General Recipes
Recipe.—The word. A formula or prescription is a recipe, derived from the Latin word recipe, meaning take. An acknowledgment of money paid is a receipt, from receptus, or received. A description of the materials to be used in making a pie is not a receipt, but a recipe.
—Familiar Errors.
To clean Woollen Cloth.—Rub it with sal-ammoniac and water till clean, then wash with pure water. This liquid is very useful, when any article of clothing has been stained by vinegar, wine, or lemon, to restore the original colour.
An old-fashioned but excellent method of cleaning greased silk ribbons or cloth is as follows:—Lay the ribbon on a wad or flat surface of cotton wadding, strew on this dried clay, or calcined magnesia, or whiting, and over this another layer of wadding. Pass over it a flat-iron not too warm. The oil or grease will be absorbed into the cotton. Repeat this till the cure is effected. If any spots still remain, paint them with yolk of egg, dry the stuff in a draught of air, and when quite hardened remove the yoke and wash with water.
Wine-stains can be removed by simply pressing on them pads dampened with cold water. This method will succeed, when wiping only spreads a stain. Salt alone is also employed.
“When a lady’s skirt of any material has had spilt on it gravy, wine, oil, or any light liquid, as distinguished from such substances as paint, pitch, or tar, do not attempt, as is usually the case, to wipe or wash it clean. Lay a linen sheet or even spongy white paper—wanting this, newspapers may be used—on a table; on this spread the soiled fabric very evenly. Then lay on the upper surface another clean white sheet, or white muslin cloth, or napkins or towels, and press on it till as much as possible of the fluid is sucked out. By changing the white cloths or paper, and pressing continually, the fabric can be very nearly cleaned. Then dust it well with calcined magnesia in powder or whiting. Where these cannot be had chalk will answer. This will generally absorb all that remains of the grease.”—Notes by a Housekeeper (MS.).
“Clean, dry blotting-paper laid on grease-stains is admirable for extraction. Apply pressure with a flat-iron or hand-roller such as is used for bread. There are blotting-paper rollers, made for ink, which are quite suitable for cleaning cloth; but the paper should be thrown away the instant it has received any grease; otherwise it will only spread the stain and make it indelible by rubbing it into the fibre of the threads. A good soft sponge will also be found to be almost equal to it.”—Notes by a Housekeeper (MS.).
Old woollen or silk garments can be very brilliantly renewed in the following manner:—They are steeped in sulphuric cupreous acid (copper or blue vitriol), oxide of lead, or bismuth oxide, or simply with their metallic oxides, and then exposed to steam, mingled with sulphuric acid gas. Another method is to steep the stuffs simply in a solution of sulphuric acid and copper or of oxide of bismuth. This is slowly heated, but the heating must be qualified according to the colour of the stuffs to be revived. The application of these requires great care and some knowledge or experience.
Ink for restoring inscriptions on metal of any kind, silver, zinc, or brass:—To one part of crystallised acetic acid, oxide of copper, one of ammonia, and half a part of soot from fir wood. Mix in a saucer with ten parts of water. This is said to resist exposure to the weather very well.
A very valuable aid to the restorer or mender of implements, when it can be obtained, is Raw Hide. This material dries as hard as any wood and is tougher than any textile fabric. Thus, if a broken wheel or any portion of a vehicle is tied with a thong of raw hide, firmly drawn, when the latter dries, shrinking a little, it holds better than iron. Raw or untanned ox-hide or similar skin, when dried, is in fact similar to parchment, and, like it, resembles horn in hardness. The strongest trunks in the world are made in America from raw hide. This material, when made into small objects, such as flasks, boxes, sheaths, or portable ink-stands, has often withstood the wear of generations. As it is cheap, easily moulded into form, or stamped, it is remarkable that it is no longer used as it once was.
Lead-pencil or crayon drawings can be preserved from rubbing by a light wash of gum of any kind, diluted varnish, or even milk. The latter is in most cases preferable. It is also preservative of handwriting, and, like all glazes, prevents fading.
Bases for beads and similar work can be made as follows:—Take mother-of-pearl dust, which can be bought cheaply at a turner’s, powder or levigate it finely, mix it with half its bulk of fine white barley-meal, and make it up with a weak solution of gum-mastic. Also take snail-shells, or the glaze of any large, hard sea-shells, washing them first in strong lye to clean them. Pulverise and make up with yolk of eggs and alum, or any other fine binder. The same can be done with rock-crystal or pure flint. Grind it to finest powder, and make it up with a well-incorporated mixture of the white of eggs and pure gum-arabic. This will, when dry, become hard as a stone, and more and more waterproof with age.
