Page:Food and cookery for the sick and convalescent.djvu/120

84 the patient. Again, if home-made beef tea is ordered he is in doubt as to the way in which it will be made, while the manufactured product is uniformly constant.

It is never safe to resort to beef tea as the principal article of diet for more than a few days, as it would mean slow starvation to the patient. Milk, egg, cracker, or bread is added, frequently, to beef extract or beef tea to increase their food value.

Beef, for the making of beef extract and beef tea, should be cut from the upper or lower part of the round of a heavy corn-fed steer. This insures good flavor and a large quantity of juice. One-half pound of such beef will yield two ounces (four tablespoons) of juice, making the price about five cents per ounce. The juice from the lower part of the round is quite as satisfactory and less expensive than that from the upper part.

Beef extract may be served in a colored glass or small china cup. In this way the color, which is objectionable to many, may be concealed.

1 tablespoon rolled and sifted cracker.

¾ cup milk.

⅛ teaspoon salt.

Scald milk, add cracker, and cook over hot water five minutes, then add salt.

1¼ tablespoon browned cracker (rolled and sifted).

¾ cup milk.

⅛ teaspoon salt.

Follow directions for Cracker Gruel. The cracker may be dextrinized by baking for a long time in a very slow oven.

1 tablespoon rice.

1 cup milk.

Wash rice, cover with cold water, and let stand two hours; drain, add milk to rice, and cook one and one-half hours in top of double boiler. Strain twice through a fine strainer, season with salt. Serve hot or cold.