Stewed Cod

Have ready some boiling water in a saucepan and put a little salt in it. Take a slice of cod about an inch thick and half a pound in weight. Clean it and put it into the boiling water and let it boil gently for five minutes; then lift it out and let it drain. Have ready heated in a stewpan one gill of veal gravy or good broth. Put the cod in this and stew it for five minutes; then add a tablespoonful of very fine bread crumbs, and let it simmer for three minutes. Mix a teaspoonful of arrowroot and half a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, with a dessertspoonful of sherry, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and stir it well into the gravy. Boil all together for two minutes, then lift the fish out carefully with a fish slice. Pour the sauce over it and serve it quickly. Half a dozen oysters, bearded and added with their strained liquor two or three minutes before the cod is taken out of the stewpan, improve this dish.

Steamed Asparagus

Trim the asparagus, then steam it by putting it in a jam-pot nearly filled with boiling water, placed in a large saucepan half full of boiling water and tightly covered. The asparagus will take nearly an hour to cook in this manner. Serve with it a sauce made of one ounce of butter melted over the fire, one tablespoonful of cream, the yolk of an egg, and five drops of lemon juice. Stir the mixture in an enamelled saucepan over the fire for three minutes.

Apple Snowballs

Boil half a pound of the best rice in boiling water for fifteen or twenty minutes. Strain it and spread it on floured cloths. Peel and core one or two apples and put them on the rice. Sprinkle over them sugar and a little lemon juice, then cover each one entirely with rice, tie the cloths, and boil them for an hour.

For many of these practicable recipes I am indebted to that excellent and valuable manual, The Art of Feeding the Invalid} They might be multiplied indefinitely. The principle to be remembered is that the food of the aged should be light, farinaceous, and easily digested. Among things to be recommended, I might mention also all kinds of fish, rice, tapioca, arrowroot, sago, custard, and bread and butter puddings, poultry, game, fresh vegetables, ripe fruit, omelette, junket, and milk. The food of extreme old age compares with that of extreme youth, and for toothless age pap is as useful as to the teething babe, nor must it be thought that the dentist's art gives the stomach the power to digest the strong meats suitable to youth.

1 Scientific Press, 428 Strand, W.C.

Haddock Pudding

Boil a haddock weighing about one pound for about ten to fifteen minutes in boiling water with a little salt and a tablespoonful of vinegar. Remove all the skin and bones, and cut the fish in small pieces. Boil half a pound of potatoes in salt and water until they are soft, then rub them through a sieve and mix them with the fish. Add one raw egg, an ounce of butter, and a little pepper and salt. When thoroughly mixed make the compound into any shape preferred; put it into a buttered tin and bake it until it is of a golden colour. Serve the pudding with egg sauce made as follows: Mix one ounce of butter with one ounce of flour in a saucepan over the fire. Add gradually one gill of the water in which the haddock was boiled, and one gill of milk. Stir over the fire for ten minutes; then add two hard-boiled eggs which have been cut into very small dice, and a few drops of lemon juice. Pour this sauce round the fish pudding.

Macaroni And Fish

Cut a quarter of a pound of well-boiled macaroni into small pieces. Take away the skin and bones of a quarter of a pound of cold boiled fish. Mix the macaroni and fish well together, with a little pepper and salt, half a pint of good fish or chicken broth, and one ounce of butter. Put the mixture into the oven, and when it is quite hot and brown it will be ready to serve.

Kedgeree

Warm in a saucepan, stirring all the time, a quarter of a pound of cooked fish, a quarter of a pound of rice after it has been boiled, and one ounce of butter. Beat up one egg, with a little pepper and salt. Add it to the fish and rice, and cook altogether for two minutes. If it be too stiff, add a little milk.

The Pot-Au-Feu

The pot-au-feu as prepared in France is savoury and nutritious. The following recipe is adapted from Le Livre de la Cuisine, by T. Gouffe: -

In a tin-lined iron or copper pot, place about two pounds of the leg or shoulder of beef, and half a pound of bones broken into fragments, in four quarts of cold water. The bones should be put in first, then the meat tied up to preserve its shape, add one ounce of salt, place the pot over a steady clear fire which will give a constant gentle heat, bring the water to the boil and skim carefully. As soon as the scum rises pour in a little cold water; let the water boil three separate times, skimming each time. Then add the vegetables, which should consist of a pound of cut carrots, onions, and turnips, half a pound of leeks, an ounce of parsnips, half an ounce of celery, and three cloves stuck in an onion. The throwing in of the vegetables will temporarily check the boiling. As soon as the water is brought to the boil again, draw the pot aside and place it on a spot on the fire or the hot plate where it will simmer gently and steadily for three hours. The vegetables should be left only just long enough in the broth to cook them. When done the meat is withdrawn, and while still on the fire the broth is freed perfectly from grease. In France this thoroughly-boiled beef is eaten as a separate dish, either hot with the vegetables, or cold served with oil and vinegar. The broth is frequently served with croutons of toast, or with the leaves of boiled spring cabbage floating in the tureen.