Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages Part 31

RECEIPT 2.--Roasted grains are more wholesome. It is not usual or easy to roast them properly, however, except the chestnut, as the expanded air bursts or parches them. By cutting through the skin or sh.e.l.l, this result may be avoided, as it often is in the case of the chestnut. To roast well, they should be laid on the hearth or an iron plate, covered with ashes, and by building a fire slowly, all burning may be prevented.

RECEIPT 3.--Corn and buckwheat are often parched, and they form, especially the former, a very good food. In South America, and in some semi-barbarous nations, parched corn is a favorite dish.

RECEIPT 4.--Green corn is often roasted in the ear. It is less wholesome, however, than when boiled. Sweet corn is the best for either purpose.

RECEIPT 5.--Of baking grains I have little to say, because I _know_ little on that subject.[28]

DIVISION III.--CAKES

This species of farinaceous food is much used, and is fast coming into vogue. The term, in its largest sense, would include the unleavened bread or cakes, of which I have spoken so freely in Division 1. They are for the most part, however, made by the addition of b.u.t.ter, eggs, aromatics, milk, etc., to the dough; and in proportion as they depart from simple bread, are more and more unhealthy. I shall mention but a few, though hundreds might be named which would still be vegetable food, as good olive oil, in preparing them, may be subst.i.tuted for b.u.t.ter. I shall treat of them under one head or section.

RECEIPT 1.--Take of dough, prepared according to the English patented process, mentioned in Division I., Section C, Receipt 1 and Receipt 2, and bake in a thin form and in the usual manner.

RECEIPT 2.--Fruit cakes, if people will have them, may be made in the same manner. No b.u.t.ter would be necessary, even to b.u.t.ter eaters, when prepared in this patented way. If any have doubts, let them consult Pereira on Food and Diet, page 153.

RECEIPT 3.--Gingerbread may be made in the same way, and without alum or potash. It is thus comparatively harmless. Coa.r.s.e meal always makes better gingerbread than fine flour.

RECEIPT 4.--Buckwheat cakes may be raised in the same general way.

RECEIPT 5.--Cakes of millet, rice, etc., are said to have been made by this process; but on this point I cannot speak from experience.

RECEIPT 6.--Biscuits, crackers, wafers, etc., are a species of cake, and might be made so as to be comparatively wholesome.

RECEIPT 7.--Biscuits may be made of coa.r.s.e corn meal, with the addition of an egg and a little water. Make it into a stiff paste, and roll very thin.

DIVISION IV.--PUDDINGS.

These are a species of bread, only made thinner. They are usually unfermented. I shall speak of two kinds--hominy and puddings proper.

SECTION A.--_Hominy._

This is usually eaten hot; but it improves on keeping a day or two. It may be warmed over, if necessary.

RECEIPT 1.--Wheat hominy, or cracked wheat, may be made into a species of pudding thus: Stir the hominy into boiling water (a little salted, if it must be so), very gradually. Boil from fifteen minutes to one hour.

If boiled too long, it has a raw taste.

RECEIPT 2.--Corn hominy, or, as it is sometimes called, samp. Two quarts of hominy; four quarts of water; stir well, that the hulls may rise; then pour off the water through a sieve, that the hulls may separate.

Pour the same water again upon the hominy, stir well, and pour off again several times. Finally, pour back the water, add a little salt, if you use salt at all, and if necessary, a little more water, and hang it over a slow fire to boil. During the first hour it should be stirred almost constantly. Boil from three to six hours.

RECEIPT 3.--Another way: Take white Indian corn broken coa.r.s.ely, put it over the fire with plenty of water, adding more boiling water as it wastes. It requires long boiling. Some boil it for six hours the day before it is wanted, and from four to six the next day. Salt, if used at all, may be added on the plate.

RECEIPT 4.--Another way still of making hominy is to soak it over night, and boil it slowly for four or five hours, in the same water, which should be soft.

There are other ways of making hominy, but I have no room to treat of them.

SECTION B.--_Puddings proper._

These are of various kinds. Indeed, a single work I have before me on Vegetable Cookery has not less than 127 receipts for dishes of this sort, to say nothing of its pancakes, fritters, etc. I shall select a few of the best, and leave the rest.

The greatest objection to puddings is, that they are usually swallowed in large quant.i.ty, unmasticated, after we have eaten enough of something else. They are also eaten new and hot, and with b.u.t.ter, or some other mixture almost as injurious. Some puddings, from half a day to a day and a half old, are almost as good for us as bread.

