A handbook of invalid cooking

BROILED FISH

Small fish, such as perch, scrod (young cod), etc., are excellent broiled. After the fish is cleaned, washed out, and wiped, split it lengthwise if it be thick, sprinkle on salt and pepper, squeeze over it some drops of lemon-juice, dip it in melted butter, and broil over clear coals, quickly at first and then very slowly, allowing ten minutes for each inch of thickness. Serve with butter cream.

To Make Butter Cream. Cream some butter in a cup or bowl, season it with salt, Cayenne pepper, lemon-juice, and vinegar. A teaspoon of butter is enough for an ordinary small fish such as a perch, and to season it a speck of cayenne, a speck of salt, and a teaspoon of vinegar and lemon-juice (half of each), will be good proportions. Spread it on the fish, and let it melt and run over it, or serve it separately in a little ball on a glass butter-plate. A nice addition to the butter is a little finely minced parsley, or chopped pickle, such as cucumbers or olives, or the three mixed, if they are at hand.

CREAMED FISH

To make creamed fish, any white fish which flakes easily may be used. Cusk, cod, and haddock are especially recommended. Cook the fish fifteen or twenty minutes by gentle boiling. Then remove the flesh carefully from the bones, letting it separate into flakes; season it with pepper and salt, and a few drops of lemon-juice sprinkled over. For every pint of prepared fish make a rich cream sauce with four tablespoons of butter, two of flour, and a pint of milk in which a small slice of onion has been boiled. Pour the sauce over the seasoned fish, rolling them together gently so that the flakes may not be broken, arrange on a platter, sprinkle the top with buttered crumbs, and bake in a hot oven from twenty minutes to half an hour. A speck of cayenne is a good addition to make to the sauce. This is a delicious and wholesome dish. The butter is so thoroughly incorporated with the flour of the sauce that it becomes one of the few very easily digested forms of cooked fat.

BOILED FISH

Select any white fish—fresh cod for instance. Prepare it according to the directions given for cleaning fish, put it into a wire vegetable-basket, drop the basket into a dish of boiling salted water, and let it simmer for from fifteen minutes to three quarters of an hour according to the size of the fish (a cod weighing three pounds will require cooking a half hour). Do not allow it to boil rapidly at any time, or it will break. When it is done lift it out of the basket and serve it at once with drawn butter made in the following manner:

Put two tablespoons of butter and one of flour into a saucepan; let them simmer together for two minutes (count the time); then add, a little at a time, a pint of boiling water or of chicken broth, stirring constantly. This will give a smooth cream-like sauce which will be enough for two pounds of fish. Season it with parsley, grated yolks of hard-boiled eggs, a few drops of lemon-juice, a bit each of cayenne and mustard, and a few drops of onion-juice.

CUSTARDS, CREAMS, PUDDINGS, AND BLANC-MANGE

SOFT CUSTARD

(BOILED)

Soft custard is a nutritious dish made of yolk of egg and milk. It is frequently used as a sauce for puddings, but is very good, eaten by itself, for one who is confined to light or liquid diet.

Put the milk into a saucepan, and set it on the stove to boil. Beat together the yolks of the eggs, the salt, and the sugar, in a bowl, and when the milk just reaches the boiling-point, pour it in slowly, stirring until all is mixed. Return it to the saucepan without delay, and cook for three minutes, meanwhile stirring it slowly. Carefully endeavor not to either overcook or undercook the custard, for if it is not cooked enough, it will have a raw, unpleasant, "eggy" taste, and if it is cooked too much, it will have the appearance of being curdled. If there is no unnecessary delay in pouring the milk into the egg so that not much of its heat is lost, and if it is returned immediately to the fire, three minutes' exposure to the heat will usually be long enough, but of course the time will vary according to the condition of the fire and the kind of pan used. When done, strain it at once into a cool dish, and flavor it with a teaspoon of vanilla. Soft custard may also be flavored with sherry wine, almond extract, cinnamon-bark, caramel, and nutmeg. It should be of a smooth and even consistency, and as thick as rich cream.

