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The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) written by Mrs. F.L. Gillette

M >> Mrs. F.L. Gillette >> The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887)





OIL STAINS IN SILKS AND OTHER FABRICS.

Benzine is most effectual, not only for silk, but for any other
material whatever. It can be procured from any druggist. By simply
covering both sides of greased silk with magnesia, and allowing it to
remain for a few hours, the oil is absorbed by the powder. Should the
first application be insufficient, it may be repeated, and even rubbed
in with the hand. Should the silk be Tussah or Indian silk, it will
wash.

To remove an acid stain on violet silk: Brush the discoloration with
tincture of iodine, then saturate the spot well with a solution of
hyposulphite of soda, and dry gradually. This restores the original
color perfectly.

Muriatic acid is successfully used for removing ink stains and iron
mold on a number of colors which it does not attack.

Sulphurous acid is only employed for whitening undyed goods, straw
hats, etc., and for removing the stains of certain fruits on silks and
woolens. Sulphurous gas is also used for this purpose, but the liquid
gas is safer.

Oxalic acid is used for removing ink and rust stains, and remnants of
mud stains, which do not yield to other deterrents. It may also be
used for destroying the stains of fruits and astringent juices, and
old stains of urine. However, its use is limited to white goods, as it
attacks fugitive colors and even light shades of those reputed to be
fast. The best method of applying it is to dissolve it in cold or
luke-warm water, to let it remain a moment upon the spot, and then rub
it with the fingers. Wash out in clear, warm water immediately.

Citric acid serves to revive and brighten certain colors, especially
greens and yellows. It restores scarlets which have been turned to a
crimson by the action of alkalies. Acetic acid or tartaric acid may be
used instead.

Where it is feared that soap may change the color of an article, as,
for instance, scarlet hosiery or lilac print, if the garment be not
badly soiled, it may be cleansed by washing without soap in water in
which pared potatoes have been boiled. This method will also prevent
color from running in washing prints.

To prevent blue from running into a white ground, dissolve a
teaspoonful of copperas in a pailful of soft water, add a piece of
lime the size of an acorn, and soak the garments in this water two
hours before washing. To keep colors from running in washing black
prints, put a teaspoon of black pepper in the first water.

Salt or beef's gall in the water helps to set black. A tablespoonful
of spirits of turpentine to a gallon of water sets most blues, and
alum is very efficacious in setting green. Black or very dark calicoes
should be stiffened with gum arabic--five cents' worth is enough for a
dress. If, however, starch is used, the garment should be turned wrong
side out.

A simple way to remove grass stains is to spread butter on them, and
lay the article in hot sunshine, or wash in alcohol. Fruit stains upon
cloth or the hands may be removed by rubbing with the juice of ripe
tomatoes. If applied immediately, powdered starch will also take fruit
stains out of table linen. Left on the spot for a few hours, it
absorbs every trace of the stain.

For mildew stains or iron rust, mix together soft soap, laundry
starch, half as much salt, and the juice of a lemon. Apply to the
spots and spread the garment on the grass. Or wet the linen, rub into
it white soap, then finely powdered chalk; lay upon the grass and keep
damp. Old mildew stains may be removed by rubbing yellow soap on both
sides and afterwards laying on, very thick, starch which has been
dampened. Rub in well and expose to light and air. There are several
effectual methods of removing grease from cloths. First, wet with a
linen cloth dipped in chloroform. Second, mix four tablespoonfuls of
alcohol with one tablespoonful of salt; shake together until the salt
is dissolved and apply with a sponge. Third, wet with weak ammonia
water; then lay a thin white blotting or tissue paper over it and iron
lightly with an iron not too hot. Fourth, apply a mixture of equal
parts of alcohol, gin and ammonia.

Candle grease yields to a warm iron. Place a piece of blotting or
other absorbing paper under the absorbing fabric; put a piece of the
paper also on the spot, apply the warm iron to the paper and as soon
as a spot of grease appears, move the paper and press again until the
spot disappears. Lard will remove wagon grease. Rub the spot with the
lard as if washing it, and when it is well out, wash in the ordinary
way with soap and water until thoroughly cleansed.

To make linen beautifully white, prepare the water for washing by
putting into every ten gallons a large handful of powdered borax or
boil with the clothes one teaspoonful of spirits of turpentine.

Fruit stains may be taken out by boiling water. Place the material
over a basin or other vessel and pour the boiling water from the
kettle over the stains.

Pure water, cold or hot, mixed with acids, serves for rinsing goods in
order to remove foreign and neutral bodies which cover the color.
Steam softens fatty matters and thus facilitates their removal by
reagents.

