SOAP
Five pounds lard or five and one-half pounds cracklings, one can of lye, one and one-half gallons water. Stir occasionally the first day, then set for three days. Cook until clear. Let set until hard and cut into bars.
WASHING FLUID
One can Babbit's lye dissolved in one gallon rain water; let cool, and add 10 cents' worth of salts of tartar and 10 cents' worth of ammonia. Use in washing and boiling water, a half teacupful to one-half boiler of water.
SOLUTION FOR TAKING OUT STAINS
Half pound chloride of lime, one and a half pounds sal soda; put both in a jar and pour one gallon of boiling water over, stir until dissolved, then strain and bottle. Wet the stain with the solution and lay in sun.
HINTS ON WASHING
Clothes should not be soaked over night; it gives them a grey look, and the soiled parts lying against the clean portions streak them. Rub the clothes in warm--not hot--water, for hot water sets, in place of removing the dirt. Wash flannels in luke-warm water, and avoid rubbing soap upon flannels.
TO KEEP BLUE CALICOES BRIGHT AND FRESH
The first time they are washed, put them in water with a cupful of spirits of turpentine to each pail of water. This will set the color, and they will always look well.
CLEANING SILKS
To renovate silk, rip and dust the garment; lay the pieces on an old sheet; take half a cup of ox-gall, half a cup of ammonia, and half a pint of tepid soft water; mix; sponge the silk on both sides, especially the soiled places; then roll on a round stick (old broom handle), being careful about wrinkles. Silk thus cleaned and dried needs no ironing, and keeps the lustre. Try woolens the same way.
TO CLEAN CORSETS
Take out the steels at front and sides, then scrub thoroughly with tepid or cold lather of white Castile soap, using a very small scrubbing brush. Do not lay them in water. When quite clean, let cold water run on them freely from the spigot to rinse out the soap thoroughly. Dry, without ironing (after pulling lengthwise until they are straight and shapely), in a cool place.
CLEANING KID GLOVES
The simplest and most successful method of cleaning kid gloves is to buy a pint of naphtha of any dealer in burning fluids; wash your kid gloves in it as if it were water, rubbing the parts soiled most. Wash two or three times in clean fluid, according to the needs of the soiled gloves. The usual care should be taken, as this fluid is highly explosive, much the same as kerosene.
SHOE POLISH
To restore the color of black kid boots, take a small quantity of black ink, mix it with the white of an egg, and apply with a soft sponge.
TO CLEAN SILVER
Table silver should be cleaned at least once or twice a week, and can easily be kept in good order and polished brightly in this way: Have your dish pan half full of boiling water; place your silver in so that it may become warm; then with a soft cloth dipped into the hot water, soaped and sprinkled with powdered borax, scour the silver well; then rinse in clean hot water; dry with a clean, dry cloth.
TO WHITEN KNIFE HANDLES
The ivory handles of knives sometimes become yellow from being allowed to remain in dish water. Rub them with sandpaper till white. If the blades have become rusty from careless usage, rub them also with sandpaper, and they will look as nice as new.
TO WASH WINDOWS
Have a pail partly filled with tepid water, throw in a teaspoonful of powdered borax, have one small chamois dipped into the borax water to wash the windows, then with a dry chamois rub the window dry and polish. In this way windows may be cleaned in a very few moments, and not wet the carpets or tire the person.
FURNITURE POLISH
One tablespoonful sweet oil; one tablespoonful lemon juice; one tablespoonful corn starch.
MOTHS IN CARPETS
A good way to kill them is to take a coarse towel and wring it out of clean water. Spread it smoothly on the carpet, then iron it dry with a good hot iron, repeating the operation on all suspected places, and those least used. It does not injure the carpet in the least. It is not necessary to press hard, heat and steam being the agents, and they do the work effectually on worms and eggs.
BEDBUGS
Close the outside doors and windows and burn brimstone, and you will not have any trouble with bedbugs, as we know from experience. Twelve years ago I bought a farm I now own, and the house was alive with them. I heated an iron red hot, placed it in a large kettle, placing brimstone on it, and left it twenty-four hours. Have not seen a bug since.
