Mutton Broth for the Sick.—(No. 564.)
Have a pound and a half of a neck or loin of mutton; take off the skin and the fat, and put it into a saucepan; cover it with cold water, (it will take about a quart to a pound of meat,) let it simmer very gently, and skim it well; cover it up, and set it over a moderate fire, where it may stand gently stewing for about an hour; then strain it off. It should be allowed to become cold, when all the greasy particles will float on the surface, and becoming hard, can be easily taken off, and the settlings will remain at the bottom.
See also Nos. 490 and 252.
N.B. We direct the meat to be done no more than just sufficiently to be eaten; so a sick man may have plenty of good broth for nothing; as by this manner of producing it, the meat furnishes also a good family meal.
Obs.—This is an inoffensive nourishment for sick persons, and the only mutton broth that should be given to convalescents, whose constitutions require replenishing with restorative aliment of easy digestion. The common way of making it with roots, onions, sweet herbs, &c. &c. is too strong for weak stomachs. Plain broth will agree with a delicate stomach, when the least addition of other ingredients would immediately offend it.
For the various ways of flavouring broth, see No. 527.
Few know how much good may be done by such broth, taken in sufficient quantity at the beginning and decline of bowel complaints and fevers; half a pint taken at a time. See the last two pages of the 7th chapter of the Rudiments of Cookery.