FoodNet

Elements of the theory and practice of cookery

1901

Page 130

Presented as published in 1901. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
464. Modified milk. — By diluting cow's milk with Avater to reduce the proportion of proteids, and adding cream and milk sugar, a compound similar to the baby's natural food is produced. There seem to be properties in the latter that cannot be produced by mixing one lot of milk with cream from another lot, and sugar prepared from a third. This modified milk is, nevertheless, the best food for bottle feeding. It is prepared according to exact recipes, or formulas, different formulas being used for babies of different ages. The following table ^ gives the three most commonly used. The first is intended for a baby from three to seven days old, the second for one between one and three months old, the third for one six to nine months old. Ingredients. QUANTITIES. 2 3 Milk 1| OZ. 2 oz. 8 oz. Cream 21 oz. 4 oz. 4 oz. Water 20 oz. 18 oz. 12 oz. Milk sugar . . . 1| oz. or 3 tb. 1^ oz. or 3 tb. 1| oz. or 3 tb. 1 These formulas are from The Diseases of Infancy and Childhood^ by L. Emmett Holt, M.D. SPECIAL DIETS 291 Usually lime-water or baking-soda is added. Each recipe makes about twenty-five ounces. As all babies, even of the same age, do not require exactly the same food, the physician usually directs its preparation. 465. Directions for preparing modified milk. — Dissolve the milk sugar in the water, which should be boiling hot. Filter this through cotton, add the milk and cream, and the lime-water or baking-soda. A measur- ing-glass on which the ounces are marked is used for measuring. Mix in a pitcher, and if the milk does not require heating, divide it into as many bottles as the baby has meals in a day. 466. Pasteurizing. — Most milk requires heating to render harmless the germs it contains. To sterilize it completely, it would have to be boiled for one hour and a half. But milk treated in this way does not agree with or nourish children as well as fresh milk. Pasteur- izing, a process named after the famous French bacteri- ologist, Pasteur, is preferable. Pasteurizing consists in keeping the milk for fifteen or twenty minutes at a temperature of 160° to 170° F. This kills all active bac- teria, and destroys the spores of tuberculosis (consump- tion), typhoid fever, diphtheria, cholera, and all fever- producing germs. Pasteurized milk may keep sweet and good for several days, but it is best to prepare every morning the quantity needed for the day. Home-made pasteurizers. — A convenient pasteurizing apparatus can be bought, but a large kettle, one dish- pan covered by another, or even a wash-boiler will do. 292 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY There must be some sort of a frame or rack to hold the bottles. A home-made pasteurizer is shown in the illus- tration (Plate XI, facing p. 254). This consists of a covered pail and a tin plate with holes cut in it to fit the bottles. The plate is placed bottom up on blocks in the pail. 467. Right and wrong sorts of bottles. — A feeding-bottle should have a rounded bottom and a rubber tip fitted to its neck. Cylindrical bot- tles holding eight ounces and having the ounces marked in the glass are best. If bottles with flat bottoms are used, there is Feeding-bottles, correct shapes ; bottle-cleaner. Improper style of feeding-bot- tle, showing tip collapsed.