The Pattern cook-book

CHICKEN BROTH. Cut up a young fowl, and remove all of the skin and fat. Wash the chicken, cut it into small pieces, crack the bones well, and place it in a kettle with two quarts of cold water. Set the kettle on the fire in a slow heat, and gradually bring the water to the boiling point. Skim carefully, and set it back where it will gently simmer for three hours, keeping the kettle tightly covered. Season with salt, strain off the broth, and serve. If sago, tapioca or rice is not objectionable to the patient, it may be added with advantage. Soak two table-spoonfuls of the grain for an hour in cold water, drain, add it to the strained broth, and simmer slowly for twenty minutes. If the kettle is kept well covered and the cooking is as slow as it should be, the liquid will not boil away appreciably. Should the broth be needed very quickly, the rice may be boiled by itself in just enough water to keep it from browning, and both water and rice may be added to the broth, care being taken that there is not enough water with the rice to weaken the broth. MUTTON BROTH. Take a pound of the scraggy part of the neck of mutton, cut off all the fat, and cut the lean into small cubes. Add to the meat four table-spoonfuls of pearl barley, and three pints of cold water. Heat slowly to the boiling point, skim carefully, and set the broth back where it will simmer. Place the bones in a pint of cold water, and boil them gently for half an hour ; then strain the liquor into the broth, and cook the latter two hours longer. Season well with salt. The barley may be omitted if not cared for, but it adds much to the nutritiousness of the broth. BEEF BROTH. This is made the same as mutton broth. CLAM BROTH. For this purpose the clams should be in the shells. Scrub a dozen clams with a brush until they are perfectly clean, place them in a stew-pan, and add half a pint of boiling water. Place the pan on the fire in a moderate heat, boil fifteen minutes, and strain the liquor through a fine sieve. Should the broth be too fresh (which it seldom is), add salt. If it is too salt, dilute it with boiling water. GRUELS. Sick persons almost invariably have a natural antipathy against all " sick dishes," and this repugnance is perhaps, most decided against gruels of all kinds. When gruels are served to an invalid, they should be carefully selected with the nature of the complaint in view. Thus, in excessive disorder of the bowels, oatmeal gruel should never be given, but instead a flour gruel. OATMEAL GRUEL, NO. I. When much oatmeal gruel is to be required, it will prove an economy of time to cook the oatmeal into mush, as previously described in this book, making sure that it is very thoroughly done. Place it in a bowl, and cover tightly. When gruel is needed, place some of the mush in a frying-pan, add milk sufficient to thin it to the desired consistency, and boil slowly for five minutes, stirring all the time. Add salt, and serve. OATMEAL GRUEL, NO. 2. One quart of boiling water. One table-spoonful of raw oatmeal. One-half tea-spoonful of salt.