Food Friday: Food for the Sick from 1876

One of the great things about those 19th century cookbooks is that they had a little bit of everything. Yes, they had recipes for food but they also had household hints for cleaning, laundry, and medicinal recipes. These books served as an all-in-one household guide for women.

Since I am now sick with the same thing that has plagued by family for a month and many of my friends, I decided to check out some recipes geared towards feeding the sick.

I don't know about you but all I remember eating if I was sick as a child was chicken noodle soup. I think it's possible my mom served me milk toast one time but typically the food of choice was canned chicken noodle soup.

Earlier generations had all sorts of ideas about what would make you well. Some look similar to what we might suggest today. Take for example some recipe ideas found in the following cookbook.



This section starts off with oysters then continues on with the non-appetizing gruel recipes.



While other recipes utilized alcohol to help the sick person.



Let's see, oysters and wine  sounds like something that would either cure you or help you forget you were sick.

What was  served  to the sick people in your family?

Comments

  1. #1. Tomato Soup and Grilled cheese
    #2. Hot spiced apple cider
    #3. Eggdrop Soup

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remember my mother trying to make me eat milk toast, which I thought was disgusting. The bizarre remedy my family believed in was coca-cola syrup. You could buy a bottle of it at the drug store. My siblings and I had a teaspoon of this every few hours for nausea.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts