Mutton Custard for Bowel Complaints or Consumptive

Two ounces of shredded mutton suet boiled in a pint of milk, three or four times a day.

From: The British Cookery Book
Published: 1864
Yikes Scale: Yikes

Exactly as printed, 1864

CASES. 1223. Take two ounces of fresh mutton suet shred fine, and half a drachm of cinnamon, or some grated nutmeg, and boil in rather more than a pint of milk: when boiled, to be set by the fire till the scum rises, which should then be carefully taken off. Half a tea-cupful may be given, warm or cold, as the patient prefers, three or four times a day. It should be continued till the complaint is quite cured.

The British Cookery Book, 1864. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Safe to eat and entirely useless as a treatment. It was prescribed for bowel complaints and for consumption, and it does nothing for either.

As food it is fat and milk, which for a wasting patient is not the worst idea anyone had this century. It simply is not medicine.

Notes from the 21st century

Half a drachm of cinnamon. About 1.9 grams in apothecaries' weight — roughly three-quarters of a teaspoon, or a short stick.
The skimming matters. It is set by the fire until the scum rises, then skimmed. Otherwise it is unpleasantly greasy.
Suet is having a revival. In puddings and pastry, where it belongs. Boiled into milk as a tuberculosis remedy, less so.

Also in this book

To Make Brain Cakes — Calf or sheep brains beaten with yolk and cream and fried into cakes of a nice size.
To Make White Wine Whey — Milk, sherry, lemon and fifteen grains of purified nitre — half on getting into bed, the rest ten minutes later.
Toast Sandwiches for Invalids — Two slices of bread and butter, with a slice of toast in the middle.

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