Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

Mix with cold water, spread thinly on a piece of old linen, and cover the side to be applied to the patient with fine washed muslin, folding the edges of the linen over the plaster all round ; warm on a heated tin plate before applying. For Sore Throat — a Gargle. — The leaves of ghokum or “ Hottentot fig ” (mesembryanthemum) bruised and strained, are excellent as a gargle. Two tablespoonfuls of the juice and a tablespoonful of honey make an excellent gargle for an ordinary ulcerated sore throat. The juice also has most cleansing and healing properties for dressing old wounds. This plant has a yellow flower. INVALID COOKERY. See “ Sheep’s Brains,” p. 69, and “ Baked Orange,” p. 141. A Special Restorative.— Put 6 fresh eggs, with clean shells, whole mto a jar, earthen or glass, with air-tight lid or screwstopper. Fill up to the brim with fresh lemon-juice, or cover the eggs with the juice; leave for six or seven days till the shells are dissolved by the action of the citric acid in the lemon. Now take a steel fork and prick the inner white fleece covering the egg ; stir all well together. Add to the eggs and lemon i pint of rum and \ lb. finest castor-sugar, stir all well, strain through a fine strainer, and put into a jar. This will keep for five or six days. It is useful to give to a patient in the last stages of consumption, or any one suffering from extreme exhaustion — every two hours a tablespoonful. Beef Tea. — Take i lb. lean gravy-beef and mince it. Put into a salt-jar with a pint of water; cover it with the close-fitting lid, put the jar in a saucepan of water in the stove-oven for three or four hours ; strain the liquid and squeeze the meat through a strainer. You ought to have two cupfuls of good beef tea from this quantity. To make apparent variety in beef tea Miss Tarleton says you may, just before taking it to the invalid, cut a slice off the breast of a good roast chicken, nice and brown, skin INVALID COOKERY App. and all ; pop it in and let it simmer ten minutes, and strain out before serving, and remove any grease, which is easily done with a clean piece of kitchen paper laid on the top and at once withdrawn, which brings away any grease with it. This gives the pleasant variety of chicken flavour •and yet the strength of beef tea. A slice of game can be used the same way, and you can then call it “ game soup,” which sounds more interesting ! Of course one should consult the doctor, but it has been allowed even in typhoid, when the long weeks of slops are very wearisome indeed to the patient. Pigeon Soup, for Invalids (German). — 1 pigeon, lb. veal. 2 quarts of cold-water. Boil this down to a good broth very slowly till reduced to less than half, strain and let it get cold, remove all the fat. Boil it up when required, and thicken with a little sago, or a teaspoonful of maizena rubbed in butter ; add salt and pepper to taste. Invalid’s Pudding. — 2 cups of milk. 2 eggs. 2 tablespoonfuls of maizena or flour. 2 teaspoonfuls of sugar. A pat of butter. A pinch of salt. Vanilla essence or lemon essence. Set the milk to boil in a nice clean enamelled saucepan; meantime rub flour, sugar, butter, salt, and the yolks of the eggs to a smooth paste with a spoonful of cold water, and when the milk is boiling, stir this paste into the App. INVALID COOKERY