The cheapest and most nutritious food for charitable institutions and the poor : being the result of an inquiry, made by desire, on the food supplied to the Hill Street Female Refuge / by C.H.F. Routh.

Routh, C. H. F. (Charles Henry Felix), 1822-1909

Date:: 1854

Credit: The cheapest and most nutritious food for charitable institutions and the poor : being the result of an inquiry, made by desire, on the food supplied to the Hill Street Female Refuge / by C.H.F. Routh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$I i made the experiment with l-3rd tea and 2-3rds flour. The result is a very edible bread, but with a black colour, and a very strong taste of tea. A smaller quan- tity should therefore be mixed, and the result would be a i bread having about 20 per cent, of nitrogenous matter in [ I lieu only of 16 which the best white bread contains. I And the same holds good with regard to admixture with I j coffee and cocoa. ’ I The great objection to the tea bread is its colour, j.j and with the prejudices of the lower orders, it is ques- ts tionable if they would take to it. However, there is • i one way in which tea, chocolate, or cocoa cakes ij might be taken, and that is in the substitution for the .1 cup of tea, cocoa, or coffee, of a cup of milk and water, il and supplying tea, cocoa, or coffee bread, which dipped I ill the former would give all the flavour of these infu- \i\ sions, and at a much cheaper rate, besides being more II nutritious. In this way the refuse tea leaves and cof- j fee grounds, usually wasted in most households, might I be employed for nourishing many a hungry person. Other substances might in like manner be artificially :; added, in times of scarcity. i ]. The gluten annually w'asted in the manufacture of cotton goods might, if purified, be added. 2. a. Fibrine when separated from blood, in its natural 1 state possesses the characteristic softness of flesh and contains about 3-4ths its weight of water. From this it ; may be separated by drying, and then it becomes a hard I and brittle substance, in which state it may be reduced j to powder. ; b. In its ordinary state fibrine is insoluble in water, !when boiled however for a long time under water its mature is altered and it becomes soluble. In this way lit could be readily mixed with the dough of bread, c. Lastly, there is one source in which it might be ob- Itabled in very large quantities. In boiling down$