To pulverise Glass.—First put in the fire till red-hot, then drop it into cold water, after which reduce it in a mortar. Glass-powder thus made, mixed with almost any cement, renders it extremely hard. It is also mixed with paint.
Burnished steel or iron-work can be preserved from rusting by rubbing the article with oil of cloves or oil of lavender; also with a mixture of turpentine, oil of lavender or cloves, and petroleum. Mercurial ointment is commonly used for guns.
Rust can be removed from iron by rubbing it with oil of tartar (oleum tartari), using a woollen rag.
Brass-ware, when it has become dull or rusty, may be renewed and made to look like gold. Take sal-ammoniac, grind it in a mortar with saliva; rub this on the brass; lay it on hot coals to dry it well, and tub it with a woollen cloth. So says Johann Wallberger; adding: “With this art a certain man did once, in Rome, gain much money, inasmuch as he thereby did clean the brass lamps of the churches and other things of the same metal.” There is another preparation for the same purpose still more gold-like. It consists of sulphur, chalk, and the soot from wood fires. But as it soon disappears, the brass should be lackered or varnished.
The best cleaner for brass with which I am acquainted is a German preparation used by Barkentin & Krall, Regent Street, from whom it can also be obtained.
A very strong cement, and one good for luting, can be made by combining sturgeon’s bladder, dissolved in spirits, with finest pulverised flint or sand.
Glue, into which resin has been well infused by heat, combined with sand or ashes or clay, forms a strong cement, useful for all kinds of coarse work.
A very good, strong cement is made as follows:—To three-eighths of a pound of water add three-eighths of a pound of spirits and a quarter of a pound of starch; also, prepare two ounces of good glue in water, mixed with two ounces of thick turpentine, and stir well into the first composition. This is a very good bookbinders’ glue.
The tufa or soft stone which abounds in Italy and elsewhere is much used when reduced to powder and burned for building. It is also useful as a cement. An old writer says it can be brayed in a mortar, but that “there are many who, for lack of a mortar, take old baptismal fonts out of the churches, and in lieu of a pestle use the clapper of a church bell.”
A curious decoration may be made by drawing figures—for example, of animals—with glue or gum on a wall surface, and then powdering it with cloth-dust of appropriate colours. These figures can be stencilled.
As of all repairing and restoring that of human beauty is the most important, it may be worth while to give here a few recipes, which have held their own for centuries:—
To make Wrinkles and Freckles disappear.—This is more possible than is generally supposed, and I have known a lady, a great beauty, of whom all my readers have heard, who at fifty years of age had artificially and miraculously preserved her face in perfect smoothness, though I do not know by what means. The following is given by Wallberger:—“Take fine, pure alum, compound it carefully with the fresh white of eggs, and boil it gently in a pipkin, stirring it constantly with a wooden stick or spoon till it forms a soft paste. Spread this on the face, morning and evening, for two or three days, and you will soon see that it is free from wrinkles and freckles, and marvellously fair and pleasant to view. Frivolous souls may carry the sinful misuse of such beauty to their own account; the virtuous hold in horror all such deeds” (Zauberbuch, 1760).
Lemon-juice or the salts of lemon, or lemon-juice and salt, are of great service in whitening the hands and causing freckles to disappear.
Gum-benzoin dissolved in spirits may be had of every apothecary. Pour a few drops into a wine-glassful of warm water, and it will form a milk-white emulsion, which is a perfect and harmless cosmetic for the face, and serves as a delightful soap in washing. This is the lac virginis so much used two centuries ago.
Eau de Cologne mixed with water forms a white emulsion, which is much superior to any soap for delicate hands. It forms a perfectly harmless cosmetic for the face. Even a few drops of it in a basin of water will have a good result. Too much of it, or of any wash, will have a contrary effect, and dry the skin. If the mouth be rinsed with this emulsion of eau de cologne and water, it will purify the breath, and that for a long time if used as a gargle.
A strong marking-ink, or black dye, which will resist much exposure to the weather, is made as follows:—Take gum-arabic 10 lbs., logwood liquor (specific gravity 1.37) 20 fluid oz., bi-chromate of potash 2½ oz., with water sufficient to dissolve the bi-chromate. Dissolve the gum in one gallon of water, strain, add the logwood liquor, mix, and let the mixture stand for twenty-four hours; then stir in rapidly the bi-chromate solution, and add a little nitrate of iron and fustic acid. If too thick, thin with lukewarm water.
