Sykestell og sykemat

Blueberry tea: 30–40 g dried blueberries boiled in 1 liter of water for half an hour, strained, and served hot.

Bread water from Erken's invalid cookery chapter: 40 g lightly toasted white bread doused with 1/2 l boiling water, left until cold and strained. A cooling drink for the feverish.

Erken's eggedram for invalids: one egg yolk beaten pale with 1 tsp confectioners' sugar and let down with a glass of cold, strong coffee. One serving.

Erken's egg drink for invalids: egg yolk and sugar beaten for 10 minutes, blended with 2 tbsp warm milk, cooled, and topped up with about 2.5 dl seltzer in a glass.

Egg-white water for invalids: beaten egg white, 2.5 dl water, 1 tsp sugar, and strained lemon juice shaken together in a bottle and poured foaming into a glass.

A simple egg cream of 3 egg yolks, 2.5 dl cream, and vanilla, sweetened with crystallose (a sweetener); brought to a boil and stirred until cold. Served with invalid meals and as a sauce for jellied dishes.

Blueberry soup for the sick: 1 dl blueberry cordial and 1½ dl water brought to a boil, thickened with 1 tsp sago flour stirred into 2 tbsp water, brought back to a boil and sweetened to taste.

Bread soup for the sick: 20 g grated white bread browned in 5 g butter, thinned with 1/2 l bouillon, cooked for 1/2 hour, strained and thickened with egg yolk and 1 tbsp cream.

Barley soup for the sick: 100 g whole barley grains soaked overnight in 1 l water, boiled 1 1/2–2 hours with another 1/2 l boiling water, strained and seasoned with salt and lemon juice.

Fish stock is reduced by half and thickened with egg yolk and whipped cream; flourless fish balls are placed in the soup.

Oat Soup I: rolled oats are cooked tender in ½ l water, pressed through a sieve, stirred into 1 dl boiling milk and seasoned with salt and sugar. Classic invalid food.

Oat Soup II: rolled oats are cooked tender in water, sieved, brought to a boil and finished with cream or a little fruit syrup plus sugar and salt. A light invalid soup without milk.

A light soufflé of arrowroot, milk, sugar and eggs, flavored with vanilla or lemon, baked in a dish 20–25 min in a hot oven. From Erken's chapter on food for the sick, 1914.

Fruit soufflé for the sick: 150 g fruit cooked tender with sugar, cooled, mixed with 1 stiffly beaten egg white and baked in a buttered dish about 20 min in a hot oven.

Erken's milk jelly for the sick: 2 dl milk, 20 g sugar and 1 tbsp water are brought to a boil, 5 g gelatin and 2 tbsp lemon juice are stirred in, and the mixture is strained into cups to set.

A small rice pudding for invalids: rice flour cooked with milk, cooled, mixed with egg yolk, sugar, lemon juice and stiffly beaten egg white, baked in a mold about 30 min. Erken 1914.

A simple cordial jelly for the sick: gelatin is softened and dissolved in water, mixed with cordial, strained into a mold, and set. From Erken's chapter on food for the sick, 1914.

A light lemon jelly cream from Erken's chapter on food for the sick: lemon zest, water, egg yolks and gelatin are brought to a boil while whisking, lemon juice is added, and the cream sets in a mold.

Arrowroot porridge: 15 g arrowroot flour is stirred into 2 dl cold milk, brought to a boil while stirring until it thickens and salted. An easily digestible porridge for the sick.

Arrowroot gruel: 1 tsp arrowroot is whisked cold together with ½ l milk, brought to a boil while whisking, salted with ¼ tsp salt. A basic recipe also used for oat flour and rice flour gruel.

Simple oatmeal gruel from Erken's invalid-cookery chapter: oat flour is whisked cold with milk and brought to a boil while whisking, like arrowroot gruel.

Rice flour gruel for invalids: rice flour whisked cold with milk and brought to a boil while whisking, prepared like arrowroot gruel.

Rice-water porridge for invalid food: 40 g rice cooked in 4 dl water for 15 min, 100 g fresh fruit added and left to draw until everything is tender. Sugar to taste. One serving.

Sago gruel: 25 g sago is rinsed and sprinkled into ½ l boiling milk, cooked 15–20 minutes, and salted to taste. A basic gruel and sick-food recipe from Erken 1914.

Erken's steam-cooked cutlet for invalids: a pounded, lightly salted veal or lamb cutlet is steamed between two plates or in a covered bowl in a water bath for 20–30 minutes.

Steam-cooked chicken breast as invalid food: the breast is skinned, cut from the bone, pounded lightly, salted, and steam-cooked between two plates over boiling water or in a water bath for 1/2–3/4 hour.

Erken's fricassee of boiled hen or rabbit as invalid food: the meat is simmered tender, cut up and set in a pale sauce of butter, flour and chicken broth thickened with egg yolk and lemon juice.

