DEADLY CHRISTMAS DINNERS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 61, 20 December 1907, Page 3

DEADLY CHRISTMAS DINNERS.

Foods not to Mix on the 25th.

Be careful what you mix at Christmas dinner. Poison lurks everywhere in the turkey, in the dessert, and among the many liquids. They are all harmless by themselves, but certain kinds of food mixed in one's stomach may combine and distil a poison that will, at least, wipe out all your enjoyment of Christmas. Fortunately many of them are things one doesn't often mix, but you should keep and eye on them in case. Don't mix fish and port wine. Port wine, of course, is not usually combined with fish, but sometimes it is. You may escape even if you do mix these things ; but there is a strip of flesh lying along the fish's spine which will disturb your interior very much if it comes in contact with port. Sole is the least harmful in this combination, and plaice or mackerel the worst. The port acts on this spinal strip, and distils a formidable poison which will make you very ill indeed. It produces terrific dyspeptic pains, and the feeling is a tight hand of hot air across the forehead. It is not liable to actually kill you unless you are naturally in very bad condition, but it would be a dangerous thing for a child to get hold of. There is no remedy except an emetic, so avoid mixing fish and port. There is no harm in fish if the port is taken some time afterwards.

You would not imagine that I any sane nian would eat hare and celery together —that is, celery immediately after hare. But it has been done more than once, with disastrous results. Don't do it, or you may spend the rest of your Christmas in bed. The juices of the hare, and, in fact, of any other kind of game in a less degree, act upon the celery and foment a mixture which buckles up the coats of the stomach, and is more painful than one would think possiple. It is liable to cause the death of children ; but an adult will usually recover after a very unpleasant experience. And if by any chance a lemon should be eaten, or its juice drunk, on top of the last mixture, results will be more painful than ever, and the stomach may be permanently affected. Celery does no harm whatever in tlie same meal with hafe if only there is a course or so between, as there naturally would be. Most people know that wine should not be mixed with oysters, and spirits are far worse. They transform the tender morsels to tough slabs of unchewable leather, and you will suffer accordingly. No man can digest oysters and spirits at once; and if by mischance you should add ligueiu". of any kind your {ortitf.es, will bQ terrific, and you will not reel well for a week after the mistake. No man should insult his interior with shellfish and alcohol at once. Stout does no harm, however. If you are unwise enough to mix turkey or fowl with and spinach, you will suffer yet more. This triple combination is more than the strongest stomach in the world can stand, for the three items are antagonistic, distilling acids and other horrors, and while they are fighting it out you will have a yef-y tjafi time, ft js. liafd to find a r-easofl" for this, but it is undoubtedly so, and you will not bribe anyone who has done it to re= peat the experiment at any price. ( Again, whisky and bananas is a possible mixture, and one of the most dangerous. It may actually prevent your ever attending another Christmas dinner, and will certainly make you extremely and emphatically ill, with much more pain than anybody cares to bear at Yuletide. So let whisky and bananas alone. Separately they are well fyut combined th,ey, make a dangerous poison. "'As t'o drinks, whisky and burgundy will, if mixed even in small quantities, make you repent very seriously next day, but they are not dangerous. One would not exnec| a sensible pei'soif to ddftk tea and'the liqueur called Chartreuse together, but if he did he might very well succumb to the after-effects. The liquid formed by the action of the Chartreuse on the tannin that is present in tea is an active poison, and anyone attacked by it is to be pitted.