BAKED CUSTARD

(IN CUPS)

Put the cinnamon and milk together in a saucepan, and set on the stove to heat. Break the eggs into a bowl, add the salt and sugar, and beat them until well mixed, but not light. When the milk boils, pour it on the beaten egg, stir slowly for a minute to dissolve the sugar, and then strain it into custard-cups. Place the cups in a deep iron baking-pan, and pour boiling water around, until it reaches almost to their tops. Bake in a hot oven twenty minutes.

The blue baking-cups which are small at the bottom and widen toward the top are good ones to use. They bear the fire well, and are pretty enough to serve.

By baking the custards in a dish of boiling water, the temperature cannot rise higher than 212° Fahr., and there is less danger of hardening the albumen in the more exposed portions before the middle is cooked enough, than if water is not used. The top is sacrificed—somewhat overcooked—for the sake of the pretty brown color which they should always have. Custards, when done, should be of a perfectly smooth, even, velvety consistence throughout, not curdled or wheyey.

To test them after they have been cooking twenty minutes, dip a pointed knife into water, and plunge it into the middle of the custard. If it comes out clean, the custard is done; if milky, it is not cooked enough, and should be put into the oven for five minutes longer. Do not try every one unless the cups are of different sizes, and make a small, narrow slit, so that their appearance will not be too much injured. This mixture may also be baked in a pudding-dish. Baked custards may be flavored with a variety of substances, among the best of which are grated nutmeg, almond extract, vanilla, and caramel.

To Make Caramel. Boil together one cup of sugar and one third of a cup of water until the color is a rich reddish brown, then add one cup of water, and bottle for use. Two tablespoons of this syrup will be required to flavor a pint of custard.

FRENCH CUSTARD

Make a custard mixture according to the above rule, omitting the cinnamon. Put into the bottom of the custard-cups in which it is to be baked, a teaspoon of raspberry jam. Then with a tunnel pour the custard in slowly. Bake twenty minutes. The jam, if firm, will not mix with the custard. It imparts a nice flavor to the whole, and is an interesting dish to many, who wonder how the jam can be kept from dissolving.

RENNET CUSTARD OR SLIP

Put into a glass pudding-dish a pint of milk, a tablespoon of sugar, and a teaspoon of rennet. Stir to dissolve the sugar, cover it and place it on the stove-hearth, or any warm place, to heat sufficiently for the rennet to act upon the casein of the milk—that is, to about 98° Fahr. As soon as it is "set," or becomes solid, remove to a cool place, so that the separation of the casein shall not go too far and whey appear. When it is cool, serve it in glass dishes. Rennet custard may be flavored with nutmeg grated over the surface, or by stirring in with the rennet a teaspoon of vanilla, or of rose-water, or a tablespoon of wine. When brandy is added, it is called junket.

Liquid rennet is an extract of the inner lining of the stomach of the calf. It has the power of freeing the albuminous part of milk from its solution,—in other words, of coagulating it. Rennet custard is not of course strictly a custard; it is also called slip, and in Cape Cod it bears the graphic name of "Gap-and-swallow."

EGG CREAM

Separate the yolks of the eggs from the whites, and beat them with the sugar in a bowl until both are well mixed. Then put in the lemon-juice and rind, and place the bowl in a dish of boiling water on the fire. Stir slowly until the mixture begins to thicken; then add the beaten whites of the eggs and stir for two minutes, or until the whole resembles very thick cream; then remove it from the fire, pour into a small pudding-dish, and set it away to cool. Serve in small pretty china cups, or small glass dishes, for a mid-afternoon lunch or for tea.