A very hard cement can be made by digesting fluor spar for some time in sulphuric acid, adding magnesium sulphate and stirring calcined magnesia into the mixture.
A red cement for iron or stone or luting is made of red lead and litharge in equal parts mixed with concentrated glycerine to the consistency of soft putty. When dry it is water and fire proof.
Silico enamel is a thin liquid glaze, finer than varnish, which is easily applied to all polished metals, as well as other substances. It may be obtained in bottles, price one shilling, with brush, of the Silico Enamel Company, 97 Hampstead Road, London, N.W.
Light-coloured gloves may be cleaned by rolling bread-crumb over them; also with indiarubber. Also by means of benzine. Several patent washes for this purpose are now sold.
Cleaning Marble.—“If ‘Sculptor’ will get some salts of wormwood, and dissolve in warm water, then mix with whiting into a moderate paste, and apply to stone or marble, and let it remain upon either for twenty-four hours—and if not successful the first time, apply again—he will draw all stains out of marble, and clear all lichen either from sandstones or oolitic stones. Thoroughly wash the stone with a strong soap (say, of Hudson’s No. 2 soap powder) and lukewarm water, and, when thoroughly dry, give a coat of sulphuretted oil. He can make his own oil. Boil in a bath one quart of linseed-oil for one hour, with half-a-pound of flower of sulphur gently and continually stirring same; then take off fire and let cool; then pour oil from sediment, using oil upon stone. No lichen will hurt his stone if out exposed to the air, for the rain will wash all clean every time. I have cleaned several statues with nothing but Hudson’s No. 2 and water.”—Work, April 2, 1892.
Calcined magnesia, or calcined and powdered bone, laid for some time on simply oiled or greased marble, which has first been well washed with soap and water, will often extract the stain. For ink use oxalic acid in weak solution with water.
Gum-dextrine, or gum substitute, is made from roasted flour. It forms, mixed with water, a gum not much inferior to gum-arabic, for which it is, as the name denotes, a substitute. It is very extensively used in many manufactures, and may be obtained of any chemist. It sometimes happens that it is too brittle after drying, and does not hold. In such case add four or five drops of glycerine to a teacupful of the dextrine in solution.
Mouth Glue (Mundleim) or Solid Cement.—This is sold by stationers in thin, flat sticks or tablets, and is used by wetting and rubbing it, chiefly for paper. It is made as follows for labels:—
| Sturgeon’s bladder | 25 |
| Sugar | 12 |
| Water | 36 |
| Carbolic acid |
The sturgeon’s bladder is first dissolved, the sugar then added, also a few drops of carbolic acid, which causes it to set more firmly, and also to resist mould in dampness, induced by the presence of sugar. This cement is applicable to glass, wood, or metal. Like the following, it has the advantage of being always ready to use, and requires no boiling. If it becomes too hard to use freely, let so much of it as is required steep for a time in water. Many think, from merely dampening it in the mouth when it is hard, and using it immediately, that it is a very weak adhesive, which is a mistake. A great deal of that sold by the stationers is, however, of very inferior quality, and made with very common glue.
Mouth glue in tablets:—
| Transparent glue, No. 1 | 24 |
| Sugar | 13 |
| Gum-arabic | 5 |
| Water | 50 |
The glue, sugar, and gum are boiled in the water until a drop let fall on a slab hardens. It is then rolled and cut into flat cakes.
To mend or make Meerschaum Pipes.—Dissolve caseine in silicate of soda; stir into the cement fine calcined magnesia. By the addition of meerschaum powder a close imitation of meerschaum in the mass can be made.
Turkish cement of the strongest kind, and such as is used to attach gems to metal, is made as follows:—
| Sturgeon’s bladder cement | 30 |
| Mastic (best) | 2 |
| Gum-ammoniac | 1 |
| Spirits of wine | 10 |
The sturgeon’s bladder, shredded, is dissolved with spirits of wine while remaining in a warm place; the gum is also dissolved in spirit and mixed with the sturgeon’s bladder; the whole must be then carefully and slowly boiled to a syrup. Close with a cork, as it is sure to gum tightly.
To improve Corks.—When bottles contain substances which adhere to the cork and harden, the latter should be first steeped in oil or vaseline, or boiled in a mixture of both.
Armenian Cement.—This is much like Diamond and Turkish cements:—