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Rearing By Hand

A cooked infant food made from biscuits boiled in water, then beaten with sugar, eggs and skim milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and biscuit are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,332 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Rearing By Hand

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the biscuit

  1. Soak the whole biscuit or tops-and-bottoms in cold water for some time before boiling.

  2. Slowly boil the biscuits in as much water as will allow them to be beaten into a fine, smooth pulp.

  3. Beat the biscuit pulp with a three-pronged fork.

Make the food

  1. Beat up two eggs and sufficient sugar to sweeten the food.

  2. Pour the eggs, sugar and about a pint of skim milk onto the beaten biscuit in the saucepan, stirring constantly.

  3. Boil for about five minutes.

  4. Pour into a basin and use when cold.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

393Calories
17 gProtein
21 gFat
35 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Biscuit1 medium (45g)166
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Biscuit + eggtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,643 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Biscuits
Form the starchy base that thickens into a smooth pulp when boiled and beaten.
Eggs
Add richness and help bind the food as it sets.
Skim milk
Adds liquid so the pulp becomes a spoonable, pourable food.

The step that matters

Pouring the eggs and milk onto the biscuit while stirring constantly. Adding cold egg and milk to hot starch can cause lumps; constant stirring disperses the liquid evenly so the mixture stays smooth as it heats.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.