One of the best puddings I know of, is a stale loaf of bread, steamed.

Another is good sweet kiln dried oat meal, without any cooking at all.

But there are some good cooked puddings, I say again, such as the following:

RECEIPT 1.--Boiled Indian pudding: Indian meal, a quart; water, a pint; mola.s.ses, a teacup full. Mix it well, and boil four hours.

RECEIPT 2.--Another Indian pudding. Indian meal, three pints; scald it, make it thin, and boil it about six hours.

RECEIPT 3.--Another of the same: To one quart of boiling milk, while boiling, add a teacup full of Indian meal; mix well, and add a little mola.s.ses. Boil three hours in a strong heat.

RECEIPT 4.--Hominy: Take a quart of milk and half a pint of Indian meal; mix it well, and add a pint and a half of cooked hominy. Bake well in a moderate oven.

RECEIPT 5.--Baked Indian pudding may be made by putting together and baking well a quart of milk, a pint of Indian meal, and a pint of water.

Add salt or mola.s.ses, if you please.

RECEIPT 6.--Oat meal pudding: Pour a quart of boiling milk over a pint of the best fine oat meal; let it soak all night; next day add two beaten eggs; rub over, with pure sweet oil, a basin that will just hold it; cover it tight with a floured cloth, and boil it an hour and a half.

When cold, slice and toast, or rather dry it, and eat it as you would oat cake itself.

This may be the proper place to say, that all coa.r.s.e meal puddings are healthiest when twelve or twenty hours old; but are all improved--and so is brown bread--by drying, or almost toasting on the stove.

RECEIPT 7.--Rice pudding: To one quart of new milk add a teacup full of rice, sweetened a little. No dressings are necessary without you choose them. Bake it well.

RECEIPT 8.--Wheat meal pudding may be made by wetting the coa.r.s.e meal with milk, and sweetening it a little with mola.s.ses. Bake in a moderate heat.

RECEIPT 9.--Boiled rice pudding may be made by boiling half a pound of rice in a moderate quant.i.ty of water, and adding, when tender, a coffee-cup full of milk, sweetening a little, and baking, or rather simmering half an hour. Add salt if you prefer it.

RECEIPT 10.--_Polenta_--Corn meal, mixed with cheese--grated, as I suppose, but we are not told in what proportion it is used--baked well, makes a pudding which the Italians call polenta. It is not very digestible.

RECEIPT 11.--Pudding may be made of any of the various kinds of meal I have mentioned, except those containing rye, by adding from one fourth to one third of the meal of the comfrey root. See Division I of this cla.s.s, Section B, Receipt 17.

RECEIPT 12.--Bread pudding: Take a loaf of rather stale bread, cut a hole in it, add as much new milk as it will soak up through the opening, tie it up in a cloth, and boil it an hour.

RECEIPT 13.--Another of the same: Slice bread thinly, and put it in milk, with a little sweetening; add a little flour, and bake it an hour and a half.

RECEIPT 14.--Another still: Three pints of milk, one pound of baker's bread, four spoonfuls of sugar, and three of mola.s.ses. Cut the bread in slices; interpose a few raisins, if you choose, between each two slices, and then pour on the milk and sweetening. If baked, an hour and a half is sufficient. If boiled, two or three hours. Use a tin pudding boiler.

RECEIPT 15.--Rice and apple pudding: Boil six ounces of rice in a pint of milk, till it is soft; then fill a dish about half full of apples pared and cored; sweeten; put the rice over them as a crust, and bake it.

RECEIPT 16.--Stirabout is made in Scotland by stirring oat meal in boiling water till it becomes a thick pudding or porridge. This, with cakes of oat meal and potatoes, forms the princ.i.p.al food of many parts of Scotland.

RECEIPT 17.--Hasty pudding is best made as follows: Mix five or six spoonfuls of sifted meal in half a pint of cold water; stir it into a quart of water, while boiling; and from time to time sprinkle and stir in meal till it becomes thick enough. It should boil half or three quarters of an hour. It may be made of Indian or rye meal.

RECEIPT 18.--Potato pudding: Take two pounds of well boiled and well mashed potato, one pound of wheat meal; make a stiff paste, by mixing well; and tie it in a wet cloth dusted with flour. Boil it two hours.