VELVET CREAM

Soak the gelatine in the cold water in a bowl for half an hour; then pour in the wine, and set the bowl in a dish of boiling water on the fire. When the gelatine is dissolved, put in the lemon-juice and sugar, stir for a minute to dissolve the sugar, and then strain it through a fine wire strainer into a granite or other metal pan. Set the pan in a dish of ice and water to cool. As soon as it begins to thicken, or is about the consistency of molasses on a warm day, turn in the cream and stir regularly and constantly until it begins to thicken. Before it is quite as hard as it will become, turn it into a glass or pretty china dish, in which it may be served, and set it away in the refrigerator or back in the dish of ice and water until perfectly firm. Serve it in small glass or china dishes, with sweet cream poured over. This cream should be of a perfectly smooth, even consistency, hence the name "velvet cream."

COFFEE CREAM

Soak the gelatine in the cold water for half an hour. Then pour on the coffee, boiling hot, to dissolve it; add the sugar, stir until it is dissolved, and strain the liquid into a granite pan. Set it in iced water to cool; when it has become so, and is beginning to thicken, or is about the consistency of syrup or a little thinner, pour in the cream; stir regularly and evenly for about ten minutes, or until it is thick, but not hard; then turn it into a glass dish while it is still slightly soft, and it will settle into a smooth, even mass. It may be returned to the iced water, or put into a refrigerator, to stiffen.

Coffee cream is similar to velvet cream and the process is exactly the same for both. They are delicious creams, very nutritious, and to be recommended for their excellent nourishing properties and flavors.

To Make the Coffee. Mix two tablespoons of ground fresh Java, or Java and Mocha coffee mixed, with a little cold water and raw egg (either white or yolk) in a coffee-pot. Stir it to thoroughly mix the egg and coffee. Pour in a cup of boiling water, and set it to boil for five minutes. Then move the pot to a less hot part of the stove, where the coffee will barely simmer, for ten minutes, when it will be ready for use.

CHOCOLATE CREAM

Cook the sugar, chocolate, and cream (sweet cream or, if that cannot be had, rich milk) together in a double boiler until the chocolate is perfectly dissolved. It will require occasional stirring, and should be, when done, entirely free from specks or flakes of chocolate. Then stir in, pouring slowly, the well-beaten whites of the eggs while the cream is still on the stove. Cook for three minutes, or until the albumen is coagulated, but not hardened. It should look creamy and smooth, not curdled. Turn into a pudding-dish and cool.

TAPIOCA CREAM

After the tapioca is picked over and washed, put it into a double boiler with the cold water, and let it stand until the water is absorbed. Then pour in the pint of milk, and cook until each grain is transparent and soft. It will take an hour. At this point, beat the eggs, sugar, and salt together until very light, and pour them slowly into the hot pudding, at the same time stirring rapidly, so that the two will be perfectly mixed. After the egg is in, continue to stir for about three minutes, or long enough to cook the egg as it is done in soft custard. The pudding should have the appearance of cream, as the name indicates, with flecks of tapioca all through it. Turn it into a china dish. Serve either hot or cold.

RICE CREAM

Cleanse the rice by washing it several times in cold water; cook it in a double boiler with the milk until the grains will mash. Three hours will generally be required to do this. Should the milk evaporate, restore the amount lost. When the rice is perfectly soft, press it through a coarse soup-strainer or colander into a saucepan, return it to the fire, and while it is heating beat the eggs, sugar, and salt together until very light. When the rice boils, pour the egg in rather slowly, stirring lightly with a spoon for three or four minutes, or until it coagulates and the whole is like a thick, soft pudding; then remove from the fire, and pour it into a pretty dish. By omitting the yolks and using the whites of the eggs only, a delicate white cream is obtained.

PEACH FOAM

(DELICIOUS)

Peel and cut into small pieces three or four choice and very ripe peaches (White Heaths are good), so that when done there will be a cupful. Put them into a bowl, with half a cup of powdered sugar, and the white of one egg. Beat with a fork for half an hour, when it will be a thick, perfectly smooth, velvety cream, with a delightful peach flavor, and may be eaten ad libitum by an invalid.

