starch 
 and sugar, sixty-nine parts. To this the same author 
 adds, that when we eat of a food which is deficient in any 
 necessary ingredient, we generally combine with it another, 
 which contains an excess of it. For instance, we combine 
 bread with butter, lean meat with potatoes, salad with 
 eggs. On the other hand, we should never mix together a 
 great variety of foods containing an excess of carbonaceous 
 matter, and a deficiency of nitrogenous. 
 
 DISTRIBUTIOK OF MEALS. 
 
 As a general rule, savages eat when they can get food. 
 If it is abundant, tliey eat nearly all the day long; if 
 it is scarce, they live on one meal a day. They are like ani- 
 mals in this respect. They are as little injured by it as the 
 cow or horse that grazes from morn till night on the 
 sweet grass of the pasture. Civilized beings must not 
 do this, because their mental and physical labors would 
 seriously interfere with the processes of digestion. As a 
 rule, three meals a day are best for most persons, though two 
 meals are ample, and better for some. It depends on the 
 Mnd of food, rapidity of digestion, and work done, how 
 often we should eat. Our meals should be so arranged as not 
 to offend the taste and burden the digestive powers. 
 
 BAD DIETETIC HABITS. 
 
 We suppose there is no doubt but at least half the ill 
 health of the world comes from improper eating. 
 
THE DAILY WANTS OF THE BODY. 35 
 
 An excess of carbonaceous food promotes the formation 
 of fat, and prevents the complete nourishment of the 
 muscles. 
 
 It gives a person bulk, but not strength. Vital power is 
 deficient in very fat people. 
 
 An excess of nitrogenous food gives rise to diseases of a 
 plethoric character — apoplexy, fevers, etc., etc. 
 
 Too little food, we all know, impoverishes the blood, and 
 gives rise to feebleness and starvation. Nothing will so 
 soon derange the brain and the nervous system as a low diet. 
 
 The salts in our food must neither be in excess nor de- 
 ficient. Man cannot live without them any more than 
 without the elements which go to form flesh or give heat. 
 So too goitre and cretinism are caused by certain minerals 
 in the water. There is much to be discovered on this 
 subject. 
 
 I. — GENERAL STATISTICS. 
 
 At this point I Avish to add a quotation from Prof. Huxley, 
 which will supplement this chapter : 
 
 The average weight of the human body may be taken at 
 154 lbs. 
 
 Such a body would be made up of — 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Muscles and their appurtenances 68 
 
 Skeleton 24 
 
 Skin 10^ 
 
 Fat 28 
 
 Brain 3 
 
 Thoracic viscera 2| 
 
 Abdominal viscera 11 
 
 147 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Or of water 88 
 
 Solid matter 66 
 
36 THE DAILY WANTS OF THE BODY. 
 
 The solids would consist of the elements oxygen, hydro- 
 gen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, silicon, chlo- 
 rine, fluorine, potassium, sodium, calcium (lithium), mag- 
 nesium, iron (manganese, copper, lead), and may be ar- 
 ranged under the heads of — 
 
 PROTEIDS. AMYLOIDS. FATS. MINERALS. 
 
 Such a body would lose in 24 hours — of water, about 
 40,000 grains, or 6 lbs.; of other matters, about 14,500 
 grains, or over 2 lbs. ; among which of carbon 4,000 grains ; 
 of nitrogea 300 grains; of mineral matters 400 grains ; and. 
 would part, per diem, with as much heat as would raise 
 8,700 lbs. of water from degree to 1 degree Fahr., which is 
 equivalent to 3,000 foot-tons. Such a body ought to do as 
 much work as is equal to 450 foot-tons. 
 
 The losses would occur through various organs, thus — by 
 
 Water. 
 
 gra. 
 
 Lungs 5,000 
 
 Kidneys 23,000 
 
 Skin 10,000 
 
 Fseces 2,000 
 
 Total 40,000 14,500 300 4,000 
 
 The gains and losses of the body would be as follows : 
 
 grs. 
 
 Creditor— Solid dry food 8,000 
 
 Oxygen 10,000 
 
 Water 36,500 
 
 Other matter. 
 
 K 
 
 C. 
 
 grs. 
 
 grs. 
 
 grs. 
 
 12,000 
 
 
 3,300 
 
 1,000 
 
 250 
 
 140 
 
 700 
 
 10 
 
 100 
 
 800 
 
 40 
 
 460 
 
 Total 54,500 
 
 grs. 
 
 Debtor- Water 40,000 
 
 Other matter 14,500 
 
 Total 54,500 
 
THE DAILY "WANTS OF THE BODY. 37 
 
 II. — DIGESTION". 
 
 Sucli a body would require for daily food, carbon 4,000 
 grains ; nitrogen 300 grains, "which, with the other necessary 
 elements, would be most conveniently disposed in — 
 
 grs. 
 
 Proteids 2,000 
 
 Amyloids 4,400 
 
 Fats 1,200 
 
 Minerals 400 
 
 Water 36,500 
 
 Total 44,500 
 
 which, in turn, might be obtained, for instance by means 
 of— 
 
 grs. 
 
 Lean beefsteaks 5,000 
 
 Bread 6,000 
 
 Milk 7,000 
 
 Potatoes 3,000 
 
 Butter, dripping, etc 600 
 
 Water 22,900 
 
 Total 44,500 
 
 The faeces passed, per diem, would amount to about 2,800 
 grains, containing solid matter, 800 grains. 
 
CHAPTER Vlll. 
 
 DIGESTION. 
 
 IT is well to conclude this portion of our work with a brief 
 account of the manner in which foods are converted into 
 nutriment. Digestion is a process of washing or rinsing 
 from food those substances needed for the nourishment and 
 maintenance of the body. It begins in the mouth. During 
 each twenty-four hours the salivary glands pour into this 
 cavity — mainly during mastication — about three and a half 
 pounds of saliva. This contains nearly half an ounce of 
 solid matter, and less than a quarter of an ounce of ptyaline, 
 which is its active princiisle. Saliva dilutes the food and the 
 ptyaline acts on its starch, converting a portion of it into 
 sugar. It is calculated that one part of ptyaline will convert 
 8,000 parts of starch into sugar. It produces no action on 
 fat or albumen. Where the food is well chewed the saliva is 
 more thorouglily mixed with it, the starch more completely 
 converted, and digestion more perfect. 
 
 The food passes from the mouth into the stomach when it 
 meets another digestive fluid, the gastric juice. It has been 
 estimated that a healthy stomach secretes fourteen pounds of 
 gastric juice daily, which contains less than half a pound of 
 solid matter, and two-thirds of an ounce of pepsin, the active 
 agent of digestion. The gastric juice converts all the soluble 
 albumen and fibrin of food into liquid albumen and fibrin, 
 which differs in many particulars from common albumen, 
 more especially in this that it is capable of being passed 
 through animal membrane by absorption, which al- 
 bumen is not. The power of this pepsin in the pres- 
 
DiGEsnoN. 39 
 
 ence of an acid is enormous, — one part of it being 
 capable of converting 60,000 parts of albumen into the con- 
 dition before mentioned. It always requires the presence of 
 a small amount of free acid to produce this effect. So im- 
 portant is pepsin as an agent of digestion, that a large 
 business has grown up in England and France, and also in 
 America, in preparing it from the stomachs of calves and 
 pigs to help the stomachs of poor mortals when overtaxed 
 and incapable of digesting sufficient food for the demands 
 of the body. A really good article of this pepsin is often 
 very serviceable and may be considered a hygienic or physio- 
 logical remedy. 
 
 Pepsin is rendered inert by heat or cold, hence either very 
 hot or very cold drinks during and after a meal are hurtful. 
 
 The stomach absorbs and carries into the circulation con- 
 siderable of the most fluid portion of the partly digested food 
 and drink. A large portion, however, passes from this organ 
 into the small intestines, in the first portion of which it meets 
 with other digestive fluids ; first of which may be mentioned 
 is the pancreatic juice, the function of which is to digest the 
 oils and fats. It has been estimated that nearly nine pounds 
 of pancreatic fluid are secreted daily in a healthy person. 
 This contains one pound of solid matter and nearly an ounce 
 and a half of pancreatin, which is its active principle. The 
 true action of the pancreatic fluid is to break up the oily and 
 fatty matter of food into minute particles, so that instead of 
 floating on the surface it is converted into a milk-like fluid, 
 which can be absorbed through the walls of the intestines 
 into the lacteals. Tiiis pancreatic fluid also acts like the 
 saliva and converts the remaining starch into sugar. 
 
 Another fluid which meets the food in the intestines is the 
 bile from the liver. Nearly four pounds are secreted daily. 
 Its use is not yet well known. 
 
 The intestinal secretion is small in quantity, there being 
 less than half a pound daily, but it is a powerful aid to 
 
40 ' DIGESTION. 
 
 digestion and acts equally well on starch, albumen, and 
 fat. 
 
 Thus we see that the food eaten meets several fluids, each 
 of which helps to fit it for absorption. When digestion is 
 perfect a very large part of its nutriment is given up, but 
 not all ; a small portion always passes away with the excreta. 
 
 In dyspepsia, the amount of undigested food is often very 
 large. 
 
 The mineral substances of our food are mainly soluble 
 in water and easily absorbed. 
 
 The aids to digestion are : 
 
 1. Proper selection of food. 
 
 2. Best treatment of food as regards cooking, flavoring, 
 and serving. 
 
 3. Proper variety of food, with occasional change of diet. 
 
 4. Moderate exercise; warmth and a genial state of 
 mind. 
 
 5. Abundance of sleep. 
 
 6. Pleasant social surroundings at the table. 
 
 7. Thorough mastication. 
 
 8. Kegularity in eating, and proper intervals between 
 meals. 
 
PART IL 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 RECEIPTS AND GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 
 
 WHOEVER would be a good cook must give the mind 
 to it. Fruits, grains, and vegetables will not walk 
 into the kitchen and cook themselves. Troublesome as it is, 
 cooking is an art that requires a good brain, education in the 
 art, and love for it. With these qualifications a good repast 
 may be made with few materials; without them the best 
 kitchen in the world, and the most completely stocked larder 
 are of little avail. 
 
 All the knowledge that science can give should be hers. 
 A friend of mine believes that good cooks magnetize the 
 food they prepare, impart to it wonderful virtues it did not 
 before possess. There is no doubt of this. A good cook 
 can transform the raw material of food at will into delicacies 
 that are both healthful and nourishing. 
 
 THE KITCHEN. 
 
 2. Another requirement for cooking is a good kitchen. It 
 should be light, well ventilated, cheerful; pretty pictures 
 should adorn the wall, and comfort reign. Water should be 
 convenient ; wood, good and abundant ; and the utensils, 
 such as stove or range and all other apparatus, good in 
 quality and properly kept. 
 
 MATERIAL. 
 
 3. The raw material should be of the very best. No 
 mouldy flour, stale vegetables, and diseased meats should 
 ever find their way to the kitchen. Nothing but the best 
 should be provided, and that should be in proper variety and 
 in abundance. 
 
44 EECBIPTS AND GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 
 
 ORDER. 
 
 4. Cleanliness and order should prevail throughout the 
 domain of the kitchen. 
 
 SIMPLICITY. 
 
 5. Mr. William Horrel says, " Simplicity is a virtue which 
 has almost grown out of fashion, especially in relation to 
 food and cooking. You can scarcely sit down anywhere to 
 a good plain meal, and find everything simple. Even our 
 dietetic reformers have much to learn in this respect, before 
 the full amount of the good their system contains can be 
 enjoyed by them. All that pertains to the science of cooking, 
 on physiological principles, is easily accomplished. The 
 real object of cooking should be to increase the quantity, 
 and improve the quality of food ; to render it more economi- 
 cal and physiological. This is best accomplished by simplicity. 
 It saves money, time, and health. Variety may still be kept 
 up to almost any extent, without complexity, by taking one 
 kind one day, or at one meal, and another on the next day." 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 CHOICE TEEATMENT OF FOODS. 
 
 IN the choice of foods we cannot exercise too mucTi care. 
 It is cheaper to procure only the very best articles. All 
 vegetables and fruits should be grown on the best soils, and 
 the fertilizers used should be well decomposed and not fresh 
 and rank. Partially decayed food of whatever kind, should 
 be avoided. For breads, the best white wheat is none too 
 good. If grown in new soil it is likely to be better and to 
 contain abundance of the mineral matter so needful to 
 health. Fruits for eating without cooking should be ripe, 
 tender and not too tart; while those for cooking may be 
 either sweet or sour, but they must possess the peculiar 
 quality of retaining when cooked their best flavors. All 
 woody fibres must be removed from fruits and vegetables be- 
 fore eating. Potatoes should be fresh and ripe — old ones are 
 less wholesome, especially when they have been exposed to 
 the light and air, and bruised by much handling, or long 
 exposed to the cold. 
 
 Animal food should be chosen with gi-eat caution. Only 
 healthy animals should be used for eating. They should 
 neither be too old nor too young, too fat nor too lean. In 
 butchering, all the blood should be removed from the body, 
 as otherwise the fleshputrefies readily. It should be thorough- 
 ly cooled before eating. It is also desirable that the animal 
 be not killed for several hours after eating or after fiitigue. 
 The long journeys animals are sent on crowded, filthy cars, 
 render their flesh unwholesome. They ought to be butchered 
 far away from the city and the meat transported in refriger- 
 ator cars, for city use. 
 
46 CHOICE TREATMENT OF FOODS. 
 
 The treatment of animal food is a matter of importance. 
 Why do we cook it at all ? First, to render it more pleasing 
 to the sight ; second, to develope its best flavors ; and third 
 to render it digestible and palatable. Flesh cooked too 
 much is rendered innutritions and indigestible ; if cooked too 
 little, it is disagreeable eating. The albumen of flesh coagu- 
 lates at 133° F., and the coloring matter is coagulated and 
 destroyed at about 170° F., says Liebig, and he would never 
 have flesh subjected to a higher temperature than this, 
 except for a few minutes after it is put into the pot, when it 
 may be submitted to a temperature of boiling water in order 
 to coagulate the albumen into a sort of crust on the outside 
 to hold in the flavors that might otherwise be evaporated. 
 In roasting meat, also, let the heat at first be high, and 
 gradually decreased to the boiling point for the same reason. 
 
 Stewed meats are more wholesome and nutritious than 
 any other. The process renders flesh tender and succulent 
 and easy of digestion. Letheby says, " all kinds of tongue 
 and strong flavored meats may be cooked with advantage in 
 this manner. The process is, moreover, susceptible of very 
 delicate treatment of flavorless foods." 
 
RECIPES. 
 
 SOUPS. 
 
 Soups are often complicated and expensive, requiring much money, 
 time, and attention to prepare tliem. These difficulties are avoided in 
 the following recipes, and a few trials will enable any one of ordinary 
 understanding, who will follow the directions, to produce cheap, 
 wholesome, and agreeable soups, without shins, knuckles, scrags, 
 bacon, or drippings. 
 
 Split Pea Soup. — Put one pint of split peas, which have been 
 previously soaked in cold water four hours, into two quarts of pure 
 soft water. Let them boil for one hour, then add one carrot, one par- 
 snip, one turnip, two onions, a small head of celery, and a little mint, 
 all cut small, and boil the whole another liour. Strain the soup from 
 the vegetables, and thicken it with a little Indian meal, previously 
 mixed in cold water ; boil the whole for ten minutes more, and serve 
 in a tureen with toasted or plain wheat-meal bread. Mix the vege- 
 tables well, and put them into a mould or a basin, and then into a 
 vegetable-dish, and serve it with steamed or baked potatoes. Salt 
 moderately. 
 
 Bean Soup. — Wash and pick over one pint of white beans ; steep 
 them twenty-four hours in pure soft water, put them into a stew-pan 
 (earthen and enameled is best), set them on the fire in two quarts of 
 water, let them boil for two hours, then add two onions, one parsnip, 
 one carrot, a little parsley and thyme cut small, a little cold boiled 
 rice, and a little salt. Boil the whole gently for another hour, and 
 serve it the same as pea soup. Salt to taste. 
 
 Barley and Bread Soup. — Take three ounces of barley, one and a 
 half ounces of stale bread-crumbs, one and a half ounces of butter, 
 one-half ounce of salt, and one-quarter ounce of parsley. Wash and 
 steep the barley for twelve hours, in one-half pint of water, to which 
 a piece of carbonate of soda, the size of a pea, has been added ; then 
 pour off the water not absorbed, and add the crumbs of stale bread, 
 three quarts of boiling water, and the salt. Digest these in a salt- 
 glazed covered jar, in the oven, or boil them slowly in a well-tinned 
 covered pan, for from four to six hours, adding the chopped parsley, 
 with the butter, thirty minutes before the expiration of the time of 
 boiling. 
 
48 RECIPES. 
 
 Bkown Soup. — One pound of turnips, one pound of carrots, half a 
 pound and six ounces of onions, one and a half pints of peas, four 
 ounces of butter, and half a pound of bread. Cut the vegetables into 
 small pieces, put them in a pan with the butter, cover the pan, and let 
 them stew over the fire till brown, occasionally stirring them ; put in 
 the peas with the water in which they were boiled ; add sufficient 
 boiling water to make three quarts altogether ; next add the bread, 
 which should be browned or toasted before the fire, but not burnt ; 
 season, and let the soup boil gently for three or four hours ; rub it 
 through a coarse sieve, return it into the pan ; let it boil, and it will be 
 ready to serve. If dried peas are used, they should be steeped for 
 twenty-four hours in soft water, and boiled for two hours. 
 
 Barley Soup. — Three ounces of barley, one and a half ounces of 
 stale bread crumbs, one ounce of butter, quarter of an ounce of chop- 
 ped parsley, and half an ounce of salt. Wash, and steep the barley 
 for twelve hours in half a pint of water, to which a piece of soda, the 
 size of a pea, has been added ; pour oii the water that is not absorbed ; 
 add the bread crumbs, three quarts of boiling water, and the salt ; boil 
 slowly in a well-tinned covered pan for four or five hours, and add the 
 parsley and butter about half an hour before the soup is ready to be 
 served. 
 
 Celery Soup. — Six roots of celery, one large turnip, two ounces 
 of onions, four ounces of bread crumbs, one ounce of butter, one des- 
 sert-spoonful of flour, and half a pint of cream. Strip oif all the green 
 part of the celery, using only the white ; cut it in shreds, reserving 
 the inside of three of the roots to be added afterward ; slice the turnip 
 and onion, and put them with the celery into a pan ; add two quarts 
 of water, the bread crumbs, and a little salt ; let all boil till the vege- 
 tables are perfectly soft ; rub through a sieve ; return it to the pan ; 
 add the celery (previously boiled till quite soft), the butter, and flour, 
 well mixed ; stir it, seasoning it with a little mace ; and, after boiling 
 a quarter of an hour, stir in the cream, but do not allow it to boil 
 afterward. 
 
 Browning for Soups. — Three large spoonfuls of brown sugar ; 
 one half pint of boiling water. Put the sugar into a frying-pan, set it 
 on the fire to brown, stirring it with a wooden spoon, that it may not 
 burn. When sufficiently dark-colored, stir into in the boiling water ; 
 when thoroughly mixed put it into a bottle ; and, when cold, cork it 
 closely down, and use a tablespoonful or more, as may be required, to 
 give a color to your soup. A burnt onion or two can be made of use 
 for the purpose of browning, and is often considered better than the 
 above recipe. 
 
 Note. — For the convenience of those who have not an opportunity of wei<2:hing 
 the ingredients for the soups, it may be stated that one large tablespoonful will be 
 about equal to one ounce, and one teasponf ul to a quarter of an ounce. But weigh- 
 ing should be resorted to whenever it is possible. 
 
 Potato Soup. — One quart of potatoes, pared and cut into small 
 strips or blocks, a large sprig of parsley, the same of thyme or sweet 
 marjoram, cut fine ; boil three-fourths of an hour in three quarts of 
 
RECIPES. 49 
 
 water, then add half a pint of cream or new milk ; put a small table- 
 spoonful of butter into a plate where it will soften, and stir into it 
 two spoonsful of Hour, add to the soup, and boil five minutes. Drop- 
 dumplings made with a little iiour and cream, yeast and milk are an 
 addition. 
 
 Green-Pea Soup. — Take two quarts of green-peas, one small 
 onion, and a sprig of parsley cut fine ; add two quarts of hot water, 
 and boil slowly for half an hour, then add a pint of small new potatoes 
 which have been peeled and laid in cold water an hour ; put in a table- 
 spoonful of sugar and a little salt, boil till the potatoes are done, now 
 add a teacupfuL of cream or a piut of milk, boil a minute or two, 
 and serve with small slices of toasted bread or gems cut in halves. 
 
 Tomato Soup — Take two quarts of fresh, round tomatoes, scald 
 and peel, without breaking ; do not cut or fork them. Put into a 
 porcelain kettle, or fire-proven stone vessel, add two quarts of boiling 
 water, and a teaspoonful of salt, and set on the fire or in the oven, 
 cover, and let them stew slowly three quarters of an hour. Mix two 
 tablespoonsf ul of flour with a tablespoonful of butter, or a teacupful 
 of good cream, which has been boiled, stir into the soup, and let it boil 
 together ten minutes, and dish up with small thin slices of well-toast- 
 ed bread. Be careful to let the tomatoes remain whole, as you would 
 oysters. 
 
 A teacupful of grated corn added to the soup when you put in the 
 flour, etc., will be an excellent addition, and render the imitation of 
 oyster soup more complete. Simmer the corn only ten minutes, if it is 
 fresh and full of milk. 
 
 Note. — We give you only one or two meat sonps, and theee with special refer- 
 ence to tomatoes, Meat soups are well known in almost endless varieties, but good 
 vegetable soups are scarce. 
 
 Beef and Tomato Soup. — Take two pounds of red beef — a neck 
 piece, or from the round ; carefully remove all the fat, and cut the 
 meat into small bits ; put into a stewpan with two quarts of cold 
 water, and simmer slowly one hour. Remove all the scum as soon as 
 it rises, and keep covered close. Scald until quite soft, one quart of 
 nice ripe tomatoes, and press through a colander ; add to the broth 
 from which you have removed the meat, and boil half an hour ; put 
 in a sprig of sweet marjoram or thyme, then take two ears of swee- 
 corn, and cut and scrape all the kernels from the cob, also two table 
 spoonsful of flour and one of sugar, browned but not burned, mix with 
 half a teacupful sweet cream or milk ; add these ingredients and boil 
 fifteen minutes. Season with a little salt and cayenne pepper. 
 
 Note. — You will observe that all the inj^redients of this soup require but little 
 actual cooking. The pure nutriment of beef is found with rare cooking. Tomatoes 
 lose their fine flavor by much boilinir, and corn hardens at a certain period — fifteen 
 or twenty minutes, if it is fresh and full of miik, is sufHcient to cook corn. 
 
 Another. — Make a §oup of bones or bits of meat left from a roast, 
 add a little cabbage, sweet potato, and parsley cut fine, boil till well, 
 done, then cut or grate a pint of green corn and half a dozen fresh 
 
50 EECIPES. 
 
 tomatoes, boil these with the soup fifteen or twenty minutes, and 
 serve. 
 
 Note — Remove all the fat from the meat before putting it into the water, and 
 ekim off what remains as soon as it rises. This is far more wholesome and relish- 
 able than stock prepared some days beforehand. Stale meats are the same, even in 
 Boup. 
 
 Vermicelli Sotjp. — Six ounces of vermicelli, two quarts of new 
 milk, the yolks of four eggs, and one pint of cream. Blanch the ver- 
 micelli by setting it on the fire in cold water ; when it boils, drain off 
 the water, and put it into cold water ; let it remain a few minutes, and 
 then drain the water entirely from it ; put it into a pan with the milk, 
 and boil it ; beat up the yolks of the eggs, and after gradually adding 
 a pint of boiled cream, strain through a sieve. Take off the pan ; add 
 the eggs, cream, a small lump of white sugar, and a tea-spoonful of 
 salt, and stir the soup on the fire till near boiling. 
 
 Barley Broth. — Four ounces of Scotch barley, four ounces of 
 onions, four ounces of oat-meal, or Indian meal, and two ounces of 
 butter. After washing the barley well, steep it in fresh water for 
 twelve hours ; set it on the fire in two quarts of water, adding the 
 onions and a little salt, and boil gently for an hour and a quarter. 
 Melt the butter in a saucepan ; stir in the meal till it becomes a paste ; 
 then add a little of the broth gradually, till it is a projier thickness to 
 mix with the whole quantity ; stir well together till it boils, and mix 
 with a little of the broth a drachm of celery seed, pounded ; stir well 
 in the broth ; isimmer it gently a quarter of an hour longer, and serve. 
 
 PORRIDGES. 
 
 Wheat-meal Porridge. — Having boiled one quart of soft water, 
 and mixed half a pound of meal in a little cold water, mix them to- 
 gether, and boil for fifteen minutes, stirring it occasionally. Pour it 
 into basins and let it stand for ten minutes. To be eaten with fruit, 
 sugar or molasses, and bread. 
 
 Indian-meal Porridge. — Make same as the wheat-meal porridge, 
 only that it must be cooked for nearly an hour, and be made thinner, 
 to allow for the evaporation which comes from the boiling. 
 
 Indian Farina Porridge.— To one pint of boiling water add four 
 tablespoonful of farina ; mix and serve the same as the wheat-meal 
 porridge. 
 
 Arrowroot Porridge. — Mix one ounce of prepared arrowroot with 
 a tablespoonsful of cold water, then pour boiling water on it to make it 
 the required thickness, stirring it well at the same time. A slice or 
 tM'o of lemon with a little sugar will be found an improvement. To 
 be eaten with crackers or bread. 
 
 Boiled Wheat Porridge. — Having soaked over night one pound 
 of good wheat in pure soft water, strain the water off and add a quart 
 of fresh ; stew it gently till quite soft. It may be eaten as wheat-meal 
 porridge. 
 
RECIPES. 51 
 
 Sago Porridge. — Four tablespoonsful of sago, one salt-spoonfuls of 
 salt, and one quart of water. Soak the sago in cold water for a few 
 minutes, and boil it gently about an hour, adding the salt; pour it into 
 eoup-plates, and serve with molasses or sugar. 
 
 Sago and Rice Porridge. — Equal quantities of sago and ground 
 rice. Proceed as with sago porridge. 
 
 Milk Porridge. — Take of new milk a pint and a half, and half a 
 pint of water ; place it over the fire. When just ready to boil, stir in a 
 tablespnonful of flour, wheat-meal, oat-meal, or Indian corn-meal, pre- 
 viously mixed with a little water; after boiling a minute pour it on 
 bread cut into small pieces. As milk burns quicker than almost any 
 other article of food, it is always best to put it into a tin pail or fa- 
 rina kettle, which is or can be surrounded by boiling water while heat- 
 ing, then you are sure of not burning it. 
 
 Arrowroot Gruel. — Take one ounce of arrowroot, and two large 
 tablespoonsful of preserved black currants. Put the currants into a 
 pan with a quart of water; cover the pan and let them stew gently 
 about half an hour ; then strain the liquid and set it on the fire; when 
 boiling pour it gradually upon the arrowroot, previously mixed with a 
 little cold water, stirring it well; return it into the pan and let it boil 
 for a few minutes gently, adding sugar if required. 
 
 Sago Gruel. — Take two tablespoonsful of sago and one quart of 
 water. Wash and soak the sago a few minutes in cold water; stir it 
 into the rest of the water when boiling; boil slowly till the sago is 
 well done, and add sugar and nutmeg as required. 
 
 Tapioca Gruel. — Wash a tablespoonful of tapioca and soak it in a 
 pint and a half of water twenty minutes; then boil gently, stirring 
 frequently, till it is sufficiently cooked, and sweeten. 
 
 Groat Gruel. — Pick the groats very clean and steep them in water 
 for several hours ; then boil them in soft water till quite tender and 
 thick, and add boiling water sufficient to reduce the whole to the con- 
 sistency of gruel, also currants, sugar, and grated nutmeg. Groats are 
 made of oats' grain, the hulls being removed and the grain left quite 
 whole, as are all preparations of this grain. This gruel is very nutri- 
 tious. 
 
 REMARKS AND RULES FOR GOOD BREAD. 
 
 With good flour, a good oven, and a good, sensible, interested cook, 
 we can be pretty sure of good, wholesome bread. Yeast bread is con- 
 sidered the standard bread, and is, perhaps, more generally found on 
 every table than any other kind. Hence it is important to know how 
 to make good, sweet, wholesome, yeast bread. Good flour is the first 
 indispensable, then good, lively yeast, either yeast cakes or bottled, 
 the former is preferable in all respects. Then, of course, there must 
 be the proper materials to work with. A bread bowl or pan — the pan 
 is easiest kept clean — a stone or earthen jar for setting the sponge; a 
 eieve — flour should always be sifted before making bread of any kind, 
 
6^ EECIPES. 
 
 first, to be sure that it is perfectly clean, secondly, sifting enlivens and 
 aerates the flour, and makes both mixing and rising easier and quicker; 
 a clean, Avhite cloth to cover the dough, and a woollen blanket to keep 
 the dough of even temperature while rising; baking pans, deep and 
 shallow, a large, strong spoon for stirring, and a little melted suet or 
 fresh butter for oiling the pans ; never use poor batter. If you want 
 shortening, rich milk or cream scalded and cooled will answer the pur- 
 pose and be most wholesome. But thorough kneading is better still, 
 and should always be done efEectually. Scalding a portion of the flour 
 makes a sweeter bread and speeds the work. Water, milk, or butter — 
 milk may be poured boiling hot on a quart or two of the flour, stirring 
 well, and cooling to a moderate temperature before adding the yeast — 
 this makes the sponge. Scalded flour always makes a little darker 
 bread, unless we use buttermilk, which makes a rich, creamy, white 
 bread. Yeast is fermented flour or meal— the first stages of decompo- 
 sition or decay. Understanding this, every baker will comprehend the 
 necessity of regulating the extent of the fermentation with the great- 
 est care: for a sponge or bread fermented or " raised " too long, is de- 
 composing, spoiling — actually rotting 1 This is the language of an ex- 
 perienced English baker to us only a few days ago, during a talk about 
 the delicate, foamy loaves " yeasted to death," which so many families 
 are eating and calling " the stafE of life," quite discarding the firm, 
 sweet, substantial, home-made loaf which oar mothers and grand- 
 mothers kneaded with their own skilled hands. Bi-ead-making should 
 stand at the head of domestic accomplishments : since the health and 
 happiness of the family depends incalculably upon good bread ; and 
 there comes a time in every true, thoughtful woman's experience when 
 she is glad she can make nice, sweet loaves, free from soda, alum, and 
 other injurious ingredients, or an earnest regret that she neglected 
 or was so unfortunate as not to have been taught at least what are the 
 requisites of good bread-making. 
 
 Yeast. — Dry yeast or yeast cakes are more convenient and less liable 
 to taste in the bread tlian bakers' yeast. Two or three times a year 
 there should be a fresh supply of yeast cakes prepared and carefully 
 put in a dry place. Yeast cakes are manufactured and sold, some of 
 which are very reliable. To make dry yeast, steep for half an hour a 
 handful of fresh hops in a quart of boiling water. Sift two quarts of 
 flour in an earthen or stone pan, and strain into the flour the boiling 
 hop tea. Stir well and let it cool, when lukewarm add a cent's worth, 
 of baker's yeast or a cupful of good home-made yeast, and put in a 
 tablespoouf ul of brown sugar, a tablespoonful of ginger, a teaspoonful 
 of salt, mix thoroughly and let it rise. It is best to prepare this sponge 
 over night, and early in the morning it will be rounded up and light, 
 and give you all day, which should be sunny and breezy, to make and 
 dry the yeast cakes. Now mix into the sponge as much good corn 
 meal as will make a stiff, firm dough, knead it well and make it into a 
 long, round roll three or four inches in diameter. Cut it into slices 
 half an inch thick, spread a clean cloth or clean paper on a board and 
 lay the cakes on and put into a light, airy place to dry. Turn them 
 several times during the day, and speed the drying as fast as possible, 
 as the fermentation goes oc while they remain moist. When dry put 
 
RECIPES. 53 
 
 into a bag made of firm linen or cotton, tie close, and liang liigh and 
 dry. 
 
 Bread with Scalded Sponge. — Set your sponge the last thing at 
 night, thus : put one yeast cake to soften in a half cup of warm water, 
 sift two quarts of flour into a bowl or pan that will hold four quarts, 
 scald the flour with a sufficient quantity of boiling water to moisten it 
 all. Stir very thoroughly till it is free from lumps and cool enough to 
 put in the yeast cake, add the yeast, and set to rise in a warm place in 
 winter, or in a cool place in summer. In the morning before breakfast 
 the sponge will be risen round and foamy, and should be made imme- 
 diately into dough. Sift as much flour as you need into your bread 
 bowl or pan, and in cold weather to warm the flour will gain you time 
 and credit. If you wish to make a Graham loaf or two, save one-third 
 of the sponge for that, and mis the rest into the sifted and warmed 
 flour, add a pint of \\...'in water, or sufficient to make the flour into a 
 lirni dough, and knead until smooth and free from the board and hands. 
 Put the dough back into the bread pan, cover with a clean cloth, and 
 %vrap a warmed blanket over the whole to keep from the air. The 
 more muffled you wrap it the sooner the bread will rise. If the tem- 
 perature has been just right, the bread will be ready to mold into the 
 baking tins in less than two hours. Have the pans cleaned and greased; 
 divide the dough into loaves which will two-thirds fill the pan, knead 
 lightly with a little flour on the board, but use no more than you can 
 help. Cover slightly and let it rise again till the loaf looks as large as 
 it should be. Now the oven should be hot, with a firm steady fire, 
 which will last three quarters of an hour ; fresh fuel ought not to be 
 added till the bread is finished. Every cook should know just what 
 her oven will do, and be governed accordingly ; if too hot at the bottom 
 Bet the pan up an inch, if too hot at the top cover the loaf with brown 
 paper, open the oven as little as possible. When baked, remove the 
 loaf at once from the pan and put to cool on a rack, or resting it on 
 one edge. Never cover or allow bread to sweat in the baking tins, the 
 crusts will soften as they cool. Good flour and properly made bread 
 will not have hard crusts. When cold, wrap the bread in the bread 
 cloth and put into a tray or into a clean tin boiler, cover, but not air- 
 tight. Bread thus made will be good and fresh for several days. 
 
 Remark. — The keen fermenting odor which starts up when the 
 dough is ready for the second kneading is not sour, nor does it need 
 Boda. Soda kills the lively quality of yeast. 
 
 Yeast Graham Bread. — Take the remainder of the white flour 
 sponge, a tablespoonful of sugar, and three pints of warm water ; mis 
 with them Graham flour into as stiff a dough as you can stir well with 
 a large spoon. Beat it up thoroughly for ten minutes, or, if you can- 
 not manage the spoon, dip the hand into water, and work the dough 
 till it is very smooth. Let it rise two hours, then stir it up and put it 
 into deep baking-tins, and let it stand till it begins to rise again. Bake 
 in a quick oven one hour. Graham flour ferments quicker than fine 
 flour, and should not be allowed to rise so long. If, when the bread is 
 cold, it seems too soft, remember, the next time, to mis the dough a 
 
54 BECIPES. 
 
 little stiffer. The precise consistency cannot be guessed always, as 
 Bonje wheat works softer than others. The sweetening can be left out 
 with proi:)riety. Indeed, we never could see why Graham flour should 
 be sweetened at all, as it has all the sugar of the grain left in, while 
 fine flour has had the sugar taken out by the process of bolting. 
 
 Bread with Potatoes. — Potatoes assist fermentation, and render 
 the dough lighter and more tender when we wish to make bread in 
 haste. Peel and boil, or steam, a quart of potatoes, mash them very 
 fine, or, what is better, press them through a colander while they are 
 hot, add half a pint of water and a salt-spoonful of salt, stir them into 
 a batter, and then put in a yeast cake previously softened, or a teacup- 
 ful of lively yeast, and make into a dough with two quarts of sifted 
 flour. Knead it half an hour, put plenty of flour on your board, and 
 kuead it until it cleaves from the board with a light tearing sound. 
 Be careful not to let your dough grow very cold while you work it. 
 Divide into loaves, and set to rise in a warm place. Watch the pro- 
 cess, and when the loaves are quite light have your oven in good heat 
 and bake three quarters of an hour. This bread is very nice if well 
 made, i. e., the potatoes made very fine and kept hot, and perhaps the 
 flour warmed also ; but it is not so good when stale as that made with 
 a scalded sponge. 
 
 Delicious Biscuit. — Made in the same manner, only adding half a 
 pint of sour cream instead of the water. Bring the cream to a scald- 
 ing heat, and put in a teaspoonful of soda ; mix otherwise the same. 
 Set to rise in the bowl, and, when light, make into small cakes. Put 
 them close in the pan, and let them rise uptoard within an inch of the 
 top of the pan and bake. 
 
 Buttermilk Bread. — Put three or four pints of fresJi buttermilk 
 into a saucepan and boil it. Stir it pretty constantly while it is heat- 
 ing, to keep it from separating into whey and curd. Have a quart of 
 flour sifted into a suitable vessel, pour the boiling buttermilk on the 
 flour, and scald it thoroughly. Stir until all the flour is mixed, and 
 set to cool. When sufficiently cool add a teacupf ul of good yeast, and 
 let it rise over night ; in the morning sift and mix into the sponge 
 enough flour to make a stiff dough ; knead well, and set to rise for 
 two hours, then divide into loaves and knead slightly. At this time 
 use as little flour as possible. Set to rise again, and bake as soon as 
 light enough. Bake in a steady oven three quarters of an hour. This 
 is a good sponge for dark, or runny flour. The bread will be white 
 and moist. Graham flour, prepared with scalded buttermilk, mixed a 
 little stift'er than where sweet milk or water is used, is very sweet and 
 good. Do not put soda into the milk or sponge. It will be perfectly 
 sweet when it is baked if the yeast is fresh, and if the whole process 
 is carefully attended to in the right time. 
 
 Sweet Potato Buns. — Boil, and then mash three good-sized sweet 
 potatoes with a pint of cream or new milk ; mix with as much flour as 
 will make a dough as for bread, adding a teacupful of good sponge or 
 yeast. Knead well, and set to rise. Always wrap your blanket close 
 around the bowl, and place where the wind or cold air does not come, 
 
BECIPES. 55 
 
 if you wish a quick rising. As soon as the dough begins to crack 
 open mould into small rolls and put close together in the baking-pan. 
 When sufficiently light bake in a moderate oven half an hour. 
 
 Graham Muffins.— Dissolve a half cake of yeast in a little warm 
 water, scald a quart of milk and pour it into two quarts of Graham 
 flour, stir Avell, and let it cool sufficiently, then put in the yeast and a 
 spoonful of brown sugar, make a very thick batter, which will ht^ap 
 on the spoon ; set to rise over night. In the morning have a good hot 
 oven, butter your rings and the pan well with cold butter, fill the 
 rings two-thirds full, let them stand a few minutes in a warm place, 
 then put into the brisk oven and bake half an hour. 
 
 Bread Muffins. — Take four slices of baker's bread, and cut off the 
 crust. Lay them in a pan, and pour boiling water over them, only 
 just sufficient to soak them well. Cover the vessel with a cloth, and 
 when it has stood an hour draw off the water, and stir the soaked 
 bread till the mass is quite smooth, then mix in two tablespoonsful of 
 sifted Hour and half a pint of milk, and stir in, gradually, two well- 
 beaten eggs. Butter some muffin rings, set them in a buttered bake- 
 pan, and till each two-thirds full. Bake brown, and send to the table 
 hot. 
 
 Buckwheat Cakes. — One quart of buckwheat flour and a half a 
 pint of Graham meal. Mix with lukewarm water into a batter, stir in 
 a teacupful of good yeast sponge or a half cent's worth of baker's 
 yeast ; mix in an earthen or stone vessel, and set over night in a warm 
 ))lace to rise. If the temperature and yeast have been just right, the 
 batter will be light and sweet, and not need soda. It should be con- 
 sidered a mistake when the ferment needs neutralizing, and care 
 taken to set cooler or correct the yeast. 
 
 Buckwheat Gravy. — Buckwheat cakes are often considered rather 
 an unwholesome dish ; but we think that the fault comes from the 
 excess of melted butter and syrup, which is usually eaten with them. 
 Substitute this, at least for the children : — Boil a pint of milk and half 
 a pint of cream, put in half a teaspoonful of salt and two or three large 
 spoonsful of buckwheat batter, dip a spoonful and put directly into 
 the boiling milk, wait for it to boil up, and then add another till you 
 get a proper consistency, boil a minute longer, and pour into a tureen 
 or pitcher for the table. 
 
