Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers

<h2>LARD, TALLOW, SOAP AND CANDLES.</h2> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Rendering Lard.</h3> <p></p> <p>The leaf lard should be rendered by itself, as it does not take so long as that with the skin on. Cut it up fine and put it in a clean pot with half a pint of water, stir it frequently and let it boil fast at first, when the cracklings are light-brown and float on the top, it is nearly done, and should cook slowly, when done, strain it into your vessels with a thin cloth put over a colander. If you put lard in stone or earthen jars, it should be cooled first, as there is danger of their cracking, white oak firkins with iron hoops, and covers to fit tight, are good to keep lard, and if taken care of will last for twenty years.</p> <p>The fat that has the skin on should be cut very fine, taking the skin off first. It takes longer to boil than leaf lard, and there is more danger of burning, put a pint of water in the pot.</p> <p>The skins should be boiled alone, and will do for soap-fat after the lard is out of them.</p> <p>Soak the inside fat all night in salt and water; wash it in the morning, and put it to boil without any water in the pot. It is not so nice as other lard, and should be strained by itself. It does very well for frying. Lard keeps well in large tin vessels with tight covers and is not apt to mould.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Rendering Tallow.</h3> <p></p> <p>Cut the tallow fine, and put it to boil in a large pot with a quart of water; stir it frequently and keep it boiling moderately for six hours; when the cracklings begin to turn brown, it should boil very slowly till done.</p> <p>Put a little water in the bottom of your dutch-ovens or tin pans, and strain it in with a cloth over the colander, or the settlings will run through and hurt the looks of your candles.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Soap.</h3> <p></p> <p>It requires some care and experience to have good soap; but when you once get beforehand, it is easy to keep up the supply if the ashes are good. The leystand should be made of cedar or pine boards, in the shape of a mill-hopper, and have holes bored in the bottom for the ley to run through; have four posts planted in the ground to support it; let it be high enough for a small tub to set under.</p> <p>If you cannot have it under a shed, there should be a tight cover of boards to protect it from the rain. Put some sticks in the bottom of the leystand, and some straw, and pack in a bushel of ashes, then half a peck of lime, and when it is half full of ashes, put in two buckets of water, and another when you get near the top; pack it well, and put on some more water; then cover it over; pour on hot water three times a day for several days. When you are ready to make soap, have a large pot of water, which must be kept boiling, and put it on as fast as it will bear, save the strongest ley by itself, (if the ley will float an egg, it will answer,) have your soap-fat laying in strong ley through the winter, put a gallon of this in a large pot, and put to it a gallon of the strongest ley; let it boil an hour, stirring it often, then put in two gallons more of strong ley, when this has boiled, put in weak ley till the pot is full, let it boil an hour or two slowly, and be careful that it does not go over, cool some on a plate, and if thick, it is done, but if not, boil it longer. Put it away in a tight barrel, and prepare to make more soap, if you have two large pots both of them can be kept going at the same time. Several barrels of soap can be made from one ley stand. A large oil cask is good to keep soap in. If a barrel leaks, set it under a spout in a rain, or fill it with water. It is of the greatest importance to keep the soap-fat in strong ley. Have an oil barrel in the cellar, half full of strong ley, and put in cracklings, bacon skins, pot skimmings, beef bones, or any scraps, when eaten by ley it will take but little boiling. It is much the easiest and safest way, where there are children, to make the soap without boiling. Put four gallons of soap-fat that has been eaten with ley, in a barrel with eight gallons of strong ley, stir it two or three times a day, for a week or two, then fill it up with weaker ley, you may have several barrels making at a time, so as always to have some for use, it takes some time to make it in this way. But if you are careful, and once get ahead, you need not boil the soap unless you prefer it so, if your ley is not strong, dissolve potash in hot water and add to strengthen it.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Hard Soap.</h3> <p></p> <p>Have fifteen pounds of clean fat to twenty gallons of clear strong ley; let it boil until thick, when put in half a peck of coarse salt; if it does not curdle in two hours, put in more salt till it does, then pour it out in a tub to cool till the next day, when put on your pot with some weak ley, cut the soap out of the tub and boil it in this an hour, then put it in the tub, let it get cold, cut it in squares and put it on a board to dry. Unless you have plenty of ashes and soap-fat, it is much cheaper to buy hard soap than to make it. If you have but a barrel full of ashes you can make a barrel of soap, bore a hole in the bottom of a barrel, put a few sticks across, when half full of ashes put in a quart of lime and some water; keep the hole plugged up till you are ready to make the soap.</p> <p>You can have a barrel of ashes put in the cellar in winter to use for washing and scrubbing, keep a tub under it to hold the ley as it drops.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Potash Soap.</h3> <p></p> <p>Persons living in cities frequently have grease that would do to make soap, but are at a loss for ley, in consequence of burning coal instead of wood. Twelve pounds of pure grease of any kind, put with ten pounds of potash in an oil barrel, and filled with water, makes good thick soap, and is much cheaper than buying hard soap. It should be stirred frequently, and if the ingredients are put together in warm weather, and the barrel stands where it can be exposed to the heat of the sun, without danger of getting rain in it, it will be fit for use in a few weeks without the aid of fire, if you wish to make soap immediately put three pounds of potash, four of grease, and about ten gallons of water in a large iron pot, boil it over the fire, and it will make good thick soap in a few hours, it need only boil long enough to dissolve the potash, which is sometimes in very hard lumps. If you use the crumbled potash, you must put rather more of it, as it is not so strong, and a little lump of quick lime will make it turn quicker.</p> <p></p> <h4>Another Receipt.</h4> <p></p> <p>Two days before you wish to commence your soap, pour about two gallons of boiling water on ten or twelve pounds of potash, to dissolve it, then put it in an iron pot or kettle, with ten gallons of rain water, hang it over the fire, and when it has dissolved, pour twelve pounds of grease, which has been purified by boiling in water, (or weak ley,) into a well hooped barrel, (an oil barrel from which one head has been taken, and the bung well fastened, is best,) then pour the water in which the potash was dissolved over the grease in the barrel, and stir it for half an hour; afterwards fill up the barrel with cold soft water, and stir it every day for two weeks. If at the end of that time, the fat swims on the top, beat a pound or two more of potash fine, throw it in the barrel, stir it well, and the soap will be finished.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Labor-saving Soap.</h3> <p></p> <p>Take two pounds salt soda, two pounds yellow bar soap, ten quarts of water. Cut the soap in thin slices, and boil all together two hours, and strain it through a cloth, let it cool and it is fit for use. Put the clothes in soak the night before you wash, and to every pail of water in which you boil them, add one pound of the soap. They will need no rubbing, merely rinse them out, and they will be perfectly clean and white. This soap can be made for two cents per pound.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Ley and Soda Preparation for Washing Clothes.</h3> <p></p> <p>To sixteen gallons of water, put one gallon of lime water; twelve ounces of soft soap, or if hard soap it must be first melted, and four ounces of soda, put them together in your wash kettle, and when nearly boiling, put in the clothes, being careful to have them as much of a kind as possible, they should be wet first with common water, boil one hour, then wash, scald and blue as usual. The limestone should remain in the water at least four days before it is used, and be about of the strength of lime-water for drinking, and the same stone will do for several times if good. The ley will do for boiling a second set of clothes by adding a little more, and afterwards for towels and coarse things. Prints and flannels must not be boiled.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Volatile Soap, <i>And Directions for Washing Clothes.</i></h3> <p></p> <p>Cut up three pounds of country bard soap into three pints of strong ley; simmer it over the fire until the soap is dissolved, and add to it three ounces of pearl-ash, pour it into a stone jar, and stir in half a pint of spirits of turpentine, and a gill of spirits of hartshorn, cover the jar tight, and tie a cloth over it.</p> <p>To use the soap, have a tub half full of water as hot as you can bear your hands in, assort the clothes, and, beginning with the cleanest of them, rub a small quantity of the soap on the soiled parts of each article, and immerse them in the water one by one, until it will cover no more, let them soak for fifteen or twenty minutes, then stir them well for a few minutes, and boil them for half an hour in eight or ten gallons of water, to which a table-spoonful of the soap has been added, rinse them, using blue water where it is required as usual, and they are ready for drying. After the white clothes are finished, the same waters will answer for the colored ones, adding hot water and more soap. By the use of this soap, most of the rubbing can be dispensed with, and it is not injurious to the texture of the clothes. It has been proved that the clothes washed in this way are more durable than with the common soaps, and the rubbing required in connection with them.</p> <p>It is particularly recommended for washing flannels, and calicoes. The above quantity is sufficient for a family of four or five persons for a month, varying slightly as the clothes are more or less soiled. Its cheapness recommends it to all housekeepers.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Candles.</h3> <p></p> <p>Weigh the tallow, then you can judge how many candles you can make, six and eight candles to the pound do very well for working and reading by, ten to the pound does to use in the kitchen or to carry about the house. Put the wicks on the rods the day before you expect to make candles, and dip them in a little melted tallow, you can then straighten them out. Have a large pot nearly half full of hot water, melt the tallow in another pot and fill it up, and keep more tallow at the fire to fill in as it is used out, put coals under the pot to keep it at a proper heat. Have poles set on stools about a foot apart, to support the rods, dip the rods in the pot, alternately, until they are as large as you wish them. Wax makes candles burn longer, but turns them yellow. The best way is, to put in two pounds of wax, when you first begin to dip, and it will be used up before they are dipped the last time, when they are done, cut off the ends and put them in boxes. Most good managers in the country make enough candles at a time to last a year. If you have not enough tallow to dip candles, you can mould some mutton tallow is very good for this purpose.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <hr> <p></p> <p></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />