290 VEGETABLE FOOD. 



sometimes taken by invalids who cannot bear solid food. It is also 

 suitable for infants. 



CRACKNELS are light and easily digested. 



SPONGE-CAKES are also light and often tempting. They may be 

 soaked in hot milk, as also may rusks and cracknels. 



MUFFINS and CRUMPETS are very indigestible. 



GINGERBREAD, when dry, crisp and light, is acceptable to many 

 dyspeptics. 



MACARONI and VERMICELLI are very nutritious, but not easily 

 digested on account of the closeness of their texture. 



SEMOLINA is made from the inner part of the wheat-grain, is 

 nourishing and digestible, and is useful for puddings, or to thicken 

 soups, broth or milk. 



Oatmeal Oats, when ground, form a flour which is not so 

 white as wheaten flour and when made into bread has a peculiar 

 taste, half sweet, half bitter. On account of the large proportion 

 of fats and salts contained in them, oats form a very nutritious 

 food. When deprived of their covering, oats are known as groats 

 or grits; when crushed, they are in the form best adapted for gruel. 

 Groats and milk furnish perfect nourishment, even for an adult. 

 Oatcake-bread, in large, thin flakes, is a common article of diet in 

 Scotland, and in some parts of the north of England. 



PORRIDGE is a hasty pudding of boiled oatmeal. The oatmeal 

 should be mixed, at first very thin, in boiling water or milk; while 

 boiling, the meal should be sprinkled slowly on the surface and 

 stirred in ; when enough is added, the whole should simmer for 

 half an hour or longer, with an occasional stir. If, however, the 

 oatmeal be imperfectly boiled, as when prepared in haste or inten- 

 tionally unboiled, it is extremely indigestible, and produces obstin- 

 ate water brash and flatulence; but if well boiled, and eaten slowly 

 so as to become thoroughly mixed with saliva, it is most whole- 

 some. 



GRUEL is a similar preparation, taken in a more liquid form. 

 It should be boiled until every particle of the meal is cooked. It 

 may be made with milk instead of water, or part water and part 

 milk, and is generally better if strained, as the straining removes 

 the irritating husks of the grain. Gruel appears to have been a 

 favorite morning-beverage some two hundred years ago, for water- 

 gruel was advertised as always ready at the Marine coffee-house in 

 Birchin Lane, Oornhill, London, every morning from six to eleven 

 o'clock, where as much as four to five gallons were drunk daily. 

 This is a more innocent stimulant than that which finds favor with 

 the revelers of the present day. 



In North Germany, oatmeal-soup mixed with fruit is a favorite- 

 dish, the fruit greatly augmenting the nutritious value of the oat- 

 meal. In Ireland oat meal is mixed with Indian corn-meal, and 

 then stirred into boiling water, forming a compound called stirabout. 