CURES FOR HOUSEHOLD PESTS
Rats are said to have such a dislike for potash, that if it is powdered and scattered around their haunts, they will leave them. A piece of rag well soaked in a solution of cayenne is a capital thing to put into rat and mice holes, as they will not attempt to eat it. A plug of wood, covered with a piece of flannel so prepared, may be used to fill up the holes. Cockroaches and ants have a similar dislike of cayenne, and a little strewed about a cellar will keep it clear of them.
PASTE FOR SCRAP-BOOKS
On wash days there is always enough thick starch left, or sticking to the sides of the pan, to last through the week for paste. If wanted in large quantities, of course, starch would be expensive, but scrap-books can be made merely by saving what would otherwise have been thrown away. It makes a very nice, smooth paste, and a little of it goes a great way. It will keep a week in a cool place, even in summer.
Kitchen Helps
BREAD CRUMBS
All scraps of bread should be dried and rolled very fine to use instead of cracker crumbs for cutlets and other meats.
COOKING BUTTER
One pound kidney suet cut in small pieces and melted over a slow fire; add one pound butter, melt, and strain through a sieve.
VANILLA EXTRACT
To one vanilla bean cut in small pieces, add half a pint of alcohol and let stand for several weeks before using.
LEMON EXTRACT
Pare a lemon, being careful to use only the outside yellow, put in a jar and cover with alcohol, and let stand for several weeks before using.
BAKING POWDER
One pound pure cream of tartar, half pound common baking soda, quarter of a pound corn starch; sift six or seven times together, put away in an air-tight jar; ready for use at once.
All scraps of bread should be dried and rolled very fine to use instead of cracker crumbs for cutlets and other meats.
COOKING BUTTER
One pound kidney suet cut in small pieces and melted over a slow fire; add one pound butter, melt, and strain through a sieve.
VANILLA EXTRACT
To one vanilla bean cut in small pieces, add half a pint of alcohol and let stand for several weeks before using.
LEMON EXTRACT
Pare a lemon, being careful to use only the outside yellow, put in a jar and cover with alcohol, and let stand for several weeks before using.
BAKING POWDER
One pound pure cream of tartar, half pound common baking soda, quarter of a pound corn starch; sift six or seven times together, put away in an air-tight jar; ready for use at once.
Yeast Bread
Sift the flour into a large bread pan or bowl; make a hole in the middle of it and pour in the yeast in the ratio of a half a teacupful of yeast to two quarts of flour; stir the yeast lightly; then pour in your "wetting," either milk or water, as you choose. If you use water, dissolve in it a bit of butter the size of an egg; if you use milk, no butter is necessary, but the milk must be scalded and cooled before it is added. Stir the "wetting" very lightly, but do not mix all the flour into it; then cover the pan with a thick blanket or towel and set it in a warm place to rise (this is called "putting the bread in sponge"). When the sponge is light, add a teaspoonful of salt and mix all the flour in the pan with the sponge, kneading it well; then let it stand two hours or more until it has risen quite light. Knead it again until the dough is elastic, then form into loaves, place in baking tins, and allow to rise until the bulk is doubled. Bake in a quick oven from forty-five to sixty minutes (the temperature is right when a tablespoonful of flour browns in five minutes).
Mid- nineteenth-century scientists were sharply divided over the comparative nutritional value of yeast bread and bread raised with saleratus--potassium bicarbonate or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Proponents of yeast bread, while admitting that stale yeast or overfermentation produced a sour, unpalatable product, contended that "saleratus and soda in our bread have more to do with the thin bones, rotten teeth and flabby looks of our children--large and small--than many would imagine." Supporters of the opposite position, on the other hand, argued that "a large proportion of the bread in some communities, is scarcely more than an active form of yeast, thrown into the stomach only to produce fermentation and a host of disorders. And then we witness, of course, the blue vapors, which under different aspects, are as ruinous to the welfare and peace of a family as are those of a distillery." In all seriousness this group recommended making bread with weak muriatic (hydrochloric) acid and baking soda.