 Gravies — May always take Uie place of butter and syrup when 
 griddle cakes are to be eaten, simply by boiling a pint of milk or 
 cream and adding a spoonful or two of the batter of which the cakes 
 are made as a thickening, a little salt and a very little lump of butter 
 may be added. Children are far better satisfied with a creamy gravy 
 than with butter. 
 
 Hygienic Breakfast Cakes. — One pint of fresh oatmeal, one quart 
 water, let it stand over night. In the morning add one teaspoonful of 
 fine salt, one tablespoonful of sugar, and the same of baking powder, 
 and one pint of Graham flour. If the above proportions make a battqjr 
 
56 RECIPES. 
 
 too stiff for griddle cakes, add more water. If gems are preferred in- 
 stead of cakes, the addition of a little more flour is all tliat is required 
 to produce an extra article. 
 
 OatjieaIi Bread. — One quart fresh oatmeal, two quarts of water, 
 let stand half a day or over night. When ready to bake, add one 
 quart of fine, or Graham flour, half a cup of sugar, one teaspoonful 
 fine salt, two teaspoonsful of baking powder ; mix with a spoon. No 
 kneading is required. If too stiff, add water. 
 
 Corn Cakes. — Three cups of corn meal, one cup of Graham flour, 
 two teaspoonsful of cream yeast powder sifted together, one cup of 
 cream, and half a cup of milk, one egg well beaten ; stir altogether 
 well and quickly ; heat your gem irons hot ; butter and fill ; bake with 
 a brisk heat. Gem tins or forms do not need to be heated before fill- 
 ing, they may be oiled and filled on the table, and put into a quick 
 oveu. 
 
 Graham Griddle Cakes. — Into one pint of Graham flour and half 
 pint Indian ineal mix thoroughly two teaspoonsful of cream yeast and 
 half teaspoonful salt, beat up well one egg and mix with one pint cold 
 water, into which mix thoroughly the flour as prepared, and fry at 
 once. 
 
 Gold Medal Corn Cakes. — Mix two heaping teaspoonsful of cream 
 yeast and half teaspoonful of salt thoroughly through one pint of In- 
 dian meal and half pint of sifted flour, beat well one egg and mix in 
 one tablespoonf ul of brown sugar, half pint milk or cold water, and 
 stir in the meal as jjrepared, to the consistency of a thick batter, steam 
 until half done in a three pint basin, and finish by baking in a hot 
 oven, or drop into hot cup or gem pans well buttered, and bake in a 
 hot oven. 
 
 Corn Gems. — Mix two heaping teaspoonsful of cream yeast and half 
 teaspoonful of salt thoroughly through one and one half pound sifted In- 
 dian meal ; stir the meal as prepared slowly into one pint (more or 
 less) of sweet milk or cold water, so as to make a very thin batter, 
 place in hot gem tins or cups, let them stand five minutes in a warm 
 place and bake in a very hot oven, 
 
 Yankee Strawberry Short Cake. — Mix two heaping teaspoonsful 
 of cream yeast and half teaspoonful of salt thoroughly through one 
 quart of sifted flour, beat well one egg, and mix in two tablespoousful 
 melted butter, one of sugar, nearly a pint of sweet milk or cold water, 
 mix in the flour as prepared, as thin as convenient to handle, knead 
 but little, let stand five minutes in a warm place, bake in a quick oven ; 
 cut into three layers, place sugar and strawberries between and dust 
 upper crust with sugar. 
 
 Squash Cakes. — Mix Graham floiir with half its bulk of stewed 
 squash, or pumpkin, and add milk enough to make a thick batter, 
 about a cup of milk to each cup of squash. Put in one teaspoonful 
 cream yeast, mixing it well with the flour. Cook on a griddle. 
 
RECIPES. 57 
 
 Boston Brown Bread. — Take three pints of Indian meal, sifted, 
 jjd one quart of rye meal, sifted. Stir into the corn meal one tea- 
 spoonful of salt and one teacup ful of molasses, and wet it to a batter, 
 as thick as that used for griddle cakes, with boiling Avater ; then set it 
 aside to cool. Stir one large coffeecupful of sour milk, or buttermilk, 
 info the rye meal, add to it one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in two 
 tablespoonsful of boiling water, and boil on the stove for two minutes, 
 or until it is in a light froth. 
 
 Mix together the corn and rye meal batter with the hand, beating it 
 well. Let it stand for fifteen minutes, then turn into an iron bake 
 kettle, and bake for three or four hours. This will make a large loaf 
 of bread, but it is better to bake it all in one pffii, as a very thick, hard 
 crust forms over the whole, and if one likes, it can be partly removed 
 while hot, and eaten with milk or cream, for it makes a very palatable 
 dish for bi-eakfast or supper. 
 
 We prefer to hake brown bread, however, by steaming it in a large tin 
 pudding dish for three hours, placing the tin in a kettle of boiling 
 water, and not letting it boil over the top of it. Then it is put into 
 the oven for another hour ; and this way of cooking it will form no 
 crust that is not easily eaten, and gives the bread a delicious flavor, 
 and it will remain moist for several days. When it is two or three 
 days oldit is much improved by being warmed in the oven or toasted. 
 
 Apple Bread. — Weigh one pound of fresh, juicy apples, peel, core 
 and stew them to a pulp, being careful to use a porcelain kettle or a 
 stone jar, placed inside an ordinary saucepan of boiling water ; other- 
 wise the fruit will become discolored ; mix the pulp with two pounds 
 of the best flour ; put in the same quantity of yeast you would use for 
 common bread, and as much water as will make it a fine, smooth 
 dough ; put into an iron pan and place it into a warm place to rise, and 
 let it remain for twelve hours, at least. Form it into rather long-shaped 
 loaves, and bake in a quick oven. 
 
 Fruit Corn Cakes. — Put a pint of whortleberries in a bowl, add a 
 teacupful of sugar, one pint of corn meal and a large tablespoonful of 
 fine flour, wet with boiling water. Bake in cakes about one-half an 
 inch thick on a griddle or in an oven twenty minutes. For nice apple 
 cakes use sweet and tart apples, chopped, instead of berries. 
 
 Oat Meal or Scotch Puffs. — One quart of sweet milk, three well- 
 beaten eggs, two and a half cups of oat meal, one and a half cups of 
 Graham flour, and a little salt. Use a medium-sized cup. Heat and 
 oil the gem irons and bake in a quick oven. 
 
 X Graham Flour Puffs. — One quart of sweet milk, two eggs, flour 
 to make a thin batter, fill the gem cups two-thirds full, bake in a quick 
 oven. 
 
 Rice Griddle Cakes. — Cook half a teacupful of whole rice till every 
 grain is dissolved and like jelly. Warm half a pint of rich milk, 
 put in half a teaspoonful of salt, stir the rice into the milk till it 
 Is smoothly mixed. Bent three eggs, whites and yolks separately, 
 till very light, and put into the rice and milk the last thing. Bake 
 on a hot greased griddle till brown and light. 
 
58 RECIPES. 
 
 Indian Griddles. — Two cups of meal, one of flour, one of milk, 
 one of water, one egg well beaten, two teaspoonsful of cream yeast, 
 fiifted into the meal and flour. Mix and bake on hot griddles, 
 
 Graham Gems. — You are su]5posed to have the baking irons or 
 " setting " for these gems ; else we don't know what you will do. 
 They are to be had of hardware dealers ; at least no kitchen is fur- 
 nished without them. These gems are displacing all other kinds of 
 coarse bread on our table. They can be eaten with butter or without 
 butter, hot or cold, morning, noon, and night. They are as handy as 
 crackers ; are just what you want for children's lunch, and to fill in 
 when you are making up a picnic basket. They are not only hygienic, 
 but are good in the mouth. They have an almond-like sweetness, 
 and their fibre is like that of nut-meats, giving the teeth just the ex- 
 ercise they crave. No taste of " emptyings." But to our receipt, 
 which will not be half as long as this preamble. Put the irons in the 
 oven, where they will get hot by the time you have mixed the gema. 
 Then take milk and water, half and half, and stir in Graham flour, 
 No. 1, till you have a batter that will " drop from the spoon and not 
 run." Stir very thoroughly, the more the better. Drop into the hot 
 irons and bake immediately. (If you are quick you can take the irons 
 out of the oven for better convenience in filling.) The oven is a grand 
 point. It should have a solid heat, and bake as fast as it can and not 
 burn. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Make the bat- 
 ter a little thicker or thinner, the oven a little slower or quicker 
 (quicker more likely). There is a way, and you will find it, and then 
 be able to repeat your success as often as you wish. 
 
 Wheat Meal Unleavened Cakes (Gems). — To one quart of soft, 
 cold water, add, by degrees, three pints of coai-sely ground wheat 
 meal. Stir rapidly, with a large spoon, three or four minutes, so as to 
 incorporate a large amount of atmosphere. Dip out into iron baking 
 molds, which have been heated hot and oiled. Bake immediately in 
 an oven as hot as it can be and not burn, for twenty or twenty-five 
 minutes. Diminish the heat after fifteen minutes. Iron molds are 
 better than tin. The small size, about three inches in length, and one 
 and a half in width, is better than the larger sizes. The proportions 
 of water and meal in this formula are for white wheat. For red wheat 
 a little more meal is necessary. One-sixth corn meal is an improve- 
 ment, in which case it needs a heaping measure of meal to the water. 
 
 Oat Meal and Graham Gems. — Mix equal parts of fine Irish oat 
 meal and Graham flour into a thick batter with milk and water equal 
 parts, fill hot gem irons and bake with a brisk heat. Very sweet and 
 tender. 
 
 Wheat Meal Eolls. — Pour boiling water on unbolted wheat 
 meal, stirring rapidly with a strong spoon or stick. The dough 
 ehould be scarcely stiff enough to retain its shape. Of this take por- 
 tions about the size of a hen's egg, and roll it into a round form three 
 or four inches in length ; a plenty of dry flour to prevent sticking. 
 Bake at once. The coating of flour also prevents the escape of air 
 
SECIPES. 59 
 
 from the dough, as the sudden heat of baking expands it, thus making 
 the rolls much lighter. Let bake in a very hot oven. 
 
 Snow Cakes or Bread. — First cool a wooden bowl, in this put 
 the desired quantity of corn or unbolted wheat meal, mix with this 
 twice or three times as much snow. It now appears like dry meal. 
 Put some on a hot griddle ; if too dry to turn well add more snow; if 
 too wet to be light add more meal ; when just right bake the same as 
 batter cakes, or put it in a pan, about two inches deep — rounding it 
 from the edge — and bake in a quick oven twenty minutes. 
 
 Corn Cakes. — Pour hot water on to corn meal to make a stiff bat- 
 ter; let it stand over night. In the morning- add milk to thin it, then 
 stir in Graham flour, in which is a little baking powder, until it is the 
 right consistence for baking. Bake in gem pans, and they will be 
 light and nice, with a very small proportion of yeast powder. 
 
 Corn Meal Breakfast Cake. — For two baking tins take one and 
 a half pints of coarsely ground corn meal. Add water nearly boiling, 
 but not enough to wet quite all of the corn meal ; add cold water, a 
 little at a time, stirring thoroughly between whiles, until you have it 
 BO thin that it has a tendency to settle as you pour it into your pie 
 tins. It should not be more than half an inch deep in the tins, and it 
 should bake quickly in a hot oven. 
 
 Corn Cake, "with Fruit. — Pour one quart boiling water on one 
 quart corn meal, and stir quickly. Wet the hands, and form the 
 dough into small round cakes one-half an inch thick. Bake in a hot 
 oven. The addition of a few raspberries, huckleberries, or any other 
 Bub-acid fruit, is a decided improvement. Sweet apples, chopped 
 fine, are also excellent. 
 
 Corn and Rye Biscuits. — Pour boiling water on coarse yellow 
 corn meal, and stir to the consistency of a thick batter. Immediately 
 add coarse rye meal to make into a very soft dough ; form into small, 
 flat biscuits (fifteen to a baking pan) with the hands frequently wet in 
 cold water, and bake immediately in a hot oven. They are very nice 
 for variety, and are best made of equal parts of corn and rye. Bake 
 thirty minutes or more. 
 
 Wheat Me.Uj Crisps — Wet unbolted wheat meal with boiling 
 water, and form a stiff dough. Grease, or sprinkle flour on a nice 
 sheet of iron — the bottom of a smooth sheet-iron pan would answer — 
 on this roll out the dough as thin as possible, mark into convenient 
 squares, and bake in a slow oven. When rightly baked they will not 
 curl or blister. Invalids with the poorest teeth, whose state of health 
 may require dry food, can eat them. 
 
 Wheat Meal Biscuits. — Pour boiling soft water upon coarse 
 white-wheat meal, stir with a spoon to a dough as soft as it can be 
 managed, by the exercise of skill, upon a molding board. Roll to an 
 inch in thickness, cut with a biscuit cutter, prick and bake immedi- 
 ately in an oven hotter than is necessary for the two preceding. It 
 
60 " RECIPES. 
 
 will take half an hour to bake. If made of red wheat it must be 
 stiffer and baked longer. 
 
 Good Unleavened Bread. — Take half the flour you intend using, 
 and pour on boiling milk (be sure it boils) ; have it about the consist- 
 ency of batter that you would have for making pancakes ; let this 
 stand till cool enough to work ; then knead in the rest of your flour, 
 just sufliciently stifE to mold on a board. One hour in a middling hot 
 oven is sufficient for baking. 
 
 De. Jenkins's GhRAHAM Crackers.— Procure the whitest and 
 cleanest wheat (Canada wheat is best), have the crackers made by a 
 baker. Mix with nothing but pure, soft water, and thoroughly re- 
 duce the mass in a baker's break, as for making other crackers. Have 
 them rolled very thin, no more than half as thick as soda crackers, cut 
 in the form and the size of soda crackers, and bake quickly until a pale 
 yellow. These will keep six months if placed in a dry, cool, swfcet 
 store room. They are fresher and more tender to place them in & dot 
 oven a few moments before bringing them to the table. 
 
 Graham Crackers. — Wet the best of Graham flour with cold 
 milk, adding about a fifth proportion of thick cream, or a little butter 
 if cream is not to be had. Mix as soft as can be handled ; knead very 
 thoroughly, say fifteen or twenty minutes ; roll thin ; cut ia three- 
 inch-square cards ; lay, so they will not touch each other, on a hot 
 sheet-iron pan, and bake quickly, say ten to fifteen or twenty minutes, 
 according to thickness. Handle carefully while hot, and pack away, 
 when cold, in tin cans or stone jars in a cool, dry place. 
 
 Apple-Corn Pone. — Pare and chop fine a quart of sweet apples. 
 Scald a quart of corn meal with a pint of boiling water ; add new 
 milk enough to make a stiff batter, then stir in the apples. Bake 
 slowly in a close vessel three hours. Butter the dish well. This is 
 very nice, boiled the same length of time in a pudding-mold or bag. 
 But it is never so good as when baked in an old-fashioned kettle with 
 a close-fitting lid, with live coals from the fire heaped on top and 
 under the kettle. The thick brown crusts are delicious, with cream or 
 milk. 
 
 Steamed Brown Bread. — One quart of rye meal, one pint of Indian 
 meal, one cup of molasses, one teaspoonful of sifted cream yeast stirred 
 in the molasses, a little salt. Stir soft with cold water, steam three 
 hours, and dry off in the oveo fifteen minutes. 
 
 Brown Bread. — The sweetest bread ever made. — Take three 
 pints of coarse yellow corn meal, scald it with three pints and a half 
 of boiling water, add two pints of coarse rye meal after the corn has 
 cooled. Knead thoroughly with the hands. Take it out into a stone- 
 ware crock, or pot, which is a little larger at the top. The quantity here 
 given will take a vessel which holds five or six quarts. Place it imme- 
 diately in the oven after smoothing over the top Avith a spoon fre- 
 quently dipped in cold water. Cover with a stone or iron plate, and 
 have but little heat in the oven. It should take three hours to begin 
 to bake, then bake slowly four hours. Leave the loaf in until the 
 
RECIPE^. 61 
 
 oven cools off, if it is several hours longer. It should be dark-colored, 
 light and firm, with a good soft crust. A round-bottomed iron kettle 
 will do to bake in. Try it. 
 
 Yankee Brown Bread. — Take equal quantities of rye and corn 
 meal, and mix with water, making a dough that can be kneaded. 
 Work with the hands until it loses its stickiness, and will readily 
 cleave from the fingers. Let it stand several hours, or over night, and 
 bake in loaves, in covered dishes, in a moderate oven, from three to 
 five hours. Or, it may be steamed three h^urs, and baked one. 
 Coarsely ground meal is better than fine for this kind of bread. 
 
 Apple Brown Bread. — Work equal parts of corn and rye meal 
 into stewed apples until the entire mass is tboroughly mixed, and bake 
 as above. Or, thin with water to a batter, and bake on the griddle. 
 
 How TO Make Oat Meal Cakes. — The Rural Cyclopedia, pub- 
 lished at Edinburgh, Scotland, gives the following receipt for making 
 oat meal cakes. Well made they are delicious. 
 
 " As much meal as will make a sheet 24 or 30 inches in diameter 
 and one-eighth of an inch in thickness, is put into a wooden basin, 
 with a sufficiency of water for working the meal into a light paste. 
 The meal and water are mixed by the fingers of the right hand, 
 while the basin is turned constantly round by the left hand, till the 
 paste is made; the paste is then turned out on a clean board, or 
 table, and alternately kneaded with the knuckles of both hands, 
 sprinkled with meal, gathered up, kneaded and sprinkled, and 
 kneaded again and again, till it becomes a well kneaded and homo- 
 geneous dough ; the dough is then flattened out with the knuckles 
 into a circular cake of half an inch, or less, in thickness, and imme- 
 diately afterward distended with a roller into a sheet of about one- 
 eighth of an inch in thickness ; and the sheet is then pared round the 
 edges and cut into three or four parts from the centre with a knife. 
 The parts of the cut sheet of dough are fired, or half baked, first on 
 the one side and then on the other, upon a thin circular plate of iron, 
 called a griddle or girdle ; and then they are toasted, or whole 
 baked, by being placed on their edge on a toaster close before the 
 fire, with first the one side and then the other exposed to the heat. 
 Some butter is sometimes mixed with the paste, to render the cakes 
 ' fresh ' and highly relishable, and occasionally a few caraway seeds 
 also are added, but in the estimation of racy, unsophisticated cake- 
 eaters, all such admixtures are an abomination." 
 
 A Scotchman writing to the New York Observe}' in reference to these 
 cakes and oat meal generally, says : 
 
 "The favorite accompaniment to this is sweet milk, dipped with 
 the sjioon (which has previously taken up and contains a portion of 
 the porridge) out of a separate dish from the porridge." 
 
 Oat Meal Breakfast Cakes. — This is made of No. 2 oat meal, 
 with water enough to saturate it, and little or no salt. Pour it into 
 a baking tin half an inch or three-quarters deep, shake it down level, 
 and when this is done it should be so wet that two or three spoonsful 
 of water should run freely on the surface. Put it in a quick oven 
 
63 ^ EECIPES. 
 
 and bake twenty minutes. Eat warm. It will be as ligbt and tender 
 as the best " Johnny cake," or else you have wet it too much or 
 baked it too long. This is one of the most accommodating baked 
 dishes that can be made. It will do very nicely with a little longer 
 time if the oven is not quite hot. If it will not bake there at all, 
 pour it into a frying pan, cover it close and set it on the top of the 
 Btove, where it will even bake in fifteen minutes. 
 
 For a hurried breakfast and a slow coal fire it is invaluable. Scarcely 
 any wholesome thing in the whole bread line can be prepared more 
 readily. It can be made still thinner and baked quicker. It is good 
 either crisp or moist. For emergencies alone every housekeeper will 
 find it convenient to be able to malve the breakfast cake. Many use 
 oat meal mixed with buckwheat, wheat or corn, for griddle cakes. 
 For this use I prefer it cooked first. Take, say one-half pint of the 
 porridge or the mush, diffuse it in one quart of water, and add the 
 wheat meal, sifting it in and stirring slowly. 
 
 Oat Meal Cake. — Take one pint of oatmeal, and just warm water 
 enough to stir up a batter like griddle cakes. Pour it into a shallow 
 baking pan, and bake for twenty minutes in a hot oven. Or, if pref- 
 erable, bake it in small cakes on the griddle, first putting in a hand- 
 ful of wheat flour and a little more water. The cold porridge will 
 also make delicious griddle cakes. 
 
 Cream Toast. — Boil a pint and a half of cream or new milk and 
 thicken with a tablespoonf ul of flour or corn starch, add a little salt. 
 Toast slices of stale bread quickly, of an even brown on both sides, 
 lay them in the toast dish and dip over them a plentiful supply of 
 the hot thickened cream ; add another layer of toast and then more 
 cream. 
 
 Another Way. — Cut smooth slices of stale bread less than half an 
 inch thick, toast a delicate brown, put the plate into the oven and 
 heat it quite warm, lay the toast into the plate and pour over it cold, 
 sweet cream, and the toast is ready to be eaten. For invalids and 
 children with dainty appetites, this is very nice and easily digested. 
 Some light fruit jelly will add to the relish and still be wholesome. 
 
 Norwegian Oat Meal Porhidge. — Take two or three handfuls 
 of meal, mixed, coarse and fine, in proportion of one-third latter to two 
 of the former. Mix in a basin of cold water and pour into a pan con- 
 taining about a quart of boiling water, adding a small portion of salt. 
 Set on the fire, and keep stirring, adding from time to time small 
 doses of meal until it boils and has acquired a proper consistency ; 
 which may be known by its glutinous state, as it drops from the 
 spoon. Let it simmer ten minutes, then pour into common dinner 
 plates. Spoon out portions and float in new milk, adding sugar to 
 taste. 
 
 Oat Meal Cracknels. — Take the finest quality of oatmeal, and 
 stir in barley water enough to wet it through ; let it stand twenty 
 minutes to swell, then roll it out to a quarter of an inch in thickness, 
 first flouring the board and rolling pin with wheat flour. Cut it with 
 a biscuit cutter and bake in a moderately hot oven, as these cakea 
 
BECIPES. 63 
 
 •will burn quickly, and only require to be of the eligbtest brown. 
 They will snap easily between the fingers, and are delicious, requir- 
 ing no butter to make them palatable. If put into a close jar they 
 will keep for several months, lu the Highlands of Scotland they 
 preserve their craclinels, or bannocks, as they call them, in the barrels 
 of oatmeal for a year or so. 
 
 Another way to'make cracknels, is to mix oatmeal to a stifE batter 
 ■with cold water, and let it stand several hours. Or mix with sweet 
 milk and let it stand until it swells (do not let it sour), then pour it 
 into bake pans and bake twenty minutes. They should be one- 
 fourth of an inch thick and a light brown color when done. 
 
 ^ Oat Meal and Cocoakut Cracknels. — Oatmeal mixed with 
 grated cocoanut produces a very attractive cake to both old and 
 young. Take three heaping tablespoonfuls of grated cocoanut, or 
 two of the prepared " dessicated " cocoanut; add to it half a pint 
 "of the finest oatmeal and two heaping tablespoonfuls of sugar; stir 
 it into one gill of boiling water, and mix it thoroughly together; 
 turn out on the rolling board, well floured, and roll it as thin and 
 cut out as for common cracknels, put a bit of citron and half a dozen 
 currants into each cake, sticking them into the dough. Bake in a 
 slow oven and watch carefully lest they brown a shade too deep. 
 To make them crispy let them stand a day in an uncovered dish. A 
 very palatable pie crust can be made from the dough of oatmeal 
 cracknels by wetting it a little thinner; or in preparing it, add just 
 half the measure of meal in hot water. Add no butter or lard, sim- 
 ply a little salt ; roll out thin, and make the pie of cooked fruits, as 
 this kind of paste bakes very quickly, and if the fruit requires cook- 
 ing it would become too hard and brown. Most persons who eschew 
 all kinds of pies can eat those made of oatmeal without fear or 
 trembling, and they will soon learn to consider oatmeal an invalu- 
 able addition to their tables. 
 
 Onion Toast. — Boil some onions of moderate size ; change the 
 water twice in boiling ; salt in the last water. When nicely done take 
 out with a skimmer. Make a gravy such as you make for cream toast. 
 Toast slices of bread, lay them in a dish, put the onions on the slices, 
 one on a slice, and pour the gravy over both. 
 
 NoU. — The onions will cook in half the time if you cut them into three or four 
 slices before you put them into the water. 
 
 Egg Toast. — Break the eggs carefully into water boiling hot, but 
 not really boiling. Let them simmer till they are delicately cooked or 
 till the yolks are covered with a white film, then take up with a skim- 
 mer and lay on slices of buttered or cream toast. Salt the water in 
 which the eggs are boiled, and see that it covers the eggs. Butter and 
 pepper may be added on the table. 
 
 TO COOK EGGS. 
 
 Boiled Eggs. — Boil three minutes by the watch, and you have the 
 central or yellow part soft boiled, while the white is hard, unpalatable, 
 and diflficult of digestion. 
 
64 EKCIPES. 
 
 Place tlie eggs in water " milk warm," or a little wanner. In four 
 or five minutes pour off the water, and immediately pour on boiling 
 water to cover the eggs, and in five minutes they will be cooked. 
 
 If boiling water is poured on cold eggs in a cold dish, it will be so 
 suddenly cooled that the eggs will not be cooked, but treat them as 
 above directed, and you will find them thoroughly cooked, yet soft 
 and palatable. 
 
 The Queen's Omelet. — Place in the frying pan about one ounce 
 of butter. Break three eggs, separately, to see they are fresh ; beat 
 them up with a little chopped parsley and a pinch of pepper and salt. 
 The eggs should not be beaten too much, or the white of them sepa- 
 rates, and you produce a watery mixture which destroys the flavor and 
 appearance of the omelet. Now the butter is melted, pour in the fry- 
 ing pan the omelet mixture and stir till it begins to set or thicken, 
 shake the pan occasionally, and fold over the omelet neatly into an 
 oval shape, and when it is of a golden color turn quickly into a dish. 
 To be able to prepare a plain omelet is to be able to prepare every 
 kind of omelet. If you require a cheese omelet, introduce into the 
 omelet mixture about a dessert spoonful of grated cheese, with a little 
 jjepper and salt, and sometimes a few grains of cayenne pepper. In a 
 sweet omelet no pepper or salt, but a little grated sugar ; and just be- 
 fore the omelet is folded in the pan distribute evenly over a little jam. 
 In preparing an omelet, remember five things— a clean pan ; the mix- 
 ture must not be too much beaten ; the omelet must not be too 
 large ; three eggs are better than six eggs, which make two omelets ; 
 they should not be too much cooked ; they should be eaten immedi- 
 ately, or they become tough, and more like a pancake. 
 
 Dropped Eggs. — Have ready a saucepan of boiling water. Drop 
 fresh eggs carefully into the water so as not to break the yolks. Let 
 them stand where they will keep hot. but not boil, until the white 
 sets. Toast slices of bread and lay in a dish, and pour over it a gill 
 of hot cream with a little salt ; then take out the eggs with an egg- 
 slice or tablespoon, and put on to the bread with parsley, if you 
 like. 
 
 Baked Omelet. — Boil half a pint of cream, or rich milk ; beat 
 six eggs thoroughly — they will be nicer if the whites and yolks are 
 beaten separately ; have a deep dish hot and buttered ; stir the beaten 
 eggs, with a little salt, into the cream ; put all quickly into the dish, 
 and bake from five to ten minutes, depending upon the condition of 
 the oven. It should be lightly browned, and taken directly to the 
 table in the dish. 
 
 Scrambled Eggs. — Have a spider hot and buttered. Break as 
 many eggs as you wish to cook into a dish, being careful not to break 
 the yolks. Slip the eggs into the spider, sprinkle over a very little 
 salt, and add a lump of butter the size of a nutmeg for half a dozen 
 eggs, or three tablespoonfuls of rich cream. When the eggs begin to 
 whiten, stir them carefully from the bottom, until cooked to suit. The 
 yolks and whites should separate, though stirred together. Care 
 should be taken not to have tlie spider too hot. 
 
RECIPES. 65 
 
 Baked Eggs. — Take a common white dish with a smooth bottom, 
 and large enough to hold the eggs you wish to cook ; do not crowd 
 them. Set the dish into the oven till quite hot, then butter it ; have 
 the eggs broken, and slip them carefully into the dish ; sprinkle a 
 little salt over them, and put directly into a quick oven and bake 
 three or five minutes. Butter and pepper may be added, if desired, 
 when they are cooked. A tablespoonful of cream to two eggs, when 
 they are first set to bake, is nice. 
 
 PREPARATIONS OF CHEESE. 
 
 Cheese and Bread Toast. — Grate half a cup of good cheese — 
 use your crumbs and dry pieces — mix with it one cup of grated bread 
 and the yolk of one egg, half a spoonful of butter, and three spoonfuls 
 of rich cream. Add a salt spoonful of salt, and a sprinkle of cayenne 
 and mustard if desired. Toast two or three slices of bread, spread the 
 cheese mixture on quite thick, put into the oven a minute or two, and 
 send to the table hot. Or lay on a top slice, and make a sandwich. 
 Take a sharp knife and cut into four pieces. 
 
 Cottage Cheese. — This is a farmer's dish, but should and would 
 be eaten and appreciated by all classes if they knew how wholesome 
 and digestible it is. Those who have plenty of milk and make butter, 
 have an abundance of sour or clabbered milk daily, clean and fresh. 
 Skim the cream off for the churn, and set a gallon or two of the milk 
 on the stove in a milk pan, and let it gradually warm till it is luke- 
 warm all through. Stir it occasionally to prevent its hardening at the 
 bottom, and when it is a little warmer than new milk, and the whey 
 begins to show clear around the curd, pour it all into a coarse thin 
 bag, tie close, and hang up to strain. Let it hang two or three hours 
 in a cool, shady place, then take from the bag and put in a covered 
 dish. When preparing the rest of a meal, mix with the curd rich 
 sweet cream, sugar, and nutmeg. Some prefer salt and pepper, but 
 the sugar gives it the place of fruits or acids. This preparation of 
 milk will often be found most salutary and wholesome for dyspeptics 
 and weak inflamed stomachs. The clabber is also very nutritious and 
 easily digested. 
 
 SANDWICHES, 
 
 Sandwiches are very useful to put in your bag or your pocket 
 when you are not likely to be able to procure your usual meal. 
 
 V Cheese Sandwiches. — Take two-thirds of good cheese, grated, 
 and one-third of butter ; add a little cream ; pound all together in 
 a mortar ; then spread it on slices of brown bread or gems ; lay 
 another slice over each ; press them gently together, and cut in small 
 square pieces. 
 
 Egg SAr'^wiCHES. — Boil fresh eggs five minutes; put them in 
 cold water, and when quite cold peel them, and after taking a little 
 of the white ofE each end of the eggs, cut the remainder in four slices. 
 Lay them between bread and butter. 
 
 3* 
 
C6 EECIPES. 
 
 Fried Egg Sandwiches. — Beat some eggs well ; fry them in but- 
 ter as a pancake. When cold, cut in small square pieces, and lay 
 them between brown bread and butter. 
 
 Omelet Sandwiches. — Take four eggs, two tablespoonfuls of 
 bread crumbs, and one half ounce of chopped parsley. After beating 
 the eggs well, add the bread crumbs, then the parsley, and two table- 
 spoonfuls of water. Season, and fry .it in small fritters, and when 
 cold put them between brown bread and butter. 
 
 VEGETABLES. 
 
 All green vegetables should be as fresh as possible. Put them into 
 cold water with some salt in it, for about ten minutes, to clear from 
 soil or insects. If not quite fresh, let them remain in the water some 
 time longer ; drain in a colander, and put them into a pan with plenty 
 of boiling water, adding salt, and a small piece of soda ; cover the pan 
 till boiling, but not afterward ; then boil quickly, and carefully remove 
 any scum which may rise. Do not allow them to remain in the water 
 after they are done, but immediately drain them in a colander, and 
 finish each kind, as directed in recipes. Peas and spinach do not re- 
 quire so much water as most other green vegetables, but only just suf- 
 ficient to cover them. Cauliflowers and brocoli require especial care in 
 boiling, as the flower is easily broken and their appearance spoiled ; 
 boil them quickly for a few minutes, and then moderately till tender, 
 which may be easily ascertained by trying the stem with a fork. All 
 vessels used in cooking vegetables should be particularly clean. Soft 
 is preferable to hard water in cooking all kinds of vegetables. Pota- 
 toes are in universal use, and yet how few know how to cook them 
 well ! " A well-boiled potato is a thing purely ideal — it has never 
 come out of the pot, in the experience of living man." This is too 
 strong; but there is very much room for, and need of, improvement in 
 the science of cooking a potato. To do it ^cell, the matter must be studied, 
 and not performed by routine. They differ very much, even those 
 grown in the same field and from the same seed. A good potato, well 
 cooked and served up, is a luxury, which, unfortunately, few people 
 know how to accomplish, or will not give themselves the trouble to do. 
 
 Potatoes. — Those grown on virgin soil, of a middle size, and 
 floury, are to be preferred. They should be as nearly as possible of 
 one size, well washed, but not pared. They should be put into a ves- 
 sel of cold water for an hour, then put into fresh water, and boiled in 
 a kettle or saucepan, closely covered, in the most expeditious manner 
 possible ; or they should be steamed, which would be still better. If 
 boiled, no more water should be used than merely to cover them, as 
 they produce a considerable quantity of fluid. When they are done, 
 the water should be instantly poured off, and the kettle containing the 
 cooked potatoes be placed on the side of the fire with a cover on, and 
 a cloth over them, until the steam is absorbed, and rendered quite diy 
 and mealy before they are sent to the table. 
 
 Baked Potatoes.— rHave a hot baking oven, select and wash pota- 
 toes of uniform size, and put them moist into a clean oven. Do not 
 
RECIPES. 67 
 
 open the oven if you can avoid it for lialf an hour ; try if they are done 
 in a towel. Eat them hot. 
 
 Potato Balls. — (For Breakfast). — Boil and mash a double quan- 
 tity of potatoes for dinner, season Avith sweet cream and a little salt : 
 work in two fresh eggs to a quart. Mold into little balls, prick the 
 tops, and lay away in the cold on a plate. In the morning put on bak- 
 ing pan and set into the oven until done to a delicate brown, which re- 
 quires fifteen or twenty minutes. 
 
 Potatoes are a standard article of food on most tables, but they 
 are often so badly cooked that they are neither palatable nor whole- 
 some. As a breakfast dish they are excellent. We like them pre- 
 pared thus : Select the smaller ones — leaving the larger ones for din- 
 ner — scrape off the skins of new potatoes, put them into cold water 
 for ten minutes, have water boiling, and cook them twenty minutes ; 
 pour off the water and add a cup of milk or cream, and thicken it with 
 a little flour and butter rubbed together. Butter never floats on the 
 surface when mixed with flour thus, nor does the flour trouble you 
 with lumps. It is just as well, however, to leave out the butter, mix- 
 ing the flour with a little cream. 
 
 Potatoes should always be put into boiling water to cook, boil 
 quickly and pour off the water, letting them dry a few minutes over 
 the fire before dishing up. Steaming is the best manner of cooking 
 them. 
 
 Mashed Potatoes should be left in the kettle after draining and 
 drying as above, and mashed thoroughly over the fire ; add a little 
 milk or cream, and they will be light as a sponge and white as flour. 
 Never put butter into tliem. 
 
 Steam Squash. — Squash cooked in a steamer over a little water 
 is much nicer than when boiled. I never boil squash. It may be cut 
 in large pieces and cooked in a kettle with a small steamer in the bot- 
 tom and half a pint of water ; fill the kettle with squash and keep 
 closely covered till well cooked, taking care not to let it burn. A very 
 hot fire is not so good for cooking as a slow, moderate heat. May bo 
 placed on the table warm or cold, mashed or not, as preferred. 
 
 Many kinds of squash, especially late and winter squashes, are 
 better baked than any other way — they are quite equal to sweet pota- 
 toes when baked in a close kettle so as to partly steam them. Cut in 
 dices three quarters of an inch thick. 
 
 Raw Tomatoes.— The simplest and one of the most wholesome 
 modes of preparing tomatoes is to remove the skins by scalding, cut 
 them in slices and season to the taste. To our taste powdered loaf 
 sugar makes the best seasoning. The tomatoes should be solid, like 
 the Trophy, and perfectly ripe. As a substitute for fruit, they an- 
 swer a good purpose, especially the yellow and white varieties. 
 
 Stewed Tomatoes. — Let the tomatoes be well ripened, scald them 
 and remove the skins, cut into small pieces, put into a saucepan, Avith 
 a little salt and butter, and cook till well done, but no longer. Pepper 
 may be added if agreeable. As a substitute for fruit, omit the pep- 
 
fi8 EECIPE8. 
 
 per and sweeten to tlie taste witli white sugar. In this case Dixie and 
 White Apple tomatoes are best, as they have a decidedly fruity flavor. 
 
 Bboiled Tomatoes. — First raise your tomato. If not quite ripe, 
 no matter ; cut in two flat-wise ; put it skin down, on a hot irou and in 
 a few minutes (seasoned to your taste) you have a dish that is pretty, 
 wholesome and delicious — tomatoes on the half shell. 
 
 We have tried it. Those who have not, do not yet know how ex- 
 quisite a morsel the tomato is capable of being made. With a little 
 pepper and salt, or, better still, with butter and sugar, broiled toma- 
 toes furnish a dish fit for the gods. 
 
 Note. — This manner of pvepariDc; tomatoes is indeed excellent. We toast slices 
 of bread nice and brown, butter them a little, and lay on to them the broiled 
 tomatoes ; put half a teacupful of cream into the dish around the toast, and set it 
 into the ovcu a few minutes before taking to the table. 
 
 Tomatoes should be sliced and boiled in their own juice without 
 water. They should boil briskly. Twenty minutes suifices for a 
 quart. If boiled much longer it injures their peculiar flavor. Sea- 
 son when ready to take up. 
 
 Baked Tomatoes. — One quart of fresh round tomatoes. Scald 
 and peel carefully, so as not to break the tomato ; put into a deep dish, 
 and season with a little salt and cayenne. Roll a teacupful of crackers 
 and spread over the top ; cover lightly, and bake in a quick oven half 
 or three quarters of an hour. Two or three lumps of butter, the size 
 of a Lima beau, may be dropped into the dish just before dishing up. 
 Slip them out carefully, the brown side up, or leave them in the bak- 
 ing dish. 
 
 Scalloped Tomatoes. — Peel as many large ripe tomatoes as you 
 wish to prepare ; cut them into slices a quarter of an inch thick. Pack 
 in a pudding dish first a layer of tomatoes, then a thick layer of bread 
 crumbs, salt, and a little white sugar and butter, then a layer of to- 
 matoes, then bread crumbs, etc., till the dish is nearly full, having 
 tomatoes last. Now dust over pepper, a little sugar and butter, strew 
 the top with bread crumbs, and bake {covered) half an hour ; then re- 
 move the cover and bake brown, but be careful not to scorch. 
 
 Corn Oysters. — One quart of grated corn, three eggs well beaten, 
 half a teaspoonful of salt, with flour enough to make them stick to- 
 gether. Drop from a spoon into a hot buttered frying pan, making 
 cakes the size of an oyster. A cup of sour milk, with half a teaspoon- 
 ful of soda, will answer if eggs are not plenty. 
 
 Green Corn on the Cob. — Remove the husks and silk from full- 
 grown ears of corn in which the milk is well developed. Put them 
 into sufficient boiling water to cover. Boil gently in a covered kettle 
 from twenty to thirty minutes, according to the age of the corn. It ia 
 better cooked by steam for half an hour. Corn which requires more 
 than half an hour to cook is not good. 
 
 Corn when Cut from the Cob. — Split the kernels of corn before 
 removing from the cob, and in cutting off cut them several times 
 through, leaving a large part on the cob to be scraped off, so as to 
 
BECIFES. 69 
 
 make a fine mass of fhe whole. Take a pint of milk or cream, bring 
 it to a boil, and put the corn in and boil slowly in a closed porcelain 
 or tin vessel for ^teen or twenty minutes with a very little salt ; or, 
 which is better, steam it for half an hour. It will then be very rich 
 and savory. 
 
