COOKING FOR INVALIDS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1977, 25 June 1880, Page 2

COOKING FOR INVALIDS.

Even the visionary females—and sometimes they are wives and mothers (says the “ Prairie Farmer”), more’s the pity!—who talk of higher spheres and exalted aspirations, and declare, with tip-tilted noses, that they do not feel called on to slave themselves to death in household drudgery, and that there are more important and agreeable demands on time and talents than those emanating from the kitchen; even they lay aside selfish longings and vain desires, and coma down from their airy heights, when love claims a service at their hands; even they count nothing a trouble or inconvenience that can cheat the hours of weariness and bring comfort and healing to a dear one who is struggling back to health and strength. But with the best intentions in the world, and the most devoted affection, the woman who knows nothing about cooking for well people, will fail of perfect service to the sick, for with them, unless a thing is just right, it is all wrong, and then, no one need be surprised or disappointed, it an invalid with fickle taste and feeble appetite, pronounces the result of one’s most earnest efforts in the culinary line “a mess ; ” if he feels very weak and nervous he will be likely to say “a horrid mess ” and refuse it with more emphasis than politeness.

Those who have been prisoned in a sick room through weary weeks of convalescence, know how the trifles of life assume an air of magnitude, and how the three or more daily meals come to be considered as the most important events of the day. It is difficult for those who have never suffered from disease, to realise to what extent trivial circumstances may aggravate and worry a patient out of all comfort and peace of mind, and so it happens that an invalid sometimes suffers through the carelesslesn or thoughtlessness of his best friend. So simple a thing as a cup of tea and a toasted cracker may be the means of harrowing up the inmost soul of a weak and nervous body, when the tea is presented in a time-worn cracked cup with the cracker, burned and blackened, tucked into the eloppy saucer.

Cooking for the sick is an accomplishment with which every woman should be familiar, even if her knowledge serves her only once in a lifetime, or not at all. A good nurse is the physician’s most efficient aid, and it frequently happens that to her remains tho task of carrying forward the cure which his medicine has begun. Hence the necessity that she should be able to judge as to a suitable and nourishing diet, as well as to prepare it properly and serve it temptingly. The dishes that are available for invalids are not many, and their preparation must necessarily bo simple; whatever they are, too much attention cannot be paid to giving them a dainty and appetising look, after they are properly cooked. A superfluous amount of food served in a slovenly and belter skelter fashion, and a lot of empty dishes and debris standing within- sight for hours, are discouraging and disagreeable features to people who care very little about eating any way, and whoso appetites need coaxing. The choicest ware, the whitest napkins, tha brightest silver ; the best the house affords, are none too good for tbe sick room, and when they have served their purpose they should bo immediately removed from [sight until needed again.