Excellent Cough Mixture

One cup of gum, one cup of honey, one cup of lemon juice, one ounce of glycerine; mix well, bottle, and take one teaspoonful when cough is troublesome.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

Restorative Jelly

1/2 box of gelatine.
1 tablespoonful of granulated gum arabic.
3 tablespoonfuls of sugar.
2 tablespoonfuls of lemon juice.
2 cloves.
1/2 pint of port.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl for two hours. At the end of that time place the bowl in a saucepan of boiling water, and cook, stirring frequently, until all the ingredients are dissolved. Strain, and set away to harden. The bowl must be kept covered all the time the jelly is soaking and cooking.

This jelly is to be used when the patient finds it difficult to swallow either liquid or solid food. A small piece of it, placed in the mouth, melts slowly, and is swallowed unconsciously. The sugar may be omitted, and a gill of port and a gill of beef juice be used; the beef juice to be added when the jelly is taken from the fire. Other stimulants may be substituted for port.

Source: Miss Parloa’s Young Housekeeper, Maria Parloa

Remedial Qualities of Common Fruits

A table giving the remedial qualities of the common fruits and vegetables is herewith appended: —

Celery for any form of rheumatism and nervous dyspepsia.

Lettuce for insomnia.

Water-cress for scurvy.

Onions are almost the best nervine known. Use for insomnia, for coughs and colds, and as a complexion curer. Eaten every other day, they soon have a clearing and whitening effect on the complexion.

Spinach for gravel.

Asparagus to induce perspiration.

Carrots for suffering from asthma.

Turnips for nervous disorders and for scurvy.

Raw beef proves of great benefit to persons of frail constitution, and to those suffering from consumption. It is chopped fine, seasoned with salt, and heated by placing it in a dish in hot water. It assimilates rapidly and affords the best nourishment.

Eggs contain a large amount of nutriment in a compact quickly available form. Beaten up raw with sugar they are used to clear and strengthen the voice. With sugar and lemon juice the beaten white of egg is used to relieve hoarseness.

Cranberries for erysipelas are used externally as well as internally.

Cranberries eaten raw are one of the finest tonics and appetizers known.

In cases of yellow or typhoid fever, cranberries are almost indispensable as a tonic and to assist in clearing the system of the harmful bacteria.

For some forms of dyspepsia there is no more simple and effective remedy than raw cranberries. Carry a supply in the pocket and eat them frequently during the day. They will cure headache as well.

People who are subject to biliousness will find that with cranberries a part of each day’s food they will be free from such attacks.

Honey is wholesome, strengthening, cleansing, healing and nourishing.

Fresh ripe fruits are excellent for purifying the blood and toning up the system.

Sour oranges are highly recommended for rheumatism.

Watermelon for epilepsy and for yellow fever.

Lemons for feverish thirst in sickness, biliousness, low fevers, rheumatism, colds, coughs, liver complaints, etc.

Blackberries for diarrhoea.

Tomatoes are a powerful aperient for the liver, a sovereign remedy for dyspepsia and for indigestion.

Tomatoes are invaluable in all conditions in which the use of calomel is indicated.

Figs are aperient and wholesome. They are said to be valuable as a food for those suffering from cancer. They are used externally as well as internally.

Bananas are useful as a food for those suffering from chronic diarrhoea.

Pie-plant is wholesome and aperient; is excellent for rheumatic sufferers and useful for purifying the blood.

Peanuts for indigestion. They are especially recommended for corpulent diabetes. Peanuts are made into a wholesome and nutritious soup, are browned and used as a coffee, are eaten as a relish simply baked, or are prepared and served as salted almonds.

Apples are useful in nervous dyspepsia; they are nutritious, medicinal and vitalizing; they aid digestion, clear the voice, correct the acidity of the stomach, are valuable in rheumatism, insomnia, and liver trouble. An apple contains as much nutriment as a potato, in a pleasanter, more wholesome form.

Grapes dissolve and dislodge gravel and calculi, and bring the stomach and bowels to a healthy condition.

Ripe pineapples have been put upon the list of foods especially healthful for persons troubled with indigestion, the juice being especially valuable in such cases. Shred with a silver fork, and reject all the indigestible core. The juice of a ripe pineapple is an almost invaluable remedy for diphtheria, the acid seeming to dissolve the strangling growth in the throat.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

Cure for Coughs

Three newly-laid eggs, unbroken, over which pour the juice of six lemons, and allow to stand for forty-eight hours. Then pick out any bits of eggshell which are not dissolved; add one-half pound of rock candy, and one pint of Jamaica brandy ; mix well and bottle. Dose : 1 tablespoonful three or four times a day.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

An Excellent Recipe for Hoarseness

At night before going to bed, have ready a pint bowl, into which you have squeezed the juice of half a lemon, add to this one teaspoonful of glycerine, and one or two tablespoons of good whisky or best brandy, pour over boiling water, sweeten well with loaf sugar and drink very hot.

Source: Tried and True Recipes, F.D.P. Jermain

Slippery-Elm Bark Tea

Break the bark into bits, pour boiling water over it, cover, and let it infuse until cold. Sweeten, ice, and take for summer disorders, or add lemon juice and drink for a bad cold.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

Cure for a Cold

Boil two ounces flaxseed in one quart of water, strain and add two ounces of rock candy, one-half pint of honey, juice of three lemons ; mix and let all boil well, let cool and bottle. Dose, one cupful on going to bed one-half cupful before meals, the hotter you drink it the better.

Source: The New Galt Cook Book, M. Taylor & F. McNaught

Cough Remedy

Pour half a pint of water on one quarter of a pound of gum arabic; when dissolved add one-quarter of a pound of sugar and half a gill of lemon juice; let it simmer for five or ten minutes then bottle and cork. When taken water may be added. This is a most soothing syrup for a throat irritated by a hacking cough.

Source: Tried and True Recipes, F.D.P. Jermain

To Remove Sunburn

Squeeze the juice of a lemon into a small teacupful of new milk. Allow it to curdle. Apply it to the face and throat with a piece of cotton wool, after having been out in the sun, or the last thing at night. Allow it to remain on the skin for a short time then wash it off with tepid soft water. This will remove all heat and tan from the skin.

Source: The Dudley Book of Cookery and Household Recipes, Georgiana Dudley

Cough Mixture (The Late Sir William Gull’s)

4 ozs. honey
4 ozs. cod liver oil
The juice of 2 or 3 lemons, according to size

To mix the above put altogether into a jar and either stand it on the stove or in a saucepan of boiling water until it is well dissolved. Stir the ingredients occasionally.

A dessertspoonful to be taken three times a day, or double the quantity if the patient likes. Should the stomach reject the cod liver oil, sweet olive oil may be substituted, but the other is the best.

Source: The Northampton Cookery Book, M.A. Jeffery