KinSource - Tale of the Week - Miss Parloa On Gruel

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Lake City Sentinel, September 26, 1885, p. 7

Miss Parloa on Gruel.

Miss Parloa is delivering a course of lectures on the subject, "How to Cook for Patients," before the school for trained nurses at the Charity Hospital on Blackwell's Island. In one of her lectures she gave instructions for making gruel. "To make flour gruel properly," she said, "you ust use one quart of milk, three tablespoonfuls of flour and a teaspoonful of salt. Pour all the milk except a cupful into a double boiler. Mix the flour with the milk you reserved and stir it into the boiling milk and let it cool thirty minutes, putting in the salt ten minutes before it is done. The longer [the] milk cooks the more laxative it is. If you wish to make the gruel especially nutritious cook a half-cupful of raisins cut in two in the milk during the entire time. This drink is very stimulating, and is often given in place of wine to patients. In Indian meal gruel the meal must always be well cooked, an hour or two being usually required. But it is better to use the very fine meal now in use rather than that milled by the old process, and always, when needed quickly, put it into boiling water at once. To make this gruel take one quart of boiling water, two tablespoonfuls of Indian meal, one tablespoonful of flour, one teaspoonful of salt; mix the meal, etc., with a half-cup of cold water and pour into boiler. Stir while it is cooking and cool not less that thirty minutes. Always keep the saucepan covered."

Miss Parloa advised the nurses not to trust to guess-work, but always measure out carefully. There were some born cooks who always came out right, but they were scarce. She then took up the subject of potatoes, saying that few people knew how to boil potatoes or bake them properly. Thirty minutes to boil and forty-five minutes to bake, was the rule. "Pare them if to boil," said she. "Put them in boiling water which shall just cover them. When done pour off every drop of water, put a towel over the kettle, for putting the cover on would spoil all."