 Succotash. — For succotash, Lima beans are the best ; the Agricul- 
 tural stand second on the list. But any good variety of bush beans, 
 which come earlier than these, makes an article by no means inferior. 
 Shell the green beans, and boil them slowly in an abundance of water 
 for one or two hours, being careful to keep them covered with water 
 while boiling. Cut well-grown corn from the cob, as in the previous 
 directions ; place it in a pan or basin to steam, over the beans — if not 
 provided with suitable steam apparatus. Add a little water to the 
 corn, and stir it occasionally. Steam from twenty to thirty minutes, 
 then add the corn to the beans, and simmer for half an hour. Stir 
 often, and watch carefully that it does not bum. Season to suit the 
 taste. 
 
 Dried Sweet Corn. — Wash the quantity you wish to cook. Add 
 two or three times as much water, and soak over night. In the morn- 
 ing place on the range or stove in a closed tin or porcelain vessel, 
 where it will keep at the scalding point for four or five hours. Do 
 not let it boil a moment. Be equally careful to keep it hot. Add 
 water, if necessary, but do not make it too thick. Season as you like 
 with salt. 
 
 Winter Succotash. — Take equal quantities of dried sweet corn 
 and of dried green beans. Wash and soak them separately, over 
 night, in warm water. Add more water, if necessary, in the morning. 
 Boil the beans slowly for four or five hours, adding boiling water oc- 
 casionally. Cook the corn as you would without the beans. Then 
 add the corn to the beans, and cook slowly, only long enough to com- 
 bine them well. This is an excellent article of food, if carefully pre- 
 pared, although not equal to succotash in the summer. Season with 
 cream and salt. 
 
 To Bake Beans. — Prepare them as for stewing, and place them 
 with a large quantity of water in a stone-ware pot in a hot oven. Let 
 the oven cool somewhat after they begin to cook, and bake them from 
 four to six hours rather slowly. Leave out meat and butter, and trim 
 with cream and salt. 
 
 Dried Green Peas. — Wash the peas, pour boiling soft water over 
 them, Rufiicient to cover. Let them stand over night. Stew them for 
 several hours, or until they are soft and pulpy. Add boiling water 
 occasionally, and keep them covered closely while cooking. Add half 
 a cup of cream and a little salt, and boil ten minutes ; then dish up. 
 
 Stewed Carrots. — One pound and a half of carrots ; one ounce of 
 butter ; quarter of an ounce of parsley ; one teaspoonful of fiour, and 
 four tablespooufuls of cream. About half-boil the carrots, then scrape 
 and slice them ; put them into a pan with half a teacupful of vege- 
 table broth, or water ; let them simmer till quite tender, but not 
 
70 RECIPES. 
 
 broken ; add the chopped parsley, and stir in the flour and butter, 
 previously mixed; simmer them ten minutes longer, and serve im- 
 mediately. 
 
 Green Peas. — The most important part is to get the peas fresh 
 from the vines. They lose their delicious flavor in a very short time 
 after picking. Wash before shelling, not after. Shell the peas, then 
 select the tenderest pods, and put into just water enough to cover 
 them, and after boiling them ten or fifteen minutes, skim out the 
 poda and put in the peas. Boil them slowly twenty minutes, trim 
 with a little rich cream, and salt. They should be boiled in so little 
 water that there will not be more than a half teacupful around them 
 when they are cooked, and this should be seasoned and dished with 
 the peas. Those who must depend upon the markets for peas often 
 find them very insipid and tasteless, notwithstanding their care in 
 selecting and cooking. Sometimes a spoonful of sugar will add to 
 the flavor. Boiling the pods adds much to the richness and sweetness 
 of the peas. 
 
 Asparagus. — Select green asparagus. If you have the privilege 
 of cutting it from the bed, break or cut as close to the ground as it is 
 tender. If you must buy from the markets, try several stalks and see 
 that they are not woody and tough. The white ends are usually so, 
 and are not eatable, being very bitter besides. After breaking off the 
 hardest part, the asparagus may be improved by taking a thin sharp 
 knife and stripping off the outside skin, beginning at the cut end and 
 drawing the skin upward as far as it will go. The bitter lies next to 
 the outside. Now cut the stalks into pieces an inch long, put into a 
 saucepan, sprinkle over a little salt, and just cover with boiling 
 water. Cook twenty minutes ; add half a teacupful of sweet cream ; 
 rub together a teaspoonful of butter and a teaspoonful of flour and 
 stir in ; boil up a minute or two ; toast a thin slice of bread a light 
 brown ; cut into several pieces ; lay into the bottom of a dish, and 
 pour the asparagus over. Or leave the asparagus without cutting up, 
 lay it all one way in the saucepan, and otherwise prepare the same. 
 
 Shelled Beans. — Of the shelling beans the Lima, Horticultural, 
 and Saba are the best. They require a full hour to boil, and a large 
 quantity of water, as there appears to be a more rapid evaporation 
 when beans are boiling than with most vegetables. When ready to 
 dish, season as other vegetables. Much seasoning destroys or covers 
 up the delicious taste of the bean. A little rich cream and salt is 
 sufficient. 
 
 String Beans should be strung, broken in pieces, and boiled an 
 hour or two, and seasoned the same as shelled beans. 
 
 Boiled Cabbage. — Take off the outside leaves — all that are green 
 or imperfect — from a head of white cabbage; cut into quarters, and 
 lay it for a few minutes into a panful of cold salted water. This will 
 at once remove slugs or insects. Open the leaves, but do not break 
 them from the stem. Shake them in the water and examine carefully, 
 then put into a kettle containing at least three quarts of fast boiling 
 water. Cover the kettle and boil fast for three quarters of an hour. 
 
EECIPES. 71 
 
 Boil a tea-cnpful of rich milk or cream, thicken with a spoonful of 
 flour, and pour over the cabbage, which has been taken up into a vege- 
 table dish and all the water drained off. Add a little salt and a 
 sprinkle of cayenn'e. 
 
 Cabbage with Milk. — Cut half of a solid head of cabbage fine as 
 for slaw. Have a deep spider on the fire and hot. Put in your cab- 
 bage, pour quickly over it a pint of boiling water, cover close, and 
 cook for ten minutes ; then pour off the water that remains, and add 
 half a pint of rich milk. When the milk boils up stir in a tea-spoon- 
 ful of flour moistened with a little cream or milk, a sprinkle of salt, 
 and cook the flour a minute, then dish up. 
 
 Those who usually find cabbage an unpleasantly indigestible 
 article of food will be gratified with the result of this mode of cooking 
 it. It is quite like cauliflower, and is much cheaper. 
 
 Dr. Everett's Choice. — Cut fine as much clean nice cabbage as 
 will fill a spider. Place it in this utensil, cover with a plate, and let 
 it cook till done in the steam from its own juices. 
 
 Onions. — The unpleasant breath which eating this vegetable pro- 
 duces is perhaps the greatest objection to its use, but still it is a very 
 wholesome and desirable article of food for many, and hence should 
 be brought on the table in the most attractive form. White onions, 
 and those grown in the South, are least odorous and pungent. Take 
 off the outside skin, cut off both ends close, and let them stand in cold 
 water an hour, then drop them into a saucepan with two quarts of 
 boiling water. Cover, and boil fifteen minutes. Have a kettle of boil- 
 ing water on the fire ready for use, pour off the water from the 
 onions, and add as much more — be sure the water is boiling — and boil 
 half an hour longer. Scald a cupful of rich milk, pour off the second 
 water from the onions, add the milk and a little Graham flour to 
 thicken it. Salt and otherwise season to taste. Boil up a few minutes 
 and serve the onions whole ; or they may be cut in halves before 
 cooking. 
 
 Cold Slaw. — Take half a head of white cabbage, cut it into fine 
 shreds, and put into a bowl or deep dish. Add the juice of a large 
 lemon and two spoonfuls of cold water, and stir together ; then sift 
 evenly over the cabbage three or four table-spoonfuls of granulated 
 sugar ; shake the dish so that the sugar may be diffused, but do not 
 stir it again. Let it stand ten or fifteen minutes and then serve. 
 
 Grape or currant vinegar is very nice instead of lemon, and a pref- 
 erable acid with many. 
 
 Potato Salad. — Cut six or eight cold potatoes into even, thin 
 slices, and put into a salad dish. Cut fine, and sprinkle over the 
 potatoes a tea-spoonful of parsley, and a little salt and cayenne. Stir 
 half a tea-cupful of good cream jantil it is very smooth and foamy ; 
 pour over the potatoes, and mix carefully, so as not to break the 
 slices. A little prepared mustard, and a few stalks of white celery 
 chopped fine, is an addition. This is a good dish for a hearty lunch. 
 
72 EECIPES. 
 
 S WEET Potatoes may be peeled, cut in thin slices or strips, and 
 fried, heating and buttering the skillet in the same way. They will 
 not bear quite so hot a fire, nor take so long to cook. Use as little 
 butter as possible. Fried food is not considered so wholesome as 
 boiled or steamed, but is sometimes more convenient to prepare. 
 
 Egg Plant. — Pare and cut into slices, half an inch thick, two or 
 three egg plants, according to the size of your family, and put to soak 
 in cold salted water for two hours. This removes a black, bitter 
 juice, said to be unhealthful, certainly very disagreeable. Then press 
 the slices between two plates, and wipe them on a clean cloth, then 
 boil till soft enough to mash like turnips. Mash them smooth, add a 
 few bread crumbs soaked in sweet cream, a little chopped parsley and 
 salt, and a sprinkle of cayenne. Mis all thoroughly, pour into a but- 
 tered baking dish, cover the top with bread crumbs, and bake half an 
 hour. 
 
 CaulipIiOWER. — Soak the head two hours in cold salted water, and 
 boil till tender in plenty of water. Have the water boiling when you 
 put in the flower. Pour off the water, and add a cup of cream or 
 milk. Rub together a tea-spoouful of butter and a large spoonful of 
 flour. Stir into the milk, season as you like, and let all boil up to- 
 gether for five minutes and serve. 
 
 Spinach. — Wash carefully in plenty of cold salt and water, put it 
 into a saucepan that will just hold it, put in some salt, and pour over 
 it a pint of boiling water. Cover close, and let it cook slowly twenty 
 minutes. Drain off all the water, and pour over it a gill of scalded 
 cream or a little butter, and it is ready for the table. 
 
 PIES. 
 
 Pies are wholesome or not as they are well or badly made. An 
 apple pie can be so prepared as to be nearly or quite as simple as 
 bread, butter, and apple sauce. A whole meal may be made of it with- 
 out injury to the health. On the other hand, it may be so prepared 
 as to be unfit for the stomach of even a rhinoceros. The model pie is 
 in our opinion the apple pie. Peach pies are highly relished bj' many ; 
 but the peach loses its finest flavor by cooking, where.as the apple is 
 improved by this process. Most of the berries in their season make 
 good pies. So does rice and eggs, and the custard pie is not only deli- 
 cious but wholesome. Meat mince pies are not to be tolerated by deli- 
 cate people ; though they may be eaten by men of strong digestion, 
 who live much in the open air and do muscular work. The first 
 point to be secured in a pie is good crust. In general terms, this 
 should be thin and, when well baked, tender. It should not be short- 
 ened with lard, but the best of cream — or in the absence of this, good 
 butter. Delicate fruits are soon tainted with the shortening of the 
 crust. Many in baking pies, use too much crust. The less that can 
 be used the better the pie will be. The crust should be thin, the fruit 
 good pie-apples, and plenty of them, put between the crust. Where 
 the two crusts meet on the edge of the dish, care should be taken to 
 
KECirES. 73 
 
 have the apples pressed out, so that there shall not be a wide strip of 
 thick crust with no apples near them. An apple pie should be eaten 
 just after it is cool. If eaten while hot, it is apt to go down only half 
 masticated, and the effect of the heat on the tongue tends to destroy 
 the finer sense of taste. After an apple pie is one day old it begins to 
 grow stale, unless it is kept with great care. Soyer, the famous Lon- 
 don pie-maker, thinks that if all the spoilt pies made in London on 
 one single Sunday Avere placed in a row beside a railway, it would 
 take an express-train an hour to pass them in review. Whoever will 
 induce bakers to improve their methods of making them, will be a 
 public benefactor. The usual price for a piece of pie in a New York 
 restaurant is ten cents. They could be afforded for half that price, at 
 a profit, too, if there were no spoiled pies. 
 
 The following receipts for pie pastry will be found excellent. They 
 may be varied somewhat to suit individual tastes, pro\nded only the 
 general rules be kept in view. We commend the cream shortening as 
 better than any other. 
 
 Good Pie Crust. — A quart of flour will make two large pies. Sift 
 the flour. Take a large, strong spoon, and stir into the flour one quar- 
 ter of a pound of butter and a tea-spoonful of yeast powder ; then 
 moisten with cold water — ice water if you have it — using just as little 
 as will make the flour stick together. Sprinkle some of the shortened 
 flour on the pie-board, and roll the ci'ust large enough for the pie-pan ; 
 do not try to make smooth edges until you have put in the filling, 
 and the upper crust ; then press the edges firmly together and cut off 
 the rough edges with a knife. The secret of good, tender, plain pas- 
 try is speedy work — no working with the warm hands. 
 
 Cream and Potato Pastry. — Six good-sized potatoes, boiled and 
 mashed, mealy, and white, one tea^cup of sweet cream, half tea-spoon- 
 ful of salt, and flour enough to make it stay together, and roll out. 
 Work and handle as little as possible, and roll thicker than for com- 
 mon pastry. 
 
 This is Mrs. Beecher's receipt for "pastry for meat pi^," and is 
 exactly what a wholesome fruit pie needs. Light tart apples, cut in 
 thin slices, and filled into such a crust with a table-spoonful of water 
 and two of sugar added, and a top-crust, baked half an hour, will be 
 good enough for an epicure. 
 
 Mrs. Cox's Method. — Pour sufficient boiling water upon wheat 
 meal to make a stiff dough ; roll, without kneading, to any desired 
 thickness, from an eighth to a half inch. 
 
 Note.— This makes a very tender crust, quite a? much eo as can be made in the 
 ordinary way. It may be made of superfine flour, or rye meal, or a mixture of dif- 
 ferent kinds. 
 
 To have the crust tender, it must not be kneaded, but rolled out 
 with plenty of meal on the board. 
 
 Mattie Jones' Cream Pie Crust. — Take equal quantities of 
 Graham flour, white flour, and Indian meal ; rub evenly together, and 
 
74 EECIPES. 
 
 wet with very thin sweet cream. It should be rolled thin and baked 
 in an oven as hot as for common pie crust. 
 
 Note. — Tliis makes excellent pastry if properly baked. Many patients have said 
 to us they did not see how they could ever again relish the pastry in common use 
 (this is so much sweeter and more palatable, to say nothing of its wholesomeness). 
 
 Apple Pies. — Take nice, tart apples — spitzenbergs are best, al- 
 though pippins, greenings, russets, etc., are excellent. Slice them ; 
 fill the under crust an inch thick ; sprinkle sugar over them ; add a 
 ^spoonful or two of water ; cover with a thin crust, and bake three- 
 fourths of an hour in a moderate oven. 
 
 Another. — Peel and cut about two pounds of apples — sharp ones 
 being the best for the purpose ; cut each into four pieces, removing 
 the cores ; then cut each quarter into two or three pieces, according to 
 the size. Put half of them into a pie-dish, slightly press them down ; 
 put over them two ounces of brown sugar ; put in tlie remaining ap- 
 ples ; then add another two ounces of sugar, making the apples form 
 a kind of dome, the center being two inches higher than the sides ; 
 add a small wine-glass of water ; cover the top with paste, and bake 
 in a moderate oven from half to three-quarters of an hour. 
 
 Mock Apple Pie. — For a large pie-plate, two crackers (milk or 
 soda), one egg, one cup of sugar, one of water, and the juice of one 
 lemon ; add a pinch of salt, and spice with nutmeg or the rind of the 
 lemon. This is quite a tolerable counterfeit. 
 
 Apple Puffs. — Peel and core six tart apples, cook quickly with 
 very little water ; cover close so as to make them white and free from 
 lumps ; when done to a puff, sprinkle over them two heaping spoon- 
 fuls of sugar, and stir smooth. Set to cool. Prepare your pastry. 
 Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, stir into the apples and 
 fill the crust ; grate a little nutmeg or cinnamon over the top. No top 
 crust. Bake ia a quick oven, only long enough to cook the pastry. 
 
 Apple Float. — A pint of stewed, well mashed apples ; whites of 
 three eggs, four large spoonfuls of sugar, beaten until stiff ; then add 
 the apples and beat all together until stiff enough to stand alone. Fill 
 a deep dish with rich cream, boiled soft custard, and pile the float on 
 top. This is excellent with other fruits in place of apples. 
 
 French Apple Turnovers. — Eight large apples ; eight ounces of 
 sugar ; two ounces of butter, and the rind of a lemon. 
 
 Prepare the apples as for a pie ; put them into a saucepan with the 
 sugar, butter, the rind of a lemon rubbed on a piece of sugar, and two 
 table-spoonfuls of water ; cover the pan, and set it over a slow fire, 
 turning it occasionally till the apples are about half done, and pour 
 them into a basin to cool. Roll out a piece of paste in a circular form, 
 the eighth of an inch thick, and about the size of a dinner-plate ; wet 
 it round, and fasten a rolled cord of paste within an inch of the edge ; 
 put in the prepared apples, raising them in the center in the form of a 
 dome ; spread some apricot or orange marmalade over the surface, 
 and cover the whole with another circular piece of paste, and press 
 the edges together, or fold them over in the form of a cord. Spread 
 
KECIPES. 75 
 
 some beaten white of egg all over the top with a soft paste-brush ; then 
 strew coarsely pounded or rough granite sugar over the entire sur- 
 face, and bake lightly in a moderately hot oven. 
 
 Jam Turnovers. — Roll out some short paste about one-eighth of an 
 inch thick ; cut it in pieces about four inches in length, and between 
 two and three inches in lireadth ; lay on each a little apple jam, or any 
 other preserved fruit, without syrup ; turn the edges over, wetting 
 them, as little as possible, with water ; press them lightly together, 
 and also the ends ; lay tliem on tins, and bake in a moderately hot 
 oven. Ice them very perfectly, and return them to the oven for a 
 few minutes, or set them in a Dutch or American oven before the 
 fire. 
 
 Apple Pie Cake. — Mix unbolted wheat with cold water, making 
 a batter soft enough to nearly level itself. If shortening is desired, 
 use sweet cream or butter. Fill a rather deep pie-plate about a third 
 full of the batter, and sprinkle over a little sugar. Wash, quarter, 
 and core tart apples, and place as many in the batter (skin side 
 up) as it will hold. They may be pressed down and leveled with a 
 stiff spoon. Over the top sprinkle some sugar, and bake till nicely 
 brown. 
 
 This cake is both wholesome, nutritious, and delicious. Children 
 and grown folks can eat of it freely without inj ury. 
 
 ■^ CocOA-NuT Pies. — Open the ei/es of a cocoa-nut with a pointed 
 knife or a gimlet, and pour out the milk into a cup ; then break the 
 shell and take out the meat and grate it fine. Take the sanae weight 
 of sugar and the grated nut and stir together ; beat four eggs, the 
 whites and yolks separately, to astiif foam ; mix one cup of cream, and 
 the milk of the cocoa-nut with the sugar and nut, then add the eggs 
 and a few drops of orange or lemon extract. Line deep pie-tins with 
 a nice crust, fill them with the custard and bake carefully half an hour. 
 
 Lemon Pie. — For each peeled and grated lemon add one tea-cup of 
 sugar, and one table-spoonful of corn-starch dissolved in cold water. 
 Over this pour a tea-cup of boiling water. 
 
 Crust. One part white iiour, one part Graham flour, one part corn- 
 meal. Shorten it with butter or condensed milk, reduced one-third. 
 Use two crusts. 
 
 The above recipe for lemon pie is used in our Institution, and has 
 given perfect satisfaction. 
 
 Another Recipe. — Take two lemons, two eggs, one cup of sugar, 
 one cup of water, and one large table-spoonful of flour. After grating 
 the peel, take off and throw away the white rind, and cut the lemon 
 in small pieces, carefully picking out the seeds. After the under 
 crust is laid in, sugar it well. Bake with two crusts. Lemon pie is 
 not quite so easily managed by the stomach, and should be eaten more 
 sparingly than apple pie. 
 
 Pumpkin or Squash Pie. — Cut the pumpkin into small pieces; 
 take out the seeds and inside, but do not pare it. It must be a well- 
 grown and thoroughly ripened pumpkin, and not watery. Put the 
 
76 RECIPES. 
 
 pieces into a sauce-pan with only a few spoonfuls of water, not more 
 than four ; cover close and let it cook gently so as not to scorch, until 
 the water has all evaporated, and the pumpkin has cooked quite dry 
 and of a rich, dark, orange color. While hot, sift it through a coarse 
 sieve. Season only as much as you are needing for the day. For one 
 large pie, one egg, one table- spoonful of molasses, four table-spoonf ula 
 of condensed milk, or enough of new milk to make it as thin as you 
 wish ; or, if you have it, half milk and half cream, instead of con- 
 densed milk. Sugar to suit the taste. 
 
 Aj^^OTHER. — Select a pumpkin which has a deep, rich color, and 
 firm, close texture. Stew and sift in the ordinary manner ; add as 
 much boiling milk as will make it about one-third thicker than for 
 common pumpkin pie. Sweeten with equal quantities of sugar and 
 molasses, and bake about one hour in a hot oven. 
 
 Note.— Those who will try this method will be surprised to find how delicious a 
 pie can be made without egg^, ginger, or spices of any kind. The milk being turned 
 Doiliug hot upon the pumpkin, causes it to swell in baking, so that it is as light and 
 nice as though eggs had been used. 
 
 Squash Pie. — ^This is even superior to pumpkin, as it possesses a 
 richer, sweeter flavor, and is far preferable. It is made in precisely 
 the same manner as pumpkin pie. 
 
 Sweet Potato Pie. — Boil and sift through a colander, nice, ripe, 
 sweet potatoes, add boiling milk, and make the same as pumpkin pie. 
 
 Sweet Apple Pie. — Pare mellow, sweet apples, and grate them 
 upon a grater. A very large grater is necessary for this purpose. 
 Then proceed as for pumpkin pie. 
 
 Note. — The four receipts last mentioned, are from Mrs. Jones' Cook-book, a 
 work of which thousands have been sold, and which has been republished in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 • Rice Pie. — Take cold rice, cooked in milk ; add sufficient cream to 
 make quite thin ; mash it with a wooden or silver spoon till free from 
 lumps. Beat up four eggs very light — yolks and whites separately ; 
 sweeten to suit your taste, and pour in the eggs — the whites last ; stir 
 well ; cover a deep custard or pumpkin pie-plate with pastry, pour in 
 the rice, and bake, but not long enough to malve the custard watery. 
 
 Rice pie should be made thick, and eaten when fresh, but not till 
 after it is cold. Children are fond of it, and may be allowed as much 
 as they wish. 
 
 Cranberry Pie. — Stew a few good, ripe, sweet apples, and add an 
 equal quantity of cranberries. Cover a deep plate with a crust, and 
 fill even full ; roll the upper crust, and cut in strips half an inch wide 
 and lay across the pie, leaving the spaces diamond-shaped, and bake. 
 
 Strawberry Pie. — Place the under crust upon a deep plate, and 
 the upper one — cut just the right size — on aflat tin or sheet-iron; 
 prick to prevent blistering, and bake. Fill the deep dish while hot 
 with strawberries, and cover with the flat crust. If the fruit is rather 
 hard, replace in the oven till heated ; if quite ripe, the crust will steam 
 them sufficiently. 
 
KECIPES. 77 
 
 Raspberry aud blackberry pie may be made in the same manner. 
 The flavor of these delicious berries, when quite ripe, is greatly in- 
 jured by cooking ; and they are also changed to a mass of little else 
 than seeds and juice. 
 
 Ripe Berry Pies, generally, may be prepared as above, and baked 
 till the fruit is cooked, which takes only a few minutes. This method 
 is much better than baking the fruit with the crust, as the greater part 
 of the juice is often lost before the crust is cooked. 
 
 Berry Tarts. — Cover gem-pans with crust, as for little pies, and 
 bake ; when nearly done, till up with berries and replace in the oven 
 a few minutes. 
 
 Note. — The four receipts mentioned above, are from Mrs. Cox's Hygiene Cook- 
 hook, a radical, but thoughtful little book of one hundred pages, which will repay 
 a careful reading. 
 
 Pie for Dyspeptics. — Four table-spoonf als of oatmeal, one pint of 
 water ; let stand a few hours, or till the meal is well swelled. Then 
 add two large apples, pared and sliced, a little salt, one cup of sugar, 
 one table-spoonful of flour. Mix all well together and bake in a but- 
 tered pie-dish ; and you have a most delicious pie, which may be eaten 
 with safety by the sick or Avell. 
 
 We might go on giving other receipts for pies ; but trust to the in- 
 genuity of the reader to get up her own methods, bearing in mind al- 
 ways the rule that they be healthfully made. 
 
 CUSTARDS. 
 
 Almond Custards. — One pint of milk ; half a pint of cream ; one 
 ounce and a half of sweet almonds ; five yolks and two whites of 
 eggs, and four ounces of white sugar. Boil the milk and cream with 
 a small stick of cinnamon ; pour into a basin, and when cool, take out 
 cinnamon ; set the milk on a slow fire, adding the sugar, the eggs, 
 well beaten, and the almonds, blanched and chopped fine ; stir on the 
 fire till thick, but do not allow it to boil ; pour it into a jug or bowl, 
 stirring it frequently till cold, and serve in custard glasses. 
 
 Arrowroot Custards. — One ounce of arrowroot ; three-quarters 
 of a pint of milk , three ounces of sugar, and four eggs. Mix the 
 arrowroot with a quarter of a pint of cold milk, adding the eggs, well 
 beaten, the sugar, and a little almond-flavor ; add half a pint of boil- 
 ing milk, stirring constantly, and when cold, serve in custard glasses. 
 
 Milk Custard. — One pint of new milk ; one table-spoonful of flour; 
 one table-spoonful of thick cream ; cinnamon ; almond-flavor, and sugar. 
 Set the milk over the fire with a little cinnamon, stirring it till quite 
 hot, but not allowing it to boil. Mix the cream and flour together ; 
 pour on the hot milk ; stir well, adding the almond-flavor, and sugar. 
 Bake lightly, without crust, in a moderate oven. 
 
 Another. — One quart of new milk ; sugar, and one stick of cinna- 
 mon. Boil the cinnamon in a pan with the new milk ; take the pan 
 off the fire, and stir in the sugar. Bake in pie or pudding dishes. 
 
78 RECIPES. 
 
 lined with custard paste. The paste should be pricked with a fork, 
 but not through to the dish, and partly baked before the custard is 
 put in. Egg custard may be made in the same way, allowing five or 
 six eggs, according to size, to a quart of new milk. 
 
 Baked Custards. — One pint of cream ; four eggs ; cinnamon ; al- 
 mond-flavor, and three ounces of sugar. Boil the cream with a piece 
 of cinnamon ; pour it into a basin, and when cold, add the eggs, well 
 beaten and strained, the sugar powdered, and a few drops of almond- 
 flavor. Bake in small cups, in a cool oven. 
 
 Plain Custards. — The same, without any condiments. One quart 
 of new milk ; the yolks of eight and the whites of four eggs ; five 
 ounces of sugar ; quarter of a pint of cream ; the rind of a lemon, and 
 a small stick of cinnamon. Boil the milk with the cinnamon, sugar, 
 and the rind of the lemon, pared very thin ; when the milk has boil- 
 ed a few minutes, pour it into a bowl ; beat the eggs, adding the 
 cream, and mix well in the milk ; then strain the whole into the pan, 
 and set it on a slow fire, stirring constantly till near boiling ; pour it 
 into a jug, stirring it till nearly cold, and serve in custard glasses. 
 
 Gooseberry Custards. — Three pints of green gooseberries ; quar- 
 ter of a pound of sugar ; four eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of orange- 
 flower water. Set the gooseberries in cold water over a slow fire, and 
 simmer till soft ; then drain the water away, and rub them through a 
 sieve ; to a pint of pulp add the eggs, the sugar, and orange-flower 
 water ; set it over the fire, stirring constantly till it becomes thick, 
 and when cold, serve in custard glasses. 
 
 Lemon Custards. — Eight eggs ; six ounces of sugar ; two lemons ; 
 a tea-cupful of cream ; one pint of boiling water, anO two table-spoon- 
 fuls of orange-flower water. Beat the yolks of the eggs till quite 
 frothy ; pour on them the boiling water, stirring quickly all the time ; 
 add the sugar, and the rind of the lemons, grated ; stir it over a slow 
 fire, till thick, adding the cream, and orange-flower water ; when 
 hot, stir in the lemon- juice ; pour it into a basin ; stir till nearly 
 cold, and serve in custard glasses. 
 
 Lemon Custards. — One large lemon ; one quart of new milk ; 
 quarter of a pound of white sugar, and seven eggs. Grate off the 
 rind of .the lemon ; put it with the sugar in the milk, and boil quarter 
 of an hour ; strain, and let it remain till cool ; then stir in the eggs, 
 well beaten and strained, leaving out three whites ; pour it into cups 
 with half a tea-spoonful of fresh butter, melted, in each cup ; set them 
 in water, and bake in a moderate oven ; color them when done, by 
 holding a hot salamander over, and serve cold, with sugar sifted on the 
 top. 
 
 Raspberry Custards. — One pint of cream ; three quarters of a 
 pint of raspberry juice, and half a pound of white sugar. Boil the 
 cream ; dissolve the sugar in the raspberry juice ; mix it with the 
 boiling cream, stirring it till quite thick, and serve in custard glasses. 
 
 ^ RrcE Custards. — One ounce and a half of ground rice ; three ounces 
 of loaf sugar, and one pint of new milk. Boil the rice in the milk, 
 
KECIPES. 79 
 
 adding the sugar, and a piece of cinnamon ; pour it into custard cups, in 
 wliic]i a little fresh butter has been melted, and bake in a slow oven. 
 
 Vanilla Custakds.— One stick of vanilla ; one pint and a half of 
 new milk ; half a pint of cream ; quarter of a pound of white sugar, 
 and seven yolks and four whites of eggs. Cut the vanilla into slips ; 
 boil in the milk and cream quarter of an hour, adding the sugar; 
 strain, and let it remain till cool ; then stir in the eggs, well beaten ; 
 pour it into cups with half a tea-spoonful of fresh butter, melted, in 
 each cup ; set them in water ; bake in a moderate oven ; color them 
 when done by holding a hot salamander over, aud serve cold, with 
 sugar sifted on the top. 
 
 White Custards. — One pint of cream ; three ounces of sugar ; the 
 whites of four eggs, and one table-spoonful of orange-flower water. 
 Boil tlie cream with a blade of mace ; let it simmer for about five 
 minutes ; then take it of? the fire, and add the sugar ; beat the whites 
 of the eggs to a complete froth ; put them into the cream ; set it on 
 the fire again, and let it boil gently, stirring constantly, till it becomes 
 thick; take it off tlie fire; add the orange-flower water, or a few drops 
 of almond-flavor, and serve in custard glasses. 
 
 Note.— Custards are both wholesome and nutritions, especially for delicate stom- 
 ach!?, and for those recovering from siclcticBs, especially if nsed in modeniiion, they 
 supply the waste of nerve-tissue better than meals or breads. The custard pie is 
 made by baking the custard iu an appropriate crust. 
 
 PUDDINGS. 
 
 Rice Pudding. — One cup of fresh whole rice ; nine cupfuls of new 
 milk, and one cup of sugar. Put into a stone or eartheii pan, and 
 bake in a moderate oven three hours. Stir it t%vo or three times during 
 the first hour ; do not increase the heat of the oven after the milk be- 
 gins to simmer ; be careful not to scorch or blister ; a light cover to- 
 ward the last will be better. Set to cool undisturbed. It is best eaten 
 cold, llaisins may be added, if desired. 
 
 Another. — Five tea-cupfuls of rice picked and washed ; fifteen 
 quarts of new milk ; one and a half pound of white sugar ; one pound 
 of raisins. Bake three hours in a moderate oven ; stir it occasioiuxlly 
 for two hours ; then leave it to brown over. This makes a delicious 
 pudding, plain and simple. 
 
 Bread Pudding. — To one loaf of bread, well grated, pour" two quarts 
 of boiled milk or cream ; four eggs ; a quarter of a pound of white 
 sugar ; flavor to the taste (mace is a very good flavor), and bake an 
 hour. If the boiled milk is poured upon ])ieces of stale bread and left ' 
 standing two hours, they can be mashed and freed from lumps with 
 the hand before putting'in the eggs. Dried currants, that have been 
 well washed and swelled in lukewarm water, or raisins, will be a good 
 addition to this pudding. If made with crackers it will be still more 
 delicate. Cold sauce may be eaten with it or fruit sauce, if no fruit is 
 put into the pudding. 
 
80 KECTl'ES. 
 
 Apple and Tapioca Pudding.— Put a tea-cupful of tapioca into a 
 quart of warm water before breakfast ; set it where it will keep warm 
 for three hours ; stir it from the bottom once or twice and keep covered. 
 Pare and cut in thin slices five or six nice tart apples, and lay them 
 in the bottom of the pudding-dish ; add a heaped cupful of sugar, 
 dissolved in hot water, to the tapioca ; stir well together, and pour 
 over the apples ; bake slowly for two hours. To be eaten with whipped 
 cream flavored with a little lemon or orange. Good either hot or cold. 
 
 Graham Gem Pudding. — Take six cold gems — yesterday's baking ; 
 break them into small pieces, and pour over them one pint of cold 
 water ; cover and let them soften for an hour ; then add a pint and a 
 half of new milk ; a handful of seeded raisins or currants ; one beaten 
 egg, and one tea-spoonful of cream-yeast. Mix half a cup of sugar and 
 the cream-yeast thoroughly together, before putting them with the 
 other ingredients. Stir together well and quickly ; butter the pud- 
 ding-dish with cold, sweet butter, and bake in a quick oven three- 
 fourths of an hour. 
 
 Steamed Graham Pudding. — Sour milk or fresh buttermilk, five 
 cupfuls ; brown sugar, two cups ; butter, half a cup ; two tea-spoon- 
 fuls of soda ; two eggs ; half a pound of seeded dates. Graham flour 
 enough to make a thin batter. The dates should be chopped fine and 
 rolled in flour before they are put into the batter. Steam for three 
 hours. Make a sauce of milk and cornstarch, or eat with good cream. 
 
 Apple and Bread Pudding. — Break and rub bread fine ; peel and 
 chop good, sweetish apples — sweet apples keep their place, and take 
 a little longer to cook ; butter a pudding-dish, then put a layer of 
 apples an inch deep, then a layer of bread-crumbs not quite so thick, 
 then another layer of apples, alternating, till the dish is full ; bread 
 being last. A little butter may be added to each layer of bread, or a 
 table-spoonful of cream sprinkled over each. Bake an hour, or till the 
 apples are thoroughly cooked. Serve with sweet sauce, or cream. 
 
 Cherry Pudding. — One quart of scalded milk; one pint of corn- 
 meal ; half a pint of Graham flour, or a little less of fine flour ; four 
 eggs well beaten ; a tea-spoonful of yeast-powder, and a pint of ripe 
 cherries ; wash, and pick out the imperfect cherries ; leave the seeds 
 in ; drain off all the water, and roll the cherries, while damp, in 
 some of the flour. Stir all together ; put into a pudding-mould or bag, 
 and boil two hours. To be eaten with sugar and cream. The late 
 black cherries are the best for this pudding. They are not so juicy, 
 retain their shape, and diffuse a rich purple tint around them, which 
 makes the pudding handsome for the table. 
 
 Poor Man's Pudding. — One cup of flour ; one cup of cornmeal ; one 
 table-spoonful of cream-yeast powder mixed well with the meal and 
 flour ; two cups of rich milk ; one cup of molasses ; one cup of cur- 
 rants washed and rolled in flour ; one table-spoonful of butter rubbed 
 evenly and cold into the pudding-mould. Mix the ingredients well 
 together ; put into the mould, and boil three hours. Be careful to 
 keep the pudding-mould upright in the boiling kettle. Do not allow 
 the water to stop boiling at any time, or to boil over the top of the 
 
RECIPES. 81 
 
 mould, as it is almost impossible to have the lid so close that water 
 will not get in and quite spoil the pudding. When done turn the pud- 
 ding out of the mould into a broad platter and serve hot with cream 
 sauce. 
 
 Note. — The poor man'? pudding may suggest the possibilit j' of not having a mould 
 to boil it in. A small, high tin pail wiih a lid which can he tied down tight will do 
 quite as well, thciugli it may have to boil an hour longer, to cook the center of the 
 l)iidding. A pnddiiig-bag dipped in cold water and floured inside is just as good. 
 The pudding-mould xs a great convenience, not an essential. 
 
 Cottage Pudding. — One-half cup of sugar ; one egg ; one cupful 
 of cream ; one pint of flour ; one heaping tea-spoonful of Taylor's 
 cream-yeast. Bake in a cake-pan. To be eaten with a hot, sweet 
 sauce, or with cold cream. 
 
 Graham Birdsnest Pudding— Is made by laying in a deep dish 
 nice quartered apples, and pouring over them a thin batter made of 
 flour ; one tea-cup of sour milk, and about one-third of a tea-spoonful 
 of soda. Bake iu a moderate oven till the apples are thoroughly 
 cooked. 
 
 Tapioca Custard Pudding. — Soak two table-spoons tapioca over 
 night in cold water ; when ready to make custard, boil one quart milk; 
 while boiling add beaten yolks of three eggs, three-fourths cup sugar, 
 and the tapioca ; turn in the dish you wish to serve it in ; have the 
 beaten whites ready, sweetened a little and spread over top ; put in 
 oven and just brown a little. Eat cold. 
 
 Deumonico Pudding. — Three table-spoonfuls cornstarch ; one 
 quart boiling milk ; three eggs, whites and yolks separated. Mix 
 yolks with cornstarch and add milk gradually. Let it boil. Beat 
 whites to stiff froth, sweeten. Put cornstarch in pudding-dish, cover 
 with frosting and set in oven to brown. To be eaten cold. 
 
 Nice Cheap Pudding. — One quart of milk; four table-spoonfuls of 
 flour ; four eggs ; six table-spoonfuls of sugar ; nutmeg. Steam three- 
 fourths of an hour. 
 
 Sago Pudding. — One dozen tart apples ; one and a half cups of 
 sago ; soak the sago till soft ; peel and core the apples, and place in a 
 dish ; fill the apples with sugar ; pour the sago over, and bake till th» 
 apples are cooked. 
 
 Sago Birdsnest Pudding — Is made by laying quartered fresh 
 apples, or stewed dried ones, in a pan about half full, and pouring 
 over them the sago, prepared as for a thin mush ; then bake in a 
 moderate oven till the apjiles are cooked ; say an hour or more, accord- 
 ing to the size of the pudding. 
 
 Indian Pudding. — Extra good. — Two tea-cups of cornmeal ; half a 
 cup of superfine flour; one cup of syrup ; half a tea-spoonful of salt. 
 Scald three quarts of milk, and stir into the above. Let it stand half 
 an hour — stir it again. Bake quickly until it boils, then slowly about 
 two hours. 
 
 4 
 
82 EECIPES. 
 
 A Simple Cornmeal Pudding.— Stir into a quart of boiling milk 
 the yolks of two eggs, three heaping spoonfuls of meal and a half a 
 cup of sugar, well beaten together. Cook five minutes, stirring con- 
 stantly ; remove from the fire, and add the whites, beaten to a stiff 
 froth. Pour into a pudding-dish, and balie one hour in a moderate 
 Oven. Serve with cream and sugar. 
 
 Batter Pudding. — Take a half pound of flour ; one pint of milk ; 
 two eggs, and one tea-spoonful of baking powder. Rub the baking- 
 powder quite smooth ; mis it well with the flour, then stir in nearly 
 half of the milk, and beat it perfectly smooth ; add the remainder of 
 the milk and the eggs, well beaten ; boil the pudding one and a half 
 hours, in a buttered basin, and serve with sweet sauce ; or put it into 
 a buttered dish, and bake it in a quick oven. 
 