Sulphuric acid may be used in certain cases, particularly for
brightening and raising greens, reds, yellows, etc., but it must be
diluted with at least one hundred times its weight of water and more
in cases of delicate shades.


CEMENT FOR CHINA AND GLASS.

To half a pint of milk put an equal quantity of vinegar in order to
curdle it; then separate the curd from the whey and mix the whey with
the whites of four or five eggs, beating the whole well together. When
it is well-mixed, add a little quick-lime, through a sieve, until it
has acquired the consistency of a thick paste. With this cement broken
vessels and cracks of all kinds may be mended. It dries quickly and
resists the action of fire and water.

Another: Into a thick solution of gum arabic, stir plaster of Paris
until the mixture assumes the consistency of cream; apply with a brush
to the broken edges of china and join together. In three days the
article cannot be broken in the same place. The whiteness of the
cement adds to its value.


CLEANING SINKS.

To purify greasy sinks and pipes, pour down a pailful of boiling water
in which three or four pounds of washing soda have been dissolved. A
disinfectant is prepared in the same way, using copperas. Copperas is
a poison and should not be left about.

_Leaks in Waste Pipes:_--Shut yourself into a room from which the pipe
starts. Put two or three ounces of oil of peppermint into a pail of
boiling hot water and pour down the pipe. Another person who has not
yet inhaled the strong odor should follow the course of the pipe
through the house. The peppermint will be pretty sure to discover a
break that even an expert plumber might overlook.

_The Examiner._


MANAGEMENT OF STOVES.

If the fire in a stove has plenty of fresh coals on top not yet burned
through it will need only a little shaking to start it up; but if the
fire looks dying and the coals look white, don't shake it. When it has
drawn till it is red again, if there is much ash and little fire, put
coals on very carefully. A mere handful of fire can be coaxed back
into life by adding another handful or so of new coals on the red
spot, and giving plenty of draught, but don't shake a dying fire, or
you lose it. This management is often necessary after a warm spell,
when the stove has been kept dormant for days, though I hope you will
not be so unfortunate as to have a fire to coax up on a cold winter
morning. They should be arranged over night, so that all that is
required is to open the draughts in order to have a cherry glow in a
few minutes.

_Good Housekeeping_


TO REMOVE INK FROM CARPETS.

When freshly spilled, ink can be removed from carpets by wetting in
milk. Take cotton batting and soak up all the ink that it will
receive, being careful not to let it spread. Then take fresh cotton,
wet in milk, and sop it up carefully. Repeat this operation, changing
cotton and milk each time. After most of the ink has been taken up in
this way, with fresh cotton and clean, rub the spot. Continue till all
disappears; then wash the spot in clean warm water and a little soap;
rinse in clear water and rub till nearly dry. If the ink is dried in,
we know of no way that will not take the color from the carpet as well
as the ink, unless the ink is on a white spot. In that case, salts of
lemon, or soft soap, starch and lemon juice, will remove the ink as
easily as if on cotton.


TO TAKE RUST OUT OF STEEL.

If possible, place the article in a bowl containing kerosene oil, or
wrap the steel up in a soft cloth well saturated with kerosene; let it
remain twenty-four hours or longer, then scour the rusty spots with
brick dust; if badly rusted, use salt wet with hot vinegar; after
scouring rinse every particle of brick dust or salt off with boiling
hot water; dry thoroughly with flannel cloths and place near the fire
to make sure, then polish off with a clean flannel cloth and a little
sweet oil.


TO MAKE A PASTE OR MUCILAGE TO FASTEN LABLES.

Soften good glue in water, then boil it with strong vinegar and
thicken the liquid, during boiling, with fine wheat flour, so that a
paste results; or starch paste with which a little Venice turpentine
has been incorporated while it was warm.

A recipe for a transparent cement which possesses great tenacity and
has not the slightest yellow tinge: Mix in a well-stoppered bottle ten
drachms of chloroform with ten and one-half of non-vulcanized
caoutchouc (rubber) cut in small pieces. Solution is readily effected
and when it is completed add two and one-half drachms of mastic. Let
the whole macerate from eight to ten days without the application of
any heat and shake the contents of the bottle at intervals. A
perfectly white and very adhesive cement is the result.


POSTAGE STAMP MUCILAGE.

Take of gum dextrine two parts, acetic acid one part, water five
parts. Dissolve in a water bath and add alcohol one part.

_Scientific American._

Gum of great strength, which will also keep for a long time, is
prepared by dissolving equal parts of gum arabic and gum tragacanth in
vinegar. A little vinegar added to ordinary gum water will make it
keep much better.


FAMILY GLUE.

Crack the glue and put it in a bottle, add common whisky; shake up,
cork tight, and in three or four days it can be used. It requires no
heating, will keep for almost any length of time, and is at all times,
ready to use, except in the coldest of weather, when it will require
warming. It must be kept tight, so that the whisky will not evaporate.
The usual corks or stoppers should not be used. It will become
clogged. A tin stopper covering the bottle, but fitting as closely as
possible, must be used.


GLUE.

Glue to resist _heat_ and _moisture_ is made as follows: Mix a handful
of quick-lime in four ounces of linseed oil, boil to a good thickness,
then spread it on tin plates in the shade, and it will become very
hard, but may be easily dissolved over the fire as glue.

A glue which will resist the action of water is made by boiling one
pound of common glue in two quarts of skimmed milk.


FURNITURE CREAM.

Shred finely two ounces of beeswax and half an ounce of white wax into
half a pint of turpentine; set in a warm place until dissolved, then
pour over the mixture the following, boiled together until melted:
Half a pint of water, an ounce of castile soap and a piece or resin
the size of a small nutmeg. Mix thoroughly and keep in a wide-necked
stone bottle for use. This cleans well and leaves a good polish, and
may be made at a fourth of the price it is sold at.


CEMENT CRACKS IN FLOOR.

Cracks in floors may be neatly but permanently filled by thoroughly
soaking newspapers in paste made of half a pound of flour, three
quarts of water and half a pound of alum mixed and boiled. The mixture
will be about as thick as putty, and may be forced into the crevice
with a case knife. It will harden like papier-mache.


A POLISH FOR LADIES' KID SHOES.

A fine liquid polish for ladies' kid shoes, satchels, etc., that is
easy of application, recommended as containing no ingredients in any
manner injurious to leather, is found by digesting in a closed vessel
at gentle heat, and straining, a solution made as follows: Lampblack
one drachm, oil turpentine four drachms, alcohol (trymethyl) twelve
ounces, shellac one and one-half ounces, white turpentine five
drachms, saudarac two drachms.


PASTE FOR SCRAP BOOKS, ETC.

_Paste that Will Keep_.--Dissolve a teaspoonful of alum in a quart of
water. When cold, stir in flour, to give it the consistency of thick
cream, being particular to beat up all the lumps. Stir in as much
powdered resin as will lie on a dime, and throw in half a dozen cloves
to give it a pleasant odor. Have on the fire a teacupful of boiling
water; pour the flour mixture into it, stirring well all the time. In
a few minutes it will be of the consistency of molasses. Pour it into
an earthen or china vessel, let it cool, and stir in a small
teaspoonful each of oil of cloves and of sassafras; lay a cover on,
and put in a cool place. When needed for use, take out a portion and
soften it with warm water. This is a fine paste to use to stiffen
embroidery.


TO REMOVE INDELIBLE INK.

Most indelible inks contain nitrate of silver, the stain of which may
be removed by first soaking in a solution of common salt, and
afterward washing with ammonia. Or use solution of ten grains of
cyanide of potassium and five grains of iodine to one ounce of water,
or a solution of eight parts each bichloride of mercury and chloride
of ammonium in one hundred and twenty-five parts of water.


A CEMENT FOR ACIDS.

A cement which is proof against boiling acids may be made by a
composition of India rubber, tallow, lime and red lead. The India
rubber must first be melted by a gentle heat, and then six to eight
per cent by weight of tallow is added to the mixture while it is kept
well stirred; next day slaked lime is applied, until the fluid mass
assumes a consistency similar to that of soft paste; lastly, twenty
per cent of red lead is added in order to make it harden and dry.


TO KEEP CIDER.

Allow three-fourths of a pound of sugar to the gallon, the whites of
six eggs, well beaten, a handful of common salt. Leave it open until
fermentation ceases, then bung up. This process a dealer of cider has
used for years, and always successfully.

_Another Recipe_.--To keep cider sweet allow it to work until it has
reached the state most desirable to the taste, and then add one and a
half tumblers of grated horse-radish to each barrel, and shake up
well. This arrests further fermentation. After remaining a few weeks,
rack off and bung up closely in clean casks.

A gentleman of Denver writes he has a sure preservative: Put eight
gallons of cider at a time into a clean barrel; take one ounce of
powdered charcoal and one ounce of powdered sulphur; mix and put it
into some iron vessel that will go down through the bung-hole of the
barrel. Now put a piece of red-hot iron into the charcoal and sulphur,
and while it is burning, lower it through the bung-hole to within one
foot of the cider, and suspend it there by a piece of wire. Bring it
up and in twelve hours you can cure another batch. Put the cider in a
tight barrel and keep in a cool cellar and it will keep for years.

_A Holland Recipe_.--To one quart of new milk, fresh from the cow (not
strained), add one half pound of ground black mustard seed and six
eggs. Beat the whole well together and pour into a barrel of cider. It
will keep cider sweet for one year or more.


TO BLEACH COTTON CLOTH.

Take one large spoonful of sal soda and one pound of chloride lime for
thirty yards; dissolve in clean, soft water; rinse the cloth
thoroughly in cold, soft water so that it may not rot. This amount of
cloth may be bleached in fourteen or fifteen minutes.


A POLISH FOR LEATHER.

Put a half-pound of shellac broken up in small pieces into a quart
bottle or jug, cover it with alcohol, cork it tight, and put it on the
shelf in a warm place; shake it well several times a day, then add a
piece of camphor as large as a hen's egg; shake it well, and in a few
hours shake it again and add one ounce of lampblack. If the alcohol is
good, it will all be dissolved in two days; then shake and use. If the
materials were of the proper kind, the polish correctly prepared, it
will dry in about five minutes, giving a gloss equal to patent
leather. Using aniline dyes instead of the lampblack, you can have it
any desired color, and it can be used on wood or hard paper.


TO SOFTEN WATER.

Add half a pound of the best quick-lime dissolved in water to every
hundred gallons. Smaller proportions may be more conveniently managed,
and if allowed to stand a short time the lime will have united with
the carbonate of lime, and been deposited at the bottom of the
receptacle. Another way is to put a gallon of lye into a barrelful of
water, or two or three shovelfuls of wood-ashes, let stand over night;
it will be clear and soft.


WASHING FLUID.

One gallon of water and four pounds of ordinary washing soda, and a
quarter of a pound of soda. Heat the water to boiling hot, put in the
soda, boil about five minutes, then pour it over two pounds of
unslaked lime, let it bubble and foam until it settles, turn it off
and bottle it for use. This is the article that is used in the Chinese
laundries for whitening their linen, and is called "Javelle water;" a
tablespoonful put into a suds of three gallons, and a little, say a
quarter of a cupful, in the boiler when boiling the clothes, makes
them very white and clear. Must be well rinsed afterwards. This
preparation will remove tea stains and almost all ordinary stains of
fruit, grass, etc. This fluid brightens the colors of colored clothes,
does not rot them, but should not be _left long in any water_; the
boiling, sudsing, rinsing and bluing, should be done in quick
succession, until the clothes are ready to hang on the line.


HARD SOAP. (Washing.)

Six pounds of washing soda and three of unslaked lime. Pour on four
gallons of boiling water, let it stand until perfectly clear, then
drain off, and put in six pounds of clean fat. Boil it until it begins
to harden, about two hours, stirring most of the time. While boiling,
thin it with two gallons of cold water, which you have previously
poured on the alkaline mixture, after draining off the four gallons.
This must be settled clear before it is drawn off. Add it when there
is danger of boiling over. Try the thickness by cooling a little on a
plate. Put in a handful of salt just before taking from the fire. Wet
a tub to prevent sticking; turn in the soap and let it stand until
solid. Cut into bars, put on a board and let it dry. This makes about
forty pounds of soap. It can be flavored just as you turn it out.


SOAP FOR WASHING WITHOUT RUBBING.

A soap to clean clothes without rubbing: Take two pounds of sal soda,
two pounds of common bar soap and ten quarts of water. Cut the soap in
thin slices and boil together two hours; strain and it will be fit for
use. Put the clothes in soak the night before you wash, and to every
pailful of water in which you boil them add a pound of soap. They will
need no rubbing, but merely rinsing.


TO MAKE SOFT SOAP WITHOUT COOKING.

Pour two pailfuls of boiling water upon twenty pounds of potash and
let it stand two hours. Have ready thirty pounds of clean grease, upon
which pour one pailful of the lye, adding another pail of water to the
potash; let it stand three or four hours, stir it well; then pour a
gallon of the lye upon the grease, stir it well; and in half an hour
another gallon of the lye, stir it thoroughly; in half an hour repeat
the process, and thus proceed until you have poured off all the lye;
then add two pails of boiling hot water to the remainder of the
potash, and let it stand ten hours; then stir the mixture, and if it
has become stiff and the grease has disappeared from the surface, take
out a little and see whether the weak lye will thicken it; if it does,
add the lye; if it does not, try water, and if that thickens it, let
it stand another day, stirring it well five or six times during the
day; if the lye does not separate from the grease you may fill up with
water.


OLD-STYLE FAMILY SOFT SOAP.

To _set the leach_, bore several holes in the bottom of a barrel, or
use one without a bottom; prepare a board larger than the barrel,
then set the barrel on it, and cut a groove around just outside the
barrel, making one groove from this to the edge of the board, to carry
off the lye as it runs off, with a groove around it, running into one
in the centre of the board. Place all two feet from the ground and tip
it so that the lye may run easily from the board into the vessel below
prepared to receive it. Put half bricks or stones around the edge of
the inside of the barrel; place on them one end of some sticks about
two inches wide, inclining to the centre; on those place some straw to
the depth of two inches, over it scatter two pounds of slaked lime.
Put in ashes, about half of a bushel at a time, pack it well, by
pounding it down, and continue doing so until the barrel is full,
leaving a funnel-shaped hollow in the centre large enough to hold
several quarts of water. Use rain-water boiling hot. Let the water
disappear before adding more. If the ashes are packed very _tightly_
it may require two or three days before the lye will begin to run, but
it will be the stronger for it, and much better.

_To Make Boiled Soft Soap_.--Put in a kettle the grease consisting of
all kinds of fat that has accumulated in the kitchen, such as scraps
and bones from the soup-kettle, rinds from meat, etc.; fill the kettle
half full; if there is too much grease it can be skimmed off after the
soap is cold, for another kettle of soap. This is the only true test
when enough grease is used, as the lye will consume all that is needed
and no more. Make a fire under one side of it. The kettle should be in
an out-house or out of doors. Let it heat very hot so as to fry; stir
occasionally to prevent burning. Now put in the lye a gallon at a
time, watching it closely until it boils, as it sometimes runs over at
the beginning. Add lye until the kettle is full enough, but not _too
full to boil well_. Soap should boil from the _side_ and not the
middle, as this would be more likely to cause it to boil over. To test
the soap, to one spoonful of soap add one of rain-water; if it stirs
up very thick, the soap is good and will keep; if it becomes thinner,
it is not good. This is the result of one of three causes, either it
is too weak, or there is a deposit of dirt or it is too strong.
Continue to boil for a few hours, when it should flow from the stick
with which it is stirred like thick molasses; but if after boiling it
remains thin, let it stand over night, removing it from the fire, then
drain it off very carefully into another vessel, being very
particular to prevent any sediment from passing. Wash the kettle,
return the soap and boil again, if dirt was the cause; it will now be
thick and good; otherwise if it was _too strong_, rain-water added
will make it right, adding the water gradually until right and just
thick enough.

[Illustration]




FACTS WORTH KNOWING.


_An Agreeable Disinfectant:_--Sprinkle fresh ground coffee on a shovel
of hot coals, or burn sugar on hot coals. Vinegar boiled with myrrh,
sprinkled on the floor and furniture of a sick room, is an excellent
deodorizer.

_To Prevent Mold:_--A small quantity of carbolic acid added to paste,
mucilage and ink, will prevent mold. An ounce of the acid to a gallon
of whitewash will keep cellars and dairies from the disagreeable odor
which often taints milk and meat kept in such places.

_To Make Tracing-Paper:_--Dissolve a ball of white beeswax, one inch
in diameter, in half a pint of turpentine. Saturate the paper in this
bath and let it dry two or three days before using.

_To Preserve Brooms:_--Dip them for a minute or two in a kettle of
boiling suds once a week and they will last much longer, making them
tough and pliable. A carpet wears much longer swept with a broom cared
for in this manner.

_To Clean Brass-Ware, etc.:_--Mix one ounce of oxalic acid, six ounces
of rotten stone, all in powder, one ounce of sweet oil, and sufficient
water to make a paste. Apply a small portion, and rub dry with a
flannel or leather. The liquid dip most generally used consists of
nitric and sulphuric acids; but this is more corrosive.

_Polish or Enamel for Shirt Bosoms_ is made by melting together one
ounce of white wax, and two ounces of spermaceti; heat gently and turn
into a very shallow pan; when cold cut or break in pieces. When making
boiled starch the usual way, enough for a dozen bosoms, add to it a
piece of the polish the size of a hazel nut.

_An Erasive Fluid for the Removal of Spots on Furniture_, and all
kinds of fabrics, without injuring the color, is made of four ounces
of aqua ammonia, one ounce of glycerine, one ounce of castile soap and
one of spirits of wine. Dissolve the soap in two quarts of soft
water, add the other ingredients. Apply with a soft sponge and rub
out. Very good for deaning silks.