Volume 2

Health lectures for the people.

Date:
1883-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health lectures for the people. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    133/600 (page 121)
    You should not buy flour in very small quantities, as it is all the better of being kept for a short time, to allow it to become drier. Good flour should be soft to the touch, not gritty, and should not have the slightest musty smell. We shall now ^'preach porridge.'* When you are at the grocer's be sure you lay in a supply of oatmeal; in buying it you get, of all our foods, the best return for your money. There is not a dish in the world to compare to porridge and milk for making the body firm and healthy, for giving you strength to work with, and warmth to resist the cold. But you have difiiculties, some one may say. When the husband goes out at six o'clock in the morning, it is difiicult and expensive in a winter's morning to have the fire on and the porridge cooking for half-an-hour. In answer to this, we may tell you that a London doctor, who is making a special study of food, tells us that porridge is really more whole- some and digestible if made one day before and warmed up. But if you don't like this, and we can't recommend it, you can at least give the gudeman a plate of freshly cooked porridge for supper when he comes home, varying it occasionally by pease- brose, some soup, or other warm nourishing dish. Then the children, you say, get tired of porridge. No doubt in this as in all other foods you need variety, and you must remember that our usual Scotch way of cooking porridge is apt to be heavy for children. Our usual tasty way of cooking porridge is to slowly sprinkle the meal in handfuls into boiling water, add salt to taste, and let it boil about twenty minutes, stirring well; eat it hot before it becomes stifi. It is somewhat more digestible however, though less palatable, if the meal is mixed well with cold water, and then slowly boiled. On the mornings when the children do not get porridge, do not give them tea, as it is very hurtful to their nerves; give them milk and hot water to drink. Indeed, when we are at the grocer's, it would be a very good thing if sometimes we should forget to buy tea for ourselves. Every woman knows the com- fort of a good cup of tea, but doctors tell us that, while all women are apt to indulge rather too freely in ^Hhe cup that cheers, but not