Snack

“ Breakfast was always a bowl of bread and milk boiled, and a rather thick slice of bread and butter after it. Fresh meat was sparingly given us at dinner, but we had plenty of broth, vegetables, and Yorkshire pudding. Our evening meal was bread and milk, rice or tapioca pudding, and a thick slice of sweet loaf—that is, bread made with currants, and caraway seeds, and a little sugar. But when we went out for dinner or tea, we had our share of the good things going; and, if the company was at our house, Ann Oddy usually put a couple of Christ Church tarts, or cheesecakes, among our plain bread. ”

“ More bread, more tea, more vegetables are eaten, and fruit is added. The usual breakfast is bread, butter, and tea; the dinner a small amount of meat, with potatoes and vegetables; the evening meal, fish or bacon, with potatoes, as well as the eternal bread, butter, and tea. All these four young people are steady and intelligent. They have enough to eat, but they are put to it for proper clothing already. The H.’s will have to move sooner than the W.’s if their family increases, as their room, though a pleasant one, is not above half the size of the other. ”

“ A luncheon is not to be despised that begins with a cup of bouillon, or with a plate of soup left over from last night's dinner, continues with fresh rolls or biscuit or muffins, or toasted crackers, or good cold bread—white or brown—cut in delicate slices, and one of the pâtés put up by certain French and American companies, [Pg 93] or a Gotha liver sausage, or a few sardines, accompanied by a cup of tea or cocoa, and concludes with some simple sweet, such as marmalade, jam, or fruit. ”

“ When we come to the question of the food supplies to be taken aboard, much will depend upon the individual. Hard tack, salt tack, flour, beans, corned beef, salt pork, bacon, hams, canned meats, sardines, canned fruits and vegetables, cornmeal, lard, butter, cheese, condensed milk, sweetened and unsweetened coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, pepper, salt, mustard, vinegar, poultry seasoning, sugar and rice are some of the staple comestibles that suggest themselves, but these may be added to or subtracted from according to circumstances. ”

“ Milk, milk soups, eggs, raw and soft-cooked, rennet, custards, ice creams, albumin water, well cooked cereals, gruels, broths, toasts, milk toast, jellies made with gelatine, such as lemon and wine jelly; macaroni, spaghetti, well-cooked bread (never fresh bread) , tea, coffee, cocoa.
Sick people should have their meals as regularly as possible, at regular hours and promptly and attractively served. The tray, the dishes, the tray-cloth, should be spotlessly clean, and the tray should not be over-loaded with dishes or food. ”

“ Breakfast should consist of thoroughly cooked cereals, wheatena, cream of wheat, malt breakfast food, cracked wheat, rolled or cracked oats, served with cream or sugar or both, whole wheat bread, muffins, or biscuits, with butter, raw or stewed fruit, coffee, tea or cocoa with milk. Luncheon may consist of milk or vegetable soups, eggs in any form, boiled potatoes, sweet potatoes, string beans, greens, or any green vegetables, simple desserts such as custards, rice or tapioca puddings, bread pudding, etc., milk, tea, cocoa, buttermilk, zoolak or koumiss as beverages. ”

“ Prepare your breakfast something like they do in England, bread and butter, a little cheese, a few eggs, food that is light and nutritious, and which does not require so much labor in cooking; and instead of tea, if you cannot drink cold water, make a bowl of water gruel or meal porridge and you will save dirtying three or four dishes, knives and forks, or spoons, to each individual that sits at the table. ”

“ Next the well-roasted bird—of game or poultry—accompanied or followed by salad, and a dish of choice vegetables. Then one light simple sweet, for those who take it, and a slight savory biscuit or morsel of cheese completes the repast. Such a meal contains within its limits all that can be desired for daily enjoyment and use. If well and liberally served, it is complete in every sense of the word. Dessert and its extent is a matter of individual taste ”

“ Luncheon: for Billy: herring, cold muffins, doughnuts; for Dick and me: German toast, apple sauce.
Dinner: fish hash, biscuits, Indian pudding, milk.
Saturday.
Breakfast: oatmeal, German toast, cocoa shells.
Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, bowl of rice; for Dick and me: rice and milk, doughnuts, apple sauce.
Dinner: baked beans, new raised bread.
[231] To a man accustomed to a beefsteak breakfast, fried hasty pudding may seem a poor substitute and griddle cakes may seem well enough to taper off with but scarcely stuff for a full meal. ”