SNOW PUDDING

For the sauce:

Divide a box of gelatine into fourths by notching one of the upright edges. Cut off one fourth of the box for a measure, which can afterward be used as a cover. When taking out a fourth, be sure to pack the measure as closely as it was packed in the box. Soak the gelatine in the cold water for half an hour. Then pour on the boiling water, add the sugar and lemon-juice, stir for a minute, and strain through a fine wire strainer into a granite pan; place the pan in iced water to cool. Meanwhile beat the eggs as light as possible, and as soon as the gelatine mixture begins to thicken, or is about as thick as honey, turn in the eggs, and stir slowly and regularly, with the back of the bowl of the spoon against the bottom of the pan, until the egg is mixed completely with the gelatine and the whole nearly stiff. Just before it becomes firm turn it into a melon-mold, and return it to the iced water to harden. It should be perfectly white, literally, like snow.

With the materials for the sauce make a soft custard, cool it, and serve with the pudding either in a pitcher, or poured around it in an ice-cream dish, or other shallow pudding-dish.

PRINCESS PUDDING

For the sauce:

The process is exactly the same as for snow pudding, and it is served in the same manner, with the soft custard for a sauce. Ordinary sherry wine may be used, although white sherry is better.

CORN-STARCH PUDDING

Put the milk on the stove to heat. Mix in a saucepan the corn-starch, sugar, and salt with the cold water, and when the milk has just begun to boil pour it in, slowly at first, stirring all the while. The corn-starch should become thick at once, when it may be poured into a clean double boiler and cooked thirty minutes. The time should be faithfully kept, as corn-starch is an unpalatable and indigestible substance unless thoroughly cooked. See to it that the water in the under boiler actually boils during the thirty minutes. At the end of that time beat one egg very light, and stir it in, pouring slowly, so that it may be mixed all through the hot pudding and puff it up. Then cook for one minute, turn it into a china pudding-dish, or into individual molds, and cool. Serve with cream.

Corn-starch pudding should have a tender consistency and a sweet and wholesome taste. The difficulty with many is that they are not thoroughly cooked, and are too stiff and hard when cool. When you find this to be the case, lessen the amount of corn-starch used. The proportion in this recipe may always be relied upon.

Other similar puddings may be made by substituting in the above recipe arrowroot, flour, or farina for the corn-starch.

BARLEY PUDDING

Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a saucepan with a little cold water. When smooth and free from lumps pour in the boiling water, slowly stirring meanwhile to keep it smooth; then set it on the fire to simmer for ten minutes, continuing the stirring until it is thick. To prevent burning, draw the pan to the side of the stove, unless the fire is very slow, for barley is a grain which sticks and burns easily. At the end of the ten minutes put in the milk, and strain all into a clean saucepan, through a coarse strainer, to make the consistency even. Beat the whites of the eggs until light but not stiff, and stir, not beat, them into the pudding, making it thoroughly smooth before returning it to the fire. Cook for five minutes, stirring and folding the pudding lightly until the egg is coagulated. Then pour it into a china pudding-dish. Serve cold with sweet cream. This is good for one who is just beginning to eat solid food.

CREAM-OF-RICE PUDDING

Put the milk, rice, sugar, and salt together in a pudding-dish, stir until the sugar is dissolved, then place the dish in a pan of water, and bake in a slow oven for three hours, cutting in the crust which forms on the top once during the time. Should the pudding become dry, pour over it a little more milk, but this will not happen unless the fire is too hot. When done it ought to be creamy inside, with the grains of rice almost dissolved in the milk. The long exposure to heat changes both the sugar and the starch, and gives them an agreeable flavor.

FRUIT TAPIOCA

Wash half a cup of tapioca, put it into a double boiler with a pint of water, and cook until the grains are soft and transparent. If granulated tapioca is used, one hour is sufficient time. Then add to it half a cup of grape or currant jelly, and mix until the jelly is dissolved; turn it into a pudding-dish. Serve cold, with sugar and cream. Any well-flavored fruit jelly may be used instead of the grape or currant.