Mid- nineteenth-century scientists were sharply divided over the comparative nutritional value of yeast bread and bread raised with saleratus--potassium bicarbonate or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Proponents of yeast bread, while admitting that stale yeast or overfermentation produced a sour, unpalatable product, contended that "saleratus and soda in our bread have more to do with the thin bones, rotten teeth and flabby looks of our children--large and small--than many would imagine." Supporters of the opposite position, on the other hand, argued that "a large proportion of the bread in some communities, is scarcely more than an active form of yeast, thrown into the stomach only to produce fermentation and a host of disorders. And then we witness, of course, the blue vapors, which under different aspects, are as ruinous to the welfare and peace of a family as are those of a distillery." In all seriousness this group recommended making bread with weak muriatic (hydrochloric) acid and baking soda.
Wild Rabbit
After cleaning the rabbit, wash it in cold water and hang up to freeze in order to loosen the meat fibers. Soak for a short time in salt water before cooking, to draw out the blood. Cut into pieces, washing each in cold water. Then put pieces in a stew pan filled with water in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. Bring to a simmer, remove from the heat, and pour off the water. Put pieces back in the pan, add more water, and stew until the meat is loosened from the bone but not shredded. Then drain, add a little bacon fat, and fry the pieces brown; or bake them for about half an hour. Wild rabbit is best in the fall and winter months.
Beginning in the 1840s, the Platte River route became a major highway for travelers to Oregon and California. One of the first large groups of emigrants to follow that road were the Mormons who spent the winter of 1846-47 at Winter Quarters, now part of north Omaha, in their exodus to the Great Salt Lake. The Mormon women were notable for their resourcefulness, according to a contemporary observer.
They could hardly be called housewives in etymological strictness; but it was plain that they had once been such, and most distinguished ones. Their art availed them in their changed affairs. With almost their entire culinary material limited to the milk of their cows, some store of meal or flour, and a very few condiments, they brought their thousand and one receipts into play with a success that outdid for their families the miracle of the Hebrew widow's cruse. They learned to make butter on a march by the dashing of the wagon, and so nicely to calculate the working of barm in the jolting heats that, as soon after the halt as an oven could be dug in the hillside and heated, their well-kneaded loaf was ready for baking, and produced good leavened bread for supper.
Yeast bread was made by the sponge method, and the "harm"--yeast or starter--might or might not contain commercial yeast powders or compressed yeast.
Beginning in the 1840s, the Platte River route became a major highway for travelers to Oregon and California. One of the first large groups of emigrants to follow that road were the Mormons who spent the winter of 1846-47 at Winter Quarters, now part of north Omaha, in their exodus to the Great Salt Lake. The Mormon women were notable for their resourcefulness, according to a contemporary observer.
They could hardly be called housewives in etymological strictness; but it was plain that they had once been such, and most distinguished ones. Their art availed them in their changed affairs. With almost their entire culinary material limited to the milk of their cows, some store of meal or flour, and a very few condiments, they brought their thousand and one receipts into play with a success that outdid for their families the miracle of the Hebrew widow's cruse. They learned to make butter on a march by the dashing of the wagon, and so nicely to calculate the working of barm in the jolting heats that, as soon after the halt as an oven could be dug in the hillside and heated, their well-kneaded loaf was ready for baking, and produced good leavened bread for supper.
Yeast bread was made by the sponge method, and the "harm"--yeast or starter--might or might not contain commercial yeast powders or compressed yeast.
Pemmican
Combine equal parts of buffalo suet; dried fruit such as cherries, berries, and plums; and dried venison or other game. Add salt if available, and pound the mixture in a bowl or a hollow rock; then form into bricks. Dry in the sun, or near the fire in rainy weather. Pemmican may be eaten as is, by biting off chunks, or bricks may be simmered in water to make a thick soup or stew.
Like the Indians, early white explorers, traders, and missionaries lived largely off the land, carrying only as much of the basic items like flour, sugar, and coffee as their packs could accommodate. Even these were not in their present convenient form. Until the last decades of the nineteenth century, refined white sugar was scarce and expensive on the frontier; and when it was available, it was supplied in the form of loaves, or cubes. Brown sugar, much coarser than that we see today, was used extensively, as well as molasses. The flour, unbleached and perhaps unbolted, was subject to an unpleasant rawness (some recipes of the period instruct the cook to dry the flour in front of the fire before using it). Only green coffee was sold, and it had to be roasted and ground before brewing. Salt pork was a frontier staple because it kept almost indefinitely and was easily prepared: after soaking a few hours or over night in fresh water to remove the salt, it was generally fried.
When Fort Atkinson was established in 1820 near present Fort Calhoun as the westernmost outpost of the United States, the regulation daily ration called for three-fourths of a pound of pork or bacon, or one and one-fourth pounds of fresh or salted beef; eighteen ounces of bread or flour, or twelve ounces of hard bread, or one and one-fourth pounds of cornmeal; and one gill of whiskey per man. Two quarts of salt, four quarts of vinegar, and twelve quarts of peas or beans were allotted with every hundred rations. The War Department, apparently influenced by current medical theories, directed that meats were to be "boiled with a view to soup, sometimes roasted or baked, never fried," but from all evidence these eccentric instructions were generally ignored.
Although Fort Atkinson was abandoned after only seven years, agriculturally it was a great success. The abundant crops of corn, beets, cabbages, radishes, parsnips, carrots, and other vegetables, planted in an attempt to see if the post could be made self-sufficient, provoked one military inspector in the mid-1820s to complain irately that "the present system is destroying military spirit and making officers the base overseers of a troop of awkward ploughmen." Along with the hogs and cattle which were also raised at the fort, these provisions were augmented by wild game and wild berries and fruits in season.
Like the Indians, early white explorers, traders, and missionaries lived largely off the land, carrying only as much of the basic items like flour, sugar, and coffee as their packs could accommodate. Even these were not in their present convenient form. Until the last decades of the nineteenth century, refined white sugar was scarce and expensive on the frontier; and when it was available, it was supplied in the form of loaves, or cubes. Brown sugar, much coarser than that we see today, was used extensively, as well as molasses. The flour, unbleached and perhaps unbolted, was subject to an unpleasant rawness (some recipes of the period instruct the cook to dry the flour in front of the fire before using it). Only green coffee was sold, and it had to be roasted and ground before brewing. Salt pork was a frontier staple because it kept almost indefinitely and was easily prepared: after soaking a few hours or over night in fresh water to remove the salt, it was generally fried.
When Fort Atkinson was established in 1820 near present Fort Calhoun as the westernmost outpost of the United States, the regulation daily ration called for three-fourths of a pound of pork or bacon, or one and one-fourth pounds of fresh or salted beef; eighteen ounces of bread or flour, or twelve ounces of hard bread, or one and one-fourth pounds of cornmeal; and one gill of whiskey per man. Two quarts of salt, four quarts of vinegar, and twelve quarts of peas or beans were allotted with every hundred rations. The War Department, apparently influenced by current medical theories, directed that meats were to be "boiled with a view to soup, sometimes roasted or baked, never fried," but from all evidence these eccentric instructions were generally ignored.
Although Fort Atkinson was abandoned after only seven years, agriculturally it was a great success. The abundant crops of corn, beets, cabbages, radishes, parsnips, carrots, and other vegetables, planted in an attempt to see if the post could be made self-sufficient, provoked one military inspector in the mid-1820s to complain irately that "the present system is destroying military spirit and making officers the base overseers of a troop of awkward ploughmen." Along with the hogs and cattle which were also raised at the fort, these provisions were augmented by wild game and wild berries and fruits in season.
Oven Temperatures
Very slow: 225-250°
Slow: 275-300°
Moderately slow: 325°
Moderate: 350°
Moderately hot: 375°
Hot: 400-425°
Very hot: 450°
Slow: 275-300°
Moderately slow: 325°
Moderate: 350°
Moderately hot: 375°
Hot: 400-425°
Very hot: 450°
Table of Equivalents
Weights and Measures
A speck equals one-quarter saltspoon.
Four saltspoons equal one teaspoon.
Three teaspoons equal one tablespoon.
Sixteen level tablespoons equal one cup (teacup or coffeecup).
One cup equals eight ounces.
Four tablespoons equal one wineglass.
Two wineglasses equal one gill.
Two gills equal one cup.
Two cups equal one pint.
Two pints equal one quart.
One quart of flour makes one pound.
One pint of sugar makes one pound.
One heaping tablespoonful of flour or sugar makes one ounce.
One pint of soft butter makes one pound.
One pint of finely chopped meat, packed, makes one pound.
Ten average-sized eggs make one pound.
