T. R. Allinson

“ When Inventing Natural Food I tried to overcome every obstacle and make it the best Food for infants in the market; the success that has followed its use justifies me in saying that it is second to none. ”

“ Not many years ago books treating of food and nutrition always gave milk as the standard food, and so it is for calves and babies. Nowadays we use a grain food as the standard, and of all grains wheat is the one which is nearest perfection, or which supplies to the body those elements that it requires, and in best proportions. A perfect food must contain carbonaceous, nitrogenous, and mineral matter in definite quantities ”

“ Those who are away from home all day, and who take their food to their work may have some kind of milk pudding at this meal. Wheatmeal blancmange, or cold milk pudding may occasionally be eaten those who are costive will find a boiled onion or some braized onions very useful. Boil the onion in as little water as possible and serve up with the liquor it is boiled in. To prepare braized onions, fry them first until nicely brown, using butter or olive oil, then add a cupful of boiling water to the contents of the frying pan, cover with a plate, and let cook for an hour. ”

“ A very palatable way of serving potatoes, is to peel them and bake them in a tin with a little oil or butter, or vege-butter; they should be turned occasionally, in order that they should brown evenly. This is not a very hygienic way of preparing potatoes. From a health point of view they are best baked in their skins, or steamed with or without the skins. A good many vegetables may be steamed with advantage; for instance, cabbage, sprouts, turnips, parsnips, swedes, Scotch kail, &c. Any way of preparing greens is better than boiling them in a large saucepanful of water and throwing this away. ”

“ All kinds of pastry, pie-crusts, under crusts, &c., are best made from Allinson wholemeal, and if much butter, lard, or dripping is used they will lie just as heavy, and cause heartburn just as much as those made with white flour. There is a substitute for pie-crusts that is very tasty, and not at all harmful. We call it "batter," and it can be used for savoury dishes as well as sweet ones. ”

“ In making a brown sauce we put a little butter or olive oil in the frying-pan; let it bubble and sputter, dredge in Allinson wholemeal flour, stir it round with a knife until browned, add boiling water, pepper, salt, a little ketchup, and you then have a nice brown sauce for many dishes. If we wish to make it very tasty we fry a finely chopped onion first and add that to it. White sweet sauce is made from wholemeal flour, milk, sugar, and a little cinnamon, cloves, lemon juice, vanilla, or other flavouring. ”

“ I wish here to impress on vegetarians, and those who wish to give the diet a trial, not to eat much pulse; this is the rock on which many "would-be vegetarians" come to grief. They take these very concentrated, nitrogenous foods in rather large quantities, because they have an idea that only they will support them when the use of meat is abandoned. ”

“ Any seasonable vegetable may be steamed and eaten with the potatoes, such as cauliflower, cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, carrot, turnip, beetroot, parsnips, or boiled celery, or onions. Recipes for the sauces used with this course will be found in another part of the book; they may be parsley, onion, caper, tomato, or brown gravy sauce. This dinner may be varied by adding to it a poached, fried, or boiled egg. As a second course, baked apples, or stewed fresh fruit and bread may be eaten; or Allinson bread pudding, or rice, sago, tapioca, or macaroni pudding with stewed fruit. ”

“ Fry some potatoes, then some onions, put them in layers in a pie-dish; next make a batter of Allinson wholemeal flour, 1 or 2 eggs, milk, and a little pepper with salt; pour over the fried vegetables as they lie in the dish, bake in the oven from 1/2 an hour to 1 hour, until, in fact, the batter has formed a crust; eat with the usual vegetables. Or chop fine cold vegetables of any kind, fry onions and add to them, put in a pie-dish, pour some of the batter as above over them, and bake. ”

“ I am a practical physician, and it is my boast that I rarely lose a child in illness, and when babies are reared as I advise they are usually the admiration of all, and live to be a source of delight to their parents. ”

“ Those persons who do not care to follow the hygienic principle in its entirety can easily substitute white flour if preferred. The recipes have been written bearing in mind the necessity for a wholesome diet; and they will be found to be less rich than those in most of the cookery books published. Should any one wish to make the dishes richer, it can easily be done by an addition of butter, eggs, or cream. ”

“ Steam or bake the apples till tender and press them through a sieve while hot, add the butter, and let the mixture cool; beat the yolks of the eggs, add to them the milk, sugar, lemon juice and rind, and add all these to the apples and butter; line a dish with paste, fill it with the above mixture, and bake the pie for 1/2 hour in a quick oven; whip the whites of the eggs stiff, adding a little castor sugar, heap the froth over the pie, and let it set in the oven. ”

“ If it is thick when it has been rubbed through sufficiently, thin it down with water or hot milk—half oatmeal water and half milk is a good mixture. Nothing better can be given to adults or children in cases of colds or feverish attacks. It is nourishing and soothing, and in cases of diarrhoea remedial.
RICE PUDDING.
Wash the rice, put it into a pie-dish, cover with cold water, and bake until the rice is nearly soft throughout. Beat up 1 egg with milk, mix with this a little cinnamon or other flavouring, and pour it over the rice; add sugar to taste, and bake until set. ”

“ A person who makes his meal from one dish only is the wisest of all. He who limits himself to two courses does well, but he who takes more than three courses lays up for himself stomach troubles or disorder of the system. ”

