Practical Demonstration — Steamed fish in white wine ; sweetbreads ; savoury jelly ; scalloped oysters. The first demonstration might be preceded by a short lecture on the serving of food, the times about which it should be given, and showing various designs for feeding-cups, arrangements for keeping food fresh, and cool or hot. With regard to the latter, a very good cooler, where it is difficult to obtain ice, may be made by using the flannelette-covered butter coolers sold so often in the cheap shops ; also by using the more expensive terra-cotta butter coolers. DIET IN DISEASES 79 In the making of beef tea for invalids the use of a jam jar standing in a pan of boiling water may be demonstrated, as well as the more elaborate double saucepan. The sterilizing of milk may be shown in ordinary bottles if they are packed over with straw. In giving such lectures as these care must be taken not to be too scientific. This ‘ kitchen physic,’ and the preparation of it in an appetizing way, cannot be too carefully advocated. The nurses will probably have a back- ground of the knowledge of foodstuffs, and why such foods are good, and the cookery teacher must be the one to improve their technical skill rather than to cram her lectures with half-understood science and one-sided theories. ’ I give the recipes for the dishes for demonstration at the end of this chapter, for the convenience of teachers who wish to prepare a similar course (see p. 85). I have not mentioned the methods for preparing the patent foods, as these are generally amply explained by the makers. Lecture I. Diet in Fevers ‘ Feed a cold and starve a fever ’ was the old practice, but now there is quite as much evidence in favour of the feeding the fever as against it. But, at the same time, it must be remembered that all the organs of the body are enfeebled in severe illness, and it is wrong to put any extra strain on them. The strength must be well maintained by non-irritating foods which shall be quickly assimilated. Milk with cereal preparations, and milk and barley 8o INSTRUCTION IN COOKERY water ; milk thickened with rice, but the rice strained away afterwards; Benger’s Food is generally enjoyed. There is often terrible thirst, and this can better be assuaged by slightly acidulated drinks, such as barley water, apple water, and lemonade. Milk and soda may be given freely, but the milk should be sterilized, and very little soda put into it. A siphon is the best thing to use, as more gas is thus forced into the milk, and this divides the particles of milk, and makes them more digestible. Beef tea made with milk is nourishing, and forms a pleasant change, and Bovril also may be made with milk. Lemon and wine jellies, though they do not contain much real nourishment, are pleasant and cooling to the dry throat and tongue of a fever patient. Albumin water is also a very easy way of giving proteid food when the body is greatly debilitated. After an introduction as the above the dishes should be clearly and carefully demonstrated, and variations indicated, such as the substitution of orange for lemon jellies, in which case it will not be necessary to use the whites of eggs, as orange juice cannot be cleared.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Practical Demonstration — Steamed fish in white wine ; sweetbreads ; savoury jelly ; scalloped oysters. The first demonstration might be preceded by a short lecture on the serving of food, the times about which it should be given, and showing various designs for feeding-cups, arrangements for keeping food fresh, and cool or hot. With regard to the latter, a very good cooler, where it is difficult to obtain ice, may be made by using the flannelette-covered butter coolers sold so often in the cheap shops ; also by using the more expensive terra-cotta butter coolers. In the making of beef tea for invalids the use of a jam jar standing in a pan of boiling water may be demonstrated, as well as the more elaborate double saucepan. The sterilizing of milk may be shown in ordinary bottles if they are packed over with straw. In giving such lectures as these care must be taken not to be too scientific. This ‘ kitchen physic,’ and the preparation of it in an appetizing way, cannot be too carefully advocated. The nurses will probably have a background of the knowledge of foodstuffs, and why such foods are good, and the cookery teacher must be the one to improve their technical skill rather than to cram her lectures with half-understood science and one-sided theories. ’ I give the recipes for the dishes for demonstration at the end of this chapter, for the convenience of teachers who wish to prepare a similar course (see p. 85). I have not mentioned the methods for preparing the patent foods, as these are generally amply explained by the makers. Lecture I. Diet in Fevers ‘ Feed a cold and starve a fever ’ was the old practice, but now there is quite as much evidence in favour of the feeding the fever as against it. But, at the same time, it must be remembered that all the organs of the body are enfeebled in severe illness, and it is wrong to put any extra strain on them. The strength must be well maintained by non-irritating foods which shall be quickly assimilated. Milk with cereal preparations, and milk and barley 8o water ; milk thickened with rice, but the rice strained away afterwards; Benger’s Food is generally enjoyed. There is often terrible thirst, and this can better be assuaged by slightly acidulated drinks, such as barley water, apple water, and lemonade. Milk and soda may be given freely, but the milk should be sterilized, and very little soda put into it. A siphon is the best thing to use, as more gas is thus forced into the milk, and this divides the particles of milk, and makes them more digestible. Beef tea made with milk is nourishing, and forms a pleasant change, and Bovril also may be made with milk. Lemon and wine jellies, though they do not contain much real nourishment, are pleasant and cooling to the dry throat and tongue of a fever patient. Albumin water is also a very easy way of giving proteid food when the body is greatly debilitated. After an introduction as the above the dishes should be clearly and carefully demonstrated, and variations indicated, such as the substitution of orange for lemon jellies, in which case it will not be necessary to use the whites of eggs, as orange juice cannot be cleared.

Instruction in cookery (Methuen's text-books, Thompson)