A speck equals one-quarter saltspoon.
Four saltspoons equal one teaspoon.
Three teaspoons equal one tablespoon.
Sixteen level tablespoons equal one cup (teacup or coffeecup).
One cup equals eight ounces.
Four tablespoons equal one wineglass.
Two wineglasses equal one gill.
Two gills equal one cup.
Two cups equal one pint.
Two pints equal one quart.
One quart of flour makes one pound.
One pint of sugar makes one pound.
One heaping tablespoonful of flour or sugar makes one ounce.
One pint of soft butter makes one pound.
One pint of finely chopped meat, packed, makes one pound.
Ten average-sized eggs make one pound.
Spiced Blackberries
One pound of sugar, one pint of vinegar, one teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon, one teaspoonful of allspice, one teaspoonful of cloves, one teaspoonful of nutmeg.
Boil all together gently fifteen minutes, then add four quarts of blackberries, and scald (not boil) ten minutes more. The spice can be omitted if preferred. These are excellent for children in case of summer complaint, and where blackberries are abundant every family should have a plentiful supply.
Boil all together gently fifteen minutes, then add four quarts of blackberries, and scald (not boil) ten minutes more. The spice can be omitted if preferred. These are excellent for children in case of summer complaint, and where blackberries are abundant every family should have a plentiful supply.
NING PO SPINACH
2 lb. spinach cleaned, drained 3 qt. boiling water 2 tbs. oil 3 cloves garlic, chopped.
1. Plunge spinaeh into boiling water. Boil 1 minute and drain.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet, add garlic and cook until lightly browned. Add spinaeh, stir rapidly over high heat for three or four minutes.
3. Sprinkle with salt and sweetener. Mix well and serve hot or cold.
Note: This makes a good filling for a luncheon or light supper omelette.
1. Plunge spinaeh into boiling water. Boil 1 minute and drain.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet, add garlic and cook until lightly browned. Add spinaeh, stir rapidly over high heat for three or four minutes.
3. Sprinkle with salt and sweetener. Mix well and serve hot or cold.
Note: This makes a good filling for a luncheon or light supper omelette.
LEMON VEAL WITH OLIVES
3 lb. boneless veal, rolled and tied, 1 tsp. dried rosemary leaves, tied crushed 2 tbs. grated lemon rind (use i tsp. dried sweet basil leaves, fresh lemon rind) crushed i clove garlic,finely minced 3 tbs. olive oil, 1 tsp. salt, 1 cup dry Marsala wine, 1 tsp. pepper, 1 cup Pitted ripe olives, sliced.
1. Mix lemon rind, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary, and basil.
Divide this mixture in half. Untie and unroll the veal and rub the inner surface with one-half of the flavouring mixture.
Reroll and retie. Rub the remaining mixture all over the outside of the veal.
2. Heat the olive oil over a medium high flame in a heavy pot large enough to hold the veal. Brown the veallightly.
3. Pour the wine over the veal, reduee the heat to low, eover tightly and simmer about i! hours, or until veal is fark tender, but not too soft. Turn the veal occasionally. Be careful not to overcook.
4. When done, remove the veal to ahat platter and let it stand. There should be quite a bit of liquid in the pan.
Increase the heat and boil untilliquid is redueed to about half. Add the sliced ripe olives and heat through. The sauee should thieken somewhat on being reduced.
5. Slice the veal and spoon the sauce over it.
1. Mix lemon rind, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary, and basil.
Divide this mixture in half. Untie and unroll the veal and rub the inner surface with one-half of the flavouring mixture.
Reroll and retie. Rub the remaining mixture all over the outside of the veal.
2. Heat the olive oil over a medium high flame in a heavy pot large enough to hold the veal. Brown the veallightly.
3. Pour the wine over the veal, reduee the heat to low, eover tightly and simmer about i! hours, or until veal is fark tender, but not too soft. Turn the veal occasionally. Be careful not to overcook.
4. When done, remove the veal to ahat platter and let it stand. There should be quite a bit of liquid in the pan.
Increase the heat and boil untilliquid is redueed to about half. Add the sliced ripe olives and heat through. The sauee should thieken somewhat on being reduced.
5. Slice the veal and spoon the sauce over it.
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