Cold remedy

[sunshine842]

[This topic was moved from the Minneapolis-St. Paul category by the The Chowhound Team]

years ago, Prevention magazine ran a recipe for a garlic and chile broth that was formulated to help beat back a cold.

It wasn't tasty, but it was soothing, and I'm pretty sure killed everything it touched.

I couldn't find the Prevention version, but found this, which is pretty similar:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/a...

I figure it makes your breath so bad nobody wants to be around you, so you're not breathing contaminated air!

I remember my nose running like a faucet after sipping a mug of this stuff.

Hope you're feeling better.

[foodieX2]

I keep a jar of this stuff in my fridge all winter. Great for tea (pour hout water over a TBS or two) or just by the spoonful

Thinly slice lemon(s). If waxed scrub the outside first.
Thinly slice fresh ginger root

Put both in small jar and cover with raw, organic honey. Place in fridge and it basically turns into an almost jelly like consistancy.

My second is spicy wonton soup in garlic broth. Fiery hot!

[Christina D]

My favorite cold remedies are tom yum soup and champagne. The aromatics in the tom yum really cut through a head cold and the alcohol in the champagne helps to dry up the yuckies and dull the pain.

[alliegator]

Tom yum goong will be on my table tonight! Along with a few stiff drinks. I don't think it is a cure, per se, but the spicy warmth always makes me feel better. The cold I've got now is quite a doozie, and I have a 24 hour trip coming up tomorrow. People like me are why people get sick on planes :/

[kookiegoddess]

I had a really bad cold a while back and spent a bit of time reading about cold remedies. I concluded that they often included the same things and I think anyone could make a healthful soup based on the following

garlic - fresh, 1 or 2 cloves
ginger - few slices fresh
tomato juice or V8 - provides vitamin C
cayenne pepper or tobasco, or both - more vitamin c

The reason you have it hot is to soothe the throat and ease coughing.

Making a soup with some homemade chicken broth, which is always good, some shredded chicken, some fresh herbs (herbs are loaded with vitamins, eg parsley is full of vitamin C) and the rest of the ingredients should make you feel better really quickly.

I have made the soup just with tomato, garlic, ginger and lemon and it worked pretty well. Good to have before bed.

[DuchessNukem]

Oh hell, that V8 soup idea just sounds nice for lunch later today and I don't have a hint of a cold. Will use for prophylaxis!

[sunshine842]

I use V8 as a base for lots of soups that would otherwise use a tomato-juice base. Adds an enormous amount of great flavor.

[al b. darned]

I don't know about the garlic, but my great grandmother swore by blackberry brandy whenever she had a cold. I don't know if it helped the cold or just made it so she didn't notice so much, but it always helped her to get through one.

[sunshine842]

if we had really obnoxious coughs when we were kids, we got a teaspoon of blackberry brandy as a cough syrup. And it did work!

To this day, though, I can't drink blackberry brandy, as to me, it's cough syrup.

[webgeekstress]

Sounds like the French hat cure: put a hat at the foot of the bed and take a bottle of brandy to bed with you. When you see two hats at the foot of the bed, stop drinking brandy and go to sleep.

[sunshine842]

No -- the blackberry brandy is given only by the spoonful. Only one hat.

[ChiliDude]

Why not just add garlic and some form of chiles to chicken soup? Just think of all the ethnicities that are included in that concoction!

[Chemicalkinetics]

My cold remedy is either chicken soup: rice/noodle (yes, so boring), or ginger sugar soup.

[3Bros]

15 cloves of garlic?! Yep, that'll keep anyone away! If I'm feeling up to it, I may have to whip up a batch. Thanks sunshine!

[sunshine842]

I used to make small batches with canned chicken stock and 2-3 cloves of garlic in a big mug.

That stuff HAS to be the edible version of Lysol.

[Chemicalkinetics]

I think the idea is disease control -- to prevent others people getting cold/flu from you.

[sunshine842]

either way -- nobody will want to be near you when you drink it.