To Prevent Mold on the Top of Glasses of Jelly
Lay a lump of paraffine on the top of the hot jelly, letting it melt and spread over it. No brandy paper and no other covering is necessary. If preferred the paraffine can be melted and poured over after the jelly is cold.
Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette
Loss of Hair
Hair is preserved by onion-juice and brandy, rubbed in well. Or, take one part cantharides powder, to eight of alcohol, carefully mixed; and well rubbed into the roots of the hair.
Source: Valuable Receipts, J.M. Prescott
For Sore Nipples
Put one teaspoon of quince seed into a fourth of a glass of brandy. Let it stand a few hours till it forms a mucilage; then rub it on. It is very soothing and heals by using a few times.
Source: 76: A Cook Book
Blackberry Cordial
To two quarts of juice add one pound of sugar, one-half ounce of cloves, one-half ounce of cinnamon, one-half ounce of nutmeg. Boil twenty minutes, and when cold add one pint good brandy. This is splendid in cases of dysentery.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook
Another Mixture for Cholera
Laudanum two ounces, spirits of camphor two ounces, essence of peppermint two ounces, Hoffman’s anodyne two ounces, tincture of cayenne pepper two drachms, tincture of ginger one ounce. This is also invaluable. A teaspoonful in a little water, or a half a teaspoonful repeated in an hour afterward in a tablespoonful of brandy. This preparation will check diarrhea in ten minutes, and abate other premonitory symptoms of cholera immediately.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook
Blackberry Syrup
Half a pound of blackberry root, and one-half pound of white oak bark, cut into small pieces or pulverized, and boiled in one gallon of water until it is reduced to two quarts, then strain, and boil up with cloves, cinnamon and pepper, and enough sugar to make a thick syrup. Add one gill best French brandy to each quart. Bottle and seal with wax, when it will keep for years. This was used most successfully during the late war, in cases of dysentery.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook
For the Griping in the Guts
Take a peniworth of Brandy, and a peniworth of Mithridate mixed together, and drink it three nights together when you go to rest, or take a little Oil of Aniseeds in a Glass of Sack three times.
Source: The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet, Hannah Wolley
A very good Surfet water
Take what quantity of Brandy you please, steep a good quantity of the Flowers of Red Poppies therein, which grow amongst the Wheat, having the black bottoms cut off, when they have been steeped long enough, strain them out, and put in new, and so do till the Brandy be very red with them, and let it stand in the Sun all the while they infuse, then put in Nutmegs, Cloves, Ginger and Cinamon, with some fine Sugar, so much as you think fit, and keep it close stopped; this is very good for Surfets, Wind in the Stomach, or any Illness whatever.
Source: The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet, Hannah Wolley
Arrowroot Wine Jelly
One cupful of boiling water, one scant tablespoonful of arrowroot, mixed with a little cold water, one tablespoonful of sugar, a pinch of salt, one tablespoonful of brandy, or three tablespoonfuls of wine. Excellent for a sick person without fever.
Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette
Thoroughwort Bitters
Make a strong tea of the thoroughwort–strain it, and when cool, put to a couple of quarts of it half a pint of French brandy, the peel of two or three fresh oranges, cut into small bits, and half a dozen bunches of fennel, or smallage seed. The seed and orange peel should be crowded into a bottle, then the tea and brandy turned in. The bottle should be corked tight. The bitters will keep good almost any length of time, and is an excellent remedy for bilious complaints, and can often be taken when the thoroughwort tea will not sit on the stomach. A wine glass of these bitters to a tumbler of water is about the right proportion. It should have a little sugar added to it before drinking it.
Source: The American Housewife