Onion porridge to cure a cold

I wrote last week about the little cookery booklets and pamphlets which I collect;  the sort which are given away by food companies or sold to raise funds for local groups, schools, churches. They are interesting in themselves and their recipes, but also as a glimpse into the past; some of these booklets go back to before the first world war!

In Coleraine I came across a little book Recipes From a Farm Kitchen by Sue Robb,with traditional recipes and little stories from a rural community which has now disappeared, replaced by modern homes for farmers and workers with every appliance and convenience. I think the booklet was published in the early 70’s, but the recipes and the little gems of stories go back decades before, maybe even to the century before.

As well as the chapters on cakes and pancakes, jam and soup, and an intriguing section entitled ‘A Collection of Old Time Hints’, there is a section on Health Foods. As well as just ordinary recipes for drinks such as blackcurrant,  granny’s apple drink and old tyme lemonade, there are a couple of beauty products – oatmeal hand cream and oatmeal face back, essential for the hard-working hands and weather blasted faces of agricultural workers, particularly women.

However when it comes onto actual remedies in the Health Food chapter, that’s when I think the recipes go back centuries:

• onion porridge to cure a cold – 3 large onions, peeleed, soaked in water then chopped and 1 apple chopped added to ½ teacup of water, 1 teaspoon honey, 3 cloves, water salt and pepper all simmered together until tender and eaten at supper time
• an old-fashioned remedy for exhaustion – two fresh eggs beaten with a little warm water… apparently “inside 15 minutes the eggs thus taken all turned to nourishment…“
• celery milk for rheumatism – wash, trim and chop sticks of celery into small pieces, simmer in water and milk for an hour, pound then strain through a jelly bag and use as required freshly made
• a good health drink – 2 heaped teaspoons of home produced honey melted in hot water and 1 tsp cider vinegar added , stir and drink when cool… “if taken at least three times a day this drink has been proved as a cure for sore throats and rheumatic twinges. even alcoholics have been said to befit from it as it takes a way the desire for strong drink…“