Part 22

Grape juice mixed with cold water or with soda-water makes a pleasant and invigorating drink for a sick person. The best grapes for the purpose are the blue varieties, such as Isabellas, Concords, or Black Hamburgs.

=To Make a Bottle of Juice.= Pick over (and wash if they need it) one quart of grapes. Remove them from the stems, and put them into a double boiler with just enough cold water to cover them. Heat them slowly until the juice oozes out and the fruit becomes soft, which will take two or three hours. Then turn the fruit into a jelly-bag made like a long pointed pocket, draw the string at the top and hang it to drain. Do not squeeze or press the bag, and use only the juice which drips out, which will practically be all that the grapes contain. To this add one fourth of the quantity of sugar--that is, if there is a quart of juice, put in one cup of sugar--and heat it until it is quite hot, or to a temperature of 200° Fahr., and keep it at that temperature for one hour, but do not let it boil. Then pour it into thoroughly cleaned and scalded hot bottles,--in other words, those which are sterile. Seal the bottles with wax, and set them away in a cool place.

=To Use.= Mix equal quantities of juice and cold water, and serve at once.

FLAXSEED TEA WITH LEMON

1 Tablespoon of flaxseed. 1 Pint of water. 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Juice of one lemon.

Boil the flaxseed one hour in the water; strain it, and add the lemon-juice and sugar. The flaxseed should be examined for little black grains which often occur in it, and which injure the delicate flavor of the drink. Serve this tea either cold or warm. It is excellent for croup, or for any irritated condition of the throat or lungs.

APPLE TEA

Wash and wipe a good sour apple, cut it into small pieces, and boil it in a cup of water until it is soft. Then strain the water into a bowl, add a bit of sugar, and serve when cold.

If the apple is of good flavor this is a pleasant drink, and may be given to fever patients, children with measles, or whenever there is much thirst.

KUMISS

1 Quart of perfectly fresh milk. ⅕ of a two-cent cake of Fleischmann's yeast. 1 Tablespoon of sugar.

Dissolve the yeast in a little water and mix it with the sugar and milk. Put the mixture into strong bottles,--beer-bottles are good,--cork them with tightly fitting stoppers, and tie down securely with stout twine. Shake the bottles for a full minute to mix thoroughly the ingredients, then place them on end in a refrigerator, or some equally cool place, to ferment slowly. At the end of three days lay the bottles on their sides; turn them occasionally. Five days will be required to perfect the fermentation, and then kumiss is at its best. It will keep indefinitely in a refrigerator.

=To Make Sweet Kumiss.= Ferment the kumiss mixture for twelve hours in a temperature of 70° Fahr.,--that is, the same degree of heat that is required for raising bread.

Do not attempt to open a bottle of kumiss without a champagne-tap, for the carbonic acid generated in the fermenting liquid has enormous expansive force, and will throw the contents all over the room if the bottle be opened in the ordinary way.

In an emergency, however, the cork may be punctured with a stout needle to let the gas escape. The mouth of the bottle may then be held in a large bowl or dish and the cords cut, when the kumiss will rush out, usually, however, without so much force but that it may nearly all be caught. It should look like thick, foamy cream.

Kumiss is highly recommended as an article of sick diet, being especially valuable for many forms of indigestion and for nausea. Often it will be retained in the stomach when almost anything else would be rejected. It is partially predigested milk, containing carbonic acid and a little alcohol, both of which have a tonic effect.

True kumiss is an Eastern product made from mare's milk, but in this country cow's milk is always employed. Sometimes the term kefer is given to it, to distinguish it from that made from mare's milk. It may be obtained in nearly all pharmacies, but a better quality can be made at home at slight expense.

Sometimes patients will object to taking kumiss, on account of the odor, which is not pleasant to every one, but it leaves a peculiarly agreeable after-taste in the mouth, and one who has once taken a glass of it will seldom refuse a second offer. The kumiss of commerce sold under the name of "Cream Koumyss" is an excellent preparation.

THE COCOA-BEAN

The cocoa-bean is a product of the tropics. It is dried, roasted like coffee, and cracked, or ground into powder, for use. It is one of our best foods, containing in good proportions nearly all the elements necessary to nourish the body.

There are many preparations of the bean. The most common, and those usually found in our markets, are shells, cracked cocoa, chocolate, and various forms of powder.

Shells are the outer husk or covering of the bean, and from them a delicate drink may be made with long, slow boiling.

Cracked cocoa, or cocoa-nibs as it is sometimes called, is made by breaking the beans into small pieces.

Chocolate is prepared by grinding the cocoa-bean into powder, mixing it with sugar, and molding it into blocks. There is some temptation on the part of manufacturers to substitute foreign fats, corn-starch, and other cheap materials for the natural ingredients of the bean in the making of chocolate.

The powdered forms of cocoa generally contain a good percentage of the bean except the fat, which is always extracted. All Dutch brands are excellent. Weight for weight, they cost more than some other kinds, but so much less is needed to make a cup of drink that they are really the least expensive.

COCOA

½ Teaspoon of any Dutch cocoa. 1 Cup of boiling water. 1 Cup of boiling milk. 1 Tablespoon of sugar.

Put the cocoa and sugar into a saucepan, and pour in the boiling water; cook for two minutes, then add the milk, and let it heat just to the boiling-point. When most other brands are used, as a general thing a larger proportion of powder will be necessary. It is therefore important to experiment with each until it is found what amount will make a drink equal in strength to the above. This valuable food is often made so strong that ill persons cannot digest it.