Domestic

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 21, 28 May 1908, Page 33

Domestic

Food Comparisons. In a lecture to the students of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Franklin White, in illustrating the comparative nourishing properties of different foods, stated that— A slice of ibread and butter equals in nouxishment, three good slices of beef, twenty cups of beef tea made from beef extract, half a glass of milk, one and onehalf eggs, a small plate of baked beans, sixteen oysters, eleven cups of home-made beef tea. 1 Influenza Cure. A physician, who was asked if he had -a cure for influenza, said : ' I don't know any cure for influenza except rest and bed. Those severe feverish colds that one gets sometimes I treat as follows :— I go to bed and stay there until well. While in bed I eat little solid food. But beside me I have a basket of grapes, oranges, and apples. On these I live ;no jellies, no meat, fish, eggs, or anything of the sort. When I arise in a few days I am a new man. Try this rest and fruit cure.' Treacle Posset. This is a very good old-fashioned remedy for a cold in the head, and should be taken the last thing at night. Boil one pint of milk with sufficient treacle to curdle it ; allow the curd to settle, strain off the liquid, and drink it as hot as possible. Hot Food and Dyspepsia. There is no doubt that most people ruin their teeth and digestive system by taking food at too high' a temperature. One cannot get into a hot bath if it is over 112 degrees. One hundred and five degrees is dangerous, and even 100 degrees is warm. But from experiments made it appears that we eat meat at 115 degrees temperature, beans at 132 degrees, potatoes at 150 degrees, and fruit pie at 130 degrees. The average temperature of tea is 135 degrees, and it may be sipped, but cannot be swallowed in large quantities if it exceeds 142 degrees. Now, all of these things are so hot that the fingers can touch them only for a moment. What serious injury must they not cause to the delicate lining of the stomach when they burn the tough skin of the fingers. Dyspepsia and bad teeth are the inevitable result. Bone Soup. An excellent soup may be made from the bone material which in many households is simply thrown away. When joints have all been used up, take the bones of two, and break them into short lengths. Place the bones in a stewing jar with a plateful of prepared onions, parsnips, celery, and carrots. Cover all with water, season with pepper, salt, and catsup, and color with a teaspoonful of browning. Place a lid or saucer over the jar, and stand it in the oven for four or five hours, so that the soup may simmer slowly. Take out the bones while hot, and when cold skim off all the fat. This soup may be thickened with pea-flour for pea-soup, or if simmered for two hours further with pearl barley will make delicious thick gravy soup. The bones from the two joints, if of good size, should produce about three to four quarts of excellent stock. This soup is most suitable and nourishing for the cold weather, and its cheapness puts it within the reach of all. Hot Water. Hot water quenches thirst in most instances better than cold. Taken regularly at the rate of one glassful half an hour before meals it promotes digestion, and in catarrhal conditions of the stomach is recommended by physicians. It has also been tried as a remedy for insomnia. Constipation is frequently the result of an inadequate supply of water. One of the reasons people thrive at hydros is that, besides any medicinal properties the springs may possess, they drink much more water than they do at home.