Like a calm sea to the tempest-tost, like a draught of water after parching thirst, like a bed of down to the wearied traveller, do these sweet hours of con- valescence follow after those weary ones of watching, when hope deferred made the heart sick — 182 FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 183 “ Oh ! these were hours, when thrilling joy repaid A long, long course of darkness, doubts, and fears.” What pleasure, too, to watch the patient take his first cup of beef-tea or his first chop with evident en- joyment, and to see the faint tinge of colour return to the pale cheeks, foretelhng of returning health and strength, as surely as the first blush of dawn upon the eastern mountain-tops foretells the coming day ! Again, too, the refreshment taken, the first long sound sleep, nature’s great restorer, how different to watch now, from when the restless patient tossed and turned and muttered, and seemed to suffer more than when awake ! There is something very beautiful in a calm and tranquil sleep — “ An infant when it gazes on the light, A child the moment when it drains the breast, ****** Feel rapture, but not such true joy are reaping As they who watch o’er what they love while sleeping. “ For there it lies, so tranquil, so beloved. All that it hath of life with us is living. So gentle, stirless, helpless, and unmoved. And all xmconscious of the joy ’tis giving.” But let us leave the convalescent chamber with the watcher and the watched, and descend to the kitchen, and see what we there can do to help on the recovery so happily going on above. First let us take that probably most valuable of all invalids preparations — viz. beef-tea. The quickest and best method of preparing good beef-tea is as follows : Take a pound of good lean gravy-beef, cut it up into little pieces, pour over them a pint of cold water, and add a little salt✪ Beef Tea. Then take a fork and squeeze these pieces in every direction, in order, as much as possible, to extract the juices out of the pieces of meat. Next place it all — i.e. water and meat — in an enamelled saucepan, and place it by the side of the fire, not on the i84 practical HOME COOKERY. fire, and gradually heat it, taking the greatest care that it does not boil. Having continued this process for about an hour and a half or two hours, during the last half-hour keeping the beef-tea hot without boiling, strain the whole off through a strainer, pressing the meat again with a spoon, so as to squeeze as much as possible all the goodness out of it. Then remove all the fat. This can be done by care- fully skimming it, or, if time will allow, by letting it get cold, when the fat will harden on the top. Now, to my mind, good beef-tea is one of the nicest things we can take when ill, but sick persons often tire of it, and loathe it. When this is the case, very often by adding a little sherry, and allowing it to get cold — when, if properly made, it will be a jelly — patients will take it in this form when they could not in the liquid state. Veal broth and mutton broth are made on exactly the same principles as beef -tea, of course substituting either veal or mutton for the beef, and taking equal care to remove all the fat, and not to let the liquor boil.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Like a calm sea to the tempest-tost, like a draught of water after parching thirst, like a bed of down to the wearied traveller, do these sweet hours of convalescence follow after those weary ones of watching, when hope deferred made the heart sick — “ Oh ! these were hours, when thrilling joy repaid A long, long course of darkness, doubts, and fears.” What pleasure, too, to watch the patient take his first cup of beef-tea or his first chop with evident enjoyment, and to see the faint tinge of colour return to the pale cheeks, foretelling of returning health and strength, as surely as the first blush of dawn upon the eastern mountain-tops foretells the coming day ! Again, too, the refreshment taken, the first long sound sleep, nature’s great restorer, how different to watch now, from when the restless patient tossed and turned and muttered, and seemed to suffer more than when awake ! There is something very beautiful in a calm and tranquil sleep — “ An infant when it gazes on the light, A child the moment when it drains the breast, ****** Feel rapture, but not such true joy are reaping As they who watch o’er what they love while sleeping. “ For there it lies, so tranquil, so beloved. All that it hath of life with us is living. So gentle, stirless, helpless, and unmoved. And all unconscious of the joy 'tis giving." But let us leave the convalescent chamber with the watcher and the watched, and descend to the kitchen, and see what we there can do to help on the recovery so happily going on above. First let us take that probably most valuable of all invalids preparations — viz. beef-tea. The quickest and best method of preparing good beef-tea is as follows : Take a pound of good lean gravy-beef, cut it up into little pieces, pour over them a pint of cold water, and add a little salt. Then take a fork and squeeze these pieces in every direction, in order, as much as possible, to extract the juices out of the pieces of meat. Next place it all — i.e. water and meat — in an enamelled saucepan, and place it by the side of the fire, not on the 184 PRACTICAL HOME COOKERY. fire, and gradually heat it, taking the greatest care that it does not boil. Having continued this process for about an hour and a half or two hours, during the last half-hour keeping the beef-tea hot without boiling, strain the whole off through a strainer, pressing the meat again with a spoon, so as to squeeze as much as possible all the goodness out of it. Then remove all the fat. This can be done by carefully skimming it, or, if time will allow, by letting it get cold, when the fat will harden on the top. Now, to my mind, good beef-tea is one of the nicest things we can take when ill, but sick persons often tire of it, and loathe it. When this is the case, very often by adding a little sherry, and allowing it to get cold — when, if properly made, it will be a jelly — patients will take it in this form when they could not in the liquid state. Veal broth and mutton broth are made on exactly the same principles as beef -tea, of course substituting either veal or mutton for the beef, and taking equal care to remove all the fat, and not to let the liquor boil.

Records on this page

Beef TeaBeef TeaVeal or Mutton BrothMince for Invalids

Practical home cookery