Domestic

New Zealand Tablet, 20 October 1921, Page 41

Domestic

By Maureen

V- TO MAKE TOTTED MEAT. Four parts lean meat to one part fat bacon, and to every pound of meat add I teaspoonful ground mace, i teaspoonful grated nutmeg, i teaspoonful cayenne pepper. Mince the meat and bacon in a machine; afterwards pound well in a mortar, adding the other ingredients. Put the mixture into a deep baking dish, and bake for half an hour. Press well into jars, and .fill up the jars with clarified fat to make them airtight. Cover closely with paper. RHUBARB SOUr. Allow three stalks of - rhubarb to each pint of stock (preferably white stock); cut it fine and cook in the stock till tender, adding an onion sliced thin for each quart of stock, seasoning with celery, salt, and pepper. Put through a sieve, and just before serving add a sprinkling of very fine-chopped parsley. The onion may be omitted and lemon rind substituted. The stock may be somewhat thinned if preferred or less rhubarb used. BAKED RHUBARB. » Much of the flavor of rhubarb is contained in the skin, so that it is best not to remove it unless it is old and stringy, especially for baking. The lowest (white) part of the stalk is best tested before using or discarding, as it may or may not be bitter. The pink coloring also depends greatly upon the skin. To discard it will usually result in a greenish hue. Cut the unpeeled stalks, into inch pieces and place in an earthen baking dish with one cupful of sugar to one pound of rhubarb, but no water. Cover close and bake slowly in a moderate oven for an hour or longer. The time must depend somewhat upon the quantity. The rhubarb will be clear and a pretty red when done. If there is danger of the oven getting too hot, set the crock in an outer vessel of water. . When served as an adjunct to meats or fowls, less sugar may be used; merely sprinkle each layer and add a sprinkling of flour to each of the lower layers. On the top one sprinkle, instead, a little sugar and buttered crumbs. RHUBARB IX COOKERY AND MEDICINE. Mystery or origin, added to ancient lineage and a 20th century acknowledgment of rightful claim to tonic /qualities as well as purifying properties, make rhubarb "an interesting study viewed as either food or medicine (says a contemporary). Upon the root, grown in from the darker ages (used in medicine from those days onward into our own time) rhubarb's reputation was primarily founded.

But the stalk of this fruit-vegetable has also been in great repute for dozens of decades.. The properties of the root differ somewhat from those of the stalk, else the latter could not so freely be used as a food, but the stalk, also, has strikingly excellent qualities. The \latter, deliciously cooked, is one of the most stimulating appetisers known among foods—condimental in characterboth to appetite and digestion, while the combination of malic and oxalic acids. results in. a most valuable general tonic and special blood-toner: hence, - a complexion beautifier. , Although so acid, rhubarb is considered one of the best medicines known for many troubles, including rheumatism and kidney ailments. In some instances soda is added to offset its acidity. However, in any attempt to neutralise physical disorders, rhubarb would best be taken under wise medical direction, although as a simple spring "purifier" and appetiser, one's appetite may usually be trusted. The root itself is a tonic and also both a cathartic and astringent, this unusual combination being the secret of its value to physicians, and it is said that very few medicines are prescribed in such variety of form. Its introduction into Europe was by learned Arabian doctors, it is supposed. It was known to the old Persians, Hindoos, and Chinese, and, from Tartary, Bucharian traders still carry it to the Russian frontier. In France and England the root has for many years been cultivated as a drug. Germany has grown it chiefly as an ornamental plant, while to America belongs the credit of having not only for- generations cultivated the stalk as food, but of having perfected it as a tonic fruit or vegetable supply; The new, crimson, winter rhubarb has a delicacy of flavor not unlike that of the strawberry; is less tart than the usual type and finer grained, so that, with its less prominent fibre, there is less waste in its use. It retains its beauty of coloring also, after cooking better than the ordinary rhubarb.