or eight minutes, then take it off
the fire, and let it stand awhile. It may either be eaten with the
herbs, or strained, and should not be eaten warmer than new milk. A
little butter, salt, and bread, may be added. Another way is, to set
some oatmeal and water on a quick fire; and when it is scalding hot, put
in a good quantity of spinage, corn salad, tops of pennyroyal, and mint
cut small. Let it stand on the fire till ready to boil, then pour it up
and down six or seven minutes, and let it stand off the fire that the
oatmeal may sink to the bottom. Strain it, and add butter, salt, and
bread. When it is about milk-warm it will be fit to eat. This is an
excellent porridge, pleasant to the palate and stomach, cleansing the
passages by opening obstructions. It also breeds good blood, thus
enlivens the spirits, and makes the whole body active and easy.--A
Cooling Drink may be made of two ounces of whole barley, washed and
cleansed in hot water, and afterwards boiled in five pints of water till
the barley opens. Add a quarter of an ounce of cream of tartar, and
strain off the liquor. Or bruise three ounces of the freshest sweet
almonds, and an ounce of gourd melon seeds in a marble mortar, adding a
pint of water, a little at a time, and then strain it through a piece of
linen. Bruise the remainder of the almonds and seeds again, with another
pint of water added as before; then strain it, and repeat this process a
third time. After this, pour all the liquor upon the bruised mass, stir
it well, and finally strain it off. Half an ounce of sugar may safely be
bruised with the almonds and seeds at first; or if it be thought too
heating, a little orange-flower water may be used instead.--Currant
Drink. Put a pound of the best red currants, fully ripe and clean
picked, into a stone bottle. Mix three spoonfuls of good new yeast with
six pints of hot water, and pour it upon the currants. Stop the bottle
close till the liquor ferments, then give it as much vent as is
necessary, keep it warm, and let it ferment for about three days. Taste
it in the mean time to try whether it is become pleasant; and as soon as
it is so, run it through a strainer, and bottle it off. It will be ready
to drink in five or six days.--Boniclapper is another article suited to
the state of sickly and weakly persons. Boniclapper is milk which has
stood till it has acquired a pleasant sourish taste, and a thick
slippery substance. In very hot weather this will