Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers Part 34

Hold a red hot flat-iron within an inch or two of the cloth, and this will make the wax or spermaceti evaporate entirely; then rub the place with a towel (that is free from lint) or clean brown paper.

To Remove a Stopper from a Decanter.

Wet a cloth with hot water and wrap it round the neck of the bottle; this will cause the gla.s.s to expand, and the neck will be enlarged so as to allow of the stopper to be withdrawn, without any trouble.

Precautions against Fire.

Perhaps it may not be improper to remark that houses have been saved from being destroyed by fire at night, by there having been buckets of water left in the kitchen.

Never go to bed without seeing that there is a supply in readiness.

Housekeepers should also arrange their family affairs so as to have as little going about with lights by servants as possible. Chimneys should be swept at proper intervals, and if you burn them, let it be on a rainy morning and never at night.

To Take Ink and Stains out of Linen.

Dip the spotted part in pure melted tallow, then wash out the tallow and the ink will come out with it. If you get a stain of fruit of any kind on linen, boil a little new milk, and dip the parts in and out for a few minutes; this must be done before any water is used, or it will not be likely to succeed. Oxalic acid, or salt and lemon juice are good, and care should be taken to rinse the articles well after the application.

Herbs, Gardens and Yards.

If you have a garden, be careful to raise herbs, both for cooking and to use in sickness. Parsley, thyme, sage and sweet marjoram occupy very little room in a garden, and cannot very well be dispensed with for kitchen use; and every family should have a bunch of wormwood; it is a fine tonic, either made while fresh, cut fine, with cold water, or after it has been dried, made with boiling water. Tansey is also a useful herb. h.o.a.rhound is excellent for coughs, and is particularly useful in consumptive complaints, either as a syrup or made into candy. Balm is a cooling drink in a fever. Catnip tea is useful when you have a cold, and wish to produce a perspiration, and is good for infants that have the colic. Garlic is good for colds, and for children that have the croup; you should have some taken up in the fall to use through the winter. The root of elecampane gathered in the fall, sc.r.a.ped, sliced, and strung with a needle and thread to dry, will keep its strength for several years, and is useful for a cough with h.o.a.rhound. Rue is a valuable herb, a tea made of it and sweetened is good for worms.

It is not expected that persons living in a town should have room in their garden for herbs, but they are generally to be purchased at market, and should always be kept in the house, as sometimes in the winter they are much needed when it is difficult to find them.

Herbs should be spread out on a cloth to dry; turn them every day; when dry, put them in thick paper bags, and close up the top, so as to exclude the air. They can be kept hanging up, or laid on the shelf of a closet, where they will not be affected by damp.

Such herbs as sage, thyme and sweet marjoram, when thoroughly dry, should be pounded, sifted, and corked in bottles. Parsley should be cut fine with a pair of scissors, dried, and put in bottles; it is nearly as good this way as when fresh; keep it in a dark closet.

Where you have a garden, do not throw away the soap-suds that are left from was.h.i.+ng, as they are very good to water herbs and flowers.

It is very important to have early vegetables. A garden that is spaded, or ploughed in the winter, is ready to plant much earlier. There are many things that will bear the spring frosts without injury, and if planted early will be ready to grow when the fine weather comes.

Tomatoes should be sowed in boxes or a hot-bed to be ready to transplant.

The sc.r.a.pings of a cellar are good to put in the garden to enrich it.

Ashes sprinkled on a yard, or gra.s.s plat, will keep down the coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, and produce white clover.

The gra.s.s should be cut out of a brick pavement with a knife, and boiling ley poured on to kill the roots.

Seeds should be saved as they ripen, from the finest plants; they should be kept in a box with a tight lid to keep them from mice.

Greasers for Bake-irons.

Take pieces of fat from the back bone, or chine of pork; cut them in pieces of half a pound each; leave the skin on; salt them. They will do to grease the bake-iron where you have buckwheat cakes every morning in winter, and should be kept in a cool place; after remaining in salt several weeks, they may be hung up in an airy place. This is nicer than suet.

Cement for the Tops of Bottles or Jars.

Take equal parts of rosin and brick-dust pounded fine; a lump of beeswax; stew them together, and keep in an old tin, melting it when you want to seal your bottles or jars.

Cement for Mending Cast-iron.

To mend a crack or sand hole in an iron pot, beat up the white of an egg, and mix equal weight of salt and sifted ashes; work it very smooth and fill up the crack, let it harden before it is used. If it is a large sand hole you wish to mend, put in a rivet and secure it with the cement, if it gets loose it is easily fastened by the same process.

Weather Proof Cement.

Take of fine sand one part, two of clay, three of ashes; mix with linseed oil to the consistency required. Put it on with a towel or brush. It is said to become as hard as marble.

To Cleanse Vials, &c.

Put ashes and water in each one, and boil them in water, letting them heat gradually. Pie plates may be cleansed in the same way. Iron pots that have been used for boiling milk, may be cleaned by boiling ashes and water in them.

Mending China with Milk.

China can be mended if not too badly broken, by boiling it in skim milk, it should be entirely clear of cream, or the oily particles will prevent its adhesion. Tie the pieces with tape or fine cord, put them into a kettle of cold milk, and let them boil two hours, then take it off the fire, and when cold take the china out, and set it away; let it stand for several months. China pitchers, tea-pot lids, cup-plates and dishes, have been used for years after being mended in this way.

Mending China with White Lead.

Take the bottom of an old paint keg, and carefully with a small knife, put it on the edge of gla.s.s or china, close the parts together, and place away; if badly broken, mend the small parts first, and set away; then when dry, putty the edges you wish to join carefully, and set on the top shelf of a closet, where it will be undisturbed for a year.

Linseed Oil for Furniture.

For polis.h.i.+ng mahogany or walnut furniture, (that has never been varnished) linseed oil has been recommended. It possesses a tendency to harden and become solid, on long exposure to the air. It is this peculiar quality that renders it useful in its application to furniture.

Rub the furniture you wish to polish (having previously washed all the wax from it with soap and water) all over with the oil; a small piece of sponge is suitable for the purpose, let it remain a few minutes so as to sink in the wood; then rub it in with a soft cloth, and again with a clean cloth. Do this every other day and your table will soon be fit to use for breakfast or tea without fear of spoiling the polish; when you wash it off it should be done with plain warm water, as soap will injure it. It is best not to use a table till it has had several rubbings with the oil, and then apply it once a week. The pores being filled with the application it becomes hard. Always give a table that is in use a rub with a dry cloth every morning.

For Filtering Water.

Put a thick layer of pounded charcoal, (say six inches,) at the bottom of a large earthen flower-pot; over this, lay a bed of fine sand, which has been washed, (to prevent its giving a taste to the water;) pour the water in the filterer and put a large stone pitcher under to receive it.

On A Larger Scale.

Prepare a tight barrel by charring it on the inside, (by having some hickory or oak shavings burnt in it,) then put in half a peck of quick lime, and fill it with water. After the lime water has stood in the barrel for two weeks, it will be ready for use.

This preparation of the barrel is necessary to remove the acid from the wood, which would communicate an unpleasant taste to the water.

Fit a part.i.tion in the barrel, (perforated with many holes,) about three inches from the bottom of the barrel, and having put in a tube, to go down from the top through the part.i.tion nearly to the bottom, put on the perforated part.i.tion some broken charcoal, then finer charcoal a foot thick, then about a foot of clean washed sand.