The Jewish Manual/Chapter X
CHAPTER X.
Receipts for Invalids.
Cut one pound of fleshy beef in dice, or thin slices, simmer for a short time without water, to extract the juices, then add, by degrees, one quart of water, a little salt, a piece of lemon peel, and a sprig of parsley, are the only necessary seasonings; if the broth is required to be stronger put less water.
Boil a chicken till rather more than half done in a quart of water, take of the skin, cut off the white parts when cold, and pound it to a paste in a mortar, with a small quantity of the liquor it was boiled in, season with salt, a little nutmeg, and the least piece of lemon peel; boil it gently, and make it with the liquor in which the fowl has been boiled of the required consistency. It should be rather thicker than cream.
After the white parts have been removed for the panada, return the rest of the chicken to the saucepan, with the liquid, add one blade of mace, one slice only of onion, a little salt, and a piece of lemon peel; carefully remove every particle of fat. Vermicelli is very well adapted for this broth.
There are various kinds of simple restorative jellies suited to an invalid, among the best are the following:—
Boil half a pound of hartshorn shavings in two quarts of water over a gentle fire until it becomes thick enough to hang about a spoon, then strain it into a dean saucepan and add half a pint of sherry wine, and a quarter of a pound of white sugar, clear it by stirring in the whites of a couple of eggs, whisked to a froth; boil it for about four or five minutes, add the juice of three lemons, and stir all together, when it is well curdled, strain it and pour into the mould, if the color is required to be deeper than the wine will make it, a little saffron may be boiled in it.
Boil in an iron saucepan, one tea-cup full of pearl barley, with one quart of cold water, pour off the water when it boils, and add another quart, let it simmer very gently for three hours over or near a slow fire, stirring it frequently with a wooden spoon, strain it, and sweeten with white sugar, add the juice of a lemon, a little white wine, and a quarter of an ounce of isinglass dissolved in a little water, and pour it into a mould. This is a very nourishing jelly.
Make a fine smooth gruel of grits, with a few spices boiled in it, strain it carefully and warm as required, adding white wine and a little brandy, nutmeg, lemon peel, and sugar, according to taste, some persons put the yolk of an egg.
Boil half a pint of milk, add a spoonful of ground rice mixed with a little milk till quite smooth, stir it into the boiling milk, let it simmer till it thickens, carefully straining it, and sweeten with white sugar.
Boil half a pound of pearl barley in one quart of new milk, taking care to parboil it first in water, which must be poured off, sweeten with white sugar. This is better made with pearl barley than the prepared barley.
Boil a quarter of an ounce of isinglass in a pint of new milk till reduced to half, and sweeten with sugar candy.
Make a fine gruel with new milk without adding any water, strain it when sufficiently thick, and sweeten with white sugar. This is extremely nutritive and fattening.
Set on the fire in a saucepan a pint of milk, when it boils, pour in as much white wine as will turn it into curds, boil it up, let the curds settle, strain off, and add a little boiling water, and sweeten to taste.
Boil three ounces of tamarinds in two pints of milk, strain off the curds, and let it cool. This is a very refreshing drink.
Put into boiling milk as much lemon juice or vinegar as will turn it, and make the milk clear, strain, add hot water, and sweeten.
Beat three ounces of almonds with a table-spoonful of orange-flour water, and one bitter almond; then pour one pint of new milk, and one pint of water to the paste, and sweeten with sifted white sugar; half an ounce of gum-arabic is a good addition for those who have a tender chest.
Boil half an ounce of carrageen or Irish moss, in a pint and a half of water or milk till it is reduced to a pint; it is a most excellent drink for delicate persons or weakly children.
Add to a quarter of a pint of new milk warmed, a beaten new laid egg, with a spoonful of capillaire, and the same of rose water.
Cut four large apples in slices, and pour over a quart of boiling water, let them stand till cold, strain the liquor, and sweeten with white sugar; a little lemon peel put with the apples improves the flavour.
Wash and rinse extremely well one ounce of pearl barley, then put to it one ounce of sweet almonds beaten fine, and a piece of lemon peel, boil together till the liquor is of the thickness of cream and perfectly smooth, then put in a little syrup of lemon and capillaire.
Put a little tea-sage, and a couple of sprigs of balm into a jug, with a lemon thinly sliced, and the peel cut into strips, pour over a quart of boiling water, sweeten and let it cool.