Recipe book Collection: College of Physicians of Philadelphia

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The tenderness of animal flesh is influenced by sex, age et&c. The female is more tender than the male. The male being more dense and castrated animals are better than the male that can propogate his species. We have evidence of this in our beef et&c. Age also influences the flesh of animals: it becomes more dense & tough as the animal grows older. But lamb or veal is more difficult of digestion than beef or mutton. D^r Fardyce says that veal is very indigestable. Pork also should be eaten in small quantities. We should use vegatable diet almost entirely for our patients in this country. We may lay it down as a general rule that fat animals are more easily digested than trim ones. more gluten in one than the other. Some harts of beef more difficult of digestion than others you all know how this applies to beef steak. The blood, glands, ligaments, cartilages, tendons, et&c you know are not to be digested, but after long boiling, then they become a wholesome

Mutton et al

article of diet. By being made into a jelly by balinese digester they are are excellent aliment. These animal substances are good for the quantity & quality of nourishment contained in them. The flesh of the cow is composed of gluten and fat but less than pork. you know how much the flesh is altered by castration, that the bullock is tender & the bull tough. The capon differs from the cock. Veal when just killed is difficult of digestion, but when kept two or three days it loses that stringy quality which you find at table.

Mutton should not be killed before 6 or 7 years at this age it comes to perfection. They say that our mutton in this country is not so good as in some parts of Europe, but we do not attend to the perfecting it, or it would be equal to the English or Welsh. Pork has its fat diffused more completely throughout

Wild Meats, Birds et al

the cellular substance, than any other meat & is improper as food for the sedentary, but fresh pork with many vegatables constitutes a good aliment for the healthy & labouring class.

The wild meats of our country are very good. our venison is perhaps the best in the world and easy of digestion both when fresh & when long kept. It is not very nutritious.

Birds supply us with some of the many luxurious articles of the table. Their flesh differs from quadrapeds, and those that feed upon flesh are not so good. The duck tho, it sometimes eats flesh is very good. The turkey stands as the head of them and in this country is very large We have it weighing 25 lbs. The common fowl differs little from the turkey the soup made of them is one of the best things for the sick. An old Cock or hen is one of the toughest things we can find & should be boiled several hours.

Domestic fowls

An old fowl contains much gluten, the hen is more tender than the cock and the capon is better than either. In america the capon is almost unknown while in Europe & India they are very common. The goose & duck are more difficult of digestion than those which have been mentioned. It would consume too much of our time to enter into much discussion on this subject, for further information read Cullen. D^r C has said that the blood rendered the animal more alkalescent and has accounted for it in this way, for the duck et&c being so good. of all these the black duck is the best and D^r Bartan said it was because it lived on vegetable matter. As a general rule fowls of white meat such as the turkey, chicken &c are more digestable & less stimulating than those of black flesh as the goose, duck, et&c. The turkey should be nearly

Eggs

grown before it is killed, & kept a few days before it is cooked, which renders it more tender. The young chicken not so nutritious as the chicken cock or hen.

5th Lecture. At our last lecture we commenced the consideration of the subject of animal food. Among these may be mentioned Eggs, they are the most nourishing & least stimulating of all animal food and as easy of digestion. This assertion is very old & was expressed by Harvey Aristotle said that that which would nourish the chick must be good for men, and we think a soft boiled egg is along with oysters &c the best food for convalescents, and hard boiled eggs the worst. The white of a hard boiled egg when dry will scratch glass. The only eggs we use are those of the hen & occasionally the ducks.

Eggs are much used in countries where religion interdicts the use of flesh. The different ways of cooking eggs as omelets et&c are all less healthy

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than soft boiling. When you use them for your patients don't forget to cut off the hard part. poaching eggs by putting them into hot water is a good way of cooking them. When boiled they should only be left in two & 1/2 minutes after the water begins to boil. Eggs are often used to give flavour to other food—as veal cutlet, oysters et&c. When these are cooked with flour, they are not so good. But I shall resume this subject when I get upon cooking. Eggs with brandy & wine constitutes the most nourishing & supporting diet we can use in Typhoid diseases. Eggs and sugar are extremely nutritious I now speak of both parts of the Egg. Galen preferred the yolk I also prefer it as the most valuable part of the egg. But we should always be careful to have our eggs fresh. Stale eggs are not so good.

Fishes

if they have the least odour which does not belong to the fresh egg, they are not fit for use. As I before mentioned they are among the best articles for patients in diseases of a typhoid type, & in the typhoid pleurisy which raged in this country a few years past they where mixed with wine & brandy forming forming what is called Eggnog, were very efficacious in supporting and raising the patient.

The next animal substance we shall mention is fish. In some countries as in the north of Europe they constitute the only diet of the inhabitants. Haller said it was probable that fish was the first animal used by man as food, because he would take that one which died without a groan. Herring & shad afford subistance to more people than any thing else, and the quantities caught as a haul are almost incredible. It has been said that at the Potowmac 372,500 were caught at

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one draw. There seems to be as much difference in different kinds of fish as in flesh. Cat fish and some others are more difficult of digestion than perch, sheeps head et&c. Mackarel, eel & cat fish are to most people difficult, but the palatte should govern us in their use. It is said that a diet of fish is favourable to generation. This is not confirmed by experience The esquimaut & other people live almost entirely on fish and are by no means fruitful. From what I have learnt I believe fish are not favourable to longevity, it appears that the people who live on them never survive 50 or 60 years. Fryer Bacon said that fish were antiseptic, but but as the doctrine of putrescency in the living body has been exploded, the conclusions must fall with the original proposition. We do not think that people subsisting on fish are less subject to inflammatory diseases than such

Shell fishes

as live on vegatables. When the Catholics use them for 5 or 6 weeks they mostly become weak, it maybe determined positively that fish is less nutritious than flesh. D^r Cullen appoved the opinion of Haller but we can decide pretty correctly by reflecting on the comparative qualities of Bacon & fish.

Shell fishes. Oysters. These are a species of shellfish more perfect in the U.S. than in any part of the world. Some Europeans don't like our oysters at first, but after using them for some time prefer them to all others. The English oysters are smaller & much inferiour in quality to ours.

There are some animals also used as condiments, among these are oysters. The best way of using oysters is raw or roasted. When fried they are not so good the fat & flour that is used with them makes them indigestable. Bread soaked in oyster liquor constitutes one of the most pleasant and agreeable aliments that sick people can take

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D^r Physic was the first person who used it, & has found patients take it when every thing else was rejected—I wish you to remember this.

Clams are tougher and harder than the oyster and used mostly to give flavour to soup. With respect to snails &c which are eaten in some countries, I shall say little of them, but they are used by cancer curers—They first kill the snail with salt and water then put it to phagadennik ulcers. I avoid the natural history of all these you will perceive, and include them under the general name of shell fish. But these last are insects. D^r Cullen has made no distinction between the lobster & crab. But the lobster is much more tough & has less oil than the crab. The crab being less dense & tough is therefore easier of digestion. We have a soft crab in the Chesapeake which is very good. But the lobster is the most indigestable of all