TAPIOCA JELLY

Pick over and wash the tapioca. Put it into a double boiler with the water, and cook it for one hour, or until the grains are transparent and soft. Then add to it the sugar, juice and grated rind of the lemon, the sherry and the brandy, mixing them thoroughly. Press all through a wire strainer into a glass pudding-dish, and set it in a cool place to become a jelly. It should be served cold, and with cream.

ORANGE LAYERS

Peel the oranges, slice them in thin slices, and remove the seeds. Peel and slice the bananas. Arrange both in alternate layers in a glass dish. Make a syrup of the sugar and water by boiling them together, without stirring, for ten minutes; then add the wine, and remove at once from the fire; cool it, and pour it over the fruit. In half an hour it will be ready to serve.

It will not do to keep this dish long, as the fruit shrinks and loses its freshness. One fourth of an inch is the proper thickness for the slices of orange, and one sixth or one eighth for the bananas.

ORANGE BASKETS

From the end opposite the stem end of an orange cut out sections in such a way as to form a basket with a handle.

The body of the basket should be more than half the orange. With a knife and spoon cut and scrape out all the pulp from the inside. Fill the baskets with blocks of orange jelly, or with raspberries, strawberries, or other fruits. They are pleasing to children, and are pretty for luncheon or tea. The edges may be scalloped, and diamonds or rounds cut out of the sides, if one has time.

IRISH MOSS BLANC-MANGE

Irish moss, or carrageen, is a sea moss which grows abundantly along the shores of Europe and America. After gathering, it is dried and bleached in the sun, and then packed for market. It is exceedingly rich in an easily digested vegetable jelly, and is also valuable for food because of its mineral constituents.

To Prepare.

Soak the moss for half an hour in warm water, to soften it and to loosen the sand which is dried and entangled in it. Wash each piece separately under a stream of cold water. Its weight (that of the water) will carry down the sand. Then put the moss in a pudding-bag, and cook it in a double boiler in the quart of milk for one hour. At the end of that time lift out the bag, squeeze it a little, throw away the moss, and put the bag to soak in cold water. Add the sugar to the mixture, strain it into molds, and set in a cool place to harden. It will form a tender jelly-like pudding, which has an agreeable taste, resembling the odor of the sea, which many like. Serve it with cream, and with or without pink sugar.[40]

This blanc-mange may also be made without sugar if it is desirable to have an unsweetened dessert.

PINK BLANC-MANGE

Make a pudding according to the above rule. Color it, just before straining, with three or four drops of carmine, barely enough to give a delicate shell pink, for if it is very dark it is not attractive.

Carmine for use in cooking is made by mixing one ounce of No. 40 carmine (which may be obtained of a druggist) with three ounces of boiling water and one ounce of ammonia. It should be bottled, and will keep indefinitely. It is useful for coloring ice-cream, cake, and puddings.

SALADS

Salads are of two classes: the plain salads, consisting of green herbs or vegetables, such as lettuce, endive, water-cress, cucumber, etc., dressed or seasoned with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar, or oil and lemon-juice; and the so-called meat salads, which consist of one or more green vegetables, with an admixture of fish, lobster, crab, fowl, or game. A salad of whichever kind should be cool, delicate, and prepared by a gentle hand. Ordinary servants do not enough appreciate the "niceties" to make acceptable salads. The lettuce, cress, or whatever green is used, should be thoroughly washed, but not crushed, broken, or roughly handled, drained in a wire basket, dried in a napkin, and then torn with the fingers, not cut. Of course, cucumbers, beet-root, olives, etc., are exceptions.

The dressing for salads, whether simply oil and vinegar, or a mayonnaise, should be mixed with a wooden spoon, and an intelligent mind. As for the seasonings, the Spanish maxim which reads as follows is a good guide: "Be a miser with vinegar, a counselor with salt, and a spendthrift with oil." Let the oil be of the first quality of genuine olive-oil. In nearly all the large cities one may get fine oil by searching for it. Once found, there is no longer any difficulty, so long as the brand does not deteriorate.

To vary and flavor the salads of vegetables only, use the fine herbs when in season, for instance balm, mint, parsley, cress, and sorrel, chopped or minced, and scattered through the salad. Unless the vinegar is known to be pure cider or wine vinegar, use lemon-juice. Theodore Child says: "Lemon-juice is the most delicate and deliciously perfumed acid that nature has given the cook."

FRENCH DRESSING

French dressing is a mixture of fine olive-oil, vinegar or lemon-juice, or both, salt, Cayenne pepper, and onion-juice. The following proportions will make enough for one head of lettuce:

Mix all together well. This dressing may be used with lettuce, tomatoes, cold meat, potato salad, and to marinate chicken, lobster, and crab when they are to be used for salads.

MAYONNAISE DRESSING

These proportions may be multiplied or divided to make larger or smaller quantities. Put the first five ingredients together in a bowl, and mix them well; then add the oil one drop at a time, stirring constantly with a wooden paddle or spoon "round and round," not back and forth. After dropping and stirring for ten minutes, the mixture will become stiff and difficult to turn. At this point stir in a little of the vinegar or lemon-juice. Then drop in more oil, and stir until it again becomes stiff. Continue putting in oil and the acids until all are used, when you should have a thick, smooth cream which, when taken up on the end of the spoon, will keep its shape and not "run." It will take from twenty minutes to half an hour to make it. Last stir in the cream.

Should the dressing "break," or appear as if curdled, it may sometimes be restored to smoothness by beating with a Dover egg-beater, or by adding more egg and stirring for a while without adding oil. If these expedients fail, begin all over again, adding the spoiled dressing to a new one. However, a mayonnaise dressing will not go wrong except in the hands of a careless worker. The only points to be observed are to put the oil in slowly, and to stir constantly and rapidly. The sweet cream is a valuable addition, giving the mayonnaise a delicate, satisfying flavor.

LETTUCE SALAD

Prepare a head of lettuce by washing each leaf separately in a stream of water, tearing off any portion that is bruised or brown, and looking carefully for little green creatures that may be lodged in the creases; they are not easily seen. Then drain the lettuce on a fresh towel or napkin, for if the leaves are very wet the dressing will not cling to them. Next tear it to pieces with the fingers, rejecting the large part of the midrib, put it into a deep bowl, pour on a French dressing, and toss it with a wooden salad-spoon and fork until all the lettuce seems oiled. Serve immediately.

Mayonnaise dressing may be used instead of the French dressing in this salad.

TOMATO SALAD

Wash in cold water and wipe some fair, ripe tomatoes. Cut them in slices one third of an inch thick. Do not peel them. Arrange some clean white lettuce leaves on a silver or china platter, with two large leaves at either end, their stems toward the middle, and two small ones at the sides. Lay on them the slices of tomato, with their edges overlapping each other. Serve with this salad French dressing.

CHICKEN SALAD

Prepare a nice chicken (one not too young) by boiling it until tender. Then set it away in its own broth to cool. (It is a good plan to boil the chicken the day before it is intended for use.) Meanwhile make a mayonnaise dressing. When the chicken has become cold, take it from the broth, and cut it as nearly as possible into half-inch cubes, rejecting all skin, tendons, cords, and bones. Season it with salt and pepper. Tear into small pieces with the fingers some tender, well-cleaned lettuce, and then mix equal quantities of chicken and lettuce with a part of the dressing; arrange it in a shallow salad-bowl, and spread the remainder of the mayonnaise over the top. The yolk of egg hard-boiled and pressed through a wire strainer with the back of a spoon, so that it falls in little crinkled pieces all over the top, makes a pretty garnish. Celery tops, the tiny inside leaves of lettuce, and parsley may be used singly or together for a border.

Chicken salad is usually made with celery instead of lettuce, but the latter is better for an invalid, although tender, delicate celery may be used. Serve a very small quantity, for chicken salad is a concentrated food, and should not be eaten in large amounts by either the convalescent or the well. The chicken, lettuce, and dressing may all be prepared beforehand, but on no account should they be mixed together until just before serving.