“ Eggs often crack when they are put into enough boiling water to well cover them, owing to the sudden expansion of the contents. If they are not covered with water there is less danger of them cracking. One can easily tell stale eggs from fresh ones by holding them up to a strong light. A fresh egg looks clear and transparent, whilst stale ones look cloudy and opaque. There are various ways of preserving eggs for the winter; one of the best is by using the Allinson egg preservative. Another very good way is to have stands made with holes which will hold the eggs. ”

“ The health of the nation to a great extent is in the hands of our cooks and housewives. If they learn to prepare wholesome and pure food, those who are dependent on them will benefit by it. Healthful cookery must result in health to the household and, therefore, to the nation. ”

“ To each egg allow 2 tablespoonfuls of cream, or new milk, 1 teaspoonful of strawberry or raspberry and currant jam, 1 thin slice of buttered toast, sugar and vanilla to taste. Butter as many cups as eggs, reckoning 1 egg for each person. Place the jam in the centre of the cup; beat up the eggs with the cream or milk, sugar and vanilla, and divide the mixture into the cups. Cover each cup with buttered paper, stand the cups in a stew-pan with boiling water, which should reach only half-way up the cups, and steam the eggs until they are set—time from 8 to 10 minutes. ”

“ The spinach is cooked without water, with a little salt; when quite tender it is strained, turned on to a board, and chopped very finely; then it is returned to the saucepan with a piece of butter, a little nutmeg, or a few very finely chopped eschalots and some of the juice previously strained. When the spinach is cooking a little Allinson fine wheatmeal, smoothed in 1 or 2 tablespoonfuls of milk, is added to bind the spinach with the juice; cook it a few minutes longer, and serve it with slices of hard-boiled egg on the top. Potatoes also require a good deal of care. ”

“ One part of water is added to two parts of fresh milk, and to each half-pint of this mixture is added a fairly heaped-up teaspoonful of Natural Food; mix well, put on the fire, bring to the boil, and when cool the food is ready. All food should be given cool, or not warmer than the temperature of the human blood. In place of a thermometer, the tip of the little finger is a good tester; if the food does not feel hot to this test it will be of the right temperature. Sugar should not be added to the food, nor should tinned or condensed milk be ordinarily used. ”

“ Nowadays most people admit that "too much meat is eaten"; but when the housewife tries to put before her family or friends a meal in which meat is to be conspicuous by its absence, she is often at a loss how to set about it. ”

“ One food that is now receiving a good deal of attention is bread, and we ought to be sure that this is of the best kind, for as a nation we eat daily a pound of it per head. We consume more of this article of food than of any other, and this is as it ought to be, for bread is the staff of life, and many of the other things we eat are garnishings. ”

“ A substantial soup and a pudding, or a savoury with vegetables and sauce and a pudding, are sufficient for a good meal. In our own household we rarely have more than two courses, and often only one course. ”

“ Get 1 tin of pears, open it, and turn the contents into an enamelled stewpan, add some sugar and liquid cochineal to colour the fruit, and let them stew a few minutes. Take out the pears carefully without breaking them, and let the syrup cook until it is thick. When the pears are cold lay them on a dish with the cores upwards, and with a spoon scoop out the core, and fill the space left with whipped cream flavoured with vanilla and sweetened; sprinkle them with finely shredded blanched almonds or pistachios, and pour the syrup round them. ”

“ The potatoes should be peeled, washed, and cut into thin slices, and the onions peeled and cut into thin slices. Arrange the vegetables and tomatoes in layers; dust a little pepper and salt between the layer, and finish with a layer of potatoes. Cut the butter into little bits, place them on the top of the potatoes, fill the dish with hot water, and bake the hot-pot for 2 hours or more in a hot oven. Add a little more hot water if necessary while baking to make up for what is lost in the cooking. ”

“ APPLE FRITTERS.
3 good juicy cooking apples, 3 eggs, 6 oz. of Allinson fine wheatmeal, 1/2 pint of milk, and sugar to taste. Pare and core the apples, and cut them into rounds 1/4 inch thick; make a batter with the milk, meal, and the eggs well beaten, adding sugar to taste. Have a frying-pan ready on the fire with boiling oil, vege-butter, or butter, dip the apple slices into the batter and fry the fritters until golden brown; drain them on blotting paper, and keep them hot in the oven until all are done. ”

“ Those who have apple-trees are often at a loss to know what to do with the windfalls. The apples come down on some days by the bushel, and it is impossible to use them all up for apple pie, puddings, or jelly. An excellent way to keep them for winter use is to dry them. It gives a little trouble, but one is well repaid for it, for the home-dried apples are superior in flavour to any bought apple-rings or pippins. Peel your apples, cut away the cores and all the worm-eaten parts—for nearly the whole of the windfalls are more or less worm-eaten. ”

“ Eggs take a long time to digest if hard boiled. All the fat of the egg is contained in the yolk, but the white of the egg is pure albumen (or nitrogen) and water. Eggs are most easily digested raw or very lightly boiled, and best cooked thus for invalids. The best way of lightly boiling an egg is to put it in boiling water, set the basin or saucepan on the side of the stove, and let it stand just off the boil for five or six minutes. ”

“ When not too highly spiced or seasoned they help to prevent thirst, as they supply the system with fluid, and when made with the liquor in which vegetables have been boiled they retain many valuable salts which would otherwise have been lost. When foods are eaten in a natural condition no sauces are required, but when food is changed by cooking many persons require it to be made more appetising, as it is called. ”