Infant’s Food. — I am tempted to publish this recipe because I have known it to suit babies of a few weeks old who were actually dying of starvation because they could digest nothing. In a day or two they began to revive, and in a few weeks they were nearly strong. Later they were perfectly strong, fat, and healthy. The food is troublesome to make, and must be made INFANT’S FOOD 445 fresh every day, but who, in such cases, would grudge any amount of trouble ? Take one pint and a half of skimmed milk, and scald it. Then add a piece of cured rennet (or bagskin) about an inch square to the milk, and set it aside to curdle. Heat the milk again, and strain it through a sieve. Add to it one pint of new milk, and six lumps of sugar✪ Hen's Milk. This is the baby’s food for the day. Essence of Rennet does not answer for this food. To prepare the Rennet take out the stomach of a calf just killed, and scour it well with salt and water both inside and out. Let it drain. Then put two large handfuls of salt into it, and sew it up. Dry it, and soak a bit in fresh water when wanted for use. Food fop a Child from Six Weeks Old, when the Digestion is Delicate and the Brain too Active. — One teacupful of well-washed pearl barley thoroughly boiled in a pint and a half of water, wdth one teaspoonful of carraway seeds. Strain, and give in the bottle every three hours. As the child gets older, boil the barley longer, so as to make the food as thick as liquid jelly. At eight months old cook some Robb’s biscuits with the barley. When the child is ten months old begin spoon- food — that is, bread and milk, and a little beef tea. For young children subject to sleeplessness and brain irrita- tion, no food is better than this. This recipe and the former one have commended themselves to me from personal knowledge of their efficacy. 446 CHAPTER XVI. ENGLISH AND FRENCH COOKERY. The first Earl of Dudley, who died in 1833, was one of the most celebrated gourmets of his day. He declared with truth that a good soup, a small turbot, a neck of venison, ducklings with green peas or chicken with asparagus, and a green apricot tart, was a dinner for an emperor, and that such a dinner could only be served in England. It is much to be regretted that in these days dinners of simple, wholesome excellence, such as Lord Dudley’s, have too often given place to a number of “messy attempts to keep pace with foreign cookery,” and to an unfor- tunate habit, not only of gaudy colouring of entrees, but of trying to make things look what they are not. To this class belong horse- shoe shapes of creme-de-volaille studded with truffles to imitate nails; shapes like playing-cards with the “pips” imitated in tongue or truffles ; royal initials and laurel wreaths carried out in morsels of chervil ; and, worst of all, moulds to represent birds or animals, for which one well-known cookery book suggests glass eyes as a great improvement. In sweet cookery yellow and pink colouring may be allowed, but i^ everything to do with meat brown and white are the only colours which should be seen, with the addition of ham or tongue, and the green of vegetable. Coloured patterns traced on meat by forcing-pipes are absurd as well as vulgar, and they do not tend to make an appetising dish. It is curious that this fashion of colouring food seems to repeat itself at intervals.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Infant’s Food. — I am tempted to publish this recipe because I have known it to suit babies of a few weeks old who were actually dying of starvation because they could digest nothing. In a day or two they began to revive, and in a few weeks they were nearly strong. Later they were perfectly strong, fat, and healthy. The food is troublesome to make, and must be made INFANT’S FOOD 445 fresh every day, but who, in such cases, would grudge any amount of trouble ? Take one pint and a half of skimmed milk, and scald it. Then add a piece of cured rennet (or bagskin) about an inch square to the milk, and set it aside to curdle. Heat the milk again, and strain it through a sieve. Add to it one pint of new milk, and six lumps of sugar. This is the baby’s food for the day. Essence of Rennet does not answer for this food. To prepare the Rennet take out the stomach of a calf just killed, and scour it well with salt and water both inside and out. Let it drain. Then put two large handfuls of salt into it, and sew it up. Dry it, and soak a bit in fresh water when wanted for use. Food for a Child from Six Weeks Old, when the Digestion is Delicate and the Brain too Active. — One teacupful of well-washed pearl barley thoroughly boiled in a pint and a half of water, with one teaspoonful of carraway seeds. Strain, and give in the bottle every three hours. As the child gets older, boil the barley longer, so as to make the food as thick as liquid jelly. At eight months old cook some Robb’s biscuits with the barley. When the child is ten months old begin spoonfood — that is, bread and milk, and a little beef tea. For young children subject to sleeplessness and brain irritation, no food is better than this. This recipe and the former one have commended themselves to me from personal knowledge of their efficacy. CHAPTER XVI. The first Earl of Dudley, who died in 1833, was one of the most celebrated gourmets of his day. He declared with truth that a good soup, a small turbot, a neck of venison, ducklings with green peas or chicken with asparagus, and a green apricot tart, was a dinner for an emperor, and that such a dinner could only be served in England. It is much to be regretted that in these days dinners of simple, wholesome excellence, such as Lord Dudley’s, have too often given place to a number of “messy attempts to keep pace with foreign cookery,” and to an unfortunate habit, not only of gaudy colouring of entrees, but of trying to make things look what they are not. To this class belong horse- shoe shapes of creme-de-volaille studded with truffles to imitate nails; shapes like playing-cards with the “pips” imitated in tongue or truffles ; royal initials and laurel wreaths carried out in morsels of chervil ; and, worst of all, moulds to represent birds or animals, for which one well-known cookery book suggests glass eyes as a great improvement. In sweet cookery yellow and pink colouring may be allowed, but i^ everything to do with meat brown and white are the only colours which should be seen, with the addition of ham or tongue, and the green of vegetable. Coloured patterns traced on meat by forcing-pipes are absurd as well as vulgar, and they do not tend to make an appetising dish. It is curious that this fashion of colouring food seems to repeat itself at intervals.

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Hen's MilkInfant's Food

Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book