“ To-day, for instance, I’ll tell you what our food was. Breakfast: good oatmeal with boiled milk and sugar, coffee, war bread, which one of the group toasted before the fire for our table, “bacon” the eternal, which is fried ham, and not very good. Lunch: a kind of meat loaf, rice, with cheese (which we have about every other day) , bread and butter, cocoa, and stewed figs, stewed without sugar. ”

“ The eating of one meal before another is digested, is an abuse.
After dinner there should be some exercise; men as much as they can; women should go into the Tuilleries, or as they say in America, go shopping. We are satisfied that the little gossip and conversation they maintain is very healthful.
At times, all should take as much soup, potage, fish, etc., and also meat cooked with rice and macaronies, pastry, creams, etc.
At dessert such persons should eat Savoy biscuits, and other things made up of eggs, fecula, and sugar. ”

“ Breakfast—Rice with syrup, graham bread, coffee with milk and sugar.
Dinner—Roast beef, baked potatoes, peas, graham bread, gelatine, coffee with milk and sugar.
Supper—Cornstarch pudding, gingerbread, tea with sugar.
Now the dietary given above was prepared with special reference to the physical requirements of the human system. The ingredients are in the correct proportion to insure health and happiness. Let no one think this menu is extravagant. The following table presents the exact amounts given to each person with the cost value. ”

“ Some fashionable ladies have the reputation of having very fine lunches—chops, chickens, oysters, salads, chocolate, and many other good things being provided; and others, just as fashionable, have nothing but a cup of tea or chocolate, some thin slices of bread and butter, and cold meat; or, if of Teutonic taste, nothing but cheese, crackers, and ale, thus reserving the appetite for dinner. ”

“ The flavour and texture of food, its taste, in fact, stimulates the production of those secretions—such as the saliva and the gastric juice—by the action of which the food is digested or dissolved, and becomes finally a part of the body, or is assimilated. As food, then, must be relished it is desirable that it should be varied in character—it should neither be restricted to vegetable products on the one hand, nor to animal substances (including milk and eggs) on the other. ”

“ Those, therefore, who give them cake, or candy, or nuts, and allow them to keep eating them every time they like, take a course which, unless the stomach is very strong, is sure to weaken and injure it. When children have nuts, apples, candy, or cakes, persuade them to eat them, either at their meals as a part, or else half way between a meal as a luncheon, and do not let them keep nibbling and tasting through several successive hours, thus keeping the stomach all the time labouring, and wearing out its strength. ”

“ An oatmeal set stands at each place, accompanied by the knife, fork, and spoon, tumbler, napkin, [Pg 23] butter-plate—unless the oatmeal course is preceded by one of fruit, when fruit plates, with fruit napkins and finger-bowls, should hold the first place.
With the fresh room, the bright cloth, the shining glass and silver, the vase of flowers, the appetizing food, one must be either very dyspeptic or a confirmed pessimist who does not feel a slight rise of spirits as he takes his place at the breakfast-table. ”

“ At each meal it is well for the patient to begin with the solids before he proceeds to the fluids, and at breakfast, instead of beginning the meal with a cup of tea or coffee, he should finish a slice of dry toast and a piece of fish, egg, or bacon, before he takes any liquid at all. ”

“ She has a good appetite, drinks tea and coffee moderately and eats always the simplest food, cereals, bread and butter, vegetables, eggs, milk, a little meat once a day, plenty of fruit at every meal, whatever is in season, and never can be tempted by rich salads, desserts or fancy dishes. ”

“ A pan, after being buttered or greased, is dusted with flour, sugar, or even bread-crumbs, to prevent the mixture that is put in it from sticking. Sugar, etc., may also be sprinkled over dishes with a dredger.
DRINKING.
When weary, or cold, or warm, or exhausted, we drink in preference to eating, because we feel the effect instantaneously; while after eating even the most substantial food, we do not feel the effect for some time.
When exhausted and when immediate relief is necessary, the best drinks are broth, chocolate, milk, or water sweetened with sugar. ”