Poultry cutlets or poultry pudding for the sick: 75 g poultry meat and 50 g pork are scraped and pounded with 15 g butter, thinned with egg yolk and 1 dl cream with soaked rusk, salted, and stiffly beaten egg white folded in. Cooked in a buttered mold in a water bath about ¾ hour, or fried as cutlets with a sauce of ½ tsp flour and ½ dl broth.

Sweetbread as invalid food: soaked sweetbread is scalded, cleaned of membranes, simmered in salted water until tender, cooled in the stock, sliced, and warmed in a sauce of 35 g butter, 10 g flour, and 1 dl stock, seasoned with 1 tsp lemon juice. It can also be breaded and browned.

Scraped beef for the sick: 100 g boneless beef is scraped with a knife, formed into two small patties, salted (¼ tsp), and quickly pan-fried. One serving.

Invalid food: fish is cleaned, briefly placed in vinegar water, cut into finger-thick slices and cooked about 5 minutes in salted water. Served with a cream sauce of hard-boiled egg yolk, ½ dl boiling cream and 1 tsp lemon juice.

Invalid cookery: boneless fish fillets placed between two buttered plates with salt and lemon juice and steamed for 20 minutes over boiling water; served with melted butter if allowed.

Invalid food: a small omelet of 1 egg and 1 tbsp cream baked quickly in the oven, filled with a stew of 50 g cooked fish thickened with 5 g butter, ½ tsp flour, 1 tbsp fish stock, and 1 tbsp milk.

Invalid food: 200 g of fish, skinless and boneless, is salted, breaded in egg and rusk crumbs, fried lightly in 15 g of browned butter, and served with lemon sauce.

Erken's invalid-food recipe for stewed fish: 125 g boiled fish is heated in a small sauce of 5 g butter, 1 tsp flour, ¼ dl fish stock, and ¼ dl milk. One serving, very simple.

One egg is baked soft in a buttered mold sprinkled with finely chopped ham, in a water bath in the oven until just set, then turned out – a light egg dish for the sick.

Invalid's omelet of one egg with 1 tsp milk and salt, fried in butter over low heat, rolled up and served at once with jam or sugar. Erken 1914.

Small omelet for invalid food of egg yolks, milk and stiffly beaten egg white fried in butter, filled with a simple stew of 50 g fish, meat or vegetables (or sweetbread or jam). Erken 1914.

Small omelet for invalids: 40 g finely chopped ham, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon milk, butter and salt. The egg yolk is whisked with ham and milk, stiffly beaten egg white is folded in, fried as an omelet.

Invalid's omelet of one egg with spinach stew: boiled, pressed spinach is stirred into a thick sauce of butter, cornstarch and milk and placed on the fried omelet. Erken 1914, pages 667–668.

Classic beef tea: 500 g of scraped raw beef placed in a crock with 2.5 dl of cold water and 1 tsp salt, left to stand for ½–1 hour, steeped 4 hours in a water bath, strained and defatted. Must not boil when reheated.

Quick beef tea (meat juice): 250 g of scraped raw beef steeped in 2.5 dl of cold water with salt, heated just below boiling while whisking, left to stand 15 min and strained. Served at once.

Veal bouillon as invalid food: 250 g beef and 500 g veal breast with bone are cooked slowly in 1 l cold water for 2 hours, strained, cooled, and degreased. Used as a drink or soup base.

Veal bouillon with hen: 100 g finely chopped cooked hen meat is poached for 10 minutes in 5 dl hot veal bouillon with salt. Pigeon meat, veal sweetbread, or calf's brain can be used instead.

A light, flour- and sugar-free egg omelette with lemon juice and sweetener from Erken's invalid-cookery chapter, intended as diabetic fare; cooked in a little butter in a pan.

A historical flour-free thickener for invalid food: soaked and blanched calf's brain is cooked down completely with 60 g of butter, packed into jars under melted butter and used to thicken soups and sauces when flour is not tolerated.

Veal chops are gently poached until tender under a lid in boiling cream, and the sauce is cooked down until it browns.

Cleaned kid meat is soaked, rubbed with salt and cold butter, roasted in strong heat and basted with boiling water and cream; the pan juices are thickened with cream.

Erken's mashed potatoes for invalid food: 200 g boiled potatoes are riced fine and stirred with 3 tbsp boiled milk and 1 tsp butter. One serving.

A small creamed spinach for invalid food: 100 g blanched, finely chopped spinach is stirred with 5 g butter, 2 g flour, salt, and 1 tbsp milk and brought to a boil. One serving.

Small rolls for the sick made from 1 dl thin cream, 1 egg, 200 g wheat flour, 10 g yeast, 15 g butter, and 15 g sugar. The yeast is proofed with sugar, cream, and flour for 10 min, the dough rises 1/2 hour, butter and sugar are worked in, shaped into oblong rolls, given a final 15-min rise, brushed with egg, and baked in a hot oven.