"Never sit down to a meal after any intense mental effort,
for physical and mental injury are inevitable, and no one
has a right to deliberately injure body, mind or estate."
{
Lord & Taylor's Every-Day Cook-Book; a Compleat Cyclopedia of Practical Recipes}
This
book was well worth the time I spent hunting it down & waiting for
it to arrive. As soon as I looked through it I wanted to figure out what
a gill of brandy is & how to "paper the hoops" & what
temperature to set for a quick oven, & get to baking.
It has some recipes I'd love to try:
TOMATO CATSUP.
Take
one gallon of skinned tomatoes, four tablespoons of salt, four ditto of
whole black pepper, half a spoonful of allspice, eight pods of red
pepper, and three spoonfuls of mustard, boil them together for one hour,
then strain it through a sieve or coarse cloth, and when cold, bottle
for use; have the best velvet corks.
& some I'd really rather not:
TO MAKE COFFEE.
Take a good-sized cupful of ground coffee, and pour into a quart of boiling water, with the white of an egg
and the crushed shell. Stir well together, adding a half-cupful of cold
water to clear. Put into the coffee-boiler, and boil for about a
quarter of an hour; after standing for a little to settle, pour into
your coffee-pot, which should be well-scalded, and send to the table.
The coffee should be stirred as it boils. To make
coffée au lait,
take a pint of each hot made coffee and boiling milk; strain through
thin muslin into coffee-pot, to get rid of the grounds, and serve hot.
Despite
ostensibly being a cook book, it isn't all mock-turtle soup* &
toast water recipes. It's full of hints on
how to choose the freshest
meats:
In a lobster lately caught, you may put the claws in
motion by pressing the eyes; but when it has been long caught the
muscular action is not excited.
How to carve up (or "help") an assortment of animals:
To
taste well, a tongue should be cut crossways in round slices. Cutting
it lengthwise (though the practice at many tables) injures the flavor.
How to make a variety of cosmetics for hair & face:
White
wax, one ounce; strained honey, two ounces; juice of lily bulbs, two
ounces. The foregoing melted and stirred together will remove wrinkles.
Housekeeping hints:
FOR CLOTHES THAT FADE.
One ounce sugar of lead in a pail of rain water. Soak over night.
Cures for common ailments & ills:
TO STOP BLEEDING
A handful of flour bound on the cut.
Plus
discourses on child-raising & dressing & etiquette:
It
has been truly said...that [u]nselfish mothers make selfish
children.... If the mother wears an old dress that her daughter may have
a new one, if she work that her daughter may play, she is helping to
make her vain, selfish and ignorant, and very likely she will be
ungrateful and disrespectful, and this is equally true of the husband,
and other members of the family. Unselfish wives make selfish husbands.
& all manner of miscellany:
A poor book
had best be burned to give place to better, or even to an empty shelf,
for the fire destroys its poison, and puts it out of the way of doing
harm.
There's also plenty of reminders about why you wouldn't want to have lived in the 1860s:
TO KEEP OFF MOSQUITOS.
Rub
exposed parts with kerosene. The odor is not noticed after a few
minutes, and children especially are much relieved by its use.
(I'm
pretty sure this is a bad idea. But, if you already bought that
kerosene, the book will have you know it's also good for removing blood
stains from cloth, or "superfluous hairs" from the face or body.)
BITES OF DOGS
The
only safe remedy in case of a bite from a dog suspected of madness, is
to burn out the wound thoroughly with red-hot iron, or with lunar
caustic, for fully eight seconds, so as to destroy the entire surface of
the wound. Do this as soon as possible, for no time is to be lost. Of
course it will be expected that the parts touched with the caustic will
turn black.
Next on the reading list? The 1739 gem
The Compleat Housewife: or, Accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion. You know, back when recipes were called receipts. & soup, soop. & pie, pye.
* Curious as to what a mock-turtle is? It's calf's head. Mock-turtle soup is calf-head soup with calf-brain meatballs. F'real.
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