“ At breakfast they deluge the stomach with a pint of hot water slightly impregnated with tea, or slightly tinctured, or rather coloured with coffee; and they swallow, without mastication, hot bread half-baked, soaked in melted butter, with the grossest cheese and salt or hung beef, pickled pork, or fish, all which can with difficulty be dissolved. ”

“ At dinner the girl has had no exercise to create an appetite, and her meal is made up of pastry and dessert. ‘Remember that her muscles move the limbs, and are composed chiefly of azote, and it is the red meat, or muscle of beef or mutton, that she would eat if she had any appetite for it, that is to say, if her stomach and blood-vessels would endure it. ”

“ The living here agrees with me exceedingly well. We have plenty of good fresh milk, fresh graham bread from the bakery, fresh graham meal to make puddings, butter, cheese, apple-sauce, any kind of canned fruit we choose, which generally constitutes our breakfast. ”

“ If the food selected by the appetite happens to be soup, or milk, or some mushy substance, get all the good taste out of it, doing all you can to accomplish this; for to get the taste out [Pg 55] of food is an assurance of digesting it, and the pleasure it gives in the process of Nature's way of getting you to do the right thing in helping her to nourish yourself properly. ”

“ And the meal should be a generous one, beginning with soup, and fish if possible, well cooked meats and plenty of vegetables, followed by light puddings and stewed fruit. But a delicate person should not touch dessert, be it fresh or dried fruits. ”

“ A bowl of bread and milk in the middle of the day is to be had, almost for the asking, and it not only serves to quench thirst, but what strength it gives is sooner felt than if the food was of a more solid nature. ”

“ The Diet of the Wet Nurse.—The first point of importance is to fix early and definite hours for every meal; and the mother should see that no cause is ever allowed to interfere with their punctuality. The food itself should be light, easy of digestion, and simple. Boiled or roast meat, with bread and potatoes, and occasionally some sago, rice, or tapioca pudding, should constitute the dinner, the only meal that requires special comment; broths, green vegetables, and all acid or salt foods must be avoided. ”

“ I could eat—let me see what I could eat:—I could eat a lobster-salad, and two dozen oysters, and a lump of cake, and a wing and a leg of a chicken—if it was a spring chicken, with watercreases round it—and a Bath-bun, and a sandwich; and in fact I don't know what I couldn't eat, except just that crust in the cupboard. And I do believe I could drink a whole bottle of champagne. ”

“ Although a meal satisfies your hunger you should have dessert, because the educated palate craves that particular spice as a proper finish. Scientists tell us that a dinner digests better because of a tasty dessert, which, they say, gives the final stimulus necessary to dispose of the food previously received. ”

“ When we think what delicious meals can be enjoyed from any of the cereals, well cooked, and taken with milk or cream, bread from unbolted flour, plenty of unsugared fruit, and pure rain or spring water, filtered and cooled or taken hot, with or without milk, we wonder that so many people consent day after day to use greasy pork, fried steaks, fried potatoes, hot biscuit, and in many cases poorly made coffee and tea. ”

“ Hard-boiled eggs, potted meats, thin slices of ham or tongue, cold chicken, and plenty of good bread and sweet butter, are among the must-haves. Picnic appetites are famous, and you need plenty of the "substantial." Jelly in little glasses, fruit, cake, and, if mother says so, a few of her delicious pickles or an apple-pie do not prove as indigestible when eaten out-doors as they do under other circumstances. ”

“ Coffee or cocoa made with milk should certainly have the preference over tea for breakfast, and in addition to the porridge or other such dish, fish, egg, or bacon, with plenty of bread and butter, should form the morning repast. ”

“ The palatable pleasure in a meal of his childhood is a lost asset. What has brought about this change in the appetite of man?
We all know, from experience, that we handle our food better if we relish it. This is due largely to the fact that the taste organs telegraph ahead to the stomach to prepare for work. The stomach responds by pouring out some digestive juices, and is consequently all ready to begin business the instant the tourist arrives. ”