BROTH, a liquor in which the flesh of animals has been boiled; and which is rendered palatable by the addition of herbs, &c. If other ingredients be used, such as rice, pearl-barley, oat-meal, &c. it is then generally called soup.
We have already, in the article Beef-tea, pointed out the common error, that broth is more easily digested than solid food. And though we are countenanced in this opinion by the most enlightened physicians of the age, yet, we fear, that old customs and deep-rooted prejudices will continue to prevail, while supported by so many old women, beside those of the Faculty. Perhaps nothing but experimental conviction of the contrary, can produce a change of sentiments imbibed with the mother's milk. Mutton-broth, veal-broth, and chicken-broth, are such comfortable things, when the appetite is disordered, and the stomach fastidious, that they are generally administered in all states of fever, without any regard to the nature of the disease, or the constitution of the patient. In this preposterous manner, the stomach is inundated, and the bowels are drenched, till all their tone and vigour are irrecoverably destroyed. Indeed, from the slight degree of attention paid to the subject of diet, an accurate observer may be led to conclude, that the stomach is destined for a certain time to serve the purpose of a laboratory, where the effect of medicines is to be ascertained, before the vessel to be used in this chemical process has acquired sufficient vigour to withstand the attack. Yet such is the infatuation of the multitude, that they would rather encourage the prosperous commerce in emetics and purgatives, than listen to suggestions, which tend to confute spurious notions; and, by correcting their former errors, would eventually deprive them of many favourite cups and dishes. Thus, we are not vain enough to flatter ourselves with producing such a change on the prevailing manner of living, as to banish either teas or broths to their proper places—the apothecaries' shops; and to substitute in their room, more wholesome articles of nutriment; though we are firmly persuaded, from reason and daily experience, that the physical order of things has also been perverted in the present age, and that the swallowing of drugs is not a primary, but a secondary, object in the cure of diseases.
To return from this digression, which every friend of suffering humanity will readily excuse, we shall give a few directions for preparing broths from other substances, beside those made of butcher's meat.
Artificial Broth. Dr. Darwin observes, that all the mushrooms which are cooked at our tables, as well as the ketchup made by preserving their juices in salt and water, possess an animal flavour. In proof of this, the following circumstance may be adduced, which occurred in a family of invalids, who frequently wanted weak broth: the sagacious cook-maid repeatedly deceived them, by administering a mixture of thin gruel with a small quantity of good ketchup, adding only a little salt, and a few shred-leaves of parsley.
Fish-broth, though nourishing, is by no means equal to that made of wholesome butcher's meat. After separating the heads of fish, gutting, and carefully cleansing them from the gall, put them into an earthen pipkin, or a tin saucepan, and cover them with water, from half an inch to one inch above their surface, accordingly as the broth is intended to be weak or strong. Onions, parsley, or celery, may be added at pleasure, and the whole should be seasoned with pepper and salt. After simmering the fish over a gentle fire, till they fall to pieces, add a proportionate lump of fresh butter well floured: when this is dissolved, and the liquor strained from the bones, the broth is ready for the table; and may be eaten with bread, either toasted or plain. The fish best adapted for making this palatable soup, are mackerel, perch, roach, dace, gudgeons, bleak, or minnows. And though we do not recommend the preparation of such liquid dishes as eligible, either in point of health or economy, yet as fish in many places, especially near the sea-coast, are of easy purchase, they may occasionally serve as good substitutes for more solid animal food, for which we have lately submitted to pay an exorbitant and unreasonable price.
Broth for horses, was formerly considered as an useful medicine for these noble animals, especially in all complaints of the bowels, or the colic. Some farriers also commended the use of broth made of tripe, on account of its mucilaginous quality, in fevers and other distempers, which prevent a horse from feeding. From later and more accurate observations, however, it appears that liquid animal food, being contrary to their nature, is pernicious to granivorous creatures, and may generate such disorders as cannot be easily remedied. The use of broth should therefore be confined to the administration of clysters when a horse is costive: thus, by injecting two or three quarts of a fat and emollient decoction, prepared either of tripe or other intestinal substances containing fatty matter, the crude viscidities of the bowels may be relieved. If the guts be very full, so as to require a strong stimulus, more or less common salt may be added to the clyster, without which the operation will seldom succeed.