 Baked Batter Pudding with Fruit. — Take a half-pound of 
 flour ; one pint of milk ; the yolks of four, and whites of two eggs, 
 and half a tea-spoonful of baking-powder. Rub the powder till smooth, 
 mixing it well with the flour, and as much milk as will make it a stiff 
 batter ; beat it till quite smooth, then add the remainder of the milk, 
 and the eggs, well beaten. Put some apples, cut as for a pie, into a 
 buttered dish ; pour the batter over, and bake in a moderately hot 
 oven. Damsons, currants, gooseberries, or rhubarb, may be used in 
 the same way. 
 
 CAKES. 
 
 Cake is good and wholesome when it is plain and simple. It 
 is bad when it is too rich and compounded of too many ingredients. 
 It may be eaten freely like bread in the former case. In the latter it 
 had better not be eaten at all. Children are generally fond of cake. 
 It ought always to be so made that they can eat of it without injuring 
 the vigor of the stomach, which should always be preserved. We would 
 always have the family cake made of the best of coarse flour. It is 
 sweeter and more wholesome. Most of the following receipts are such 
 as have been used in our Institution for years ; a few are favorites at 
 other institutions. All may be varied to suit individual wants, always 
 keeping in mind the two words, simplicity and healthfulness. 
 
 Cookies for Forty or Fifty. — Four cups of sugar ; one cup of 
 butter ; two cups of sour milk ; two tea-spoonfuls of cream-yeast, 
 brown or white ; flour sufficient to roll them out. Work them but 
 1 little ; make them thin, and bake in a quick oven. 
 
 Cup Cake for Seventy-five or Eighty. — Four cups sugar 
 (white) ; one of butter ; four eggs ; rub these together ; then add three 
 tea-cups of sweet milk ; ten tea-spoonfuls Taylor's cream-yeast, mixed 
 with the flour of which you use a sufficient quantity to make the whole 
 into a stiff batter. 
 
 ■^ Graham Cup Cake. — Unbolted wheat meal, two cupf uls ; buttermilk, 
 one cup ; molasses, half-cup ; butter, quarter of a cup ; eggs, two ; 
 soda, half a tea-spoonful. Bake half an hour. 
 
EKCIPES. 83 
 
 Drop Cakes. — Put six well-beaten eggs into a pint of thick cream ; 
 add a little saltj and make it into a thick batter with flour. Bake it 
 in rings or in small cups fifteen or twenty minutes. The same may- 
 be made with Graham flour. 
 
 Delicious Corn Gem Cake. — One quart of cornmeal ; two quarts 
 of sweet milk ; two heaped teaspoonfuls of cream-yeast ; two eggs. 
 Bake in a quick oven. 
 
 Strawberry Shortcake. — To a quart of flour (enough for two 
 cakes) put tlu-ee heaping spoonfuls of baking-powder (Taylor's). Sift 
 together thoroughly and rub in one ounce of butter. Wet with a pint 
 of sweet milk, using a spoon. The mixture will be somewhat softer 
 than common pie-crust. Do not try to mould or roll out the dough. 
 Spread it on tin pie-plates by patting with the hand. It should be 
 about an inch in thickness. Bake slowly at first till the cakes have 
 Lad time to rise ; then increase the heat, and expect them to be done 
 ■within twenty-five minutes. Split the cakes hot from the oven ; 
 spread the halves with butter (liberally if good), and cover them with 
 the fruit previously sweetened. Place one on the other (the upper 
 half is reversed of course), or each on a plate by itself. It is a good 
 rule to sugar your strawberries before you begin to make your cake, 
 and if they are large, or not very ripe, it is best to cut them in two, or 
 mash them a little. Don't calculate for these cakes standing on the 
 stove hearth a minute. They should be served like griddle-cakes — no 
 time lost between the oven and the table. Observe these rules and 
 you will have a dish as dainty as Izaak Walton's Baked Fish, of which 
 he said, "It is too good for any but very honest people." When straw- 
 berries are gone, red raspberries (Clark's or Philadelphia) are very nice 
 in their place. White currants are also very much liked as a substi- 
 tute, and peach shortcake is hardly surpassed by the strawberry itself, 
 if the peaches are first-rate. All these fruits should be prepared by 
 sweetening en hour or two before wanted. 
 
 Shakespeare Cake. — Six cups of flour ; one of sugar ; one of rich 
 cream ; eight eggs. 
 
 Orange Cake. — Two cups of sugar ; yolk of five eggs and white of 
 four ; half a cup of water ; two cups of flour ; one teaspoonful of bak- 
 ing-powder, juice and grated rind of one orange. Spread and bake on 
 tin pie-plates. Tliis quantity should cover six plates. Make a jelly 
 by beating the white of one egg to a froth, and adding to it three 
 quarters of a pound of powdered sugar, and the grated rind and juice 
 of another orange. Spread the jelly on the cakes and lay one above 
 another in three tiers. 
 
 Silver Cake. — Two and a half cups of flour ; half a cup of butter ; 
 two cups of sugar ; three-fourths of a cup of sweet milk ; white of 
 eight eggs ; two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. 
 
 Gold Cake. — Two cups of flour ; three-fourths of a cup of butter ; 
 one cup of sugar ; one egg, and the yolk of eight eggs ; two spoonfuls 
 of baking-powder. 
 
84 EECIPES. 
 
 Italian Cream. — One quart of cream reduced by one pint of milk, 
 and set on ice to cool. Beat the cream and milk with a good egg- 
 beater fifteen minutes thoroughly. Dissolve two ounces of gelatine in 
 a gill of water, and strain it through a fiaunel bag into the cream. Add 
 two cups of sugar and flavor, if desired, with lemon or vanilla. Stir 
 briskly for three or four minutes ; pour into serving-dishes and set on 
 ice to cool. 
 
 Cookies. — One cup of butter ; two of sugar ; half a cup of milk ; 
 four eggs ; two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder ; half a nutmeg. As 
 little flour as possible, and roll out. 
 
 Sponge Cake. — Six eggs ; the weight of sis eggs in sugar, and the 
 weight of four in flour, with lemon extract, or a little grated lemon- 
 peel ; a little salt, and a spoonful of baking-powder. 
 
 ^ Delicate Cake. — When making cocoanut-custard use the whites 
 of the eggs as follows : One cup of white sugar ; five table-spoonfuls of 
 butter ; whites of six eggs ; one teacup of sweet milk ; three cups of 
 prepared flour, or to the same quantity of common flour add one tea- 
 spoonful of soda, and two of cream-of-tartar sifted in the flour. Flavor 
 with orange, lemon, or vanilla. 
 
 Note. — So says Mrs. Beechor : " We would substitute a teacupful of sweet, rich 
 cream, instead of the milk and butter. Also, cream-yeast instead of prepared flour, 
 or soda and cream-of-tartar." We <^i\v in this connection a recipe for cocoanut- 
 custard, as the two can be more economically made at the same baking. 
 
 V Cocoanut Custard. — One pound of grated cocoanut ; one pint of 
 rich milk, and six ounces of sugar. Beat the yolks of six eggs and 
 stir them into the milk with the nut and sugar. Put into a farina- 
 kettle, or into a small pail which you can set into a kettle of boiling 
 water. Stir all the time till very smooth and thick ; as soon as it 
 comes to a boil take off and pour into cups. 
 
 Ground Rice Cake. — Break five eggs into a stewpan, which place 
 in another, containing hot water ; whip the eggs for ten minutes till 
 very light ; then mix in by degrees half a pound of ground rice ; six 
 ounces of powdered sugar ; beat it well ; any flavor may be introduced ; 
 pour into a buttered pan and bake half an hour. 
 
 MOLDED FAEINACEA. 
 
 Arrowroot. — Take four ounces of arrowroot, one quart of new 
 milk, and four ounces of white sugar. Set a pint and a half of milk 
 on the fire, adding the sugar ; when boiling, put in the arrowroot, 
 previously mixed till perfectly smooth with half a pint of cold milk, 
 and stir constantly till it has boiled three minutes ; and pour it into a 
 mold previously dipped in cold water. 
 
 Barley. — Six ounces of Scotch barley ; three pints and a half of 
 water, and six ounces of sugar. Steep the barley twelve hours ; 
 drain it, and pour the water, boiling, upon it ; stew quickly in the 
 oven in an earthenware jar, covered, till perfectly soft, and all the 
 water is absorbed ; when about half boiled enough, add the sugar, and 
 
RECIPES. 85 
 
 a few drops of pure lemon juice ; pour it into a mold, and let it stand 
 to set. When boiled quickly, tlxe above quantity requires two hours 
 and a half, and is a much better color than when it is longer in prep- 
 aration. 
 
 Molded Rice. — Take eight ounces of rice and one and a half pints 
 of milk. Wash, and swell the rice in the milk, till the whole of 
 the milk is absorbed and the rice thoroughly softened ; then pressing 
 it into a mold or basin for half an hour, with a weight upon it, 
 serve it, turned out, with preserved or stewed fruit. 
 
 Molded S.-\.go. — Take five tablespoonfuls of sago; one-fourth 
 pound of sugar, and a little pure lemon juice. Steep the sago a quar- 
 ter of an hour in half a pint of cold water. Pour on it one and a 
 half pints of boiling water, and boil the whole in an earthen vessel in 
 the oven about one hour, occasionally stirring it. Pour into molds or 
 basins, and let it stand. When cold, turn it out, and serve Avith 
 stewed fruit. 
 
 Sago with Fruit. — Take four ounces of sago ; half a pint of 
 raspberry and currant juice (strained), and six ounces of loaf sugar. 
 Wash the sago and steep it one hour in cold water ; strain off the water ; 
 add the juice and boil gently a short time, stirring it occasionally, and 
 adding the sugar ; when clear, pour it into a mold ; let it stand 
 twelve hours, and pour it on a flat dish. 
 
 Tapioca. — Take three ounces of tapioca, two ounces of ground 
 rice, one pint and a half of milk, and eight drops of almond-iiavor. 
 W^ash the tapioca in water two or three times ; mix with the ground 
 rice ; add half a pint of cold milk, and let it remain thirty minutes ; 
 then add the remainder of the milk, and simmer it half an hour, 
 stirring well the whole time ; add the almond-flavor, and pour it into 
 a mold previously dipped in cold water. 
 
 Cracked Wheat. — For a quart of the cracked grain have two 
 quarts of water boiling in a smooth iron pot over a quick fire ; stir in 
 the wheat slowly ; boil fast and stir constantly for the first half hour 
 of cooking, or until it begins to thicken and " pop up ; " then lift from 
 the quick fire and place the pot where the wheat will cook slowly 
 for an hour longer. Keep it covered closely, stir now and then, and 
 be careful not to let it burn at the bottom. 
 
 W^heat c<3oked thus is much sweeter and richer than when left to 
 soak and simmer for hours, as many think necessary. W^hite wheat 
 cooks the easiest. When ready to dish out, have your molds moistened 
 with cold water, cover lightly, and set in a cool place. A handful 
 of raisins added with the wheat is an addition. Eat warm or cold, 
 with milk and sugar, or fruit. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS DISHES. 
 
 A STORY is told of an old doctor who always emptied the odds and 
 ends of every medicine lie used into a large bottle, and when he had a 
 patient that he was in doubt about as to what medicine he needed, he 
 always gave him a dose from this bottle. "Some one of the many 
 
86 RECIPKS. 
 
 drugs will meet tlie case," said lie : so in tliis list of miscellaneous 
 dishes, which were not properly classified, or were received after the 
 foregoing portion of this work was in type, something will be found to 
 meet the wants of the table when the good house-wife don't know 
 what else to get. We shall commence the list with a recipe for 
 making Dr. Heald's favorite bread. It was, so far as we know, 
 invented by the Doctor and his good wife, and is much used in his 
 Institution. We also add a few other bread recipes recently sent in 
 by our correspondents : — 
 
 Dr. Heald's Favorite Bread. — Stir the best white wheat meal 
 into cold water, until the batter so formed can no longer be worked 
 with the spoon. Then sprinkle meal upon your bread-board, and 
 knead the dough thoroughly for ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes, as you 
 have time, and desire the bread softer or harder. Work in all the 
 meal you can while kneading. The more you knead it and incorporate 
 air with it the lighter and better it will be. When sufficiently kneaded, 
 roll out with the hands on the board into a cylindrical form two inches 
 in diameter ; cut into pieces three inches long, and roll these into rolls 
 a little shorter than your oven grate, and one inch in diameter ; place 
 them on the hot grate, just from the range or stove, and bake in an 
 oven, not quite so hot as for " Gems," twelve to twenty minutes. 
 Break into pieces three inches long for table. We think this the best 
 and sweetest bread that can be made. 
 
 Coarse or Graham Bread. — No. 1, or fine Graham flour, makes 
 the best bread. The sponge is made at the same time, and in like 
 manner to wheat bread, except the water used, which is ten degrees 
 colder, as coarse flour rises quicker than fine. The same propoi'tions 
 of milk and water used. It is generally sweetened a little with sugar. 
 When the sponge is added, make as stiff a batter as can be stirred 
 conveniently. When light, mold into soft loaves. For this reason, 
 it wants the hottest place in the oven. 
 
 Rye Bread is made like wheat, with one exception — the loaves 
 are made quite soft. As little flour as possible is used in molding. 
 
 Corn or Brown Bread. — The sponge is made of unbolted rye or 
 wheat. In the morning take four quarts of Indian meal, make a thin 
 batter, using hot water. Let it stand half an hour to swell ; then 
 pour in the sponge and one quart of molasses, three quarts of rye 
 meal, or enough to make a stiff batter ; then put into covered dishea 
 to rise. Bake three hours. 
 
 Boiled Wheat. — Take good plump wheat ; pick it carefully, and 
 wash clean ; soak over night in soft water, and boil in same water till 
 softened through, which will require several hours. Rye or barley 
 may be cooked in the same way. Serve with cream, sugar, and ripe 
 fruit. 
 
 Brown Bread. — Mrs. Susan Everett, M. D., sends the following 
 froTn a lady who attended one of her courses of lectures. The author 
 states that twenty-five years ago she attended a course of lectures on 
 hygiene, and the lessons she then learned have enabled her to keep in 
 
BBCIPES. 87 
 
 good health ever since. She sent this recipe with a loaf of delicious 
 brown bread to Mrs. Everett during her course of lectures at Perth 
 Amboy, N. J. We regret that we are not jiermitted to give the lady's 
 name : — " We make our own yeast from hops of our own raising. The 
 vine makes a delightful shade for the south end of our bade porch, 
 and from that vine we gather, the last of August, hops enough for our 
 own use during the year, and also for som^ of our friends. To three 
 pints of water i)ut a handful of hops, and boil tlvem half an hour ; put 
 into 3'our yeast pot or jar six tablesi)oonfuls of tlour and one teaspoon- 
 ful of salt ; set your jar near the kettle, and dip the hop tea into the 
 jar through a sieve or colander. When you have strained enough to 
 wet all the flour, stir it well, and then strain upon it the rest of the 
 hop water. The mixture should be about the consistency of batter 
 for griddle cakes. When it is cool, not cold, stir in a gill of good 
 yeast ; set it in a warm place ; do not cover it close. When fermented, 
 put it in a cool place, and cover close. This is the yeast from which 
 we set,our wliite bread at evening. The next morning we take a good 
 handful of the dough; put it in a large yellow bowl, and add a tea- 
 spoonful of salt, a half cup of molasses, a pint of lukewarm water, 
 and enough Graham flour, making a dough softer than for white 
 bread ; set it to rise and bake. We do not knead this bread. This 
 makes two loaves. Brown bread is not improved by sugar." 
 
 Anger's Method op Making Gems. — " To the Editor. — By your 
 special request I will here state my experience in regard to the method 
 of making the Graham gems. The flour is the principal ingredient, 
 and on it depends chiefly the success of the baker ; it must necessarily 
 be of the very best kind, made of tlie best winter wheat, and be pos- 
 sessed of the qualities commonly known as"di'y and strong." The 
 treatment varies according to the qualities of the flour. If the flour is 
 of the kind -described above, the dough can be baked immediately ; 
 but if the flour be moist the dough must be allowed to stand in a warm 
 place for at least four hours, in order to obtain a palatable article. The 
 German hygienists allow the dough for their unleavened bread to 
 stand six hours, in every case ; this is, however, unnecessary, provided 
 the flour is of good quality. "The next in order is a good baliing oven, 
 one that is capable of baking equally as well from the top as from the 
 bottom; it is ditficult to state the exact amount of heating required, as 
 some ovens are more easily heated than others ; sufiice it to say that 
 a quick oven is necessary, and that the glaring heat, which always ac- 
 companies a freshly-heated oven, be allowed to pass away before bak- 
 ing the gems, as they are very apt to blister on the top, especially the 
 water gems. In mixing the dovigh take blood-warm milk or water, 
 adding the flour and beating thoroughly for at least five minutes. It ia 
 better to retain some of the milk or water one intends to use, making 
 the dough slightly thicker, beat it well, and then add the remaining 
 milk. 13y this method the dough becomes more thoroughly mixed, 
 and is entirely freed of the small lumj)S that are so difficult to get rid 
 of. If milk is used, make the dough thick enough, so that it can be 
 spooned out comfortably ; but for water gems it must be made some- 
 what thicker. 
 
 " The pans used in baking the gems are of oval shape, measuring two 
 
88 KECIPES. 
 
 and a half by one and a half inches ; eight of these unite in making 
 one pan ; there are also some pans made of tin, but as the cast iron 
 pan retains the heat longer it is tlie best. 
 
 "If the dough is ready and the oven heated, then put some of the pans 
 in the oven and allow them to become quite hot ; take one out, grease 
 it with a clean rag dipped in butter, and drop the dough in the pan 
 with a large spoon ; return the pan quickly to the oven. If the pan 
 is too hot, so that when greased the butter is burned, allow it to cool 
 before using it, as the gems will be apt to stick to the pan and be 
 burned. After eight or ten minutes they must be looked after, and if 
 they are getting too brown must be put in a cooler place and allowed 
 to bake for another ten or fifteen minutes more. They ought not to 
 be taken out before they are thoroughly baked, as they will become wet 
 and doughy if taken out too soon, and no amount of after baking can undo 
 this. They may be eaten hot with impunity, a quality not possessed 
 by any other form of bread. 
 
 "L. F. J. Akger." 
 
 [We can testify from personal knowledge that Mr. Anger's gems 
 are unsurpassed in delicacy and perfection by any we have ever 
 tasted. — Ed.] 
 
 Rusk. — Beat three eggs thoroughly, then beat in a cupful of sugar, 
 and a little flavoring to the taste of lemon or nutmeg. Add a tumbler 
 and a- half of rich cream which has first been mixed with a little flour ; 
 use no more flour than will give it consistency enough to be molded. 
 Let it rise all night or all day, and when very light put it upon tins to 
 rise again before baking. Bake in a quick oven fifteen or twenty 
 minutes. 
 
 foMATO Custard. — This is said to be a beneficial diet for consump- 
 tives. It is made by straining finely stewed tomatoes through a coarse 
 sieve, and adding two pints of milk which has been scalded and cooled, 
 and one pint of tomatoes, for four eggs, and one teaspoonful of sugar. 
 Bake in small cups quickly. 
 
 Cooking Raisins. — It is well to cook before putting them into pies, 
 cakes, or puddings. Soaking is not sufficient. Steaming them by 
 pouring a small quantity of boiling water among them in a tightly 
 closing dish, and allowingthem plenty of time to cook before opening, 
 is a good plan. When raisins are rightly cooked before using, they 
 are plumper and more palatable, and can be eaten without injury by 
 most dyspeptics. 
 
 Tomato Pie. — Peel and slice ripe tomatoes and lay them on dishes 
 as for apple pie. Sprinkle on a little flour ; and sugar to suit the 
 taste. Bake with two crusts, in a moderate oven. This as well as 
 green apple pie can be made with one crust only, by stewing the to- 
 niatoes or apples before putting into pies. 
 
 Barley Pudding. — Prepare a half pound of pearl barley, one 
 quart of new milk, and six ounces of sugar. Put the barley in fresh 
 water, and let it steep twelve hours ; pour the water from it, add the 
 milk, sugar, and a small salt-spoonful of salt, and bake it in a slow 
 oven. If a richer pudding be required, take it out of tlie oven when 
 
EECIPES. 89 
 
 nearly done, stir in two ounces of butter, four well beaten eggs, a 
 little flavoring, or any suitable seasoning ; return it to the oven in a 
 buttered dish, and bake it one hour. 
 
 AsPAKAGUs AND ToAST. — Asparagus, the best of the greens. "Wash, 
 pin up in a cloth, and boil gently in a little pure water about twenty 
 minutes. It goes well with samp and potatoes, without condiments, 
 but some people will not be content without dressing. The least ob- 
 jectionable dressing is the white sauce — milk thickened with wheat- 
 meal and slightly salted. " Asparagus toast" is made by cutting wheat- 
 meal biscuit into thin slices, dipping in hot milk, spreading on a plat- 
 ter, laying the boiled asparagus on it, and pouring over it the white 
 sauce. "Asparagus peas" are prepared by just cutting into bits the 
 tender part of the raw asparagus, boiling in just water enough to 
 cover it until done, skimming out, dishing, and pouring over it the 
 white sauce. 
 
 Gravy for Children. — For a pint of gravy you want a large 
 spoonful of flour, stirred smoothly into half a teacup of the cold milk. 
 Let the milk be boiling when this is added, and kept constantly stir- 
 ring, or the gravy will be lumpy. If cream is used instead of milk 
 no butter is necessary. The milk should be stirred while coming to 
 the boil to keep it from burning. It is less likely to burn if a little 
 butter is melted in the spider before pouring in the milk. Add a little 
 salt. For bread and potatoes it is better by far than meat gravy, and 
 not only palatable and wholesome, but nutritious. 
 ^ Oatmeal Jelly. — A very delicate breakfast-dish can be made of 
 "oatmeal jelly." Soak half a pint of good oatmeal over night in one 
 and a half pints of water. lu the morning drain off the water through 
 a sieve, adding to it one and a lialf pints hot water, and put it to boil 
 over a quick fire. Stir till it boils, then set it back and let it simmer 
 ten minutes. Turn it into molds, and in fifteen minutes it will be 
 set sufficiently to turn out into saucers, and will be warm enough to eat. 
 Serve at once, without trimming, or with a little milk or sweet- 
 ened fruit-juice. The soaked meal that is left can be utilized in 
 batter-biscuit, or corn-meal mush, or made into a porridge by itself. 
 In the latter shape it is bland, and peculiarly suitable for invalids who 
 have not yet learned to like oatmeal. These preparations are in no 
 way better than the whole oatmeal, excepting for variety. 
 
 ToM.\TO Soup. — To make one gallon, take three quarts of good beef 
 stock ; one medium-sized carrot ; one medium-sized turnip : one beet ; 
 one small onion. Peel and cut these up in small pieces ; then add 
 three (piarts of best fresh tomatoes, and boil for an hour. Strain 
 through a sieve ; then put five ounces of butter in a saucer ; heat it 
 to a light brown ; now, take it off the fire, and add, while hot, three 
 table-spoonfuls of flour. Put in tlie boiled tomatoes, and season to 
 your taste. Add one dessert-spoonful of sugar. Put it on the fire and 
 stir it till it boils. Let it boil for five minutes, skimming it the 
 while. It is now ready for the table. More sugar and flour can be 
 added, if necessary. 
 
 Use for Cold Mush. — A good way to use cold mush of any kind, 
 either oatmeal, Graham, or Indian. After taking off the skin which 
 
90 ' RECIPES. 
 
 forms, or any part ■wliicli may be dry, mix a little milk with 
 the musli to soften it ; then work in Graham or middlings till you can 
 make the dough up into balls as large as a black walnut, and bake on 
 the grate in a moderately quick oven. 
 
 Boiled Rice. — Wash and drain off one pint of good new rice ; put 
 into a covered saucepan with one quart of boiling water. Boil briskly 
 for five or ten minutes, or until tlie water is mostly absorbed ; then 
 set on one side of the stove, and let it steam steadily fifteen or twenty 
 minutes. Keep closely covered all the time, and do not stir it at all 
 after it begins to boil. The Southern people, who know both how to 
 cook and to eat rice, never allow the lid to be removed while the steam- 
 ing isgoing on ; perhaps just lifting one side of the cover to peep in, 
 and see that it does not burn. When done just right, every grain will 
 be swelled to its utmost, and bursted open. To be eaten as a veget- 
 able, or with cream or maple syrup. 
 
 Oatmeal Mush. — Julia Colman, who has charge of the cooking of 
 the Hygienic Hotel, No. 13 & 15 Laight Street, New York, hands us 
 the following method : 
 
 "To three quarts of boiling water add one level teaspoonful of 
 salt and one quart of good oatmeal, stirring while the latter is poured 
 in slowly. Let it stand where it will boil gently, and stir it occasion- 
 ally for ten minutes, or until the meal is evenly diffused through the 
 water. Then cover close, and place where it will barely simmer for 
 one hour. Do not stir it during that time. Serve warm, messing it 
 as little as possible. 
 
 Hygienic Plum Pudding. — This is from the Dietetic Reformer : 
 "Put together in a basin some currants and sultana raisins that have 
 been well washed and dried ; add wheat-meal fiour in proportions pre- 
 ferred, whether for a plain pudding or more fruit ; stir in gradually 
 cold filtered rain-water, beating the mixture well ; make it the usual 
 consistency of plum-pudding ; bake in a well-butt«red dish, or boil 
 several hours in a cloth. To suit some tastes, add a little sugar, 
 candied peel, and grated lemon peel." 
 
 A Delicious Cracker. — A delicious and wholesome cracker. — Take 
 equal parts " middlings" and Graham flour. Wet with new or sweet 
 milk, and knead rather stiff. Work it a good deal on the board ; then 
 roll out to one quarter of an inch in thickness, and cut out in dia- 
 monds or squares ; prick them, and bake in a quick oven. Bake best 
 right on the grates. 
 
 Mixed Gems. — Take a half-pint of corn-meal, pour boiling water 
 upon it, enough to wet it ; then cool with skim-milk to the consistency 
 of pancake batter ; and thicken with equal parts of "middlings" and 
 Graham flour ; to be baked the same as gems, only not so quickly. 
 
 Quaker Mince Pies. — Chop fine a half-dozen of large bell-flowers 
 or greenings ; add one cup of raisins, well cooked ; one cup of canned 
 cherries, whortle-berries, or other fruit to suit the taste ; then a pinch 
 of salt, and sugar or syrup enough to sweeten to the taste ; lastly, add 
 a cup of sweet cream when ready to use. Bake with cream crust. 
 
EECIPES. 91 
 
 Baked ou Steamed Indian Pudding. — For one quart of sweet 
 milk take a half-dozen large spoonfuls of best corn-meal ; wet it with 
 syrup, and pour the milk over boiling hot — stirring it meanwhile. 
 Chop fine three or four large sub-acid apples, and stir iu ; steam or 
 bake throe-quarters of an hour ; then beat an egg with a spoonful of 
 sugar, and add a little milk, and stir in. 
 
 New Way to Serve Egg Plant. — The vegetable egg Ave think 
 has been undervalued, more on account of its improper preparation 
 than for its demerit — the saturating it iu butter and lard being the 
 greatest objection. 
 
 Wife has this season prepared as follows : Peel and then cut egg in 
 slices or pieces ; add water enough to boil soft, and salt to suit 
 taste. When soft pour off water and mash it ; make a batter of flour 
 and eggs (chicken) ; mix the whole together, and bake like griddle- 
 cake. When the proper quantities are mixed it will make a nice 
 brown cake, with no grease (except to keep free from pan), and 
 free from the strong wild taste which is generally disliked. We think 
 the egg is destined to become a more general article of food, especially 
 among hygienists. So says H. M. Engle. 
 
 Maple Syrup. — This is the most delicious of the sweets. Every 
 family should have some. If given to children on oatmeal or cracked 
 wheat for breakfast every morning they would thrive like calves well 
 fed with milk. To make a good maple syrup, melt with one pound of 
 maple sugar two pounds of best white sugar. It will not do to use 
 the brown, as this is not clean enough. 
 
 Tomato Gravy. — Scald, peel, and cut very fine, a pint of good, 
 ripe tomatoes ; put into a stewpan, Avith a pint of boiling Avater, and 
 steAv them one hour ; stir frequently to keep them free from the 
 bottom, and to make them A'ery smooth and fine. When they are 
 steAA'ed down to a pint, rub a large spoonful of flour AA'ith a lump of 
 butter the size of a Avalnut, and stir into the tomatoes ; stir thoroughly 
 till they are cooked, then pour a pint of rich, sweet creani into the 
 middle of the thickened tomatoes, and let them become boiling hot be- 
 fore you stir them ; then stir well together, and boil five minutes. Salt 
 to taste. Cut a slice of broAvn bread, or split gems into four pieces, lay 
 into a vegetable dish, and pour the tomatoes oA'er them. This is very 
 nice AA'hen, well cooked, and all the ingredients are sAveet and fresh. 
 Children who are fond of tomatoes like this modification of cream and 
 gravy. 
 
 Apple Pan Doody. — For a family of six persons use a tA\'o-quart 
 tin or earthen pan. Use the best pie apples. Pare and slice the apples 
 nicely. 1st. Place a layer of apples about an inch thick, season with 
 a speck of salt and sugar. 2d. Put a layer of cracker crumbs half 
 inch thick. Alternate a layer of apples and cracker crumbs until the 
 pan is full. Bake one hour, and serve Avith cream or rich milk. — 
 K. I. Greenings are the apples for pies and puddings. 
 
 Baked Apples. — Select sound apples of one size — pippins or some 
 other well-flaA'-ored apple — peel and core ; use a small knife with a 
 narroAv blade, and take out the core of the apple from the blossom 
 
92 RECIPES. 
 
 end — the core lies nearest to that part — do not go tlirougli, but make 
 a cup, into wliicli pat a teaspoonful of sugar ; set the apples close to- 
 gether in a deep dish, add a teacupful of water, put into the oven and 
 balte. Sweet apples prepared in the same manner are very nice. A 
 lemon cut in very thin slices, and a slice laid on each apple may be a 
 desirable flavoring. 
 
 Boiled Pears. — Take hard pears, wash, and remove specks ; bo 
 sure that they are sound at the core ; put them into a fruit-kettle, 
 cover them with water — at least a quart — and boil them slowly an 
 hour ; then add a sufficient quantity of sugar to make a lively syrup ; 
 boil half or three-quarters of an hour, and serve cold. 
 
 Crushed Wheat. — This preparation of wheat is not yet generally 
 in use by those who are in favor of farinaceous food. The whole grain 
 is " crushed " in such a manner as to retain all its particles quite 
 together. Nothing is lost or sifted out. It is made from good white 
 wheat, and is very clean, and well put up in packages. It cooks 
 more readily than the cracked grain, has more gluten, and has all the 
 sweetness and Havor of the wheat. I cook it just as I do oatmeal ; hav- 
 ing a quart or two of boiling water on the fire, stir in two handfuls of 
 the grain — all I can grasp — for each quart of water ; boil rapidly for 
 twenty minutes, stirring frequently to prevent its adhering to the bot- 
 tom of the kettle ; then let it simmer over a slow fire for ten minutes, 
 covered tightly. I like it better when cool ; the gluten forms a jelly, 
 and when molded makes a handsome dish for the table. To be eaten 
 warm a little more grain must be added when you make it. It is de- 
 licious and wholesome with cream, light fruits, and sugar. 
 / French Honey. — Break one pound of lump sugar into pieces, put it 
 into a pan, and add the yolks of six eggs, and tlie whites of four, the 
 juice of four lemons, and the grated rind of two, and three ounces of 
 butter. Stir this mixture over a slow fire, until it becomes thick like 
 honey. It will keep a year, put into a dry, cool place. This is nice for 
 a variety of tarts or shells. 
 
 Jellies. — Currants and grapes make the best and cheapest jelly for 
 home use. Select large, ripe currants, fresli from the bushes as possi- 
 ble, pick out all the leaves or old currants, let the clusters remain on 
 the stems ; weigh six pounds of the fruit thus cleaned, put into a stone 
 or earthen vessel, add a pint of fresh water, then take a wooden 
 masher and crush the berries thoroughly. I have a strong, thin linen 
 towel sewed firmly into a poke, into which I put a pint or so of the 
 crushed berries, wring and squeeze them completely ; emptying and 
 filling until all the juice is secured, of which there will be about five 
 pints. To this juice add five pounds of best brown sugar, putting the 
 whole into a porcelain kettle over a good fire, stir slowly with a silver 
 or wooden spoon, and let it boil fifteen or twenty minutes. By this 
 time, if the fruit is fresh, there is no failure of the jelly. Then I put 
 it vip in pint size, self-sealing glass jars for common use. It is, I really 
 think, as cheap, and far more delicious for meats.than cranberries, and 
 as a relish of fruit. It costs about twenty-five cents a pint, or pound. 
 The best brown sugar makes the richest jelly, and with more uniform 
 Buccess. If you want a delicate color, and more acid jelly, use white 
 
KECIPES. 93 
 
 Bugar. Black currant jelly is considered very beneficial in diarrlicea, 
 and other diseases of like nature. 
 
 Grape Jam. — Slip the skins off from the pulps and put them into 
 an earthen dish ; put the pulps into a porcelain kettle over the fire, 
 cover them, and bring them to a boil, being careful not to burn them ; 
 boil and stir them till the pulps are broken and the seeds are separated ; 
 remove from the fire, and let the seeds settle to the bottom of the ket- 
 tle ; then pour off the juice or strain it through a colander, and put 
 back into the kettle ; add the pulps and their Aveight in best brown 
 sugar ; simmer slowly, stirring frequently for an hour ; put up as you 
 would fruit in glass cans. If you cook it long enough to keep without 
 being air-tight, the flavor of the grape will be spoiled. 
 
 Plums and late Cherries are excellent fruits for jams, light preserv- 
 ing, and canning. Both of these fruits retain their own delicious flavor 
 better if the seeds are left in. They are particularly relishable with 
 farinaceous food. 
 
 Jam and Jelly. — The fruit that comes from the vines or canes latest 
 in the season makes the poorest jelly. If currants hang long upon the 
 bushes, they lose most of their jelly -making property. They need to 
 be used as soon as possible after gathering. One who desires clear, 
 fine-flavored jelly will not squeeze the jelly-bag if it be of loose 
 material. Fine flannel is best for this purpose, and when this is used 
 some pressure is allowable ; but we wish to strain the juice not only 
 free from stems, skins, and seeds, but free from all fine particles. 
 
 Raspberry Jam. — One pound of sugar to each pound of berries, 
 and nearly a pint of currant juice. Put the sugar and berries together 
 in a pan over the fire, and with potato-masher, or wooden spoon, keep 
 mashing and stirring them constantly to prevent burning. When they 
 are well mashed, add the currant- juice, and boil briskly, still stirring 
 it carefully. Just before it actually boils skim it well. Let it boil 
 about three-quarters of an hour to bring it to the right consistency. It 
 is best to put it up in cups, bowls, or fruit-jars, as it does not keep so 
 well after being disturbed. Cover the cups with firm paper varnished 
 with white of e^^, and pressed closely around over the edges of the 
 cups. Jam should be kept in a cool, dry place. 
 
 Grape Jelly. — Put the grapes in a jolly-pan with a very little 
 ■water ; simmer on the fire till quite soft ; then strain through a col- 
 ander or flannel bag; when the juice is all run out, measure, and allow 
 fully one pound of loaf sugar to every pint of juice ; boil till it 
 jellies ; when it has boiled twenty minutes, try a little in a saucer. It 
 should be watched for fear of boiling over. Common sugar may be 
 used, but the jelly will not keep so long. 
 
 Barberry Jelly. — Scald the berries on the stems, and squeeze 
 them through a thin cloth or flannel. Take one pound of sugar to 
 one pound of juice. Boil together half an hour. Try a spoonful of 
 the juice in a teacup of ice-water ; if it sinks to \\w bottom in a solid 
 form, the jelly has come — if not, boil a while longer. 
 
 Barberry Jam is excellent if made by cooking and stirring with the 
 berries a quantity of good sweet apples. Boil till the apples are 
 thoroughly cooked and mixed, then can in glass cans. 
 
04 EECIPES. 
 
 Baked Irish Potatoes. — Boil soft eight good-sized Irish potatoes; 
 mash them, add two tablespoonfuls of butter and a pint of milk ; salt 
 to taste. Put into a dish and bake half an hour. 
 
 To Dress Sweet Potatoes. — Put two or three platefuls in the 
 oven, bake till quite soft ; peel and put them on a tin sheet, and bake 
 again for half an hour. 
 
 Another Way. — Another mode of dressing sweet potatoes. Boil 
 the potatoes until quite soft ; peel and rub smooth with a spoonful of 
 butter and salt. Bake in a pan, and turn into a vegetable dish. 
 
 Rice Cakes. — One pint of soft-boiled rice, a teaspoonful of butter, 
 an egg, half a pint of milk, and half a pint of rice flour : salt to the 
 taste. Beat all well together, and bake in patties. 
 
 Corn Muffins. — To three pints of corn meal add a pint of tepid 
 water, a teacupful of bakers' yeast, a tablespoonful of sugar, and a 
 teaspoonful of salt ; mix all well together and bake in rings. To be 
 mixed at night, for use the next morning, etc. 
 
 Corn Dodgers. — One quart of corn meal, a little salt, and water 
 enough to make the batter just stifE enough to make into cakes with 
 the hands. Bake in a Dutch oven, on tin sheets. 
 
 North Carolina Dabs. — One pint milk, two eggs, a tablespoonful 
 of butter, wine glass of milk : scald the meal, and while hot rub in 
 the butter ; beat the eggs very light, and add to the meal, stir in the 
 milk and a little salt. Drop the mixture from a spoon upon a tin sheet, 
 and bake in a moderate oven. 
 
 Muffins. — One pint of milk, one dessert spoonful of butter, two 
 eggs, half gill of yeast, a little salt, and as much flour as will make it 
 thick enough for a spoon to stand. To be baked in rings. 
 
 Graham Muffins. — One pint of Graham flour, a pint of milk, one 
 egg, a little salt. 
 
 Loaf Rice Bread. — One pint of rice flour, three eggs, a spoonful 
 hutter, saltspoouful of salt ; beat the eggs quite light ; stir in butter, 
 flour, and salt. Dissolve a yeast powder in a little warm water ; mix 
 well with the other ingredients ; pour into the pan and place it imme- 
 diately in the oven. Bake nearly an hour in a moderate oven. 
 
 Pan Journey Cake. — Half pint rice, dessert spoonful of butter, 
 two tablespoonfuls of milk, two tablespoonfuls of fine rice flour ; boil 
 the rice quite soft, and stir the butter in while hot. If the bread is 
 wanted for breakfast, the rice must be boiled the night before ; and if 
 wanted for tea it must be prepared in time for it to become cold before 
 the other ingredients are mixed in. When ready to bake, stir in the 
 milk and rice flour ; spread the mixture about half an inch thick, in a 
 shallow pan well greased. Bake half an hour in a moderate oven. 
 
 Okra Soup. — Cut up in fine slices two soup plates of okra, and put 
 into a digester with five quarts of water and a little salt— at nine 
 o'clock. At ten o'clock, add your meat ; at eteven, peel a soup plate and 
 
RECIPES. 95 
 
 a half of tomatoes, and after straining add to the soup, through the 
 colander ; then season with pepper and salt ; allow all the ingredients 
 to boil until two o'clock, when it is fit to be served up. 
 
 " Every-Day " Pudding. — Half a loaf of stale brown home-made 
 bread soaked in a quart of milk ; four eggs, four tablespoon fuls of 
 flour ; a little fruit, dried or fresh, is a great addition. Steam or boil 
 three-fourths of an hour. Serve with the following sauce : 
 
 Butter, sugar, and water, thickened with a little cornstarch, and 
 flavored with lemon juice and rind. 
 
 Fancy Disn. — Take half a dozen eggs, make a hole at one end 
 and empty the shells ; fill them with blanc mange ; when stiff and 
 cold take off the shells ; pare lemon rind very thin, boil in water till 
 tender, then cut in thin strips to resemble straw, and preserve in su- 
 gar ; fill a deep dish half full of jelly or nice cold custard, put the 
 eggs in and lay the straws, nest-like, around them. 
 
 A NICE Strawberry Dessert. — A nice dessert is made by filling 
 coffee-cups loosely with strawberries, and pouring over them Graham- 
 flour mush ; or instead, thicken sweet boiling milk to a consistency 
 which is thin enough to fill the interstices between the berries, and 
 yet thick enough to be firm when cool. Turn out and serve up with 
 cream and sugar. 
 
