The Skilful Cook Part 101

_Method._--Wash the sago, and let it soak in the water for thirty minutes.

Then simmer for about thirty minutes.

Add the sugar, and it is ready.

Prune Drink.

_Ingredients_--2 oz. of prunes.

1 quart of water.

1 oz. of sugar.

_Method._--Cut the prunes in two.

Boil them with the sugar in the water for one hour.

Strain, and cover until cold.

Rice Milk.

_Ingredients_--1 oz. of rice.

1 pint of milk.

Sugar to taste.

_Method._--Wash the rice, and simmer in the milk, with the sugar, for one hour.

Tapioca milk may be made in the same way. The crushed tapioca is the best.

Suet and Milk.

_Ingredients_--1 pint of milk.

1 oz. of suet.

_Method._--Chop the suet finely.

Tie it loosely in muslin, and simmer in the milk for three-quarters of an hour; then strain.

Invalids' Soup.

_Ingredients_--1 pint of beef tea.

1 oz. of crushed tapioca, semolina, or sago.

The yolks of 2 eggs.

_Method._--Put the beef-tea into a saucepan on the fire.

When it boils, sprinkle in the tapioca; stir, and boil for about fifteen minutes.

Then add the yolks of the eggs; stir until they thicken, but do not let the soup boil after the yolks of the eggs are in it, as that would curdle them.

Gruel.

_Ingredients_--1 pint of water.

2 dessertspoonfuls of fine oatmeal.

_Method._--Put the water on the fire to boil.

Mix the oatmeal smoothly with cold water.

When the water in the saucepan boils, pour in the oatmeal, and stir well until it thickens.

Then put it by the side of the fire, and stir occasionally, cooking it for _quite_ half an hour.

Bran Tea.

_Ingredients_--3 tablespoonfuls of good bran.

1 quart of water.

1 oz. of gum arabic.

1 tablespoonful of honey.

_Method._--Boil the bran in the water for ten minutes.

Dissolve the gum and honey in it, and strain it through muslin.

This is a remedy for hoa.r.s.eness.

Linseed Tea.

_Ingredients_--4 tablespoonfuls of linseed.

1 quart of boiling water.

6 lumps of sugar.

1 lemon.

_Method._--Put the linseed and sugar into a jug, with the thin rind and juice of the lemon.

Pour boiling water over.

Let it stand, and then strain.

If the tea is preferred thick, two tablespoonfuls of the linseed may be boiled in the water.

Boiled Apple-water.