Last week’s article focused on Drinks For the Sick from recipes that were based on The Young Housekeeper’s Friend 1846.
This week’s feature, Food For the Sick, also based on recipes from the 1846 edition of The Young Housekeeper’s Friend, can easily be revised by the 21st century cook or used to add an additional touch of authenticity to histoical reinactments.
Beef Tea #1
- Take a piece of lean, juicy beef; wash it, cut it into pieces an inch square, and salt them a little
- Put them into a wide-mouthed bottle and cork it tight
- Set the bottle into a kettle of water and boil it an hour and a half
This mode of making beef tea concentrates more nourishment than any other. [The goal was to keep the mixture from getting weak or boiling down. In modern times, a pressure cooker is an excellent substitute for sealing the meat in a bottle.]
Beef Tea #2
- Choose a lean and juicy piece of beef, the size of your hand; broil it only three or four minutes, on hot coals [this is done to “sear” the meat, which is still very popular and promoted by most cookbooks]
- Lay it in a porringer [a shallow cup or bowl with a handle] or bowl, sprinkle it with salt
- Pour upon it two or three gills of boiling water
- Cut it into small pieces, as it lies in the water [it is much easier to remove from the water]
- Return the meat and all of the juices back to the bowl
- Take a leg and thigh of a chicken, lay it into cold water
- Set it on the fire till it boils up long enough for you to skim it [skim off the fat that floats on the top]
- Put in a little salt
Chicken Broth
If the weather is warm, take but half a chicken to make broth for one person. If it is cool, a whole one can be used, as the broth will keep several days.
- Skim the water in the nicest manner as it boils up
- Put in a spoonful of rice while the water is still cold
- Boil it an hour and a half, and add cut parsley a few minutes before you take it up [remove from the fire].