 Eggs without Boiling. — Drop eggs into a sauce-pan of boiling 
 water, which remove immediately from the fire. Let them remain in 
 the hot water five minutes. 
 
 Beans without Pork. — Some families seem not to know that 
 baked beans are delicious without pork, if properly cooked and sea- 
 soned. Boil a pot of beans until they are cooked thoroughly soft, take 
 half for one day's bean-soup, and use the other half a few days later 
 for baked beans. If the beans are old drop in a small lump or half- 
 teaspoonful of soda. When this water boils, turn it off, and supply 
 its place with clean boiling water. After the beans have boiled in 
 this an hour, we change the water again — sometimes three times, but 
 never after the beans have begun to come to pieces. Set them where 
 they will not boil too hard, and cook them four or five hours, when 
 they are well softened and separated. Then we stir into this soup 
 salt, and a cup of cream if we have it ; if not, a tablespoonf ul or two 
 of good butter. We take out half of the beans (if we have cooked 
 enough for two meals) before seasoning the day's portion, and some- 
 times thin what is left for soup with hot water, and then put in the 
 cream and salt, and boil and stir it all together. When we bake the 
 reserved portion, we pour it into a large baking-dish or dripping-pan, 
 stir in a spoonful of salt and a cup of cream, or cream 3' milk, and bit 
 of butter, and bake an hour. I cannot believe that any one who tries 
 it would prefer " pork and beans " to this. The most common mis- 
 take in cooking beans is to cook them too little. This is the cause of 
 their flatulent tendency, and such result may be prevented by thor- 
 ough cooking. The frequent changing of the water takes away the 
 strong flavor which is disagreeable to many. 
 
96 KECIPES. 
 
 Spinach "with Eggs. — Wash the spinach leaves in several waters, 
 and keep in cold water until time to cook it. Then put in boiling 
 water enough to cover it, and add a little salt. Cover the pan, and 
 boil the spinach briskly until the leaves are tender ; they will sink 
 when done. Then press the water out, cut the spinach fine, put it in 
 the pan, season with butter, and serve hot. Have the eggs ready 
 poached, lay them on the spinach, and mix well with it. This is a 
 delicious dish, and seasonable in the spring of the year. 
 
 Gem and Cheese Sandwiches. — Toast good cheese lightly ; split, 
 wheatmeal gems in halves, and spread between two halves, so as to 
 come to the edges all round, a slice of the toasted cheese. It makes a 
 wholesome and palatable lunch ; children are fond of it. Some ob- 
 ject to toasted cheese. The principal objection to it is that it is gen- 
 erally toasted too much. If toasted dry, it is as hard to digest as a 
 very hard-boiled egg. Another objection is, that it is too often eaten 
 as a dessert with rich pie and cake, instead of with the principal part 
 of the meal. 
 
PART III. 
 
LIQUID FOODS 
 
 Liquid Foods. — All wholesome drinks may be very ap- 
 propriately called liquid foods, whether taken to quench 
 thirst, or to convey nourishment to the blood. 
 
 Water is the chief natural beverage of mankind, and most 
 important of any liquid or solid food. Eighty-seven per cent. 
 of our bodies is water. It v^astes with every breath and 
 motion, and this waste must be restored with a new supply 
 of several pints every day. It serves many purposes in the 
 animal economy. 
 
 1. It softens and helps to dissolve the solid elements of 
 our foods, rendering them capable of being masticated, dis- 
 solved, and fluid enough to flow in the veins and arteries. 
 
 2. It maintains a proper bulk to both blood and tissues, 
 rendering them mobile and round instead of dry and stiff. 
 
 3. It holds in solution the solid parts of our food, while 
 being moved to the places where they are needed. 
 
 4. It dissolves the waste matter of the system, and trans- 
 ports it out of the body. 
 
 5. It takes up the superfluous heat of the system, and car- 
 ries it away through the pores of the skin. 
 
 6. It slakes our thirst, and cools the blood in warm 
 weathei'. 
 
 7. It may be the means — taken hot — of carrying heat into 
 the system after exposure to cold. 
 
 Indeed, there is no apparent end to the uses of water, and 
 
100 LIQUID FOODS. 
 
 it is a great wonder that it has not always been used as the 
 only drink ; and a greater wonder, that such substitutes as 
 alcoholic beverages ever should have become popular with 
 even a small minority of people. 
 
 The Pueit'y of Watee. — The purity of water is a question 
 of great importance. Such an article does not exist in nature. 
 The nearest approach to pure water is made by distillation ; 
 but even this is not absolutely pure. Even the best natural 
 waters contain some salts of lime, magnesia, ammonia, atmos- 
 pheric air, carbonic acid, and other substances, and many 
 contain in solution, organic and inorganic matter enough to 
 render their use objectionable. Water that contains much 
 "lime and magnesia is called hard water, and conveys to the 
 blood substances not wanted there. Water containing or- 
 ganic matter dissolved from vegetable and animal substances, 
 or poisonous gases dissolved from the air, is a very dangerous 
 drink, and should be avoided. Water contaminated with 
 miasma causes fever and ague, and it is a question if this 
 disease is not caused more by drinking water than by breath- 
 ing the air of malarious districts. Water contaminated by 
 effluvia from cesspools, privies, and barn-yards, is a sure 
 source of that dangerous malady, typhoid fever. There is 
 no doubt but the unclean water about many farms and 
 dairies spreads this disease in otherwise healthy towns, and 
 causes mxmy deaths. 
 
 Distilled Water. — In many states of health distilled 
 water is an important aid to recovery. It can only be made 
 by the use of apparatus, which is very troublesome and in- 
 convenient. Druggists generally keep it for preparing medi- 
 cines. Every household can prepare water which is almost 
 as good, by boiling it briskly for a few minutes, and after 
 cooling, straining it through a pan of charcoal, and keeping 
 in a well-corked bottle in a cool, dark place. 
 
 Water prepared in this way is comparatively pure and free 
 
SIMPLE BEVERAGES FROSI FRUITS. 101 
 
 from insects, and Avill often be of great service to invalids, 
 especially in sections of country where the natural water is 
 impure. 
 
 FiLTEKED Water. — A vessel to purify water by filtration, 
 is one of the most valuable and necessary articles of house- 
 hold economy, and no one who has a fine appreciation of the 
 connection between that great blessing, good health and pure 
 water, if he lives in a region where the latter is not usually 
 good, will consider his domestic establishment perfect with- 
 out some form of filter. There are many forms of them, 
 and their expense is sliglit compared with the good they ac- 
 complish. 
 
 SIMPLE BEYERAaES FROM FRUITS. 
 
 The juices of various fruits may be used with, water and sugar for 
 making most delicious and wholesome beverages. 
 
 Put a gallon of water on to boil, cut up one pound of tart apples, 
 each one into quarters, put them in the water, and boil them until 
 they can be pulped ; pass the liquor through a cullender, boil it up 
 again with half a pound of sugar, scum, and bottle for use, taking 
 care not to cork the bottle, and keep it in a cool place : the apples may 
 be eaten with sugar as a sauce. 
 
 Another way.— Bake the apples first, then put them in a gallon 
 pan, add the sugar, and pour boiling water over, let it get cold, pass 
 the liquor as above, and bottle. 
 
 Apple Toast and Water. — A piece of bread, slowly toasted till it 
 gets quite black, and added to the above, makes a very nice and re- 
 freshing drink for invalids. 
 
 Apple Barley Water. — A quarter of a pound of pearl barley 
 instead of toast added to the above, and boil for one hour, is also si 
 very nice drink. 
 
 Apple Rice Water. — Half a pound of rice, boiled in the above 
 until in pulp, passed through a cullender, and drunk when cold. 
 All kinds of fruits may be done the same way. 
 Figs and French plums are excellent ; also raisins. 
 A little ginger, where desired, may be used. 
 
 For Spring Drink. — Rhubarb, in the same quantities, and done in 
 the same way as apples, adding more sugar, is very cooling. 
 
102 SIMPLE BEVERAGES PEOM FRUITS. 
 
 LEMONADES. 
 
 Lemonade from Preserved Lemon Juice. — Preserve your juice 
 wlien lemons are plenty and cheap, by adding one pound of refined 
 sugar to each pint of juice, stirring the mixture till dissolved, when 
 it should be bottled. Put a teaspoonful of salad-oil on the top to keep 
 out the air, then cork closely. When wanted for use, apply a bit of 
 cotton to the oil to absorb it. To a goblet of water add sufficient of 
 this juice to suit the taste. Every family should preserve lemon juice 
 in this way for times of need. If hot lemonade is desired, use hot 
 instead of cold water. 
 
 Tea Lemonade. — To a cup of very weak cold tea add the juice of 
 half a lemon. It makes a pleasant beverage for old people who use 
 tea. It is not desirable for the young. 
 
 Pineapple Lemonade. — Peel twelve fresh lemons very thinly, 
 squeeze the juice from them ; strain out the seeds ; pour on the peel 
 a little hot water ; let it stand a little while to infuse, covering closely. 
 When cool, strain this water into the lemon-juice, adding a pound of 
 loaf sugar. Put the whole into a decanter to be kept cool for present 
 use. Use two tablespoonfuls for a glass of lemonade. To add to the 
 delicacy of the beverage, add a slice of pineapple to each glass. To 
 add to the appearance, add a thin slice of lemon. Cool, delicious, 
 wholesome. 
 
 Orange and Lemonade. — Peel one large fresh lemon and six fresh 
 oranges. Cover the peel with boiling water, and let it infuse in a 
 closely- covered dish. Boil one pound of sugar in a pint of water, till 
 a syrup is formed, skimming o£E any impurities, strain the peel-water, 
 add it to the syrup when cold, and add the juice strained, stir well, 
 and add cold water till it makes a pleasant drink. These methods of 
 making drinks are more troublesome than the common way, but the 
 result in the end is more satisfactory. 
 
 Common Lemonade. — Cut three large fresh lemons in very fine 
 slices, taking out the pips. Add half a pound of white sugar and 
 about two quarts of water. Bruise well together and stir, and it is 
 ready for use. 
 
 Hot Lemonade. — Hot lemonade is often desirable in winter, when 
 the body has been exposed to cold and is chilly. It is made the same 
 as cold lemonade, except by using hot instead of cold water. 
 
 English Lemonade. — Pare a number of lemons, according to the 
 quantity of drink you wish to make. Pour boiling water on one 
 quarter of the peel, and let it infuse. Boil your sugar to the con- 
 sistency of a rich syrup, adding the white of an egg whipt in. When 
 it boils pour in a little cold water to stop it, then let it boil again, 
 when tlie pan should be taken off to cool and settle, skimming off any 
 scum that comes to the top. When settled, pour off the syrup into 
 the peel water, now add the juice and as much water as is necessary 
 to make a rich drink. Strain through a fine jelly bag. 
 
SIMPLE BEVEEAGES FKOM FRUITS. 103 
 
 Lemox Whey. — Boil as much milk as you require, squeeze a lemon, 
 and add as much of the juice to the milk as will make it clear. Mis 
 with hot water, and sweeten to taste. 
 
 Lemon Water. — Cut a fresh lemon into very thin slices, put them 
 in a pitcher, and pour on one pint of boiling water. Let it stand till 
 cold, sweeten to taste, and use. 
 
 Milk Lemonade to keep a day or two. — Pare twenty-four large 
 fresh lemons as thin as possible ; put eight of the rinds into three 
 quarts of hot but not boiling water, and let it stand three hours. Rub 
 fine sugar on the rind of the others, to absorb the essence. Put it in a 
 china bowl, and squeeze the juice from the lemons over it, after which 
 add a pound and a half of fine sugar. Now put the water to the 
 above, and add three quarts of boiling milk. Mix and pour through 
 a jelly bag. Use the day after made. 
 
 SIMPLE DRINKS FROM VARIOUS SUBSTANCES. 
 
 Ajierican Temperance Beverage.— Twelve lemons, one quart 
 of ripe raspberries, one ripe pineapple, two pounds best refined sugar, 
 three quarts of pure soft cold, but not iced, water. Peel the lemons 
 very thin, squeeze the juice of all over the peel, let it stand a few 
 hours, add the two pounds of refined sugar, mash the raspberries with 
 half a pound of same sugar, cut the pineapple, after paring it, in 
 very thin slices, and cover them with sugar. Strain the lemon-juice, 
 crush the raspberries, press the pineapple, put the lemon-juice in a 
 bowl, add the three quarts of water, add the crushed berries and pine- 
 apple, stir all together till the sugar is dissolved and it is ready to 
 serve. This makes a delicious beverage. 
 
 Cranberry Drink. — Mash a tea-cupful of clean fresh cranberries 
 in a cup of cold water. Boil a large spoonful of oatmeal and a slice 
 of a lemon in two quarts of water ; add the cranberries and as much 
 sugar as will sweeten to the taste. Boil for half an hour and strain. 
 
 Egg Tea. — It is a common but injurious practice for women to take 
 a cup of hot tea on an empty stomach when tired and exhausted. An 
 egg broken into a weak cup of tea, well beaten and mixed with a 
 glass of cold sweet milk, is much less injurious, and really nourish- 
 ing. 
 
 Tamarind Water. — Boil an ounce of tamarinds, three ounces of 
 currants, and two ounces of stoned raisins in three quarts of water, 
 until nearly a third has evaporated. 
 
 Pure tamarind water is much used in fevers, and is considered a 
 cool and refreshing beverage. It is made by dissolving the pulp in 
 boiling water, straining and cooling, or it may be prepared with 
 barley water and treated in the same way. 
 
 Strawberry Drink.— Boil a pound of sugar in a pint of water till 
 it makes a syrup. Add a pint of strawberry juice, and boil gently for 
 an hour. Cool, and bottle in well corked bottles for use. Add water 
 to taste. It is a delicious spring drink. 
 
104 SIMPLE BEVERAGES FKOM FKUITS. 
 
 A very delicious drink may be made from canned strawberries, 
 water, and sugar, for early spring use. This fruit is rarely canned, 
 but is the most wholesome of any for early spring use before other 
 new fruit can be had. The acid acts favorably in clearing out the 
 system, acting on liver and bowels. 
 
 Blackbekry Drink. — A delicious drink is made by stewing a pound 
 of ripe blackberries in a quart of water, adding sufficient sugar to 
 make the drink palatable, and pouring off the fluid. The berries 
 may be eaten separately. An equally pleasant drink may be made by 
 stewing dried blackberries, adding sugar to make it sufficiently sweet. 
 The amount of water and sugar may be decided by the taste. 
 
 Raspberry Drink. — Take fine red, ripe raspberries, crush them in 
 a sieve, and press out the juice, to each pint of which add a pint of 
 syrup made by boiling a pound of sugar in a pint of water, the scum 
 being removed. When the syrup and juice are mixed, boil slowly for 
 an hour, cool, bottle, cork, and seal. When wanted, dilute with water 
 to the right consistency. A delicious drink is quickly and cheaply 
 made by stewing dried raspberries in water, adding sugar to make the 
 drink palatable. It can be made of fresh berries by crushing them in 
 a bowl and adding water and sugar to taste. Children are generally 
 fond of drinks made in this way, and the variety is almost endless. 
 
 Cherry Drink. — Mash twelve or fifteen large sour cherries, stones 
 and all, in a goblet, pour on water till the glass is two- thirds full ; 
 add loaf-sugar sufficient to suit the taste. This is a cooling summer- 
 beverage, and an excellent diuretic. Persons suffering with gravel in 
 the bladder are often greatly relieved by this beverage, only it should 
 be made very strong of cherry-juice for them. 
 
 Plum Water. — Pour over half a pound of plums a quarter of an 
 ounce of ginger (if approved), two quarts of water ; boil till pulped, 
 strain, boil again, skim well, and bottle for use. Keep cool. 
 
 Gooseberry Water. — Green gooseberries, served in the same 
 way, make a good drink. The proportions are : gooseberries one 
 pound ; water, one gallon ; ginger, one-half ounce ; sugar, three- 
 fourths of a pound. 
 
 Mixed Currantade. — Mash one pound of ripe red currants with 
 half a pound of ripe red raspberries ; add a half pound of sugar and a 
 gallon of cold water. Let it settle, and it is ready for use. If it is 
 desirable to bottle it, strain. Dried currants and dried raspberries 
 may be used, and so may currant jelly, if more convenient. 
 
 Pure Currantade. — Press the juice from ripe currants, strain, 
 add to each pint a pound of best white sugar ; add cold water to taste. 
 It makes a delicious beverage. Dried currants may be used, and thus 
 the drink made at any season of the year. 
 
 A Cool Ginger Drink. — Ginger is used almost universally as an 
 addition to many drinks. There are those who would not allow it in 
 the stomach, still, as the root contains no essential oil, and is slightly 
 warming and carminative, it is not particularly objectionable. Gen- 
 
SIMPLE BEVEBAGES FKOM FRUITS. 105 
 
 erally it agrees "well witli most stomachs. The following receipt for 
 a mild ginger beer will not be amiss. 
 
 To six gallons of pure soft water put eight pounds of loaf-sugar, 
 the whites of three eggs, well beaten, and three ounces best ginger. 
 Powder the ginger finely, and mix with a little water before adding it 
 to the mass. Boil gently for three-fourths of an hour, removing mean- 
 time the scum that rises to the surface. Let it cool, add the juice of 
 three large lemons and a table-spoonful of yeast. Now put it in a 
 cask and bung it very tightly, and let it stand for about ten days, 
 when it will be fit to use. 
 
 Rhxjbarb Tea. — Boil two pounds of rhubarb stalks well sliced, for 
 an hour in a quart of water, strain into a pitcher, add the juice of one 
 lemon, and sugar to taste after it is cold. This makes a refreshing 
 drink in the spring of the year. 
 
 Apple Tea. — Peel, core, and quarter two pounds of apples, boil for 
 half an hour in a quart of water, strain the liquor into a pitcher, add 
 the juice of one lemon and loaf-sugar to taste. 
 
 Dried Apple Barley Water. — Boil one pound of clean dried 
 apples in one gallon of water for an hour. Boil a quarter of a pound 
 of pearl barley one hour. Strain off the juice of the apples, add the 
 barley water, put it into uncorked bottles, and keep for use in a cool 
 place. 
 
 Apple Water. — Cut some very tart apples fine, pour over them 
 boiling water, and let them simmer gently for half an hour. Strain 
 off the liquor and sweeten to taste. 
 
 Fig Water. — Boil a quarter of a pound of best preserved figs with 
 a half ounce of ginger in two quarts of water. When reduced to a 
 pulp, strain off and bottle for use. 
 
 Barley Water. — Boil half a tea-cupful of the very best pearl 
 barley in a quart of water till it is smooth, then strain it off into a 
 mug, add the juice of a large lemon and loaf-sugar to the taste. The 
 barley water should be strained through muslin before adding the 
 lemon juice. 
 
 Toast and Water. — Fill a quart-pitcher with boiling water. Drop 
 into it a slice of bread toasted very brown. Let it stand till cold. 
 Remember, drop tiie bread in instead of pouring the water over it, 
 otherwise it will be cloudy instead of clear and beautiful. 
 
 Fruit Juices. — The juice of the apple and pear, says Mr. Knight, 
 may be used to great advantage in preparing a beverage. He has fre- 
 quently, he says, reduced it by boiling to the consistence of a weak 
 jelly, in which state it has remained several years without the slightest 
 apparent change, though intentionally exposed to variation of temper- 
 ature. A large quantity of the inspissated juice would take up but 
 little space, and the addition of a few spoonfuls to a quart of water 
 would at any time form a delicious, wholesome, refreshing drink, free 
 from all intoxicating properties. Its cheapness would be greatly in 
 its favor. On sea voyages it would be a great luxury. We suggest 
 experiments with it in the field of domestic economy 
 
106 ICES. 
 
 Summer Beverages. — Take the genuine jelly of any fruit you like, 
 dissolve it in water, sweeten to taste, and keep in a cool place ; or if 
 you have the fresh fruit, currants, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, 
 grapes, bruise them in water, strain and sweeten. Keep in a cool 
 place, and use as needed. Such drinks on ice will keep for several 
 days. 
 
 Capillaire. — Take fourteen pounds of sugar, break into it six eggs 
 with the shells. Stir into it gradually three quarts of water. Set 
 it over the fire and boil it, taking oif the scum until only a light froth 
 rises. Add one gill of orange-Hower water, and two or three drops 
 of vanilla ; strain through a jelly-bag, and when cold bottle it, cork- 
 ing tightly. A wine glass in a tumbler of water is very refreshing. 
 You may add to it slices of lemon, pineapple, crushed currants, or 
 strawberries, as suits the taste and season. 
 
 Eau Sucre. — Water, with sufficient sugar to make it sweet, is a 
 con^mou beverage in France, and there considered very wholesome 
 and refreshing. Ladies generally take it before bedtime. It may be 
 useful in some cases, but should not be used too freely. 
 
 Grape Drink. —This is one of the most delicious and refreshing 
 drinks ever devised by thirsty mortals. It is made of nearly ripe 
 grapes pounded, loaf-sugar, and water. It is strained until it becomes 
 of the palest straw-colored amber, and then frozen. Delicious drinks 
 may be made from grapes by stewing with sugar and water. We 
 leave the reader to use his or her own ingenuity in devising them. 
 The fermented juice of the grape bears no comparison with these 
 pure, simple, delicious beverages. 
 
 ICES. 
 
 Cream Sherbet. — Put the yolk of six eggs and a dessert-spoonful 
 of orange-flower water into two quarts of cream. Boil it up once in a 
 covered stew-pan, then strain it. Add three-fourths of a pound of 
 fine loaf-sugar, and stir till dissolved. When cold set it in ice, or 
 freeze same as ice cream. 
 
 Lemon Sherbet. — Dissolve a pound and a half of loaf-sugar in a 
 quart of water, take nine large lemons, wipe them clean, cut each in 
 halves, squeeze them so as to get out both juice and some of the es- 
 sence of the peel, stir into it the sugared water, strain and freeze 
 same as ice cream. 
 
 Strawberry Sherbet. — Take one pound of best ripe strawberries, 
 crush them to a smooth mass, then add three pints of water, the juice 
 of one lemon, and a tablespoonful of orange-flower water. Let this 
 stand three or four hours. Then put into another basin a pound of 
 best refined sugar, stretch over it a cloth or napkin, and strain on the 
 Sugar the berries, squeezing out the juice as much as possible. Stir 
 until the sugar is dissolved, then strain again, and set in ice an hour 
 before serving, in small tumblers. 
 
MILK. lOY 
 
 MILK. 
 
 Milk is a liquid food in a mucli higher sense than water. A pound 
 of new cow's milk contains : 
 
 1. Six drachms or three-fourths of an ounce of sugar. 
 
 2. Four drachms or half an ounce of butter. 
 
 3. Six drachms or three-quarters of an ounce of cheese 
 
 4. Two drachms or one quarter of an ounce of mineral salts. 
 
 5. Thirteen and three-quarter ounces of water. 
 
 Milk makes a most perfect food and drink for the infant. It is also a 
 very important food for other than children. It is of great service to 
 invalids and the convalescent. It is true there are some constitutions 
 with which it does not agree. Where this is the case, the objection 
 may generally be obviated by skimming off the cream before using it. 
 Even skim milk is very nutritious; it contains nearly all the valuable 
 nourishment of new milk except the butter. 
 
 A Milk Diet. — Within a few years a milk diet has become a very 
 popular prescription among physicians, they ordering patients to sub- 
 sist on it for days or weeks at a time. In cases where the patient 
 needs a good sustaining food without the risk of inflammatory action or 
 excitement succeeding its use, a milk diet is perhaps the best regimen 
 that can be chosen. This is especially true in all diseases affecting 
 the respiratory organs, inflammations of the stomach, bowels, kidneys, 
 and bladder. It is of benefit in cases of hemorrhage, and gout, and 
 diarrhoea. In fevers it is much used. In convalescence from small- 
 pox, scarlet fever, measles, typhoid fever, milk is often very service- 
 able. I have found gems and milk very excellent after scarlet fever. 
 Indeed, good home-made brown bread and milk is almost a perfect 
 food, especially for feeble children suffering with scrofulous habit of 
 body, mesenteric diseases, spinal affections, fits, taint of the blood. I 
 even go so far as to say that all children would be the better for tak- 
 ing one meal of brown bread and milk daily, and feeble ones should 
 use it three times a day. 
 
 In ulceration of the stomach or bowels, milk is very serviceable. 
 The case reported in the Herald of Health for August, 1873, of Mrs. 
 Sara B. Clase, is in point. After nearly two years' suffering of untold 
 agony from ulceration of the stomach, she was cured by a milk diet. 
 She began by taking a teaspoonful every hour, and adhering to it 
 alone for nearly a year, except the amount was increased as the 
 strength returned. The greatest fear is in taking more than the 
 stomach in its weakened condition can manage. I commend a study 
 of this case to all suffering from ulceration or cancer of the stomach. 
 
 In diabetes an exclusive milk diet has been found to work wonders. 
 It must be persevered in methodically and exclusively until conva- 
 lescence is established. It is well known that in this ugly disease the 
 great danger is that the starch of the food is converted into sugar, 
 and as such passes out of the system without yielding any of its force 
 to the body. Dr. Arthur Scott Duncan, of England, says, "the ra- 
 pidity with which milk acta is truly surprising. Twenty-four Lours 
 
108 MILK. 
 
 laeing sufficient to produce a marked change, tlie quantity and density 
 of the urine suddenly falling, thirst and appetite disappearing, the 
 skin becoming moist and perspiring, sleep improving." Dr. Karell 
 reports two hundred cases treated by milk alone, among which were 
 many remarkable cures. 
 
 For the aged, mil)c, or bread and milk, offers advantages worthy of 
 their serious attention. The great Professor Black adopted it for 
 many years before his death, because he thought it ought to be the 
 natural food of an aged man in his second childhood. He died with a 
 bowl of milk in his hand, so quietly that not a drop was spilled. 
 
 Dr. George W. Balfour has found an exclusive milk diet to be very 
 beneficial in asthma after it had resisted other means of cure for 
 years. 
 
 Boiled milk is digested in two hours ; raw milk in two hours and a 
 quarter. 
 
 Choice of Milk,— Cow's milk differs greatly in quality, some being 
 rich and other thin and watery. In choosing a family cow it is well 
 to bear this in mind, and to select only those that are healthy and 
 give the very best milk. They should also be fed on the best of food, 
 and allowed pure soft water to drink. The practice of feeding cows 
 on garbage, swill slops, distillery feed, and of keeping them confined 
 in close, filthy, unventilated stables, is one which seriously deterio- 
 rates the milk, and should ever be avoided. 
 
 Those who live in cities cannot of course keep cows, and so they 
 must depend on the market for their supply of milk. In large cities 
 such cannot do better than to use condensed milk, if they can get it. 
 It has been used in our institution for many years with very satis- 
 factory results. In preparing it the animal odor is evaporated, and it 
 can be made as rich as is desired, It may be diluted for babes if 
 necessary. Of course we do not speak of the condensed milk put up 
 in cans, but that prepared for supplying the market for immediate 
 use. 
 
 If condensed milk cannot be obtained, and you cannot keep your 
 own cow, then insist on having the best article, and refuse to use that 
 from distillery-fed cows, or that diluted with water. A little atten- 
 tion to this subject will enable any one to secure a good article. It ia 
 the laxity of purchasers of food in not demanding the best that makes it 
 BO easy for the dealer to palm off adulterated and inferior articles upon 
 thoughtless people. If the poor would do this, it would improve their 
 own and their children's health wonderfully. The milk supply of a 
 cityhas a great deal of influence for good or evil on the health of the 
 children. In England, this question is getting to be a very important 
 one. The Food Journal says that " perhaps the most serious and 
 destructive change in the nutrition of the poor is their almost total 
 privation of milk. Infantile sickness and mortality depend largely on 
 this want." There the occupation of mothers in factories and work- 
 shops deprives many thousands of infants of their natural food — 
 breast milk. 
 
 Prepaking Cow's Mn>K for Babes. — In this connection I wdsh to 
 give explicit directions for preparing artificial human milk for babes. 
 
MILK. 109 
 
 It is well known that cow's milk is far richer than human milk. It 
 contains more curd, more cream, more mineral matter, and less water. 
 Compare the following table with the one at the beginning of this 
 paper. One pound of human milk contains : 
 
 Sugar 4 drachms and 40 grains. 
 
 Butter 3 " " 30 " 
 
 Curd 3 " " 30 " 
 
 Mineral salts 41 " 
 
 Water 14 ounces and 41 " 
 
 It may not be well known why cow's milk so often disagrees with 
 babes. A principal reason is that in the stomach the curd forms in 
 harder lumps and is not easily acted on by the gastric juice, whereas 
 human milk forms a flocculent soft curd which readily absorbs the 
 gastric juice, and is acted on by it with great ease. 
 
 The question is how to modify cow's milk to make it suitable for a 
 new-born infant ; it having been found to disagree in its pure state. 
 
 There is in the first place too much casein, or cheese, in cow's milk, 
 and the child cannot digest it ; to reduce it to the true proportion, 
 nearly twice as much water as milk is necessary ; to be exact, it must 
 be eighteen parts of water to ten parts of milk ; but this would reduce 
 the quantity of butter also, without which the child would not thrive. 
 The milk to be diluted must therefore contain more butter than ordi- 
 nary milk, which must be obtained by setting aside, say, three quarts 
 of milk, and at the end of four or five hours remove the upper quart ; 
 the upper third of any quantity of milk containing fifty per cent, more 
 butter than the ordinary milk of the cow. The same result can be 
 obtained by taking the " strippings," or latter part of the cow's milk- 
 ing. This milk, when diluted with one and a half parts water, and 
 properly sweetened, resembles ordinary human milk. 
 
 Various Dilutions for various Ages. — Mother's milk for new- 
 born babes is so peculiar as to have got a special name, colostrum. It 
 gradually loses these peculiarities. For colostrum, or milk prepared 
 for the first two weeks of a child's life, must contain more butter — the 
 upper eighth, instead of the upper third, must be used. From two 
 quarts of milk, which has stood four or five hours, skim off carefully 
 half a pint ; or the last tenth of milk just stripped from a cow. For 
 example, if a cow gives five quarts, the last pint may be used. Thia 
 milk must be largely diluted, with water, according to the following 
 schedule. 
 
 SCHEDULE. 
 
 Whole 
 Agk. Milk. Water. Quantitv. 
 
 Gills. Gills. Gills. 
 
 2 to 10 days U 3^- 4^ 
 
 10 to 20 days If 4^ 6 
 
 20 to 30 davs 2^ 6 8i 
 
 1 to 1^ months 3 6f- 9| 
 
 1 to 3 months 3^ 7 10^ 
 
 2 to 2i months 4 7i Hi 
 
2i to 3 
 
 3 
 
 to 34 
 
 3^ to 4 
 
 4 
 
 to 4i 
 
 4i to 5 
 
 5 
 
 to 6 
 
 6 
 
 to 7 
 
 7 
 
 to 8 
 
 8 
 
 to 9 
 
 9 
 
 to 10 
 
 10 
 
 to 11 
 
 11 
 
 to 12 
 
 110 MILK. 
 
 Whole 
 Abe. Milk. Watbb. Quantity. 
 
 Oills. Gills. Gills. 
 
 montts 4J 7^ 12 
 
 months.... 5 do 12^ 
 
 months...* 5 do 13 
 
 months 6 do 13^ 
 
 months 6|^ do 14 
 
 months 7 7 14 
 
 months 7 7 14 
 
 months 8 6 14 
 
 months 8^ 6 14^ 
 
 mouths 8^ 6 14i 
 
 months S^ 6^ 14^ 
 
 mouths 9 5^ 14^ 
 
 Eight large spoonfuls are about a gill. 
 
 Eegux,ations of the Quality op the Milk. — If the milk be too 
 strong, indigestion will follow, and the child will lose instead of gain- 
 ing strength. When particles of casein, or curd, pass through his 
 bowels unaltered, a milder quality or lower grade should be substitu- 
 ted. A feeble child of six months may require the food suited to a 
 vigorous child of six mouths. For constipation, increase the richness 
 of the milk, put in more cream. In cold weather, or if milk is kept 
 on ice, it may stand an hour or two longer before the upper third is 
 removed ; or the upper fourth maybe taken; or set five quarts instead 
 of three to get one quart. 
 
 The water used in diluting milk should not be hard ; nor should it 
 be boiled. Add it to the milk, and heat it by putting the bottle in 
 warm water. 
 
 Sweetening. — Use loaf sugar enough to make it as sweet as un- 
 diluted new milk, a teaspoonful to a quart. If too sweet, it will cloy 
 the appetite, and not enough food will be taken. 
 
 Temperature. — The milk should be heated to one hundred de- 
 grees Fahrenheit ; test it once, and try it on the cheek ; which should 
 regulate it subsequently. 
 
 Quantity. — For the first ten days, about one to one and a half 
 pints a day should be given ; before the end of the first month the 
 child will take more than a quart daily ; at the age of three months 
 he may require two quarts daily. After that time the quality will 
 change more than the quantity. The child will need half a pint at 
 a time every three or four hours, which should be sucked in about 
 ten minutes, and he will pass six or eight hours at night without 
 feeding. 
 
 The bottles should be annealed by being put into cold water and 
 boiled three or four hours, and the most scrupulous care observed in 
 cleaning them. 
 
 We have made out a scale of dilutions for one year, but the mother 
 may, after the child is six months old, find it necessary to use more 
 
MILK. Ill 
 
 milk and less water, in which case she will dilute less. If the child 
 manifests symptoms of malnutrition on this food, it is evident that its 
 food should be rendered more nourishing. We are indebted to Dr. 
 Corson for the demonstration of the practical utility of beginning our 
 trials with pure cow's milk, since the principal inconvenience which is 
 found to occur is the regurgitation of a part of if; while, on the other 
 hand, the infant runs the risk of starvation, or at least of numerous 
 diseases, before any notice is taken of the deficiently nutritious 
 quality of milk and water. If he succeeds in his object " of directing 
 attention to the fact that many thousands of children annually die 
 prematurely from want of food," he will have accomplished a great 
 work ; but if he proposes to give all children pure cow's milk, with- 
 out reference to its agreement or disagreement with their stomachs, 
 he will have fallen into the same error with those who confide ex- 
 clusively in milk and Avater. 
 
 Oatmeal Milk. — I cannot help in this connection printing the fol- 
 lowing letter from one of my correspondents, regarding oatmeal milk 
 for young children ; which I am sure will help some mother to rear 
 to health a child when she might otherwise fail. I may add, however, 
 that it should not be used before the babe is three or four months 
 old, and then a gradual substitute for the breast. She says : 
 
 " When my baby was five months old, for the sake of my own 
 health, I weaned him from the breast. I gave him cream and water, 
 with a little sugar. In two weeks' time his bowels were so consti- 
 pated that I fully realized that some change must be made in the 
 food. I, therefore, made oatmeal gruel by boiling oatmeal in about 
 twice the usual quantity of water for an hour and a half or two 
 hours. When properly cooked, I poured it through a fine sieve. The 
 part which passed through was, when cold, of the consistency of jelly. 
 Then, in a quart cup, I mixed one half pint of thin cream and oatmeal 
 gruel — about one gill of each — added one teaspoonful of white sugar, 
 and filled the measure nearly full of boiling water. This food he 
 relished, and in every way it agreed with him ; and if there ever was 
 a child that grew any faster than mine did when fed with oatmeal and 
 milk, I think it would be a wonder. People would say : ' How your 
 baby grows,' and in the same breath (when I told what his food was), 
 would say : ' Why, you'll starve him ! ' But by putting in less water 
 1 found it was too hearty, causing him to vomit ; and once in possession 
 of the key to my child's health nothing turned me aside. 
 
 " My child is now a year and a half old, his food is three parts milk 
 and one part gruel. He is very large, strong and active, has twelve 
 teeth, weighs thirty pounds, and in all the time has not lost an ounce 
 of flesh, even at the most trying time — warm weather. 
 
 " That I am enthusiastic in regard to oatmeal milk should not seem 
 strange, and I wish that, of the many mothers throughout the land, 
 those who find it necessary to provide other than the natural food for 
 their children would try my recipe. They would find doctors' visits 
 few and far between." 
 
 Eecipe for Gruel. — One teacup oatmeal, two quarts of hot water. 
 Boil two and a half hours. Strain through a fine sieve. 
 
112 MILK. 
 
 I prefer this way to the phm of soaking the oatmeal in cold water, 
 which I have tried, but find that the taste is not so pleasant. 
 
 Skimmed Milk. — Skimmed milk, according to analysis, is not 
 greatly inferior to new milk, except in the amount of butter it con- 
 tains ; as will be seen from the following : 
 
 100 parts new milk — water, 86 ; nitrogenous, 5.5 ; sugar, 3.8 ; fat, 
 3.6; salts, 0.60. 100 parts skimmed milk — water, 88; nitrogenous, 
 4.0 ; sugar, 3.8 ; fat, 1.8 ; salts, 0.8. 
 
 The effect on Dr. Smith of eating one pint of new milk was to 
 increase the exhalation of carbonic acid 2.26 grains per minute. It 
 also gave an increase of air inhaled of 96 cubic inches in one min- 
 ute ; skimmed milk, on the other hand, gave an increase to carbonic 
 acid exhaled of 84 grains per minute and 21 cubic inches in the in- 
 spired air. Much is said in these days regarding the food qualities 
 of alcoholic drinks, but Dr. Edward Smith, in his experiments on the 
 best brandy as food, found that instead of an increase of vital ac- 
 tion by the exhalation of more carbonic acid and the inhalation of 
 more air, that there was a diminution of both. In other words, vital 
 action was diminished instead of increased, and this was the result 
 with nearly all the alcoholic drinks tested. And in those cases where 
 vital action seemed increased, it was in a very slight degree, not 
 one-fifth so much as shown above in the use of milk. Ten grains 
 of milk consumed in the body produces heat sufficient to raise 1.7 lb. 
 of water 1° F., and this is equal to raising 1.346 lb. one foot high. 
 Can alcohol consumed in the body do this? 
 
 Cautions Regarding the Use op Milk. — While good milk is 
 an excellent article of food for the young, the aged, and many in- 
 valids, it may be the means of spreading dangerous diseases. That 
 which is sent to cities may have received infection from the air of the 
 dairy-house, and in this way scarlet and typhoid fevers sometimes 
 be propagated. Bat a greater source of danger is in the water that 
 the dairyman mixes with it. If the water is pure, of course the in- 
 jury lies only in the less amount of nourishment it contains ; but if 
 water is used from wells or springs not pure, then the danger is very 
 great. In England numerous instances have come to light where a 
 large number of families supplied by the same milkman have had 
 typhoid fever, and on careful investigation it was found that the 
 dairyman had in these cases watered his milk from a well-pump in the 
 yard, into which there was a slight leakage from a drain. Through 
 this leak had oozed the poisonous germs that poisoned the milk, and 
 carried that most dangerous malady into forty-seven families, destroying 
 one hundred and sixty-five persons. Thanks to the spirit of investiga- 
 tion which sought and found the source of the contagion. Still an- 
 other source of danger in the use of milk is where the child is nursed 
 by a diseased mother, or one subject to fits of passion, or where the 
 mother has been poisoned by food or medicine. We mention these 
 things that all may be on their guard, and be able to avoid causes of 
 disease that lurk in unsuspected and hidden places. 
 
 Cream. — Cream is a liquid food of great richness, especially in fat, 
 and pure would be too hearty to be used as a food to any great extent ; 
 
TEA. 113 
 
 but mixed with milk it forma a very agreeable, even delicious drink, 
 and for persons thin in flesh and run down in health it may often 
 serve important uses, especially if it agrees with the stomach. Pure 
 cream contains, 
 
 Water 66.00 parts I Sugar 2.8 parts 
 
 Nitrogenous 2.7 " | Fat 26.7 " 
 
 A mixture of cream and milk and oatmeal forms a very nourishing 
 diet for consumptives, and those with little animal heat, also for those 
 who use little or no animal food. 
 
 Buttermilk. —This liquid food is not much used by Americans, but 
 the Germans regard it with great favor. It contains about as much 
 nourishment as skim milk. It is poor in heat-giving qualities, but 
 there is considerable nitrogenous matter in it. Here is the analysis : 
 
 Water 88.0 I Sugar 3.6 
 
 Nitrogenous 4.1 | Fat 0.7 
 
 Salts 6.8 
 
 It also contains lactic acid, which is believed to favor digestion. In 
 some forms of disease a buttermilk diet is found to be serviceable. 
 It is better adapted to the fat than the lean, and to those who have a 
 superabundance of animal heat than to those who suffer with cold feet 
 and hands and languid circulation. 
 
 TEA. 
 
 So much has been written on the use of tea, pro and con, that 
 little new can be said. Nevertheless there are some points concern- 
 ing this question not yet well understood. They are as follows : 
 
 1. Tea is not nutritious. The milk and sugar put into the cup to 
 give it flavor has a real value as a food. 
 
 2. Nearly all teas, whatever their price or name, are about of equal 
 value so far as their physiological effects are concerned. The higher 
 priced sorts have, however, a much more delicate flavor, and for this 
 reason will always be preferred. 
 
 3. That tea should, when used, be weighed rather than measured, 
 as some kinds weigh more to the teaspoonful than others. Oolong, 
 for instance, weighs 40 grains to the teaspoonful. Congou weighs S7, 
 and gunpowder tea weighs 125 grains to the teaspoonful. 
 
 Then, too, the effects of tea are not well understood. 
 
 1. Tea increases the amount of carbonic acid expired from the 
 lungs. 
 
 2. It increases the volume of air inspired, but not the rapidity of 
 respiration, consequently it must increase the depth of inflation of 
 the lungs. 
 
 3. Tea tends to induce perspiration, especially if taken hot. 
 
 4. Tea excites to increased action the muscular system. 
 
 5. Tea powerfully excites the nervous system. 
 
 The points last enumerated accord with the experience of a ma- 
 jority of tea-drinkers, and if the subject were dropped here, the im- 
 pression would be very favorable to the use of this beverage. There 
 is, however, another side to be considered. It has been found that 
 
114 TEA. 
 
 tea is not nutritious, andtliat it actually increases the waste of tlie 
 system. From this it may be inferred that tea is not a good drink for 
 those who are dyspeptic and nervous, or those in which the waste of 
 tissue is already more rapid than the supply. Dr. Edward Smith puts 
 it in this way : " Tea increases waste, since it promotes the transfor- 
 mation of food without supplying any nutriment, and increases the 
 loss of heat without supplying fuel. It is, therefore, specially adapted 
 to those who eat too much, when the process of assimilation should be 
 quickened, but is less adapted to the poor, the ill-fed, and during 
 fasting." 
 
 Dr. Smith also gives the following as the generally admitted effects 
 of tea : 
 
 1. A sense of wakefulness. 
 
 2. Clearness of mind and activity of thought and imagination. 
 
 3. Increased disposition to make exertion. 
 
 4. Reaction, with a sense of exhaustion following the preceding 
 effects and in proportion to them. 
 
 Analysis of Tea. — The active principle of tea is a substance called 
 theine. One hundred parts of tea contain : 
 
 Theine 2.00 
 
 Casein 15.00 
 
 Gum 18.00 
 
 Sugar 3.00 
 
 Tannin 26.25 
 
 Starch 0.75 
 
 Fat 4.00 
 
 Vegetable fiber 20.00 
 
 Mineral substances. . . . 5.00 
 Water 5.00 
 
 The amount of thsine varies from two to six per cent. The chemical 
 formula for theine is C". W\ W. O.^ + H'O. 
 
 Pkactical Hints Concerning the Use op Tea. — The following 
 hints concerning the use of tea may prove useful : 
 
 1. Whoever uses tea should do so in great moderation. 
 
 2. It should form a part of the meal, but never be taken before eat- 
 ing, or between meals, or on an empty stomach, as is too frequently 
 done. 
 
 3. The best time to take tea is after a hearty meal. 
 
 4. Those who suffer with weak nerves should never take it at all. 
 
 5. Those who are troubled with inability to sleep nights should not 
 use tea, or if they do, take it only in the morning. 
 
 6. Brain-workers should never goad on their brains to overwork 
 on the stimulus of tea. 
 
 7. Children and the young should not use tea. 
 
 8. The overworked and under-fed should not use tea. 
 
 9. Tea should never be drunk very strong. 
 
 10. It is better with considerable milk and sugar. 
 
 11. Its use should at once be abandoned when harm comes from it. 
 
 12. Multitudes of diseases come from the excessive use of tea, and 
 for this reason those who cannot use it without going to excess should 
 not use it at all. 
 
 Tea and Sick Headache. — The following, from the Medical Inves- 
 tigator, has an important bearing on the use of tea : " Dr. Gregg pub- 
 lished an article in the Homoeopathic Quarterly on tea, as a cause of 
 
TEA. 116 
 
 sick headache, worthy of the attention of those who suffer with this 
 common malady. The doctor there alleges that this beverage is the 
 cause of more cases of this disease than any other, if not than all other 
 causes put together, and gives a number of instances where, after 
 leaving off its use, persons who had previously been afflicted were 
 exempt from further attacks. One evidence the doctor gives of the 
 injurious effects of this agent is the fact that tea-drinkers are liable 
 to have headache if they omit its use at the regular times of taking it, 
 and the cessation of the pain on again resuming their cups. This 
 latter, with many other facts contained in tlie article, have often been 
 observed, not only on myself, but on others, for I had inherited the 
 disease from my mother. It had been the plague of her life, as well 
 as my own. We had both been not excessive but regular tea -drinkers ; 
 and though she lived to be over eighty years of age, she was never 
 exempt from an attack, of greater or less severity, for more than a 
 few weeks at* a time, for a period of nearly or quite half a century. 
 Knowing this fact, and that from my earliest recollection I had been 
 similarly afflicted, I was content, when the pain returned, to relieve it 
 with the appropriate remedies, with little thought or hope of ever being 
 able to eradicate it. Some twenty years ago I had abandoned the use of 
 coffee and green teas, using only the black and Japan. Pork, pastry, 
 spices, acids, and most kinds of raw fruits were sure, if indulged in, 
 to bring on an attack of my old trouble ; and this weakness of the 
 stomach seemed to be gradually on the increase, besides a train of 
 nervous symptoms, such as sleeplessness, palpitation of the heart, un- 
 steadiness of the hand when writing, etc., gave me no little annoyance. 
 After reading the article referred to, I concluded, some three months 
 ago, to use no more tea, substituting in its stead hot water with a little 
 milk. The result, for the first week or ten days, was much as I 
 had anticipated, being, during the whole of that time, scarcely ever 
 free from headache. At length the pain became lighter, and when it 
 did return was of short duration. My nervous symptoms grew less, 
 palpitation left entirely, my stomach became much stronger. I can 
 now eat with impunity many things which for years had been sure to 
 disagree. The headache now very rarely returns, and never with 
 severity ; besides, within the past two months my weight has increased 
 sixteen pounds." 
 
 Tea. and Dyspepsia. — Where there is any tendency to dyspepsia, 
 tea aggravates it, and many cases are cured by disusing it. Dr. Corfe 
 mentions a cure of supposed cancer of the stomach, cured by the disuse 
 of tea. Dr. Milligan mentions a person who could never use tea with- 
 out experiencing a disposition to commit suicide. 
 
 Tea-Dkunkards. — In closing what is to be said about tea, one word 
 seems necessary in regard to tea-drunkards. Their number is legion ; 
 they are of both sexes, but more of women than of men. Instead of 
 using tea in moderation, or as an occasional beverage, they swill it 
 down three or more times a day, in quantities that are incompatible 
 with health. They are as much slaves to the teapot as the drunkard 
 is to his bottle. They are tea-drunkards. Tea, in anything but great 
 moderation, is a poison capable of ruining the stomach, enfeebling and 
 
110 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 
 
 disordering the heart's action, shattering the nerves, and ruining the 
 health aiid happiness of the victim. In few words, without holding 
 that the use of tea is as bad as the use of alcoholic liquors, one may 
 well believe that the total abstinence reformers have, in their red-hot 
 zeal against rum, encouraged an indulgence in tea-drinking which will 
 one day have to be fought against with might and main, to prevent 
 the wholesale ruin of multitudes. A tea-drunkard may be defined as 
 one who drinks strong tea several times a day, who depends on it 
 instead of food and rest for strength, and who cannot go without it 
 without bringing on distressing symptoms. 
 
 COFFEE. 
 
 The active principal of coffee is called caffeine. An analysis of one 
 hundred parts of raw coffee shows the following to be its composition : 
 
 Caffeine 1.00 
 
 Casein 13.00 
 
 Gum and sugar 55.05 
 
 Fat 13.00 
 
 Mineral matter 6.07 
 
 Acids 5.00 
 
 Wood fiber 34.00 
 
 Water 12.00 
 
 Caffeine is analogous to theine in composition and effects. 
 
 Coffee produces effects very similar to tea, and the same general 
 rules are applicable for its use. It, like tea, powerfully affects the 
 respiration, increasing the quantity of carbonic acid expired and air 
 inspired. Coffee differs from tea in its effects by increasing the rate 
 of respiration and not its depth, in increasing the rate of pulsation, 
 and in diminishing the action of the skin. Those who suffer with dry 
 skin, or palpitation of the heart, or heart disease, are particularly 
 liable to harm from the continued use of coffee in large quantities. It 
 is more suited to the wants of the poor and debilitated than tea, and 
 is more appropriate for the breakfast meal than afterwards. 
 
 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 
 
 Cocoa and chocolate have, for their active principle, the obromine, a 
 substance very similar to caffeine and theine. The formula for theo- 
 bromine is C H^ N\ 0'^ 
 
 The analysis of the cacao bean gives in 100 parts : 
 
 Theobromine 0.56 
 
 Cacao 6.61 
 
 Cacao butter 36.95' 
 
 Gluten 3.20 
 
 Starch 0.55 
 
 Gum 0.69 
 
 Extractive matter 4.14 
 
 Humic acid 7.25 
 
 Woody Matter 30.00 
 
 Salts 3.00 
 
 Water 6.01 
 
 Dr. Edward Smith, to whose work we are largely indebted for our 
 knowledge of tea, coffee, and cocoa, says of the latter substance : "Its 
 action is less exciting to the nervous system than tea or coffee, and at 
 the same time it contains a much larger portion of nutritive material. 
 Boiled in milk, it may produce a most agreeable and nutritious food, 
 and for very many persons is greatly to be preferred to tea or coffee." 
 
cocoa and chocolate. 117 
 
 Methods of Preparing Tea, Coffee, and Cocoa. 
 
 Tea. — The tlieine of tea is without flavor. This depends on the 
 aroma, which should all be extracted from the leaf. The dried juices 
 of the leaf, on the other hand, should not be extracted further 
 than to give body to the drink, otherwise it will be bitter and the 
 aroma will be covered up or hidden. The best rule to secure the aroma 
 and not too much of the body is to put the tea into hot water, and 
 keep it at or near the boiling point for five minutes. If cooked longer 
 than this the aroma will be dissipated, more theine will be extracted 
 and the tannin, which makes tea bitter, will be in excess. The best 
 water for tea is pure spring-water. It should be fresh and used im- 
 mediately after boiling. After the tea is cooked it should be strained 
 and kept hot till used. 
 
 Coffee. — Soyer's mode of making coffee was to warm the powder 
 over the fire first, then to pour the boiling water over it ; cover it closely 
 for five minutes, strain it, and boil again for use. French coffee la 
 made by adding a pint of made coffee to a pint of boiling milk and 
 warming them both together, but not letting them boil too long. 
 
 Chocolate. — Cut a cake of chocolate in very small pieces, boil a 
 pint of water, when it is at the boiling point add the chocolate ; mill 
 it off the fire till quite melted, then place it on a gentle fire till it 
 boils. Pour into a basin and it will keep for ten days. When required, 
 put a spoonful or two into fresh milk, boil it with sugar and mis well. 
 Mill to a fine froth and serve. 
 
 Cocoa. — It made from the ribs, boil a quarter of a pound of them 
 in three quarts of water to two quarts and a half. The ribs to be 
 Btrained after five hours' boiling. If made from paste or powder, use 
 one and a half teaspoonful of cocoa to a cup of boiling milk. Sugar 
 to taste. Or one and a half teaspoonful of cocoa, three quarters of 
 a cupful of boiling water. Sugar to taste and fill the cup with 
 milk. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Some hygienists will find much fault that we have not condemned 
 entirely the use of tea and coffee, but though we never use them our- 
 selves, we have thought best to give the results of late scientific stud- 
 ies on the subject, and such cautions regarding their use as will enable 
 those who do use them to do so with as little harm as possible. If 
 asked what is the proper amount of these drinks for each day, we 
 should say, do not exceed one cup of tea or coffee, and at farthest two 
 of cocoa or chocolate. 
 
PABT lY. 
 
PRAOTIOAL DIETETICS 
 
 ANSWERS TO EVEE-RECUERING QUESTIONS. 
 
 FOOD FOR DIFFERENT SEASONS OF THE YEAR. 
 
 What changes sliould be made in our food at different seasons of 
 the year ? 
 
 Ans. — Our food should vary with the season of the year. As winter 
 gradually gives way to spring, our health, comfort, and happiness are 
 greatly augmented by diminishing the quantity of our heat and force 
 producing foods, and substituting in their place, to a considerable ex- 
 tent, green vegetables and early mild acid fruits. Even before early 
 vegetables and fruits can be had, canned fruits and vegetables should 
 take the place of the rich foods required in winter. Many people 
 think they must be " physicked out" in the spring, but this is a vile 
 practice wholly unnecessary. Good brown bread, milk, cream, fruits, 
 and oatmeal as the staple articles of spring diet, with no salted meats, 
 and little or no meat of any kind, will keep the bowels in perfectly 
 liealthy condition at this season of the year ; whereas if ham and eggs, 
 hot bread, superfine hot biscuits, stale potatoes, are the principal arti- 
 cles of diet, there is no end to the suffering that may be entailed ; then 
 as summer comes on, early fruits and vegetables should be still more 
 largely partaken of. Strawberries should be used in abundance all 
 through June — raspberries, blackberries, and cherries in July. In 
 August apples, and soon after tomatoes, peaches, grapes, melons, etc., 
 make up a list of fruits rich in fluids, opening, cooling, appetizing, de- 
 licious, health-giving ; these with good brown bread, and gems with 
 milk cream, oatmeal and fresh butter should, to a great extent, take the 
 place of fats and higlily carbonized foods and meats. In very hot 
 weather tlie fats should be almost discontinued. One will suffer less 
 from the heat if this is done. Then as cool weather comes on, if neces- 
 sary, there may be a gradual return to a more highly carbonized diet, 
 and during winter it may be partaken of quite freely, especially in 
 cold latitudes, and when much work is to bo done. Much sickness 
 will be prevented by proper attention to the subject of wisely adapting 
 our food to the season of the year and climate. 
 
122 PEACTICAIi DIETETICS. 
 
 FORCE-GIVING FOOD IN SUMMER. 
 
 But shall we eat no heat and force-giving foods in summer? 
 
 Ans. — Yes. BroAvn bread, oatmeal, and fruits are all force-giving, 
 but to a less extent than fats, yet sufficiently so for the requirements 
 of the season, and those persons who have very much muscular work 
 to do may use more freely force-giving foods in hot weather than those 
 whose labor is sedentary and light. From experinients which we have 
 seen tried over and over again, however, we are satisfied that even 
 farmers in the hottest days of summer who are obliged to work in the 
 harvest field can do more work, suffer less with heat, and incur less 
 risk of sunstroke by following the rules we have laid down, than by 
 using a highly carbonized diet of oils and fats. 
 
 HAM AND EGGS. 
 
 Do you think ham and eggs are objectionable in spring? 
 
 Ans. — Eggs are allowable. Indeed, lightly poached and dressed on 
 toast they make an excellent food, but ham is not a good article of diet 
 for any except the lowest of human beings, and even for these it is 
 not so good as eggs, bread, oatmeal, and milk. Eggs, however, do not 
 seem to be relished with every meal for days in succession, and hence 
 should be taken at intervals as the appetite tolerates them. 
 
 DAILY VARIATION OF DIET. 
 
 Should the diet be varied from day to day, or remain unchanged ? 
 
 Ans. — The diet slioiild he varied in kind nndfoi-m quite frequently, 
 though not necessarily every day. Even in health, the best viands 
 when continued from day to day become unpalatable, and even nause- 
 ous. An occasional change of diet, in short, is indispensable to a proper 
 relish for food, and the maintenance of the appetite and good health. 
 
 AMOUNT OF FOOD REQUIRED DAILY. 
 
 How much food is needed daily by a healthy person ? 
 
 Ans. — The amount varies greatly, for the following reasons : 
 
 1. Great vigor, activity of the circulation of the blood, and the elimi- 
 nation of worn-out particles increase the amount necessary. 
 
 3. Great physical exertion increases the recjuired amount, and inac- 
 tivity diminishes it. 
 
 3. Cold increases the amount of food needful, while heat decreases 
 it, but increases the amount of water needful. 
 
 4. Rapid growth, as in childhood, increases the amount of food de- 
 manded by the body, while ill health diminishes it for the time being. 
 
 5. The amount of food required varies greatly with the assimilative 
 power. As some steam-engines are constructed so that the same 
 amount of fuel generates more steam than it would in other engines, 
 so some persons can get more out of a pound of food than others, be- 
 cause they more perfectly digest it. 
 
PEACTICAL DIETETICS. 123 
 
 OVER-EATING. 
 
 Do not people generally eat too much food ? 
 
 Ans. — Many do ; but eating too much is not socotnmonas improper 
 eating. If tiie food is wisely chosen tliere is not much danger of over- 
 eating. Dr. Beard says, It is a fallacy to suppose that people, as a rule, 
 eat too much, and that most of the diseases of the world come from over- 
 feeding. The truth is that among all decent or civilized people, the 
 tendency is directly the reverse. In our country, and cripedally in 
 our large cities, far more are underfed than overfed. Throughout our 
 land, thousands and thousands die every year from actual starvation. 
 Some of these unfortunates are little children whose parents are too 
 ignorant, or too poor, to give them what is necessary to sustain life. 
 But many of them are adults, whom hard poverty, or sad ignorance, 
 has forced into a habit of systematic though undesigned starvation. 
 Day after day their stomach receives less nutriment than the system 
 demands. Day after day the vital powers slowly fade, the strength 
 grows less, the spirit becomes morbid, and the face wan and dejected. 
 Disease now steps in, attacks and carries by force some important cita- 
 del of the body, and death follows. The process is a slow one — some- 
 times very slow — extending, perhaps, over many years, but it is often- 
 times just as sure as it is slow. 
 
 The latter remarks apply with great force to the poor of all large 
 cities. With abundance all around them, they overwork and slowly 
 starve to death. 
 
 GUIDE TO PROPER QUANTITY OF FOOD. 
 
 What is the best guide to the amount of food required ? 
 
 Ans. — The natural appetite is the only guide. This should be aided 
 by common sense and reason. In cases of disease our judgment may 
 be called on to aid the appetite, to say, eat more or less as the case 
 may require. 
 
 VARIETY AT MEALS. 
 
 Do you think it better to eat one or two articles at a meal, or from a 
 number of dishes ? 
 
 Ans. a wholesome variety is better than to eat only from one or two 
 dishes, except in some kinds of morbid condition, when confinement to 
 one kind of food may be necessary. 
 
 BRAIN WORKERS AND THEIR FOOD. 
 
 Do brain -workers require as much food as those who work with their 
 muscles only ? 
 
 Ans. — We do not know as this question has ever been decided by ex- 
 periment, but we think from some observations we have made that 
 they do require as much food, provided they take sufficient exercise for 
 health. They should choose their food with care, so it may not oppress 
 the stomach, and arrange their hours of eating so as not to let vigorous 
 brain work come during the time of digesting a hearty meal. The 
 changes of tissue in the t)rain during protracted thought are rapid and 
 
124 PEACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 extensive, and the loss must be made good by an abundant supply of 
 food. 
 
 AMOUNT OF FOOD FOR MEN vs. WOMEN. 
 
 "WTiicb eat the most food, men or women ? 
 
 Ans. — Men eat more than women, when their work is of the same 
 kind. It does not follow, however, that because men eat more that 
 they get more strength from their food, for generally women have bet- 
 ter digestive organs, and abstract more nutriment from the same 
 amount of food. 
 
 So, too, while men and women eat at the same table, it is observable 
 that they do not eat the same quantities of the same dishes. Men 
 eat more heartily of the force-giving foods than women do, probably 
 because there is more demand for them. This is perhaps the only dif- 
 ference. At a restaurant largely patronized by ladies, I have noticed 
 that biscuit, tea, cake, ice cream, and delicacies were more in demand 
 by women, and meats and hearty food by men. 
 
 BOARDING-SCHOOL TABLES, STUDENTS' DIET. 
 
 Do you think the students at boarding-schools are sufficiently well 
 fed? 
 
 Ans. — Generally they are not well fed. Boarding-schools, the world 
 over, we believe, are generally thought to feed the youth who attend 
 them on rather meager fare, though there are many notable excep- 
 tions. Proprietors of these schools seem to have the matter of econo- 
 my more at heart than the health of their pupils. They do not seem 
 to know that growing boys and girls need to be fed as well as growing 
 calves and colts, or pigs, but can get on with a small amount of food. 
 We once knew a school that boarded pupils and threw in their tuition, 
 for twelve to fifteen dollars a quarter of twelve weeks. How did they 
 do it ? By half starving the boys and girls that lived in the house. 
 White bread, hashed potatoes, or tough steak, with a trifle of sauce, 
 was the daily bill of fare, with little variation. The proprietor, a 
 Strong, hearty man, used to sit at the head of the table, say grace, and 
 eat as fast as he could himself ; when through, rest his knife on the 
 table as a notice to return thanks, and send all away. The result was, 
 hearty, growing boys were half starved, and foraging on orchards and 
 cornfields was always going on. 
 
 We are so impressed with the importance of this subject, that we 
 copy from the London Food Journal the substance of an article show- 
 ing how the boys are fed ia a certain English school. We should 
 modify it materially for this country. For instance, we should leave 
 out the tea and coffee, and substitute milk or water or cocoa. For 
 boys and girls, in this excitable climate, tea and coffee are much 
 worse than in England. Wine and ale also should be left out, and 
 less meat eaten. If a lunch be taken, it should be of fruit. Oatmeal 
 and maple or other good syrup, or wheat and corn-meal mush should 
 be added daily, and so should good home-made browia bread, and light, 
 unleavened cakes or gems. No boy or girl should be under-fed. All 
 desserts should be plain and nutritious. "Rich cakes and pies, and hot 
 
PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 126 
 
 bread and biscuits sliould be omitted. With tliese Mnts, we commend 
 the article, not as furnisliing an absolute guide, but as affording 
 abundant hints for au improved system of feeding boys and girls at 
 school. We also advise parents who send their children from home to 
 school, to refuse to patronize any school that does not furnish a good 
 table for the students. 
 
 The notion so long prevailing, that students should eat but little, is 
 utterly false, and has done harm. They should not stuff themselves 
 at all hours with all sorts of bad food, but should eat abundance of the 
 very best. 
 
 The following is the article referred to : 
 
 On School Dietaries. — In the neighborhood of one of our Midland 
 cities is a school of some fifty boys. During some recent visits to this 
 school, the singular healtluness and heartiness of the boys made me 
 curious to learn exactly how they were fed. The following I ascer- 
 tained to be the dietary : 
 
 Breakfast (in summer at 8, in winter at 8.30) consists of abundance 
 of milk, bread and butter, and cold meat. By way of a change now 
 and then, eggs for a few days together take the place of meat. Before 
 the foregoing, boys who like it have a small basin of bread and milk, 
 or of Scotch porridge made with milk. The milk is new, and cornea 
 straight from a farm adjoining the school-grounds. 
 
 Lunch at 11 — Each boy has a small fresh roll of bi-ead, or a bun, or 
 a captain's biscuit, if weakly, a tumbler of milk ; but, as a rule, noth- 
 ing is drunk at lunch, dinner, or supper but pure water. 
 
 Dinner at 1.30, always consists of two courses. 1. Two kinds of 
 meats, viz., beef and mutton, with not less than two kinds of veget- 
 ables, and of these a liberal supply. 2. Pudding, usually of fruit, 
 fresh or preserved according to season, and always well sweetened. 
 On four days of the week the meat is hot roast ; on one day it is hot 
 boiled ; on one day steaks, cutlets, or made dishes are substituted for 
 joints ; while the Sunday dinner always consists of cold beef, mashed 
 potatoes or salad, and plum pudding. After dinner, some ripe fruit, 
 as au orange or some kind of garden fruit, according to the season. 
 
 2'ea at 6 p. m. — Tea, bread and butter, varied almost daily either with 
 home-made plum-cake, or marmalade, or honey. Whenever procur- 
 able, some salad herb, such as lettuce, radish, etc., is given at this 
 meal, and always eaten with much relish. 
 
 Supper at 8 P. M. (for senior boys only). — Bread and butter, or bread 
 and cheese, or biscuit, or, where it seems needed, a tumbler of milk 
 and a sandwich. 
 
 No hampers of eatables are allowed to be sent to the boys from their 
 friends, and no shops for the sale of sweets, etc., are allowed or acces- 
 sible to the boys. 
 
 This dietary seems to me so nearly what growing boys or girls 
 ought to have, and so often what they do not get, even at their own 
 homes, that it may appropriately serve as the text for a few remarks 
 on the usual dietaries of public and private schools. I will begin by 
 at once stating my belief — as one who was himself at a private and a 
 public school, and who still sees a good deal of schoolboys — that either 
 
126 PEACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 in quality, quantity, and variety tlie dietary of nearly every scTiool I 
 have known is more or less defective. 
 
 The usually unvaried breakfast of tea or coffee (and these fluids too 
 often of a miserably thin description), with bread and butter, is a 
 meagre meal for a boy who has to break a twelve hours' fast. It is not 
 enough for the robust, nor varied enough for the delicate. A good 
 basin of bread and milk, or milk porridge, should always be allowed 
 as a substitute for tea or coffee ; and the latter, when preferred, should 
 always be accompanied with some little extra, such as a bit of cold 
 meat, or an egg— sometimes the one, sometimes the other, so as to 
 secure the utmost possible variety. 
 
 The fault of most school dinners is roughness in the cooking and 
 serving, iusulficient variety in the form and kind of meat and veget- 
 ables, and the too frequent absence of puddings. It will be seen by 
 the above dietary that with very little strain of culinary arrangements 
 meat msiy be served up in half a dozen different forms each week, and 
 if two kinds of it always come to table, ample variety will have been 
 attained. Variety in food is no mere luxury or pampering of appetite. 
 In all cases desirable, in the case of growing boys it is highly so ; while 
 in the case of boys with delicate or capricious appetites, it becomes an 
 absolute necessity. A certain percentage of such boys will be found 
 in every school— boys who, if denied considerable range of choice in 
 their food, will at least fail to thrive in the midst of plenty. 
 
 Many boys, being small meat-eaters, should at least have the chance 
 of "making up" with something further, and good reason can be 
 given why this something should be a well-sweetened pudding or tart ; 
 if containing fresh or preserved fruit, so much the better. All boys, 
 as a rule, dislike meat fat, and leave it on tlieir plates, and it is a bar- 
 barous practice to try to make them eat it. And yet the same fat, in 
 a different guise, embodied with flour in a loell-cooked pudding, they as 
 universally like. All boys, again, love sugar and the juices of fresh 
 vegetables or fruits, and it is a grave mistake not to secure a fair pro- 
 portion of these elements in their daily food. Now a well-made fruit 
 pudding or tart combines these several elements in happy proportion 
 and palatable form, and boys' universal liking for this article of diet 
 is simply the practical expression of the physiological truth, that fat 
 and its chemical allies, starch and sugar, together with certain organic 
 acids and salts, are indispensable to the healthy constitution of the 
 blood — in other words, to the due building up and maintenance of the 
 fabric of the body. 
 
 A boy who has dined at 1 or 1.30 is ready by 6 o'clock for something 
 more than the eternal tea and bread and butter. He keenly relishes 
 at tliis meal some little variety or addition, such as plain home-made 
 cake, or some fruit, or a bit of whatever salad herb may be in season. 
 
 In the dietaiy above quoted, it will excite surprise* that no beer or 
 other stimulant is allowed either at dinner or at any other meal or 
 time in the day. If proof were needed that boys may grow u^rin the 
 perfection of health and strength without any stimulants whatever, 
 provided they* are liberally fed, I might point to the splendid physique 
 
 * Remember this is written of England, not America. 
 
PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 127 
 
 of the little inmates of this particular school, and invite any one to 
 see how they worlv and how they play. Where Ihe food is amply suf- 
 ficient and varied, a boy does not want beer, nay, is better without it ; 
 where the food is not so, beer or wine will but imperfectly supplement 
 its shortcomiuirs. 
 
 Anotljer noteworthy point in the arrangements of this school is the 
 veto on all " liampers from home," and the absence of any " shop " for 
 tlie sale of sweets, etc. These are far from harmless institutions ; 
 they are time-liouored aljominatious wliicli cannot be too strongly con- 
 demned. The evil tendencies, at any rate of tlie hitter, are so glaring 
 tiiat its authorized existence is, in my opinion, a blot upon any scliool. 
 Setting aside the trasli eaten, the sickness caused, tlie morbid aj)- 
 petite and habit of selfish gluttony accjuired, and the facilities afforded 
 for tlie introduction of contraband goods — the money boys often spend 
 at these places is grievous to think of. I can voucli for many a 
 boy, whose parents were weak enough to supply him with almost 
 unlimited pocket-mont'v, having often spent at his school "shop" a 
 weekly sum (juite sufficient to teed a poor family. Now, where school 
 meals are abundant enough, varied enough (especially in respect of 
 sugar and vegetable juices), and frequent enough, there the inmates 
 will have no further craving for cakes, sweets, fruits, etc. But if 
 there be a shortcoming in one or other of these respects, then instinct 
 drives the boys to seek elsewhere those elements of food in wliich 
 their regular diet is deficient. An authf)rized "tuck shop," therefore, 
 in connection with a school is j)rima facie evidence to an outsider, and 
 not uncommonly a tacit admission on the part of the school proprietor 
 that the diet of the inmates by no means satisfies all their legitimate 
 cravings. 
 
 That a scale of diet such as I have here advocated is just al:)out 
 what boys ought to have, if they are to develop into strong healthi/ 
 men, I am satisfied from personal experience and observation. That 
 it is at all likely to meet with the acceptance of schoolmasters gen- 
 erally, I am not simple enough to suppose. It is too violent an inno- 
 vation on old routine. Nay, even paterfamilias himself will probably 
 pooh-pooh such new-fangled notions of feeding boys like grown men 
 (especially when he finds they cost more money), forgetting that boyg 
 need more and more varied food than men. So-and-so was good 
 enough for his (pater's) boyhood, why won't it do for his son's 1 But 
 paterfamilias should speak only for himself. The diet of 7ds school- 
 days sufficed for him, thanks probably to his sound constitution, but 
 was it enough for many of his less robust schoolmates ? Did any of 
 these in after years fail to grow up strong and healthy men ? and if 
 so, is paterfamilias sure that their " simple," i. c, monotonous and 
 meagre mode of feeding during their years of most active growth had 
 nought to do with their failure 1 
 
 Just as any system of teaching is a real success in proportion as it 
 ada))ts itself to the peculiar needs — not of those who are quick and 
 willing, but of those who are slow or averse to learn — so any scale of 
 diet approaches perfection in exact proportion to the provision made, 
 not merely for the average standard of taste and appetite, but for all 
 reasonable deviations therefrom. The daily meals of a school may be 
 
128 PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 abundant and of good quality, stiH if tliey be not more varied than 
 to my certain linowledge they often are, many a boy and girl must 
 fail day after day to get those particular elements of nutrition which 
 they specially require. The result with such boys and girls is that 
 even in the midst of plenty they renuxin xinder-fed and imperfectly 
 nourished, thus retarding if not arresting the due growth and develop- 
 ment of their bodies, and strongly favoring the development of any 
 inherited or any other constitutional unsoundness lurking within 
 them. 
 
 BRAIN FOOD. 
 
 Does the man who labors with his brain require the same kinds of 
 food as he who labors with his body ? 
 
 Ans. — Dr. J. M. Winn, an eminent English physician, says : " If we 
 keep in view the difference between tlie structure of the nervous and 
 muscular tissues, it becomes evident that a somewhat different kind of 
 diet is required for the nutrition of the former from that of the latter. 
 In order to develop and support the muscular organization, a large 
 proportion of nitrogenous food is requisite ; not so when the object la 
 to supply the waste of the more delicate and subtle tissue of the nerv- 
 ous system. Fatty matter and phosphorus enter largely into the 
 composition of the brain. It has been estimated that the former (brain 
 wax, or brain fat, as it has been called), amounts to about one-third, 
 and the latter (phosphorus) to one-twentieth or one-thirtieth of its 
 solid substance. It is now generally believed that exertion of the will 
 and reasoning powers cause an expenditure of the brain material, and 
 a corresponding exhaustion of the nervous force. However, it must 
 not be forgotten that prolonged bodily exercise exhausts the nervous 
 force, as muscular contractions are commonly brought into action by 
 nervous influence, hence the importance of a student avoiding exces- 
 sive bodily efforts, which expend that nervous energy so essential for 
 brain work. 
 
 " Large quantities of animal food and malt liquor conduce rather to 
 somnolency than to mental activity. There is a common saying that 
 ' fish feeds the brain,' which may depend on the phosphorus it 
 contains. Certainly there can be no doubt that some sorts of fish, 
 such as soles, whiting, plaice, etc. , are peculiarly suitable to a weak 
 digestion. I may incidentally observe that I have found a fish diet 
 especially serviceable for those predisposed to consumption. 
 
 ' ' The London correspondent of the Birmingham Morning News 
 alludes to a new book that has recently appeared, containing remarks 
 about the diet of certain literary men ; and he states that he is ac- 
 quainted with a well-known writer who cleaves to oatmeal porridge 
 when he is in working trim. In this respect the said writer imitates 
 Gerald Massey, who swears by oatmeal porridge as a brain-inspiring 
 compound. ' There is a deal of phosphorus in oatmeal,' Mr. Massey 
 says,, 'and phosphorus is brain. There is also a large amount of 
 phosphorus in fish. Consequently I never miss having a fish dinner at 
 least once a week, and take a plate of good, thick, coarse, well-boiled 
 Scotch oatmeal every morning in my life.' " 
 
PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 129 
 
 To this it may be added that the best diet for brain workers who 
 take a proper care of their liealth is l)ro\vi\ bread, cream, fresh butter, 
 oatmeal, eggs, fresh cheese (if it agrees), tish, and a moderate amount 
 of meat. Oysters may be used freely in their season, and fruits 
 should not be omitted. There should be variety and change as the 
 season and health require. 
 
 APPLES AS FOOD. 
 
 Do you recommend apples as a portion of the regular diet ? 
 
 Ans. — Yes, quite as much as potatoes. Many persons do not value 
 apples sufficiently as an important article of diet. Besides containing 
 a large amount of sugar, mucilage, and other nutritive matter, this fruit 
 contains vegetable acids, aromatic qualities, etc., which act powerfully 
 in the capacity of refrigerants, tonics, and antiseptics, and when freely 
 used at the season of mellow ripeness prevent del^ility, indigestion, 
 and avert, without doubt, many of the " ills which flesh is heir to." 
 The operators of Cornwall, England, consider ripe apples nearly as 
 nourishing as bread, and far more so than potatoes. In 1810, which 
 was a year of much scarcity, apples, instead of being converted into 
 cider, were sold to the poor ; and the laborers asserted that they 
 could " stand their work " on baked apples without meat ; whereas a 
 potato diet required either meat or some other substantial nutriment. 
 The French and Germans use apples extensively, as do the inhabit- 
 ants of all European nations. The laborers depend upon them as an 
 article of food, and frequently make a dinner of sliced apples and 
 bread. There is no fruit cooked in as many different ways in our 
 countrj'', nor is there any fruit whose value, as an article of nutriment, 
 is so great. 
 
 An old gentleman recently stated to us that every fall he used to 
 have a severe sickness, but since he bought, during the season, a 
 barrel of good apples, for himself alone, and ate the whole barrel in 
 two or three months, he had every year saved himself from this sick- 
 ness without wanting a doctor. 
 
 Two good apples eaten before or soon after breakfast are an almost 
 sure cure for constipation. 
 
 OIL OF ALMONDS. 
 
 Is oil of bitter almonds injurious if used to flavor foods ? 
 
 Ans. — Nearly all the oil of bitter almonds used in this country con- 
 tains a very small amount of prussic acid, and for this reason it is in- 
 jurious, as this is a powerful poison. Taylor, in his Medical Juris- 
 prudence, says it is a disgrace that such substances are allowed to be 
 sold as flavors to foods. Confectioners use it in the preparation of 
 food, and it is largely used in domestic cookei-y. So powerful is it 
 that a single drop will flavor a large amount of cake. The artificial 
 almond oil is made from nitro-benzole, a product of the distillation of 
 coal tar. 
 
130 PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 FRUIT ESSENCE. 
 
 What is the composition of the various fruit flavors in common use 
 for cooking ? 
 
 Ans. — The genuine are made from the fruits themselves, and are 
 wholesome and palatable. Most of them in use are artificial ; for in- 
 stance, quince essence is made of aqua fortis, oil of rue, etc. ; pear 
 flavor from fusil oil, acetate of potash and sulphuric acid ; apple 
 essence from fusil oil, sulphuric acid and valerian acid ; strawberry, 
 raspberry, and other essences are made from various compounds of 
 ethers. Taken in any quantity they are believed to be injurious to 
 health ; and no doubt children, who are moat likely to indulge in them 
 to excess, are often made sick by them; indeed, such cases are common. 
 The fruit syrups used at the soda fountains are largely artificial, and 
 few can tell the difference, except in the after effect. The genuine is 
 wholesome, the latter injurious. 
 
 FRUIT JELLIES. 
 
 Is the fruit jelly seen so often on the hotel table, used so frequently 
 for dessert, and sold so abundantly by the grocer, healthful ? 
 
 Ans. — Genuine fruit jelly is a wholesome dessert, and makes a 
 pleasant drink when diluted with water, but most of the so-called 
 fruit jelly put up so neatly in glass jars, so prettily colored, is not 
 jelly at all, but a preparation from the feet and legs and bones of 
 dead animals, that should find their way to the bone-boiler or the 
 manufacturer of bone dust for the farmer. It is very cheap when 
 compared with the true fruit jelly, and is made to resemble it by the 
 color so easily given by the chemist. Chemistry is an art which has 
 done much for civilization, but it has also done a great deal for dis- 
 honest dealers, and a great deal to destroy the health of the people. 
 Yet strange to say, most of them are too thoughtless to use their 
 brains to protect themselves. When will people demand and have 
 only genuine articles instead of cheap, worthless, fraudulent stuff, 
 bearing only the name ? 
 
 TARTARIC ACID. 
 
 Ix \t proper to use tartaric acid in cookery ? 
 
 Ans. — Tartaric acid is put up under the false name of fruitina, and 
 is largely used to make tarts, pies, etc. It is not a rank poison but 
 cannot be used very extensively Avithout harm, and is no substitute 
 for fruit. We advise you not to use it. 
 
 MELONS, 
 
 Are water and musk melons wholesome ? 
 
 Ans. — There are many persons who think the melon very unwhole- 
 some, but there really is no more wholesome fruit. If eaten fresh 
 and fully ripe, it makes a most agreeable addition to the breakfast 
 and dinner table. 
 
PRACmCAL DIETETICS, 131 
 
 OATMEAL AND MILK DIET. 
 
 Why are the Scotch people, who drink a great deal of whisky, the 
 best developed, pliysically, of any of the English race? 
 
 Ans. — According to Dr. Edward Smith, who carefully investigated 
 this subject, their fine bodies are in great part the result of their 
 diet of oatmeal and milk. The Scotch women and children do less 
 factory work, and live more out of doors. 
 
 When the writer was in Edinburgh, the celebrated Dr. Guthrie 
 called his attention to the size of Scotch people, and to the fact that 
 the average size of their heads was greater than that of any other 
 nation in the world, not excepting even the English ; and when asked 
 how he accounted for this, he replied that he thought it was owing 
 largely to their universal devotion to oatmeal. 
 
 Indeed, the writer observed that the national dish was found upon 
 the table at almost every meal, in the houses of the rich as well as 
 the poor. In the morning came the mush, and in the evening the 
 traditional cake, about the size of the crown of a hat, and a little 
 harder than a sun-dried brick. 
 
 For further confirmation on this important question, let the writer 
 add that he has found a great advantage to follow the daily use of 
 (honest) brown bread and oatmeal in his family. A child whose first 
 teeth came through in a starved condition, so that they began to decay 
 at once and cause much suffering, is now blessed with as fine a set of 
 second cutters as any one could ask, while the general health of all 
 has improved. In fact, we all vote that we must* daily have our 
 brown bread and its twin-sister dish of oatmeal. 
 
 HONEY. 
 
 Is honey wholesome ? 
 
 Ans. — Yes, used in moderation it is. Very old honey, however, 
 should be eschewed. 
 
 WORKING ON RICE AND MILK. 
 
 Can a man do hard work on rice and milk ? 
 
 Ans. — Yes, especially in hot weather, as the following case shows : 
 A health reformer was told that he could not keep up with the crew 
 of men through haying on his "sick folks' baby diet." He replied 
 that he could go through the two weeks of haying on rice and milk, 
 and endure the labor as well as any man in the crew. The whole 
 company ridiculed him. 
 
 " They laii<;hed, 'twas well ; bnt the rule applied 
 Soon made them laugh on the other side." 
 
 He went through the entire haying season with only rice and milk 
 for nourishment, and, to the astonishment of all, did more work and 
 endured it better than any other man in the company. They had sup- 
 posed that rice contained but little nourishment, was suitable only for 
 sick people, students, etc., but were surprised to learn that there is ou 
 earth but one other article of food (oatmeal) containing more nourish- 
 ment to the pound than rice. 
 
132 PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 A HYGIENIC MEAL. 
 
 Will you please give us a bill of fare for a simple, wholesome 
 breakfast without meat ? 
 
 Ans. — Raised Graham bread, gems, baked potatoes, baked apples^ 
 cream, butter, boiled eggs. If you have cold mush, whether made of 
 corn-meal, oatmeal, or Graham Hour, you may cut it in slices, place 
 upon slightly buttered pans, and warm in the oven. Bake the potatoes 
 in a hot oven, and take them out the moment they are done, or they 
 will be heavy, waxy, and sodden. Removed at just the right time, 
 they will be white and mealy, and such are better cold than over- 
 baked ones, though steaming hot. 
 
 Then for a simple drink mix equal parts of corn-meal or Graham- 
 flour, or corn-meal and oatmeal, stir a cupful of this in two quarts of 
 boiling water, boil for twenty minutes, then add a quart of milk, pour 
 into a pitcher, and send to the table. A cupful is an indefinite 
 quantity ; we purposely leave it so, for some will prefer for that 
 quantity of gruel a very small cupful, and some will prefer it thicker. 
 Puddings or cracked wheat, cooked the day before, may be placed on 
 the breakfast table cold or slightly warmed, to be eaten with sugar 
 and hot milk or stewed berries. 
 
 To be added to the bill, if the family is large, or substituted for 
 some of the articles if the family be small, consider the following : 
 Baked sqiiash, Graham bread toast, with boiling milk thickened with 
 corn-starch poured over it, or add to boiling milk, broken stale bread ; 
 boil for one minute and send to the table hot. Graham mush, oatmeal 
 mush, or cracked wheat, sent to the table in saucers, hot, to be eaten 
 with sugar and cream or stewed fruit ; corn bread or corn-meal gems ; 
 cabbage, cut fine, boiled in a small quantity of water, add cream 
 dressing or lemon juice; boil together freshly pared turnips and 
 potatoes (the turnips must boil awhile before the potatoes are added) ;, 
 as soon as done pour off the water, dry for a moment, mash finely, add 
 a little milk or cream, then stir well with a fork, dish and send to the 
 table hot.. 
 
 TO MAKE OATMEAL RELISH 
 
 How can oatmeal be made to relish ? 
 
 Ans. — Fill a saucer nearly full of well-cooked oatmeal. Now fill 
 the oatmeal full of strawberries (pressing them in), ripe peaches, ripe 
 pears, or some such fruit. Add a little sugar and cream. It is a rich 
 and delicate dish. 
 
 BREAD MADE WITH SEA WATER. 
 
 Can a wholesome bread be made with sea water ? 
 
 Ans. — M. Rabuteau calls attention to the importance of this article. 
 In the first place it is very pleasant eating, also increasing the appe- 
 tite and stimulating digestion. On board ship, bread so prepared has 
 been found very conducive to the preservation of health during long 
 voyages. It also exerts important medicinal effects, especially in 
 dyspepsia. In phthisis and in scrofula it is said to be a powerful ad- 
 juvant. Of this, however, we have little positive knowledge. 
 
PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 133 
 
 FASHIONABLE DINNERS. 
 
 Are late fashionable dinners objectionable? 
 
 Ans. — There can be little doubt that the very late dinner hour pat- 
 ronized by modern society is hig-hly unnatural, undesirable, and per- 
 nicious. The fatigues undergone by fashionable folivs during the day 
 do not tend to whet appetite — rather they serve to blunt its cravings 
 — besides, the stomach of such is unfitted from properly fulfilling its 
 functions. Of course tempting viands are presented on the dining- 
 table, prepared by practised and skillful cooks, while the jileasures of 
 love, friendship, and social converse become added as incentives. All 
 the more dangerous, we should say. It is possible to cloy the stomach, 
 and yet derive no benefit therefrom, but contrariwise. Better be iu 
 the condition of the Cambridge students of yore, and " diet upon fast- 
 ing every day " than cause the human system to receive more than it 
 can digest. " I restrained myself," observes Bacon, "to so regular a 
 diet as to eat flesh but once a day, and a little at a time, without salt 
 or vinegar." 
 
 FOOD FOR GOUT. 
 
 What is the best food for gout ? 
 
 Ans. — Temperance at the table. Dr. Cheyene said, nearly two 
 hundred years ago : 
 
 " Three pints of milk and six ounces of bread, daily, are the only 
 certain remedies for gout. Let two people be chosen, as like as pos- 
 sible, both suffering from the same cause. Give the most promising 
 patient the most ai)proved nostrums, etc., and let the other have only 
 the simplest attention, but placed under a strict diet, the lightest and 
 least, milk and seed diet, and I will venture reputation and life that 
 my method cures soonest." 
 
 CHESTNUTS. 
 
 Are chestnuts wholesome ? 
 
 Ans. — Yes. In New York they are mainly eaten roasted or boiled, 
 but where the teeth are sound, so they can be masticated thoroughly, 
 they may be eaten raw, if preferred, by the young and those who 
 havfe good stomachs. 
 
 POTATOES. 
 
 Are potatoes a good article of food for sedentary people? 
 
 Ans. — Potatoes are nrore important than any other root used for 
 food, and, on the score of their economy, are advantageously used iu 
 large quantities by those who work hard out of doors, though their 
 nutritrive value is not great except the starch they contain. They are, 
 however, easily cultivated, easily kept, easily cooked, and easily 
 digested ; but Ijeing wanting in fat and nitrogenous matter, they re- 
 quire to be eaten in conjunction with those kinds of food which will 
 8ui)i)ly the dc^ficiency. They should be white and mealy. Sedentary 
 people wlio have weak digestion had better not eat very largely of 
 potatoes, especially new ones, or those that are very old. During the 
 
134 PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 winter and spring potatoes begin to grow old and decay, when they 
 become particularly unwholesome. Never eat one of these. If there 
 is any taint about them, any bad taste or smell, never put them in 
 your stomach. In the city they are exposed so much to cold, and 
 heat and light, and get so bruised, that they are never so good as 
 when they come from the farmer's cellar. While on this subject we 
 will give our readers a receipt for raising wholesome and delicious 
 potatoes. Choose a soil that is a dry and sandy loam if possible ; but 
 any soil will do except where it is positively wet. With a plough 
 mark out your furrows three and a half feet apart, and eight or ten 
 inches deep. Now fill this furrow four inches deep with thoroughly 
 rotten oak tan bark, or chip manure, on which is a good sprinkling of 
 gait. Over this spread the soil half an inch thick, and plant the best 
 varieties of potatoes. Strictly follow this rule, and nutritious and 
 delicious potatoes will be the result. 
 
 MID-DAY HEARTY MEALS. 
 
 Is a hearty meal in the middle of the day a good thing for a literary 
 person who exj^ects to write in the afternoon ? 
 
 Ans. — No. The dinner should be light, or delayed till the work is 
 done. Intense brain work cannot go on at the same time the stomach 
 is strongly taxed in digesting food. 
 
 EATING GRAPE SEEDS, Etc. 
 
 In eating grapes, apples, cherries, and other fruits, may one safely 
 Bwallow the stones or seeds ? 
 
 Ans. — It is best not to do it. No good comes from it, and some- 
 times great danger. A person, for instance, who eats a pound of 
 Catawba grapes and swallows the seeds, takes into the stomach four 
 large hard stones to each grape. Now count the grapes to a pound 
 and see how many there are. Now collect the stones, or seeds, to- 
 gether, and see what a pile it makes ! These go rasping through the 
 bowels like so many gravel stones, causing piles, ulceration, obstruc- 
 tions, etc 
 
 MOULDY BREAD. 
 
 Is there any danger in eating mouldy bread ? 
 
 Ans. — Yes, several cases of poisoning have been observed by the 
 use of mouldy bread. Jollier has signalized the poisoning of three 
 animals which had eaten mouldy bread. Westerhoff has made known 
 the case of two children who had taken rye bread containing the 
 mucor mncedo, the most common species of mould. The mould com- 
 monly found in bread is the Ascoplwra mucedo, a species of minute 
 fungi closely allied to the mucor mucedo named above. This last is 
 the kind that is often found plentifully on ripe fruit, preserves, etc., 
 and when observed should be removed at once, not only because of its 
 deleterious nature, but also for the reason that it materially hastens 
 the progress of decay. 
 
PK ACTIO AL DIETETICS. l35 
 
 MEAT. 
 
 Is not a large quautity of liesh meat necessary to the highest 
 health ? 
 
 Ans. — No doubt a large quantity of flesh meat is demanded by 
 persons who eat mainly of fine bread, and the ordinary fare of the 
 majority of people ; but much less will be found necessary with the 
 diet commended in this work, and in many cases persons will find it a 
 positive delight to avoid meat entirely. Still we do not advise this 
 unless they choose wisely and well their food from among the very 
 best articles used. Meat is generally considered necessary to maintain 
 health and strength ; but this is largely the result of the false teach- 
 ing of writers and the false education of the people. People eat too 
 much meat. This taxes the excretory organs, renders the blood liable 
 to be filled with impurities, which, if not eliminated, cause gout and 
 other diseases. 
 
 SUBSTITUTES FOR FLESH. 
 
 Are there any substitutes for flesh food which are equally healthful 
 and nouri.shing ? 
 
 Ans. — Yes. Eggs, cheese, and cream are good substitutes for flesh. 
 They should not be eaten so constantly, but occasionally. The con- 
 stant and daily use of eggs and cheese would overload the blood with 
 nitrogenous matter and do harm. About one-third of the weight of 
 an egg is solid nutriment. This is more than can be said of meat. 
 There are no bones and tough pieces that must be laid aside. A 
 good egg is made up of ten parts shell, sixty parts white, and thirty 
 parts yolk. The white of an egg contains eighty-six per cent, of 
 water, the yolk fifty-two per cent. The average weight of an egg is 
 about two ounces. Practically, an egg is animal food, and yet there is 
 none of the disagreeable work of the butcher necessary to obtain it. 
 The vegetarians of England use eggs freely, and many of these men 
 are eighty and ninety years old, and have been remarkably free from 
 illness. A good egg is alive. The shell is porous, and the oxygen of 
 the air goes through the shell and keeps up a sort of respiration. 
 Eggs may be dried and made to retain their goodness for a long time, 
 or the shell may be varnished, which excludes the air, when, if kept 
 at a proper temperature, they may be kept good for years. 
 
 Good cheese is even more nutritious than eggs. Cheese varies much 
 in its composition, but when properly made it contains about one-third 
 water, one-third albuminous material, one-fourth fat, and about five 
 per cent, of mineral matter. One-half of a pound of good cheese con- 
 tains as much nitrogenous matter as a pound of the best meat, and 
 one-third of a pound as much fat as a pound of average meat. Old 
 cheese, however, is not wholesome, and should not be eaten. Very 
 new cheese, on the other hand, is less easy of digestion. Cheese is 
 difficult to keep in warm climates, and easily decays in all places un- 
 less properly cared for. Mouldy and decayed cheese is unwholesome, 
 but this can always be known by the taste. American cheese is not 
 BO good as English and Swiss, still the best American cheese is very- 
 good. The English working classes use bread and cheese largely as 
 
136 PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 an article of diet. The Americans use it as a relish and luxury, but 
 rarely as an article of nourishment. We believe Americans use too 
 much meat. Those who wish for a substitute will find it in good eggs 
 and cheese. With these foods, used properly, and fish, we need 
 rarely use meat. 
 
 MEAT AND THE EXCRETIONS. 
 
 Does meat tax the excretory organs severely ? 
 
 Ans. — Vt(ry much meat severely taxes the kidneys to carry off any 
 surplus of effete nitrogenous matter. 
 
 ANIMAL FOOD AND BRAVERY. 
 
 Does not animal food make people braver and bolder than vegetable 
 food? 
 
 Ans. — Such may be true, but we do not believe it. Good food, and 
 plenty of it, and good health may help to make people brave, and to 
 a great extent this depends on food ; but that bravery is the result of 
 eating either animal or vegetable food we very much doubt. 
 
 EXCITING AN APPETITE. 
 
 When a person has a poor appetite, is it wise to sharpen it by arti- 
 ficial devices ? 
 
 Ans. — Such a practice is wrong, and may lead to baneful results. 
 
 FAT AND SCROFULA. 
 
 Does fat food produce scrofula ? 
 
 Ans. — It is believed that fat pork does produce scrofula, but we do 
 not think that other fats produce it. Indeed, fat in some forms is 
 essential to health. 
 
 EATING PORK. 
 
 A country friend writes : " It is now about hog-killing time ; every- 
 body round here, men, women and children, will almost live on pork 
 for weeks to come — pork soups, pork mince pies, pork cake, and pork 
 everything. Do you think pork is a nutritious article of food, and 
 ever suitable as an article of diet for children ? Many here think it 
 ridiculous to say that pork is not healthy. Will you please give us 
 your ideas on this question 1 
 
 Ans. — 1. It is the source of nearly all the tape- worms found in the 
 human body. Now and then one comes from eating beef or mutton ; 
 but this is a very rare occurrence. 
 
 2. It is the source of all the trichina, that so dreadfully affects 
 human beings at times, these never coming from other meat. 
 
 3. Hogs are almost always fattened so as to be actually diseased 
 before killing. 
 
 4. It is generall}'^ believed that pork-eating is a common source of 
 scrofula. 
 
 5. For sedentary people and for women it furnishes far too much 
 of the fats for the best nutrition of the body. 
 
PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 137 
 
 6. " And the swine, though he divide the hoof and be cloven-footed, 
 yet he cheweth not the cud ; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh 
 shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch." — Leviticus xi. 
 7 and 8. 
 
 " And the swine, because it divideth the hoof yet cheweth not the 
 cud, it is unclean unto you. Ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch 
 their dead carcass." — Deitt. xiv. 8. 
 
 " I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people 
 which worketh in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts, 
 which remain among the graves and lodge in the mountains, which 
 eat swine's fle.sh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels." 
 — Isaiah Ixv. 2 and 4. 
 
 " Tliey that sanctify themselves, etc., eating swine's flesh, and the 
 abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the 
 Lord." — Isaiah Ixyi. 17. 
 
 EGGS SOFT OR HARD BOILED. 
 
 I have two friends who sit near me at table, and they often dispute' 
 about eggs, one says soft boiled eggs are most wholesome, and the 
 other says hard boiled eggs are the healthiest. Please tell us if hard 
 boiled eggs are ever healthy. 
 
 Ans. — Hard boiled eggs have always been considered more diflicult| 
 of digestion than soft boiled ones. The reason is this : the white of 
 an egg is almost pure albumen. Now albumen coagulates with heat, 
 and is not so readily acted on by the gastric juice ; so that much of it 
 passes from the stomach undigested. Persons with vigorous diges- 
 tion may manage a hard-boiled egg so as to extract most of the 
 nourishment from it, if it be well masticated and mixed with other 
 food. The yolk of tlie egg, however, is not rendered worse by hard 
 boiling. Eggs boiled just four minutes leave the white part in a 
 partly flocculent condition, more easily digested, and not so soft as to 
 be offensive to any one. An egg may be cooked in water at a tem- 
 perature of about 165° F. for fifteen minutes and leave the yolk well 
 cooked, but the white will not be rendered tough and hard to digest. 
 Though more troublesome, this is a good way to cook an egg to render 
 it easy of digestion as well as palatable. Persons whose palates will 
 not tolerate a soft-boiled egg should have them poached and dropped 
 on toast. 
 
 WINE FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 Do you think a weakly child would be injured by a glass or two of 
 Avine after dinner? 
 
 Ans.— The child's blood must not be inflamed by such means. If 
 ardent spirits are used by any it should be by the aged, and not by the 
 young. 
 
 ADULTERATED MILK. 
 
 Do you think it morally wrong to adulterate milk ; nearly every 
 milkman does it, and an honest one can hardly live '? 
 
 Ans. — We should like to see every dishonest milkman nailed by the 
 
138 PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 ears to his pump till lie would promise to do better. Adulterated milk 
 kills childreu by inches. 
 
 NOTIONAL PEOPLE. 
 
 Do you think it well for people to be notional and squeamish about 
 their food? 
 
 Ans. — No. It is well to be wise in the choice of food, but not no- 
 tional. It is generally best to train the appetite to take what is con- 
 venient, providing it is wholesome. Custom will make it pleasant to 
 you. This rule will perhaps have exceptions, as when there are idio- 
 Byncrasies. 
 
 VALUE OP DIFFERENT PARTS OF MEAT. 
 
 Why is there so much difference in the nutritive value of the flesh 
 of animals in different parts of the body V 
 
 Ans. — Flesh is composed of numerous bundles of minute tubes ad- 
 hering together in a mass. These tubes are filled with the juices of 
 the flesh. Now the quality of the flesh depends much on the juices, 
 Avhile the tenderness or toughness depends largely on these tubes, and 
 these vary with the age and condition of the animal. In old or ill- fed 
 animals the tubes are more than the juices, and the meat is tough. In 
 young animals it is the reverse. There is more nutriment in the flesh 
 of animals not too young or too old, and neither too fat nor too lean. 
 
 SALTED vs. FRESH MEAT. 
 
 Wliy is not salted meat as wholesome as fresh ? 
 Ans. — 1. Salt extracts a considerable portion of the juices of flesh. 
 It also hardens it. 
 
 2. The flavor is far inferior. 
 
 3. It carries far too much salt into the system. Much of the im- 
 paired health farmers have in spring comes from this source. This 
 excess of salt with the meat begets thirst, loss of appetite, impaired 
 digestion and skin disease. It would be far better for them to eat no 
 meat in winter, but substitute oatmeal, molasses, cream and fruit for 
 salted flesh, than to eat so much of the latter. With this diet they would 
 rarely have the debility in spring now so common. 
 
 EXTRACT OF MEAT. 
 
 Is Liebig's extract of meat as good as is claimed by the manufac- 
 turers ? 
 
 Ans. No, not half nor a quarter so good. To make, for instance, one 
 poitnd of this extract requires thirty pounds of flesh, but is all the 
 nutriment of the flesh condensed to this amount ? By no means, but 
 only the juices of the flesh and those parts soluble and the least nutri- 
 tious. For very feeble persons, who can take but little food, it may 
 be useful ; but as a staff for the sick generally, who need good nour- 
 ishment, it is a broken reed. 
 
PEACnCAL DIETETICS. 139 
 
 BUTTER. 
 
 Is butter a food — that is, does it nourish and strengthen the body? 
 
 Ans. — Butter is a food quite as much as meat. Indeed, there is more 
 strength stored up in an ounce of butter than two ounces of tlie best 
 lean meat ; but butter will not furnish material to build up the tissues 
 of the body as bread and meat do. A man would starve on a butter 
 diet in a very^short time. Butter is a fat useful in the body to support 
 animal heat and generate force, as coal and wood do under the boiler, 
 and of some use in building muscular and nervous tissues. 
 
 EATING TO PLEASE. 
 
 When dining with friends, should we eat of all the dishes set before 
 us to please our host, who good-naturedly urges us to take more than 
 we want ? 
 Ans. — 
 
 " 'Tis better, sir, I should you now displease, 
 Than, by complying, nest day lose my ease." 
 
 An ingenious and dextrously made excuse is always as acceptable as 
 compliance. 
 
 HYGIENIC COFFEE. 
 
 How can hygienic coffee be made ? 
 
 Ans. — What is called hygienic coffee may be made from rye, corn, 
 sweet potatoes, peas, beans, etc., etc. It may be made by roasting 
 these articles and treating them in about the same way that coffee is 
 treated. As an occasional drink they are wholesome, and if well made, 
 an agreeable beverage. 
 
 BE AGREEABLE AT MEALS. 
 
 You tell us to make ourselves agreeable and entertaining during our 
 meals. Some of us have not the faculty of ready speech. What's to 
 be done in such a case ? 
 
 Ans. — Every one can do something to add to the social life at the 
 table. If one cannot talk, he can listen, or ask questions, and draw 
 out others who can talk. Good listeners are as necessary as good 
 talkers. Never argue at the table ; but tell pleasant stories, relate or 
 read anecdotes, and look out for the good of all. Sometimes a single 
 anecdote from a paper starts a conversation that lasts during the meal 
 time. 
 
 A family table ought to be bright and cheerful, a sort of domestic 
 altar, before which every one casts down his or her offering, great or 
 small, of pleasantness and peace ; where, for at least a brief space in 
 the day, all annoyances are laid aside, all stormy tempers hushed, all 
 quarrels healed ; every one being glad and content to sit down at the 
 same board, and eat the same bread and salt, making it, whether it 
 were a rich repast or a dinner of herbs, equally a joyful, almost a 
 sacramental meal. 
 
140 PEACnCAL DIETETICS. 
 
 EATING WHEN TIRED. 
 
 Is it injurious to eat a hearty meal wliile very tired ? 
 
 Ans. — Yes, it is very injurious. Always arrange your labor so as to 
 liave a short resting-spell both before and after every hearty meal, 
 especially if old or feeble. 
 
 OATMEAL DRINKS. 
 
 How is oatmeal drink made? 
 
 Ans. — This is highly recommended by those who liave tested it. A 
 writer says : " Last year we attended a field trial of plows, and for a 
 drink in the field we had buckets of cold water with oatmeal stirred 
 in, which we found to be botii victuals and drink, and mighty refresh- 
 ing." A Scottish medical journal also says of oatmeal, that, in its raw 
 state, when mixed with water, it is becoming a favorite drink. The 
 brose of " Auld Scotland " is becoming a favorite dish — and we are 
 glad to note this, because we believe it to be a healthy and muscle- 
 forming nourishment. The hunters and trappers of the West, are 
 substituting oatmeal in this form for parched Indian corn. The 
 same brawny fellows, whose powers of endurance are proverbial, 
 whose scorn of fatigue is known to all readers of natural history, have 
 found out that a very acceptable drink is made by putting about two 
 teaspoonfuls of oatmeal to a tumbler of water. This they — the hun- 
 ters and trappers — aver to be the best drink they can use ; and it is at 
 once nourishing, unstimulating, and satisfying. 
 
 It is a good substitute for tea, coffee, or any form of intoxicating 
 liquors, which produce so much harm. 
 
 FOOD AND PROLIFICNESS. 
 
 What food causes people to be most prolific ? 
 
 Ans. It is said that the families of fishermen are largest and very 
 healthy, but we think this may arise from the fact that they live 
 largely out of doors and take a great deal of exercise, as well as eat 
 fish. It was once thought that the reason why the Irish are so 
 prolific, was because thy live so largely on potatoes, but in our 
 opinion this is not true. Prolificness is an inheritance. Some races 
 and families are so by nature, and others are the reverse. It depends 
 partly on the health and vigor of the generative apparatus, partly on 
 habit, partly on food, and, strange to say, too much food, especially 
 when coupled with indolence, interferes with bearing children. Un- 
 fortunately the poor are more prolific than the rich. This subject is 
 more fully discussed in our little work, " Parturition without Pain." 
 
 LARGE STOMACHS. 
 
 Is it well for a child to have a large abdomen ? 
 
 Ans. — It should not be abnormally large, but it should be much 
 larger than many people think. Only a good-sized stomach is capable 
 of digesting abundance of food to keep up a large supply of blood. 
 Small stomachs and small lungs are incompatible with high health 
 and great powers. When children are kept on very concentrated food 
 
PEACTICAL DIETETICS. 141 
 
 and too much sugar, the stomach is apt to be too small. On the other 
 hand, if kept only on coarse vegetables it may be too large. Never 
 reduce the size of the stomach by tight lacing. Corsets injure this 
 organ and the liver more than they inj are the lungs. 
 
 CODFISH. 
 
 Is codfish easy of digestion 1 
 
 Ans. — Dr. Pavy declares codfish to bo "a more trying article of food 
 to the stomach than is generally credited." 
 
 BEST SEASON FOR FISH. 
 
 When are fish best for food ? 
 
 Ans. — Their quality is best just before the spawning season, when 
 they are in good health and condition. Just after spawning they are 
 least valuable as food. Fish that have not attained the spawning age 
 are always in season. 
 
 SHELL FISH. 
 
 Are shell fish nutritive and easy of digestion ? 
 
 Ans. — Tliey are less nutritive and more difficult of digestion than 
 other forms of animal food, and are apt to upset delicate stomachs. 
 Oysters are, however, an exception. 
 
 OYSTERS. 
 
 Has an oyster stomach, heart, and liver ? 
 
 Ans. — An oyster has a stomach, but no heart. It has gills like a 
 fish, which answer for lungs. It has a very large liver, indeed, about 
 two-thirds of an oyster is liver. 
 
 RAW OYSTERS. 
 
 Are raw oysters digestible ? 
 
 Ans. They are more digestible than cooked ones. It is believed by 
 some that there is a true gastric juice iu an oyster's stomach, which 
 assists in digesting them. 
 
 This, however, is not known with certainty. 
 
 COMPOSITION OF OYSTERS. 
 
 What is the chemical composition of an oyster ? 
 
 Ans. — It varies somewhat ; but Payen gives the following 
 analysis : 
 
 Nitrogenous matter 14.010 
 
 Fatty matter 1.515 
 
 Saline matter 2 . 695 
 
 Non-nitrogenous matter and loss 1 395 
 
 Water 80 . 385 
 
 100.000 
 
142 PE ACTIO AL DIETETICS, 
 
 OYSTERS IN SUMMER. 
 
 Why are not oysters eatable in months with an "t" in them? 
 
 Ans. — The oysters cast their spawn in May, lose their good condi- 
 tion, become poor and siclcly, and are reckoned " out of season." In. 
 June, July, and August they regain their good condition and become 
 eatable once more. 
 
 RICE. 
 Is rice nutritious ? 
 
 Ans.— Rice is very rich in starch, yielding from seventy-five to- 
 ninety per cent, of this carbo-hydrate. It is very poor in nitrogenous 
 matter, yielding only six or seven per cent. It is very poor also in 
 saline matter and in fat. The starch of rice is very easily digested, 
 and it forms a valuable food for delicate stomachs. 
 The composition of rice is : 
 
 Nitrogenous matter 6.3 
 
 Carbo-hydrates 79 . 5 
 
 Fatty matter 7 
 
 Saline matter .5 
 
 Water 13.0 
 
 100.0 
 NUTS. 
 
 Are nuts wholesome ? 
 
 Ans. — Nuts are a very rich food, containing much oil, in such a 
 state that it is not easily acted on by the gastric juice unless minutely 
 divided before being passed to the stomach. Thoroughly chewed, 
 however, they are wholesome for persons with good stomachs. 
 
 Children may eat nuts freely to advantage, but care should be 
 taken to choose fresh ones. Stale, old, overdried nuts are very indi- 
 gestible and injurious. 
 
 TURNIPS, Etc. 
 
 Is there much nutriment in the turnip, carrot, etc.? 
 
 Ans. — Very little. They contain about ninety per cent, of water. 
 Their chief value is as a divisor of more nutritious food, to allow the 
 gastric juice to act on it more readily, and as a relish. 
 
 FRUITS. 
 
 Should fruits constitute a very large share of our food? 
 
 Ans. — Fruits are a very important article of food. They are agree- 
 able, refreshing, wholesome. They counteract the injurious effects of 
 too much nitrogenous, fatty, and salty matter. They are not highly 
 nuti'itious, and should not be eaten in such quantities as to overtax the 
 stomach, as they easily undergo decomposition and produce flatulence. 
 
 THE BEST FRUIT. 
 Which is the best of all the fruits ? 
 Ans. — The apple. It is, when cooked, very easily digested and lax 
 
PEACTICAL DIETETICS. 143 
 
 ative, overcoming constipation and f urnisliing a valuaWe acid for the 
 stomach. The following is the composition of an apple : 
 
 Sugar 7.58 
 
 Malic acid 1.04 
 
 Nitrogenous matter 0.22 
 
 Ppctous substances 2.72 
 
 Ash 44 
 
 Water 88.00 
 
 100.00 
 This does not include seeds or stem. 
 
 THE ORANGE. 
 
 Do you think an orange is wholesome, if taken before breakfast ? 
 
 Ans. — The orange is very easily digested, admissible in health and 
 disease, and one before breakfast will often prepare the delicate stom- 
 ach for a good meal better than anything else. 
 
 GRAPES. 
 
 Are not grapes very nutritious and a healthy food ? 
 
 Ans. — They are. Well ripened, sweet grapes may be taken to great 
 advantage in cases of dyspepsia, liver complaint, constipation, and by 
 nearly all invalids. The skin and seeds should be rejected. The " grape 
 cure" is very popular in France, Spain, and Germany; but European 
 grapes are better than American. The composition of grapes is : 
 
 Sugar 13.780 
 
 Malic acid 1 . 020 
 
 Nitrogenous matter 832 
 
 Pectous matter 498 
 
 Ash 340 
 
 Seeds and Skin 2.592 
 
 Pectose 941 
 
 Water 79.997 
 
 BEST TIME TO EAT FRUIT. 
 
 Wlien is tlie best time to eat fruit ? 
 
 Ans. — Most writers advise that fruit should always be eaten as a 
 part of the regular meal ; bnt we believe that from an hour before to 
 an hour after (luite as good a time as any. Fruits do not need much 
 digestion and need not interfere with the digestive process. Do not 
 mix fruits with roots — such as potatoes, for instance. In good health 
 they may be eaten moderately at any time when they are demanded. 
 Fruits are more of a drink than food. Children in health may have 
 fruit most freely, but should not eat it just before going to bed. If it 
 causes flatulence, eat less of it. 
 
 For a full statement of the analysis of all fruits, and their virtues, 
 see " Pavy oti Food." Our space will not allow of a full discussion 
 of this subject. 
 
144 PEACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 HONEY. 
 
 Is lioaey a true food, and may it be eaten with safety ? 
 
 Ans. — Honey is a vegetable product, secreted by the nectariferous 
 glands of flowers, sucked up by bees, passed to the honey-bag, possibly 
 slightly changed before disgorged, and deposited in the cell of conib. 
 Pure fresh honey is slightly laxative and wholesome. The comb is 
 not easily digested. A German teacher has lately written a work on 
 the subject of honey and its healing properties. While he may over- 
 estimate its value, what he says is interesting. He pays : 
 
 " A strong influence for publishing this book was the fact that I, a 
 sufferer from hemorrhages, already given up to despair, and at the 
 verge of the grave, was saved by the wonderful curative powers of 
 honey ; and now, thank God, I am freed, not only from weakness of 
 my lungs, but rejoice in the possession of perfect health. 
 
 " At my first attack, upward of thirty years ago, powders and tea 
 were ordered for me, which benefited me but little. I then placed 
 little confidence in honey, which I used occasionally, and in small 
 quantities. Judgiug from my present knowledge, I believe that the 
 honey was the only remedy that was doing me any good, and it is this 
 that I have to thank for the gradual, the sure restoration of my 
 health. 
 
 " As my disease increased, I began to use cod-liver oil, which weak- 
 ened and injured my stomach, so that I could hardly digest anything 
 more, and my condition became worse and worse. Again I returned to 
 honey, when my suffering immediately began to decrease and disap- 
 pear. Besides the use of honey, I took pains to preserve my breast 
 and lungs from injury which, in my trying situation as public teacher, 
 was almost impossible. My disease being caused by my constant 
 teaching during so many j^ears, I gave up my profession, and honey 
 was my only medicine, whereby I, by the simplest, safest, quickest, 
 and pleasantest manner (for I was fond of honey), relieved the disease 
 in my throat ; and, out of thankfulness, I now write this book for the 
 use and benefit of many, especially for the use of those suffering 
 from diseases of the throat and lungs." 
 
 THE TEETH. 
 
 As our teeth have a great deal to do with our food, what are the best 
 methods of preserving them ? 
 
 Ans. — As soon as the teeth make their appearance it should be the 
 duty of the mother or the nurse to clean them, morning and evening, 
 with a small brush and tepid water, and, as they increase in number, floss 
 silk, Avell waxed, should be passed between them, moving it up and 
 down a little under the gums, for the purpose of removing accumula- 
 tions, remembering that food, fruit, etc., left in the mouth and between 
 the teeth during sleep, are the principal causes of their decay. Early 
 and careful attention to the teeth, cleanliness of mouth, temperance in 
 living, and abstinence from acids, are some of the best maxims for the 
 preservation and beauty of the teeth. When children are thus famil- 
 iarized with the healthy and necessary custom of brusliing the teeth, 
 it becomes a fixed habit, and they will find it ever afterward abso- 
 
PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 145 
 
 lutelj essential to their comfort. As soon as tlie child is old enough 
 give it a tooth-brush and give instructions for use, and see that it is 
 done often and thoroughly. The brushes to be used should be adapted 
 to each case, neither too soft nor too hard, and so formed as to clean 
 the teeth without injuriously irritating the surrounding tissues. 
 Brushes for cliildren should not be quite as stiff as for older persons, 
 the gums, not having been subjected to as much friction, are not so 
 dense. Procure brushes of a medium width and narrow at their 
 extremity, so as easily to penetrate to the last molars without wound- 
 ing the cheeks ; they should have three rows of bristles, with the 
 handle slightly bent, so as to allow of an easy and graceful motion. 
 
 ICE. 
 
 How can ice be kept in small quantities, in a sick room, without its 
 immediately melting ? 
 
 Ans. — Make a double pocket of strong woolen cloth, no matter how 
 coarse and faded it is. Have a space, about two inches or so, between 
 the inner and outer pockets, and pack this space as full as possible 
 with feathers. You have no need to use geese feathers ; hen feathers 
 are just as good. With a pocket thus constructed, and kept closely 
 tied at the mouth, a few pounds of ice may be kept several days. 
 
 STARCHY MATTER FOR BABES. 
 
 Can an infant be fed on preparations containing much starch when 
 the mother has not sufficient milk for it? 
 
 Ans. — No. The starchy preparations so common in the nursery are 
 very deleterious, and starve the little one. There is no starch in milk. 
 Never feed a baby on arrow-root, unless you desire to kill it. 
 
 BAKING-POWDERS. 
 
 What are baking-powders made of, and are they proper things to be 
 introduced into the stomach ? 
 
 Ans. — The modern baking-powders, as a rule, consist of tartaric 
 acid and carbonate of soda, which evolve the necessary gas, when in 
 contact with water, to make the bread light, leaving behind a residue 
 of tartrate of soda. In practice, they are made by mixing together 
 these two substances (first thoroughly dried and pounded) in nearly 
 equal proportion, and then diluting the mixture thus made with any 
 cheap material — such as flour of rice — so as to add to the bulk, and 
 enable an apparently greater quantity of baking-powder to be sold for 
 a given sum. Many excellent food authorities have objected to the 
 use of baking-powder.s thus made, on the ground that it behooves us 
 to be careful how we add to the already sufficiently large amount of 
 mineral matter which we naturally consume daily. We should hesi- 
 tate before we advised the whole bread of a family to be thus pre- 
 pared, though for some of the minor articles of food only occasionally 
 used, they may do little harm. Unfortunately, some of the manufac- 
 turers of baking-powders are guilty of the addition of alum in con- 
 siderable quantities. 
 
146 PKACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 HUMILIATION IN EATING AND DRINKING. 
 
 Are not eating and drinking humiliating acts, rather than an en- 
 nobling, elevating one ? 
 
 Ans. — No. There are those who pretend that it is humiliating to be 
 afflicted by purely animal needs ; others, on the contrary, are of opinion 
 that as feeding is a delectable operation, we ought to be very thankful 
 that we can perform it so frequently ; a third class thinks nothing about 
 it either way, while doctors, economists, and historians regard eating as 
 a grave question, as one of the keys to health, and as a serious element 
 in the progress of civilization. And there is another point of view, 
 more interesting still. We meet to eat ; our repasts are made in com- 
 pany, they bring families and friends together, they exercise a unify- 
 ing effect of enormous force. Our dinners may, however, be a source 
 of gluttony and dissipation, if we will make them so. Should not each 
 one determine that they shall minister to good, and not to evil ? We 
 should always go to the table with a cheerful spirit and keep cheerful 
 as long as we sit there, and try to make others so. 
 
 ENERGY AND FOOD. 
 
 Can all the energy in food be extracted during digestion ? 
 
 Ans. — As a general rule, all the energy of food cannot be extracted 
 from it by the body. If it could be, then an ounce of lean beef would 
 give strength sufficient to lift fifty-five tons one foot high ; an ounce 
 of veal, forty-five tons one foot high ; an ounce of bread, eighty-three 
 tons ; an ounce of rice, one hundred and forty-five tons ; an ounce of 
 oatmeal, one hundred and fifty-two tons ; an ounce of pea-meal, one 
 hundred and forty-six tons ; an ounce of potatoes, thirty-eight tons ; 
 an ounce of carrots, twenty tons ; an ounce of cabbage, sixteen tons ; 
 aia ounce of butter, two hundred and eighty tons ; an ounce of the 
 white of an egg, twenty -two tons ; an ounce of the yolk of an egg, one 
 hundred and twenty-seven tons ; an ounce of good cheese, one hundred 
 and sixty-eight tons ; an ounce of milk, twenty-four tons ; and an ounce 
 of sugar, one hundred and thirty tons, one foot high. In order, how- 
 ever, to get all this strength out of food it must be well digested, and 
 used to advantage. There must be no waste. It is calculated that the 
 strength developed from food in the average body is equal daily to an 
 amount that will lift five thousand tons one foot high. But by far the 
 larger part of this is used up in keeping the body warm, circulating 
 the blood, digesting food, etc., so that the available force of the body 
 is only .a small portion of this. 
 
 DIETETIC REFORMERS. 
 
 Do you think those dietetic reformers, who, like Sylvester Graham, 
 advise the disuse of salt, butter, milk, sugar, eggs, cheese, condiments, 
 and all forms of fat as well as flesh, have a correct notion of diet ? 
 
 Ans. — No. True dietetics must be founded on science and common 
 sense, and not on conceptions of the brain or fancies of theorizers. We 
 do not doubt but science will yet show us how to live without flesh, 
 but it will never show us how to live without nourishing, wholesome 
 food, containing the fats, salts, and all the elements of complete nutri- 
 
PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 147 
 
 tion. The dietetic reformers, in tlieir zeal, have, some of them, over- 
 shot the mark, bat they meant well, and, while they have done much 
 harm, have also done much good by calling attention to a neglected 
 subject and to many abuses of diet. The good they have done will 
 live after them ; the hai"m will soon be forgotten. 
 
 RYE BREAD. 
 
 Is rye bread wholesome ? 
 
 Ans. — Yes. It is a laxative, cures constipation, but sometimes the 
 disease to which this grain is subject will render the whole population 
 where it is used dangerously ill, and be productive of most afflicting 
 diseases. This however, is a rare circumstance easily avoided. 
 
 DIET FOR A FEEBLE CHILD. 
 
 What diet would you prescribe for children from two to ten years 
 of age, of strong mental temperament and slender bodies V I am 
 anxious to know how I can best develop their bodies. My boy of 
 seven years of age takes a number seven hat and weighs but a little over 
 thirty pounds. His general health is much better than it was one year 
 ago. Is there any particular objection to Indian-meal bread or rye 
 bread? I do not like to trouble you, but I am anxious to learn. \V'e 
 do not send him to school now, and keep him out of doors as much as 
 possible in pleasant weather. Why I ask so particularly about corn- 
 meal is this : a phrenologist that lectured here last spring said I ought 
 not to give him corn bread because it is so heating. He is very fond 
 of it. 
 
 "An Anxious Mother." 
 
 Ans. — Give your children plenty of the best brown bread and milk. 
 Well made corn-meal bread, rye bread, and oatmeal wafers, are good. 
 The phrenologist who objected to corn-meal bread did not know very 
 much about it. Corn-meal pudding and good syrup or milk, will be 
 excellent. Now and then an egg on toast will not come amiss. Chil- 
 dren need abundance of wholesome food. If they cannot have it they 
 will be dwarfed and stunted. Good fruit is appropriate. 
 
 DIET FOR CONSUMPTIVES. 
 
 What are the best foods for consumptives ? 
 
 Ans. — Consumptives must see that their bodies are properly fed. 
 They should not take food as a medicine, but as nourishment. They 
 should have the very best things to eat that they can get, and, fortu- 
 nately, the best things are not always the most expensive or difficult 
 to olrtain. If it agrees, a cup of cream may very appropriately be taken 
 every daj' by those who are inclined to consumption. Brown bread, and 
 milk and cream, oatmeal and cream, eggs, with the moderate use of 
 beef and mutton, good butter and mealy potatoes, will, of themselves, 
 constitute a perfect diet. They should avoid nicknacks and I'ancy 
 foods, and live on things substantial and nourishing. Fruits should be 
 used in their season moderately. Consumption is a constitutional dis- 
 ease showing poverty of blood and poverty of healthy tissue, and this 
 
148 PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 poverty miist be eradicated. It can be done partially by such foods as 
 are needed to build up a strong healthy body and carry on all its func- 
 tions. Many physicians think that the disuse of fat is a cause of con- 
 sumption, and they pi-escribe cod-liver oil, not as a medicine, but as a 
 food, and, in many cases, it lias proved useful. We think, however, 
 that it is the sedentary and unnatural life people lead that has most to 
 do in causing so much consumption, and that with this sedentary life 
 comes a feeble condition of body and brain favorable to the disease. 
 A wise physical education and abundant wholesome nourishment 
 would dissipate half the consumption in the world, and the other half 
 would soon be banished by some other means. Consumption ia a dis- 
 ease to be avoided, not cured. 
 
 INSUFFICIENT NOURISHMENT. 
 
 What are the effects of insufficient nourishment ? 
 
 Ans. — Insufficient nutriment weakens the mind as well as the body. 
 Many writers place poor diet at the head of the causes that weaken 
 attention and debilitate all the faculties of the mind. Thus we often 
 see that disease which wastes the body enfeebles the mind also; though 
 this is not always the case, for sometimes the brain does not diminish 
 as the other parts of the body do. 
 
 APPETITE AND WORK. 
 
 Can a person with a poor appetite do much hard work ? 
 
 Ans. — Pavy says that a falling off of the appetite indicates a dimin- 
 ished capacity to labor. A farmer was once asked why he paid his hands 
 •so much, rejilied, it was economy to pay them well, so they could buy 
 sufficient food. One might as reasonably expect much labor from a 
 meagre diet as much fire from a little wood. A good appetite is gen- 
 erally synonymous with health and ability to do much labor. Great 
 workers, whether with body or brain, or both, are usually liberal eat- 
 ers. Lawyers and miuisters are apt to be good eaters. They should 
 eat wisely as well as liberally, otherwise, dyspepsia will be the result. 
 The old notion that great thinkers are small eaters is incorrect, except 
 in the case of those who otherwise live very quiet and inactive lives. 
 
 GREEN PEAS. 
 
 Are green peas digestible and wholesome ? 
 
 Ans. — Peas, when eaten green, are more digestible, but less nour- 
 ishing than when in the mature state. In the latter case they need 
 slow and prolonged cooking before they are fit for the table. When 
 old they should be soaked for some hours previous to boiling. From 
 the large amount of nitrogenous matter and starch in their composi- 
 tion, they form a valuable and cheap article of diet. 
 
 THE SWEET POTATO. 
 
 Is the sweet potato very nutritious and wholesome ? 
 
 Ans.— The esculent properties of this tuber depend very much upon 
 the conditions under which it was grown. Perhaps no vegetable is so 
 greatly modified in its character by variations of soil and climate. To 
 
PKACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 149 
 
 grow good sweet potatoes requires a light, warm, porous soil, and a 
 proper degree and continuance of summer heat. Planted in ground of 
 a compact, retentive nature, they become watery, insipid, heavy, and 
 quite unfit for human food. Their fine qualities are often impaired 
 likewise by rough, careless handling, and by exposure to cold. They 
 should be gathered when fully ripe, and only on a clear day. Allow 
 them to lie exposed to the sun for a few hours to become dry; then 
 place them in clean barrels or boxes, handling them carefully as if 
 they were eggs; store them in a dry place where the temperature will 
 be pretty uniform, never lower than 45", and they will keep fresh and 
 good all the year round. Owing to the large amount of starch and sugar 
 in their composition, they may be regarded as constituting a rich and 
 valuable food. When properly grown and cooked they are delicious, 
 wholesome, and satisfying. If eaten in an unripe state they are apt 
 to produce flatulence. 
 
 ANALYSES OF FOODS. 
 
 Is there any table of analyses of foods, showing the amount of each 
 proximate principle ? 
 
 Ans. — The subjoined table, compiled from Letheby's Analyses, may 
 serve to determine the relative values of the substances named as 
 articles of diet: 
 
 Nitrogenous matter 
 
 Carbo-hydrates 
 
 Fatty matter .. 
 
 Mineral matter 
 
 Water 
 
 WHEAT 
 rLOUB. 
 
 10.8 
 
 70.5 
 
 2.0 
 
 1.7 
 
 15.0 
 
 100. 
 
 OAT- 
 MEAL. 
 
 12.6 
 
 63.8 
 5.6 
 3.0 
 
 15.0 
 
 100. 
 
 6.3 
 74.3 
 2.4 
 
 2.0 
 15.0 
 
 100. 
 
 8.0 
 73.2 
 2.0 
 1.8 
 15.0 
 
 100. 
 
 UAI2E. 
 
 BICE. 
 
 11.1 
 
 6.3 
 
 65.1 
 
 79.5 
 
 8.1 
 
 0.7 
 
 1.7 
 
 0.5 
 
 14.0 
 
 13.0 
 
 100. 
 
 100. 
 
 The following table is from the analyses of Payen. 
 analyzed were previously dried. 
 
 The substances 
 
 
 BUCK- 
 WHEAT. 
 
 BEANS. 
 
 PEAS. 
 
 Nitrogenous matter 
 
 13.10 
 
 64.90 
 3.00 
 3.50 
 2.50 
 
 13.00 
 
 30.8 
 
 48.3 
 1.9 
 3.0 
 3.5 
 
 12.5 
 
 23.8 
 
 
 58.7 
 
 Fattymatter 
 
 2.1 
 3.5 
 
 
 2.1 
 
 Water 
 
 8.3 
 
 
 
 
 100. 
 
 100. 
 
 98.5 
 
150 
 
 PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 The followiug is also from Payen ; 
 
 SWEET 
 POTATO. 
 
 Nitrogenous matter 
 
 Starch 
 
 Cellulose 
 
 Sugar and gummy matter 
 
 Fatty matter 
 
 Other organic matter. . . . 
 
 Mineral salts 
 
 Water 
 
 1.50 
 16.05 
 0.45 
 10.20 
 0.30 
 1.10 
 2.60 
 67.50 
 
 99.70 
 
 FROM LETHEBY'S TABLE. 
 
 Nitrogenous matter 
 
 Starch, etc... 
 
 Sugar 
 
 Fat 
 
 Mineral salts 
 
 Water 
 
 100. 
 
 CAKKOTS. 
 
 PABSNTPS. 
 
 TUKNIPS. 
 
 1.3 
 
 1.1 
 
 1.3 
 
 8.4 
 
 9.6 
 
 5.1 
 
 6.1 
 
 5.8 
 
 2.1 
 
 0.2 
 
 0.5 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 1.0 
 
 0.6 
 
 83.0 
 
 83.0 
 
 91.0 
 
 100. 
 
 100. 
 
 FATS. 
 
 Do you advise people to eat sparingly of fat ? 
 
 Ans. — Fats are very important elements of our food, still goose oil, 
 lard, tallow, train oil, fish oil, and such articles of diet, are wisely es- 
 chewed by all except lumbermen, and those whose physical labor is 
 very great, and who are almost constantly exposed to cold. While, 
 therefore, the student and civilized worker wisely eschews the coarser 
 forms of fat, he should not ignore it in some more refined and delicate 
 form. He should instead use such as are most suitable to his taste 
 and needs. The brain is a great consumer of fat, combined with 
 phosphorus. No phosphorus — no thought, is a modern phrase, ex- 
 pressing the importance of phosphorus in mental action. As yet we 
 are in tlie infancy of knowledge on this subject, but it may be pre- 
 dicted that when we know the whole truth, the phrase will be some- 
 thing like this: " No phosphorized fat, no thought." There is always 
 some fat in most of our foods. The special forms best to make up any 
 deficiency that may be in them are no doubt to be found in good butter 
 
PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 151 
 
 and cream. There are, of course, instances in which they will not be 
 tolerated, but these are exce])tJons. Fat is not digested in the 
 stomach, but by the pancreatic juice in the intestines, nature having 
 provided a special juice to form it into an emulsion so it may be ab- 
 sorbed. In this state every atom of fat is so small that it requires a 
 microscope to detect it, and in this state it may easily be passed 
 through the walls of the intestines and carried into the circulation. 
 We need no better evidence of the need of fat than this careful provi- 
 sion for its digestion in the system. The symptoms which attend a 
 non-use of fats in some form are coldness of the extremities, a ten- 
 dency to indigestion, lack of nervous energy and power to think. 
 Emaciation, diminished muscular power, and a tendency to consump- 
 tion. 
 
 It may be true that many persons suffer from an inability to digest 
 fats, and that sometimes they obstruct the liver and make much 
 trouble. In all such cases it will be advisable to use them wisely and 
 judiciously, but rarely to avoid them altogether, except, perhaps, in 
 corpulence, where they are best used in great moderation . Lean peo- 
 ple should use fats rather more freely than fat ones. The amount of 
 fat necessary for a healthy working person is about three ounces 
 daily. Persons with extraordinary working power require more than 
 this. The starch in our food is to a certain extent a substitute for fat, 
 and may be converted into It. 
 
 SUGAR. 
 
 Is not sugar an objectionable article of food ? 
 
 Ans. — No. Sugar is a carbo-hydrate, and bears a close relationship 
 to fat, only the latter contains about two and a half times as much 
 force-giving quality. It is objected to sugar that it deranges digestion, 
 obstructs the liver, spoils the teeth, and in many ways does harm — 
 no doubt of it. Taken on an empty stomach, and in great quantities, 
 sugar is injurious ; but as a part of our food, and used in moderation, 
 sugar is not only harmless, but very beneficial. Children should be 
 allowed a reasonable amount of sugar as a part of their meals, but 
 candies, as generally sold, made partly of sugar or glucose, and many 
 poisonous ingredients, should never find their way into the stomachs of 
 our little ones. So, too, the syru].s made by the action of sulphuric 
 acid on corn-starch, or the refuse in corn-starch factories, making a 
 beautiful golden-drip syrup, is a very dangerous article, spoiling both 
 stomach and teeth. In using sugar or syrups, choose only the purest 
 and best sorts, otherwise much harm will come from them. As you 
 value teeth, stomach, and health, never use those articles of food 
 manufactured in the chemist's shop ; if you do, you must expect to 
 suffer the consequences. Half the ills of life would, be avoided by 
 careful attention to the wise choice and adaptation of food to daily 
 needs. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 This little work is here brought to an end. It does not pretend to be 
 an elaborate and exhaustive treatise ; but it is believed that its pre- 
 
152 PEACTICAIi DIETETICS. 
 
 cepts are wise and judicious, and its hints and receipts valuable. In 
 conclusion, let the writer urge on the reader the necessity for his mak- 
 ing the subject of which this Avork treats a study. Do not trust to 
 find out all you need to know from your doctor, your parents, or your 
 friends, or even the ordinary cook-books, but delve into the science of 
 dietetics. On it hangs, to a greater extent than is believed, the future 
 of our race — well fed, they will reach a higher civilization — better 
 health, greater beauty, and more happiness, than illy fed. Guard 
 ever against excess, and avoid the extremes — either great abstemious- 
 ness or gluttony. With these words the author bids the reader an 
 affectionate farewell. 
 
1 1^ D E X. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Acid, tartaric 130 
 
 Aids to digestion 40 
 
 Aliments, classiflcation of 10 
 
 Almond custard 77 
 
 Almonds, oil of 129 
 
 Amyloids, the 14 
 
 Analysis of food 149 
 
 Animal food and bravery 136 
 
 Appetite and work 14S 
 
 " exciting 136 
 
 Apple barley water 101 
 
 " cake pie 75 
 
 " fig water 105 
 
 " float pie 74 
 
 " puff " 74 
 
 " tea 105 
 
 " water 105 
 
 Apples as food 129 
 
 '• baked 91 
 
 Arrowroot custard 77 
 
 " molded 84 
 
 Asparagus 70 
 
 toast 89 
 
 Baked custard 78 
 
 Baking powders 145 
 
 Barberry jam 93 
 
 jelly 93 
 
 Barley molded 84 
 
 " soup 48 
 
 " water, plain 105 
 
 Be agreeable at meals 139 
 
 Bean soup 48 
 
 Beans, shelled 70 
 
 string 70 
 
 " without pork 95 
 
 Beef and tomato soup 49 
 
 Beverage, American temperance 103 
 
 Beverages from fruit juices 101 
 
 " other, (See di inks) 
 
 Biscuits, corn and rye 59 
 
 " delicious 59 
 
 " wheat meal 60 
 
 Blackberry drink 104 
 
 Blood, minerals in 18 
 
 Boarding-school tables 124 
 
 Body, daily wants of 32 
 
 " minerals not stored in 19 
 
 Brain, food for 128 
 
 Brain-workers and food 123 
 
 7 
 
 FAOH 
 
 Bread, apple 5t 
 
 " " brown 61 
 
 " Boston brown 57 
 
 " brown 86 
 
 " brown and sweet 60 
 
 " buttermilk 54 
 
 " coarse 86 
 
 " corn 86 
 
 " general remarks on 53 
 
 " Graham yeast 53 
 
 " Heald's favorite 86 
 
 " made with sea water 132 
 
 " mouldy ;. 134 
 
 " oatmeal 56 
 
 " rye 86 
 
 " rye, wholesome 134 
 
 " scalded sponge 53 
 
 " with potatoes 53 
 
 " Yankee brown 61 
 
 Breakfast, hygienic 132 
 
 Broth, barley 50 
 
 Buns, sweet potato 54 
 
 Butter 139 
 
 Buttermilk 113 
 
 Cabbage and milk 71 
 
 boiled 70 
 
 " cold slaw 71 
 
 " Dr. Everett's choice 71 
 
 Cakes, buckwheat 55 
 
 " cocoanut custard 84 
 
 " corn 56,59 
 
 " cornmeal breakfast 59 
 
 " corn, with fruit 59 
 
 " cup 82 
 
 " cup, Graham 82 
 
 " delicate 84 
 
 " general remarks on 82 
 
 " gold 83 
 
 " gold medal corn 56 
 
 " ground rice 84 
 
 " hygienic breakfast 55 
 
 " ice cream 84 
 
 " Indian griddle 68 
 
 " oatmeal 62 
 
 " " (Scotch way) 61 
 
 " " breakfast 61 
 
 " orange : 83 
 
 " pan, journey 94 
 
 " rice 94 
 
154 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cakes, Shakspeare 83 
 
 " silver 83 
 
 " sponge 84 
 
 " squash 56 
 
 " strawberry short 83 
 
 " Yankee strawberry 56 
 
 Capillaire 106 
 
 Carrots stewed 69 
 
 CaiUirtower t'^ 
 
 Cherry drink 104 
 
 Cheese and bread toast 65 
 
 " cottage 65 
 
 " sandwiches 65 
 
 ChestniTts 133 
 
 Chlorine and phosphoric acid H 
 
 Ctiocolate and cocoa 116 
 
 " to prepare IIT 
 
 Cocoa and chocolate 1 16 
 
 " to prepare 117 
 
 Codfish 141 
 
 Coflee 116 
 
 •' hygienic 139 
 
 " to prepare 117 
 
 Conclusion 152 
 
 Condiments 22 
 
 Consumptives, food for 147 
 
 Contents 5 
 
 Cookies 82,84 
 
 Corn, green 68 
 
 " " cut from the cob 68 
 
 " dried sweet 69 
 
 " muffins 94 
 
 Cottage cheese 65 
 
 Cracked wheat molded 85 
 
 Crackers, delicious 90 
 
 " Graham 60 
 
 Cracknels, oatmeal 62 
 
 " " and cocoanut 63 
 
 Cranberry drink 103 
 
 Cream sherbet. 106 
 
 Crisps, wheat meal 59 
 
 Cunantade, mixed 104 
 
 " pure 104 
 
 Custards 77 
 
 Custard, almond 77 
 
 " arrjwroot 77 
 
 " baked 78 
 
 " gooseberry 78 
 
 " lemon 78 
 
 " plain 78 
 
 «' raspberry 78 
 
 " rice 78 
 
 " tomato 88 
 
 " vanilla 79 
 
 " Welsh 77 
 
 " white 79 
 
 Dabbs, North Carolina 94 
 
 Dessert, strawberry 95 
 
 Diet and work 33 
 
 " daily variation of 122 
 
 " of farm laborers in England — 32 
 
 " of students 124 
 
 Dietaries, school 125 
 
 Dietetic habits 34 
 
 Digestion 38 
 
 FAGS 
 
 Digestion, aids to 40 
 
 Dinners, fashionable 133 
 
 Directions, general 43 
 
 Distribution of meals 34 
 
 Dodgers, corn 94 
 
 Drink, a cool ginger 104 
 
 " American temperance bever- 
 age 103 
 
 " apple barley water 101 
 
 " '• tea 105 
 
 " " toast tea . 101 
 
 " water 101,105 
 
 " barley 105 
 
 " blackberry 104 
 
 " capillaire 106 
 
 " cherry 104 
 
 " cranberry 103 
 
 " cream sherbet 10.6 
 
 " currantade, mixed 104 
 
 " " pure 104 
 
 " cream sherbet 106 
 
 " dried apple barley 105 
 
 " eau Sucre 106 
 
 " egg tea 103 
 
 " English 102 
 
 " flg water 105 
 
 " for Spring 101 
 
 " from fruits, etc 101 
 
 " gooseberry water 104 
 
 " grape 106 
 
 " lemonade, common 102 
 
 English 102 
 
 hot 102 
 
 " " milk 103 
 
 " '• orange 102 
 
 " " pineapple 102 
 
 lea 102 
 
 " " whey 103 
 
 " lemon juice preserved 102 
 
 " •' sherbet 106 
 
 " " water 103 
 
 " plum water 104 
 
 " raspberry 104 
 
 " rhubarb tea ,105 
 
 " sherbet, cream 106 
 
 " " lemon 106 
 
 " " strawberry 106 
 
 " strawberry 103 
 
 " " canned 104 
 
 " " sherbet 106 
 
 " sugar 106 
 
 " summer beverages 106 
 
 " tamarind water 103 
 
 " toast water 106 
 
 Eating, simplicity in 44 
 
 " grape seeds , 134 
 
 " to please 139 
 
 " when tired 140 
 
 Egg plant 72 
 
 " new way to cook 91 
 
 Egg sandwiches 65 
 
 Eggs baked 63 
 
 " boiled 63 
 
 " dropped 63 
 
 " scrambled 63 
 
INDEX. 
 
 165 
 
 PAGE 
 
 EggB soft or hard boiled .. . . 137 
 
 " tea 103 
 
 " without boiling 95 
 
 " with spinach % 
 
 Energy and fi)od 146 
 
 Engine, man compared with 2G 
 
 Experiments of Fick and Wislicenus. . 29 
 
 Extract ol meat 138 
 
 Farm laborers, diet of 32 
 
 Fashionable dinners 133 
 
 Fat and scrofula 136 
 
 Feeble children, food for 147 
 
 Fats, right use of. 12, 150 
 
 Fish, best season for 141 
 
 " cod 141 
 
 " shell 141 
 
 Flesh and the excretions 136 
 
 " substitutes for 135 
 
 Food, amount of, required daily 122 
 
 " and animal heat 8 
 
 " " energy 146 
 
 " " physical strength 8 
 
 " " proliflcness 140 
 
 " " thought, mid feeling 9 
 
 " animal and bravery 136 
 
 " apples as 129 
 
 " brainworkers and 123 
 
 " choice and treatment of 45 
 
 " force giving for summer 122 
 
 " for consumptives 147 
 
 " " different seasons 121 
 
 " " feeble children 147 
 
 " " gout 133 
 
 " " meu vs. women 124 
 
 " " the brain 128 
 
 " functions of 7 
 
 " f,'uide to quantity of 12.3 
 
 " insufficient 148 
 
 " iron in 17 
 
 " liquid 99 
 
 " mineral 16 
 
 " relations of to growth 7 
 
 " " " repair 7 
 
 " " " waste 8 
 
 " starchy, for babes 145 
 
 " uses of difl'erent elements iu.. .. 17 
 
 " value of 25 
 
 " work stored in 25 
 
 Foods, analy^^is of 149 
 
 " calorific power of various 25 
 
 " effect ou the faculties 19 
 
 Fried egg sandwich 66 
 
 Fruit, best time to eat 143 
 
 " essence 130 
 
 " jellies 130 
 
 " juices 105 
 
 Fruits 142 
 
 " thebest 142 
 
 Gems, Anger's 87 
 
 " corn 56 
 
 " delicious corn 83 
 
 " Graham 58 
 
 " mixed 90 
 
 " oatmeal and Graham 58 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Gems, wheat meal 53 
 
 Ginger drink, a cool 104 
 
 Gout, food for 133 
 
 Gooseberry water 104 
 
 Graham crackers 60 
 
 '• cupcake 83 
 
 '• muffins 65, 9* 
 
 " puffs 57 
 
 Grape drink 106 
 
 " seeds, eating of 134 
 
 " jam 93 
 
 " jelly 93 
 
 Grapes, nutrition in 143 
 
 " wholesomeness of. 143 
 
 Gravy, buckwheat 55 
 
 " for children 55,89 
 
 " tomato 91 
 
 Green pea soup 49 
 
 Ground rice cake 84 
 
 Growth, relation of food to 7 
 
 Gruel, arrowroot 51 
 
 '• groat 51 
 
 - " milk, for children Ill 
 
 " sago 51 
 
 " tapioca 51 
 
 Ham and eggs 122 
 
 Hygienic breakfast 132 
 
 Honey 131 
 
 " for sore throat 144 
 
 " French 92 
 
 Ices 106 
 
 Ice to keep 145 
 
 Iron in food 17 
 
 Jam, barberry 93 
 
 " grape 93 
 
 " and jelly 93 
 
 Jellies 92 
 
 Jelly and jam 98 
 
 " barberry 93 
 
 " grape 93 
 
 " oatmeal 89 
 
 Kitchen, the 43 
 
 Lemonades 102 
 
 Lemonade common 102 
 
 '* English 102 
 
 " from preserved lemon 
 
 juice 109 
 
 hot 102 
 
 " milk 103 
 
 " orange 102 
 
 " pineapple 102 
 
 " tea 102 
 
 " whey 103 
 
 Lemon sherbet 106 
 
 Liquid food 99 
 
 Maple eyrup, how to make 91 
 
 Man compared to an engine 26 
 
 Meals, distribution of. 34 
 
 " mid-day, hearty 134 
 
 " variety of 123 
 
156 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Meat, extract of 138 
 
 " palted ?)s. fresh 138 
 
 " value of different parts of 138 
 
 Mid-day hearty meals 13-1 
 
 Milk 107 
 
 " adulterated 137 
 
 " cautions iu the use of 112 
 
 " choice of 108 
 
 " diet, a 107 
 
 " gruel for children Ill 
 
 " oatmeal Ill 
 
 " preparing cow's for babes Ill 
 
 " quantity 110 
 
 " skimmed 112 
 
 " sweetening 110 
 
 " temperature of 110 
 
 " various dilutions for various 
 
 ages 109 
 
 Minerals, amount of in the blood IS 
 
 " not stored in the body 19 
 
 Molded arrowroot 84 
 
 " barley . >-i 
 
 " cracked wheat 85 
 
 " farinacea 84 
 
 " sago 85 
 
 " sago and fruit 85 
 
 " tapioca 85 
 
 Muffins ^. 94 
 
 " bread *. 55 
 
 " corn 94 
 
 " Graham 55, 94 
 
 Muscular power, source of 28 
 
 Mush, cold, use for 89 
 
 " oatmeal 90 
 
 Notional people 138 
 
 Nuts, vvholesomeness of 142 
 
 Oatmeal and cocoanut cracknels 63 
 
 " and milk diet 131 
 
 " breakfast cakes 61 
 
 •' cakes 62 
 
 " " (Scotch way) 61 
 
 " cracknels 63 
 
 " drinks 140 
 
 " jelly 89 
 
 " milk Ill 
 
 " mush 90 
 
 puffs... 57 
 
 " to make relish 132 
 
 Omelet, baked 63 
 
 " the queen's 63 
 
 " sandwich 66 
 
 Oranges before breakfast 143 
 
 Order 44 
 
 Over-eating 123 
 
 Oysters 141 
 
 " composition of 141 
 
 " corn 68 
 
 " in summer 142 
 
 " raw 141 
 
 Pan Dowdy, apple 91 
 
 Peas, boiled 92 
 
 " dried green 69 
 
 " green 70 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Peas, green, wholesomeness of 148 
 
 " sweet 72, 148 
 
 Phosphoric acid and chlorine 17 
 
 Phosphorus and sulphur 17 
 
 Pies, general remarks 72 
 
 Pie, apple 74 
 
 " " cake 75 
 
 " " float 74 
 
 " puff 74 
 
 " cocoanut 75 
 
 " cranberry 76 
 
 " crust, cream and potato 73 
 
 •' " good 73 
 
 " " Mrs. Cox's 73 
 
 " " " Jones' 73 
 
 " for dyspeptics 77 
 
 " French 74 
 
 " lemon 75 
 
 " mock apple 74 
 
 " pumpkin and squash 75 
 
 " Quaker mince 90 
 
 " raspl)erry 76 
 
 " rice 76 
 
 " squash 76 
 
 " strawberry 76 
 
 " sweet apple 76 
 
 " sweet potato 76 
 
 " tomato 88 
 
 " turnover jam 75 
 
 Plum water 104 
 
 Pone, apple corn. 60 
 
 Pork eating 136 
 
 Porridge, arrowroot , 50 
 
 boiled wheat 50 
 
 " Indian farina 50 
 
 " Indian meal 50 
 
 " milk 51 
 
 " Norwegian 58 
 
 " sago 51 
 
 " wheat meal 50 
 
 Potassa and soda 17 
 
 Potatoes 66 
 
 baked 66 
 
 balls 6T 
 
 " for the sedentary 133 
 
 Irish, baked 94 
 
 " mashed 67 
 
 " salad 71 
 
 " soup 48 
 
 " sweet 73 
 
 " " dressing for 94 
 
 " " wholesomeness of.. .. 148 
 
 Practical dietetics 121 
 
 Preface. 3 
 
 Proteids, the 11 
 
 Pudding, apple and bread 80 
 
 •' apple and tapioca 80 
 
 " baked, with fruit 82 
 
 " barley 88 
 
 " batter 82 
 
 " bread 79 
 
 " cherry 80 
 
 " cottage 81 
 
 " Debuonico 81 
 
 " every-day 95 
 
 " fancy dish 95 
 
INDEX. 
 
 157 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pudding, Graham bird's nest 81 
 
 " " gem 80 
 
 " hygienic plum 90 
 
 " indiaii extra 81 
 
 " nice cheap 81 
 
 " poor man 8 80 
 
 " rice 19 
 
 " sago SO 
 
 " " bird's nest 81 
 
 " simple corn meal 82 
 
 " steamed Graham 80 
 
 •' tapioca custard 81 
 
 Puffs, Graham 57 
 
 " oatmeal . 57 
 
 Raisins, to cook 88 
 
 Raspberry drink 104 
 
 Raw mat erial 43 
 
 Reformers, dietetic 146 
 
 Repair, relations of food to 7 
 
 Rice and milk diet 131 
 
 " boiled 90 
 
 " cakes 94 
 
 " molded 85 
 
 Rolls, wheat meal 58 
 
 Rusk 88 
 
 Sago and fruit molded 85 
 
 " molded 85 
 
 Salad, potato 71 
 
 Salt, use of 20 
 
 Sandwich, cheese 65 
 
 egg 65 
 
 " fried egg 66 
 
 " gem and cheese..., 96 
 
 " omelet 60 
 
 School dietaries 125 
 
 Scrofula and fat 136 
 
 Seasons, food for different 121 
 
 Shellfish 141 
 
 Silica 17 
 
 Simplicity in eating 44 
 
 Soda and potassa 17 
 
 Soup 47 
 
 " barley 48 
 
 " barley and bread 48 
 
 " bean 48 
 
 " beef and tomato 49 
 
 " brown 48 
 
 " green pea 49 
 
 " ochra 94 
 
 " potato 48 
 
 " split pea 47 
 
 " tomato 49,89 
 
 " vermicelli 50 
 
 Spinach 72 
 
 Spring drink 101 
 
 Squash, steamed 67 
 
 Starchy food for babes 145 
 
 FAGO 
 
 Statistics, general 35 
 
 Stomachs, large 140 
 
 Strawberry drink 101 
 
 sherbet 106 
 
 " shortcake 83 
 
 Succotash 69 
 
 " winter 69 
 
 Sugar not objectionable 151 
 
 Sulphur and phosphorus 17 
 
 " " soda 17 
 
 Summer beverages 106 
 
 Sweet potatoes 72 
 
 Syrup, maple, how to make 91 
 
 Tamarind water 103 
 
 Tapioca, molded 85 
 
 Tea 
 
 .113 
 
 " analysis of. 113 
 
 " and dyspepsia 115 
 
 " and sick headache 114 
 
 " drunkards 115 
 
 " practical hints 114 
 
 " rhubarb 105 
 
 " to prepare 117 
 
 Teeth, the 144 
 
 Toast and cheese 65 
 
 " *' water 105 
 
 " cream 62 
 
 " egg 63 
 
 " onion 63 
 
 " water, apple 101 
 
 Tomato custard 88 
 
 " pie 88 
 
 soup 49,89 
 
 Tomatoes, boiled 67 
 
 " raw 67 
 
 " scolloped 68 
 
 " stewed 67 
 
 Turnips, nutriment in 142 
 
 Turnover jam pie 75 
 
 Variation of diet, daily 122 
 
 Vegetables, general remarks 66 
 
 Vermicelli soup 50 
 
 Waste, relations of food to 7 
 
 Water, distilled 100 
 
 •• filtered 101 
 
 " purity of. 100 
 
 Wheat, boiled 86 
 
 " crushed 92 
 
 Wheat-meal crisps 59 
 
 Why children eat so much 7 
 
 " do we eat 7 
 
 " great thinkers eat heartily 7 
 
 Wine for chiklren 137 
 
 Work and appetite 148 
 
 " diet ... 33 
 
A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS 
 
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 MORAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND PHYSICAL CULTURE , 
 
 Or, The Philosophy of True Living, 
 
 By Prof. F. Q. Wblch, Instructor of Gymnastics in Yale College. 
 
 This work is the most Complete Guide to Gymnastics ever published. 
 Parts in. and IV. comprise important thoughts on Moral and Intellectual Cul 
 tnre. It is beautifully printed and bound, and contains nearly 500 pages. 
 Price, }!2 ; postage extra, 24 cents. The following table of contents will giv« 
 an idea of the work : 
 
 Part I.— Thb Gymnasium.— 1. How to Baild a Gymnasium. 2. Ths 
 Gymnasium 3. Exercises with Parallel Bars. 4. Exercises on Horizonta; 
 Bar. 5. Exercises with Rings, Ladders, etc. 6. Exercises with Weights, Ropes, 
 etc. 7. Forty Weeks' Exercises. 8. The Home Gymnasium. 9. Training. 
 10. Indian Club Exercises. 
 
 Part II.— The Dio Lewis System op Gymnastics.— 1. Gymnastics. 
 3 The Dio Lewis System. 3. Shorthand. 4. Marches. 5. Percussion. 6. Mis- 
 cellaneous Exercises. 7. Music. 8. Address to Teachers. 9. Hints and Sug- 
 gestions to Teachers and Pupils. 
 
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 THE HEALTH HABITS OF YOUNG MEN. 
 
 By M. L. HOLBROOK, M.D., Editor of The Herald of Health. With an Intro- 
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SEXUAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 A SCIENTIFIC AND POPULAR EXPOSITION 
 
 or THE 
 
 FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS IN SOCIOLOGY 
 
 By R. T. TRALL, M.D 
 
 The great interest now being felt in all subjects relating to Haman Devel 
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 CAN NOT BE OVER-ESTIMATED. 
 
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 It if high-toned, and should be read by every family. With eighty fine en- 
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 SYNOPSIS OF TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I.— The Male Organs of Generation. 
 
 Chapter 11. — The Female Organs of Ocneration. 
 
 Chapter in.— The Origin of Life. '/ 
 
 Chapter IV.— Sexual Generation. 
 
 Chapter V.— The Physiology of Menstruation. 
 
 Chapter VI.— Impregnation. 
 
 Chapter VII.— Pregnancy. 
 
 Chapter Vin.— Embryology. 
 
 Chapter IX.— Parturition. 
 
 Chapter X.— Lactation. 
 
 Chapter XI.— The Law of Sex. 
 
 Chapter Xn.— Regulation of the Number of Offspring 
 
 Chapter Xm.— The Theory of Population. 
 
 Chapter XIV.— The Law of Sexual Intercourse. 
 
 Chapter XV.— Hereditary Transmission. 
 
 Chapter XVI.— Philosophy of Marriage. 
 
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A WINTER IN FLORIDA; 
 
 Or, Obseiraiioiis on Die Soil, Climaie, and Productions ol onr Semi-Troplca] Stale 
 
 With Sketches of the Principal Towns and Cities in Eastern Florida, 
 
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 By ledyard bill. 
 
 Ulnstrattd with Maps and beautiful Wood-cuts. 
 
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 following condensed table of contents gives a general view of the work : 
 
 What to Expect and IIow to Go ; Early History of Florida ; M iscellaueous Topics , 
 Up the St. Johns to Jacksonville ; Home of Harriet Beecher Stowe; The 
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 AlligJitor Shooting; The Old City of St. Aii^ustine ; Climate and its Eflect 
 on Invalids; Character and Kind of Soil ; The Orange, Lemon, and Lime; 
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 THE TREE OF LIFE; 
 
 Or, Human Degeneracy, its Nature and Remedy. 
 
 By Isaac Jennings, M.D. 
 
 Thb author of this book was for thirty years an Allopathic physician, bnt 
 becoming convinced that medicines did more harm than good, he sub6titut«d 
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THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN BEAUTY; 
 
 Or, Hints Toward Physical Perfection. 
 
 Showing how to Acquire and Retain Bodily Symmetry, Health, and Vigor, So. 
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 Bt D. H. JAQUES. 
 
 Motto.— TTie idea of Beauty of Person is synonynums with that of HmU'Ji 
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 LIST OF CHAPTERS. 
 
 I. Structure of the Human Body. 
 II. The Perfect Man and Woman, 
 in. The Temperaments. 
 rV. Embryology. 
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 NEW HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. 
 
 Bt Mrs. M. M. JONES, M.D. 
 
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Parturition Without Pain; 
 
 OR, 
 
 A Code of Directions for Avoiding most of tho 
 Pains and Dangers of Child- Bearing. 
 
 EDITED BY M. L. HOLBROOK, M.D., 
 
 SditoT of The Herald of HeaM, 
 
 "WITH A.TSr KSSA.'X' onsT 
 
 "The Car-e of Chiloheiv,'' 
 
 By Mrs. Clemence S. Lozier, M.D., 
 Dean of the J\''e)i>-'^'o7-k Medical College for yVomen, 
 
 C03SrTEia"TS. 
 
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 2. Dangers of Preventions. 
 
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 k. Preparation for Maternity. 
 
 5. Exercise during Pregnancy, 
 
 6. The Sitz Baih and Batliing generally. 
 
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 etc., etc. 
 
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Climates for Invalids, Etc, 
 
 BY LEDY^RD BILL, 
 
 Author o/"' A Winter in Florida.^'' 
 
 This work has been prepared with unusual care, and is designed for nearly 
 every class of invalids requiring a change of climate, and especially for those 
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 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Characteristics of Minnesota. 
 
 IHt-astiring on the Tipper Mississippi. 
 
 The City of St. I^aul, and other Towng. 
 
 Tfie Climate and its Character. 
 
 Climate continued. 
 
 Consumption. 
 
 Causes of Consutnption. 
 
 Hints to Invalids and others. 
 
 Where to Go and what to Expect. 
 
 Other Climates, California, Florida, Nassau, and Fayal. 
 
 12mo, PAGES 207. ILLUSTRATED. PRICE, $1.25 
 
 Published by WOOD & HOLBROOK, 
 
 15 Laight Street, New- York. 
 
Herald of Health 
 
 S2 A TEAR, WITH THE FOLLOWING PUEMIU3I : 
 
 THE HERALD OF HEALTH AND A COPY OF 
 
 THE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE, 
 
 In One Volume of 850 Pages. 
 
 It ia printed in new type on good paper; contains a Portrait, Sketch of his 
 Life, and a Glossary, together with his Poems, and is the most marvelous in- 
 stance of cheapness of which we liave any knowledge. 
 
 SPECIAL OFFER. 
 
 We will send The Herald op Health one year to any person, without a 
 premium, for $1.50, or half price ; or, in clubi<, we will send Ave copies for 11 
 each, without premiums. 
 
 NINE REASONS FOR TAKING IT. 
 
 1. It takes the broadest meaning of Health, and includes all that relates to 
 
 Moral, Intellectual, and Physical Culture. 
 
 2. It teaches Sick People how to become Strong, Healthy, and Handsome. 
 
 3. It teaches Well People how to keep their Bodies and Brains in the best 
 
 condition. 
 
 4. It teaches how to Eat, Drink, Sleep, Bathe, Dross, and all that relates to 
 
 the well being of the Human Race. 
 i». It teaches how to Hear Children, so that they shall be Strong and Beauti- 
 ful. Its articles are the best ever published on this subject. 
 
 6. It teaches the truest Temperance, temperance in all things, and is the best 
 
 Temperance advocate iu the world. Every body should read our " Tem- 
 perance Problems." 
 
 7. It teaches how to Prepare Food in the most healthful manner, and gives 
 
 every month a very valuable set of Recipes for Wholesome Cooking. 
 
 8. Its Contributors are among the Best Thinkers and Writers in America. No 
 
 journal of its kind pays Living Writers so much for their Best Thoughts 
 on Live Topics of every-day interest on Human Life. 
 
 9. The Best People like it; the Press speak well of it. "It contains," says 
 
 T/te Scientific Ameiiccm, more sensible ai-ticlea than any other magazine 
 that comes to our sanctum. 
 
 READ WHAT IS SAID BY THE PRESS. 
 
 The New-Yo)-k TrUmne says: "Asa 'preacher of righteousness' in the de- 
 partment of Phyiiical Culture, it enjoys the aid of numerous sound thinkers 
 and able writer.*." 
 
 The Christian ^Vorld says: "The Hekald op Health is unquestionably 
 one of the best magazines of the day. It is devoted to the better education of 
 morals and health." 
 
 The Standard says : " The Herald op Health is always a great pet in 
 our family, and is looked after with deep interest." 
 
 The New-Ym-k Evenimj Post says: " We can always commend this journal 
 without qualification." 
 
 A health magazine should be found in every household as ranch as a farm 
 or politicid paper. 
 
 WOOD & HOLBROOK, 
 
 15 LaigM Street, Netv-Yorh, 
 
1,