Health, or, How to Live

MUSHES AND PORRIDGES

GRAHAM PUDDING. — This is made by stirring flour into boiling water, as in making hasty pudding. It can be made in twenty minutes, but is improved by boiling slowly an hour. Care is needed that it does not burn. It can be eaten when warm or cold, with milk, sugar, or sauce, as best suits the eater. HHTL 35.3

When left to cool, it should be dipped into cups of dishes to mold, as this improves the appearance of the table as well as the dish itself. Before molding, stoned dates, or nice apples thinly sliced, or fresh berries, may be added, stirring as they are dropped in. This adds to the flavor, and with many does away with the necessity for salt or some rich sauce to make it eatable. HHTL 35.4

Of all Preparations for food, this stands next to good bread; and to those who live simply, and whose purpose it is to live healthfully, this dish, next to bread, comes to be a staple article on the table, and is liked for its intrinsic merits alone. HHTL 35.5

When cold, cut in slices, dip in flour, and fry as griddle-cakes. It makes a most healthful head-cheese. HHTL 36.1

GRAHAM MINUTE PUDDING. — A very palatable dish may be made very quickly, by stirring Graham flour into boiling milk, after the manner of hasty pudding, letting it cook for five or ten minutes. HHTL 36.2

CRACKED WHEAT. — Take clean, plump winter wheat, or if this is not to be had, the best that can be. Run it through a hand-mill, cracking the grain more or less, according to taste. In four quarts of boiling water stir one quart of the grain, and cook moderately for four or five hours in a tin or earthen vessel set in a kettle of boiling water. Serve and eat, the same as Graham pudding. HHTL 36.3

SAMP. — This is merely a very coarse hominy — the grains of corn being ground or broken into very course particles. It should be washed several times, and the water poured through a sieve to separate the hulls; and it requires boiling five or six hours. HHTL 36.4

This is cooked precisely the same as the cracked wheat, or wheaten grits. It is particularly adapted to those who have long suffered from habitual constipation. To persons unaccustomed to the grain, the effect on the bowels is decidedly laxative. The meal must be fresh ground, and made of well-cleaned and plump grain. HHTL 36.5

INDIAN MEAL MUSH. — This is corn meal stirred very gradually into boiling water, so as to prevent lumping. It should be cooked from one to two hours. HHTL 36.6

BOILED RICE. — Put one pint of plump “head rice,” previously picked over and washed, into three quarts of boiling water; continue the boiling fifteen or twenty minutes, but avoid stirring it so as to break up or mash the kernels; turn off the water: set it uncovered over a moderate fire, and steam fifteen minutes. Rice is “poor stuff” without salt, say the cooks, and cook-books. If you find it so, reader, try a little syrup or sugar. HHTL 36.7

RICE AND MILK MUSH. — Boil a pint of clean head rice fifteen or twenty minutes; pour off the water; add a little milk — mixing it gently so as not to break the kernels — and boil a few minutes longer. HHTL 37.1

MILK PORRIDGE. — Place a pint and a half of new milk, and half a pint of water, over the fire; when just ready to boil, stir in a tablespoonful of flour, wheat-meal, oat-meal, or corn-meal, previously mixed with a little water; after boiling, pour it on bread cut into small pieces. HHTL 37.2

WHEAT MEAL PORRIDGE. — Stir gradually into a quart of boiling water half a pound of wheat-meal, and boil ten or fifteen minutes. It may be seasoned with a little milk or sugar. HHTL 37.3

WHEAT MEAL GRUEL. — Mix two tablespoonfuls of wheat-meal smoothly with a gill of cold water; stir the mixture into a quart of boiling water; boil about fifteen minutes, taking off whatever scum forms on the top. A little sugar may be added if desired. HHTL 37.4

INDIAN-MEAL GRUEL. — Stir gradually into a quart of boiling water two tablespoonfuls of Indian-meal; boil it slowly twenty minutes. This is often prepared for the sick, under the name of “water-gruel.” In the current cook-books, salt, sugar, and nutmeg are generally added. Nothing of the sort should be used, except sugar. HHTL 37.5