POTATO SALAD

For this salad fresh boiled potatoes, red sugar-beets, and French dressing are needed. The potatoes and beets should be cooked in salted water purposely for the salad, and allowed to become just cool. Cold potatoes left over from the last meal may be used, but they are not nice. When the potatoes are cool, cut them into thin slices, season with a little more salt and a bit of white pepper; cut the beets also in thin slices, and mix the two in the proportions of one third beets to two thirds potatoes, with the dressing, or arrange them in alternate layers in a salad-bowl, with the dressing poured over each layer as it is made.

A more dainty way, and one which a person of cultivated taste will appreciate (as it really makes a perceptible difference in the flavor of the salad), is to mix the lemon-juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper together without the oil, and pour it over the different layers as they are laid, and then add the oil by itself. The acids penetrate and season the vegetables, and the oil is left on the outside of each piece.

POTATO SALAD WITH OLIVES

Make a potato salad according to the foregoing rule, except substitute chopped olives for the beets, in the proportion of one eighth olives by measure to seven eighths potato.

CELERY SALAD

"One of the finest salads to be eaten, either alone or with game, especially partridges or wild duck, is a mixture of celery, beet-root, and corn-salad. Water-cresses will make a poor substitute when broken into small tufts.

"The beets are cut into slices one sixteenth of an inch thick; the celery, which must be young and tender and thoroughly white, should be cut into pieces an inch long, and then sliced lengthwise into two or three pieces. (N. B.—Select only the tender inside branches of celery.) This salad will require plenty of oil, and more acid than a lettuce salad, because of the sweetness and absorbent nature of the beet-root. The general seasoning, too, must be rather high, because the flavors of the celery and the beet are pronounced." ("Delicate Feasting," by Theodore Child.)

There are many kinds of salads, but they are all based upon the principles stated in these rules. Green herbs or vegetables treated with French or mayonnaise dressing, either by themselves or with meats, form the foundations of all salads.

ICE-CREAM, SHERBETS, AND ICES

For patients suffering with fevers, and for use in very warm weather, good ice-cream and sherbet are most acceptable. They should, however, be used with great care, particularly if the illness be due to disturbance of digestion, for they lower the temperature of the stomach and often cause such disorders as lead to severe illness. Even if this does not happen, they, in order to be raised to a temperature at which digestion will take place, absorb heat from the body, and a person reduced by illness cannot afford to needlessly part with any form of energy.

Sherbet in its literal sense means a cool drink. It is of oriental origin, but in this country it has come to mean a frozen mixture of fruit, or fruit-juice, water and sugar. There is a distinction made, however, between water-ice and sherbet. Sherbet has, in addition to the fruit-juice and water, either sugar-syrup, white of egg, or gelatine, to give it sufficient viscousness to entangle and hold air when beaten in a freezer, so that sherbets (unless colored by the fruit used) will be white and opaque like snow. Water-ices, on the contrary, are made without the white of egg, syrup, or gelatine, do not entangle air, and are translucent and what might be called "watery." Both are delicious when made with fresh, ripe fruit, and both may be enriched by the addition of sweet cream if desired.

Freezers. Of the various kinds of freezers perhaps the "Improved White Mountain Freezer" is, everything considered, as good as any. It is strong and freezes quickly when the salt and ice are properly proportioned.

It is well to study the gearing before attempting to use a freezer. The different parts should be taken apart and put together until it is understood how the machine works. See that the paddles in the can do not interfere with each other, and that the crank turns easily. Then put all together again, fasten down the crank-bar across the top of the can, and have everything in readiness before packing the freezer with salt and ice. The object in using the salt is to get a greater degree of cold than could be obtained with the ice alone. The affinity of salt for water is very great—so great, that it will break down the structure of ice in its eagerness for it. Heat is involved in this process of melting, and will be drawn from surrounding objects, from the can, the bucket, the cream, and even the ice itself. The more rapid the union of salt and ice, the more heat is absorbed, consequently the greater is the degree of cold and the quicker the mixture to be frozen will become solid.

Water is converted into steam by a certain amount of heat. Ice is transformed into water by the same agency, and in the case of the ice-cream freezer heat is drawn from whatever comes in contact with the ice that is warmer than itself. If the melting of the ice can be hastened in any way, the abstraction of heat will be correspondingly greater; hence the use of salt, which is so eager for water that it takes it even in the form of ice. Now it will be easily seen that if the ice is in small pieces, and there is the proper amount of salt for each piece, union between the two will be immediate, the amount of heat used will be very great, consequently the degree of cold will be great. Cold is only a less degree of heat.

Ordinary liquid mixtures that contain a large percentage of water become solid when reduced to a temperature of 32° Fahr.

To Pack an Ice-Cream Freezer. Break a quantity of ice into small pieces by pounding it in an ice-bag (a bag made of canvas or very strong cloth) with a wooden mallet. The ice should be about as fine as small rock-salt. Put into the bucket, around the tin can which is to hold the cream, alternate layers of the pounded ice and salt in the proportions of two thirds ice to one third salt (a quart cup may be used for measuring). Should it happen that you have "coarse-fine" salt, put all the ice into the freezer first, and then the salt on top of it, as it will quickly work down to the bottom. When the packing is complete unfasten the cross-bar and lift off the cover of the can carefully, so that no salt shall get inside; then put in the mixture to be frozen, replace the cover, and fasten the bar. Let it stand till the mixture is thoroughly chilled, then turn steadily but not very fast for about ten minutes, or until the turning becomes difficult; that is an indication that the contents of the can are freezing. Continue turning for a few minutes longer, to give the cream a fine and even consistency; then take out the paddle, drain off the water through the hole in the side of the bucket, fill in all about the can with coarse ice, and cover it with a thick wet cloth or towel. Let it stand for half an hour to become firm, when it is ready to serve. If it is desirable to keep the ice-cream for a length of time, it may be done by packing the freezer closely with ice and salt, and covering it with wet cloths. Or, the ice-cream may be taken from the can, packed in molds of fanciful shapes, sealed at the edges with melted tallow, and repacked in ice and salt.

PHILADELPHIA ICE-CREAM

The so-called Philadelphia ice-cream is pure, sweet cream, sweetened with sugar, and flavored. For a small quantity use the following:

Mix and freeze. The whites of two eggs beaten stiff is a valuable addition to this cream.

ROYAL ICE-CREAM

Heat the milk until it boils; meanwhile mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a little cold water, and when the milk reaches the boiling-point pour it in; stir it for a minute over the fire in a saucepan, and then turn it into a double boiler and cook it for twenty minutes. At the end of this time beat the eggs very light, and pour them into the boiling mixture slowly, stirring it rapidly; continue stirring, after all the egg is in, for from one to two minutes; then strain the mixture into a dish and set it aside to cool. Last, add the cream and flavorings, and freeze. This makes a rich and delicious cream. It may be colored with carmine a pretty pink, or with spinach a delicate green.

ICE-CREAM WITH AN IMPROVISED FREEZER

Make the Philadelphia ice-cream mixture, or half of it, dividing each ingredient exactly. Put it into a small tin can (the Dutch cocoa-cans are convenient) with a closely fitting cover. Place it in the middle of a deep dish, and surround it with alternate layers of ice and salt, in the same manner as for ordinary freezing, and cover it closely; then lay wet cloths on the top and set it in a cool place. It will become solid in from one to two hours, according to the amount of mixture to be frozen. It is well to cut in the thick layer on the sides of the can once or twice during the freezing. If the cream which you have to use is thick enough to whip, do so; the result, when frozen, will be a very dainty dish.

This is a convenient way of making a little ice-cream for one person.

FROZEN CUSTARD