An Excellent Bitter
Cut 1/2 oz. of gentian in thin slices into a stone jar, with the same quantity of fresh orange peel and sliced ginger. Pour over them 1 quart of boiling water, and let it stand ten hours. Strain it, add a gill of sherry, and bottle it. For a weak stomach, a wine-glassful the first thing in the morning will create an appetite.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett
Plaster for a Cough
Beat together 1 oz. each, of bees-wax, white Burgundy pitch, and rosin, 1/4 oz. coarse turpentine, 1/2 oz. oil of mace; spread it on white leather, the shape of a heart; when it flies off, renew it, two or three times.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett
A Remedy For A Common Cold
3 grains compound extract of colocynth, and 3 grains of soap, in 2 pills, taken at going to bed. The following night, take 16 or 18 grains of compound powder of contrayerva, and 1/2 a pint vinegar whey.– Breakfast in bed the next morning.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett
For Bruises, Cuts, or Wounds
Keep in the house a bottle containing a mixture of 3/4 oz. of scented trefoil, of rum, and of sweet oil.– Or: have a bottle three parts full of brandy, fill it quite full with the white leaves of the flowers of the garden lily, and cork it close. Lay some of the leaves on the wound, and keep it wet with the liquor. The root of the same lily is used to make strong poultices.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett
For Chapped Hands
Mix 1/3 pint double distilled rose water, 1/2 oz. oil of almonds and 7 grains salt of tartar.– Or: yolks of 3 eggs, 3 table-spoonsful honey, 4 table-spoonsful brandy, and 4 sweet almonds, pounded. — Or: dissolve a tea-spoonful of pulverised borax in a tea-cupful of boiling soft water, add a tea-spoonful of honey, and mix well together. After washing, wipe the hands very dry, and put the mixture on with a feather.– Oil of Almonds or spermaceti rubbed on at night are soft and healing.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett
Vegetable Ointment
A small handful of smallage, red pimple, feverfew, rue, and pittory of the wall; simmer them in 1 lb. of unsalted butter, over a slow fire, half an hour: stir and press well, then strain it.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett
For Burns or Scalds
Keep in a bottle, tightly corked, 1/2 oz. of trefoil, and the same of sweet oil; apply with a feather, immediately that the accident has occurred. Linseed or olive oil, applied instantly, will draw out the fire; treacle will have the same effect, and is recommended by some persons, in preference to anything else. Others say that fine flour, applied instantly, is the best thing; as soon as it becomes warm, replace it with fresh. Wadding also laid on the part instantly is good to draw out the fire.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett
Almond Emulsion for a Cough
Beat well in a marble mortar, 6 drachms of sweet almonds blanched, and 2 drachms of white sugar, add 1 pint cold water, by degrees; strain, then add 2 table-spoonsful of sweet spirits of nitre. Cork, and keep it in a cool place, or in cold water. A tea-spoonful three times a day.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett
For A Cold And Cough
To 3 quarts of water, put 1/4 lb. linseed, two pennyworth stick liquorice, and 1/4 lb. sun raisins. Boil it, until the water be reduced half; add a spoonful of rum and of lemon juice. A 1/4 pint at bed time, and in smaller quantities, during the night, if the cough be troublesome.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett
Elder Ointment
Melt 3 lbs. of mutton suet in 1 pint of olive oil, and boil in it 4 lbs. weight of elder flowers, full blown, till nearly crisp; then strain, and press out the ointment.– Another: take 4 oz. each, of the inner bark of the elder tree, and the leaves, boil them in 2 pints of linseed oil, and 6 oz. of white wax. Press it through a strainer.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett