2070. Cookery for Children.

2071. Food for an Infant.

Take of fresh cow's milk, one tablespoonful, and mix with two tablespoonfuls of hot water; sweeten with loaf sugar, as much as may be agreeable. This quant.i.ty is sufficient for once feeding a new-born infant; and the same quant.i.ty may be given every two or three hours,--not oftener,--till the mother's breast affords natural nourishment.

2072. Milk for Infants Six Months Old.

Take one pint of milk, one pint of water; boil it, and add one tablespoonful of flour. Dissolve the flour first in half a teacupful of water; it must he strained in gradually, and boiled hard twenty minutes. As the child grows older, one-third water. If properly made, it is the most nutritious, at the same time the most delicate food that can be given to young children.

2073. Broth.

Broth, made of mutton, veal, or chicken, with stale bread toasted, and broken in, is safe and wholesome for the dinners of children when first weaned.

2074. Milk.

Milk, fresh from the cow, with a very little loaf sugar, is good and safe food for young children. From three years old to seven, pure milk, into which stale bread is crumbled, is the best breakfast and supper for a child.

2075. For a Child's Luncheon.

Good sweet b.u.t.ter, with stale bread, is one of the most nutritious, at the same time the most wholesome articles of food that can be given children after they are weaned.

2076. Milk Porridge.

Stir four tablespoonsfuls of oatmeal, smoothly, into a quart of milk, then stir it quickly into a quart of boiling water, and boil up a few minutes till it is thickened: sweeten with sugar. Oatmeal, where it is found to agree with the stomach, is much better for children, being a mild aperient as well as cleanser; fine flour in every shape is the reverse. Where biscuit-powder is in use, let it be made at home; this, at all events, will prevent them getting the sweepings of the baker's counters, boxes, and baskets, All the waste bread in the nursery, hard ends of stale loaves, &c., ought to be dried in the oven or screen, and reduced to powder in the mortar.

2077. Meats for Children.

Mutton and poultry are the best. Birds and the white meat of fowls are the most delicate food of this kind that can be given. These meats should be slowly cooked, and no gravy, if made rich with b.u.t.ter, should be eaten by a young child, Never give children hard, tough, half-cooked meats, of any kind.

2078. Vegetables for Children. Eggs, &c.

For children rice ought to be cooked in no more water than is necessary to swell it; apples roasted, or stewed with no more water than is necessary to steam them; vegetables so well cooked as to make them require little b.u.t.ter, and less digestion; eggs boiled slowly and soft. The boiling of milk ought to be directed by the state of the bowels; if flatulent or bilious, a very little currie-powder may be given with vegetables with good effect. Turmeric and the warm seeds (not hot peppers) are also particularly useful in such cases.

2079. Potatoes and Peas.

Potatoes, particularly some kinds, are not easily digested by children; but this may be remedied by mashing them very fine, and seasoning them with salt and a little milk. When peas are dressed for children, let them be seasoned with mint and salt, which will take off the flatulency. If they are old, let them be pulped, as the skins cannot be digested by children's stomachs. Never give them vegetables less stewed than would pulp through a cullender.

2080. Rice Pudding With Fruit.

In a pint of new milk put two large spoonfuls of rice, well washed; then add two apples, pared and quartered, or a few currants or rasins.

Simmer slowly till the rice is very soft, then add one egg beaten to bind it: serve with cream and sugar.

2081. Puddings and Pancakes for Children.

Sugar and egg, browned before the fire, or dropped as fritters into a hot frying-pan, without fat, will make a nourishing meal.

2082. To prepare Fruit for Children.

A far more wholesome way than in pies or puddings, is to put apples sliced, or plums, currants, gooseberries, &c., into a stone jar, and sprinkle among them as much sugar as necessary. Set the jar in the oven, with a teacupful of water to prevent the fruit from burning, or put the jar into a saucepan of water till its contents be perfectly done, Slices of bread or some rice may be put in to the jar to eat with the fruit.

[HONEST LOSS IS PREFERABLE TO SHAMEFUL GAIN.]

2083. Rice and Apples.

Core as many nice apples as will fill the dish; boil them in light syrup; prepare a quarter of a pound of rice in milk with sugar and salt; put some of the rice in the dish, put in the apples, and fill up the intervals with rice; bake it in the oven till it is a fine colour.

2084. A nice Apple Cake for Children.

Grate some stale bread, and slice about double the quant.i.ty of apples; b.u.t.ter a mould, and line it with sugar paste, and strew in some crumbs, mixed with a little sugar; then lay in apples, with a few bits of b.u.t.ter over them, and so continue till the dish is full; cover it with crumbs, or prepared rice; season with cinnamon and sugar. Bake it well.

2085. Fruits for Children.

That fruits are naturally healthy in their season, if rightly taken, no one who believes that the Creator is a kind and beneficent Being can doubt. And yet the use of summer fruits appears often to cause most fatal diseases, especially in children. Why is this? Because we do not conform to the natural laws in using this kind of diet. These laws are very simple, and easy to understand. Let the fruit be ripe when you eat it; and eat when you require _food_. Fruits that have _seeds_ are much more wholesome than the _stone_ fruits. But all fruits are better, for very young children, if baked or cooked in some manner, and eaten with bread. The French always eat bread with raw fruit. Apples and winter pears are very excellent food for children,--indeed, for almost any person in health,--but best when eaten for breakfast or dinner. If taken late in the evening, fruit often proves injurious. The old saying, that apples are _gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night_, is pretty near the truth.

Both apples and pears are often good and nutritious when baked or stewed, and when prepared in this way are especially suitable for those delicate const.i.tutions that cannot bear raw fruit. Much of the fruit gathered when unripe might be rendered fit for food by preserving in sugar.

2086. Ripe Currants.

Ripe Currants are excellent food for children. Mash the fruit, sprinkle with sugar, and let them eat freely, taking some good bread with the fruit.

2087. Blackberry Jam.

Gather the fruit in dry weather; allow half a pound of good brown sugar to every pound of fruit; boil the whole together gently for an hour, or till the blackberries are soft, stirring and mashing them well. Preserve it like any other jam, and it will be found very useful in families, particularly for children, regulating their bowels, and enabling you to dispense with cathartics. It may be used in the ordinary way in roll-over puddings, and for tarts, or spread on bread instead of b.u.t.ter; and even when the blackberries are bought, it is cheaper than b.u.t.ter. In the country every family should preserve at least half a peck of blackberries.

2088. Blackberry Pudding or Pie.

Pudding or pie made of blackberries only, or of blackberries and apples mixed in equal proportions is excellent. For suitable suet crust see _par_. 1269. and for puff paste see _par_. 1257.

2089. To make Senna and Manna Palatable.