How to make White Wine Whey

Put a pint of milk into a very clean saucepan or skillet, to boil on the fire; then add half a gill of any kind of white wine; allow the milk to boil up, then pour it into a basin, and allow it to stand in a cool place, that the curd may fall to the bottom of the basin; then pour off the whey — which is excellent as an agent to remove a severe cough or cold.

Source: A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes, C.E. Francatelli

To Restore Sweetness to Tainted Butter

Cut or break the butter into very small pieces ; or, what is better, force it through a course wire sieve, so as to make it small as possible. Then put it into a churn with a sufficient quantity of new milk to swim it, and churn it well ; then take it out and work it well to free it from the milk, adding a little salt if necessary, and it will hardly be distinguished from entirely new butter.

Another way. To every pound of rancid butter, add a pint of water, into which has been put from twelve to fifteen drops of chloride of lime. Mix till all the particles are in contact with the water ; after letting it stand an hour or two, take it out and wash it in fresh water.

Source: Valuable Receipts, J.M. Prescott

Dysentery

Make a strong tea of sweet gum bark ; to a pint, add a gill of good brandy, half an ounce of laudanum, a little loaf sugar to make it palatable. Take a teaspoonful every hour until the effect of the laudanum is apparent, then at longer intervals, until the disease abates.

A very good and simple remedy, if used when the first symptoms appear, is : Give an adult five drops of spirits of turpentine
in a teaspoonful of sweet milk. Repeat, if necessary. Give a child according to age.

Another remedy : A teacup half full of apple vinegar. Dissolve as much salt in it as it will hold, leaving a little at the bottom. Pour boiling water upon the solution until the cup is three-fourths full. Scald it, and remove the scum. Take a tablespoonful three times a day.

Source: Mrs Hill’s New Cook-Book

Castor Oil Made Palatable

Boil castor oil with twice its quantity of milk, and sweeten it with sugar. Let it cool. Children will not refuse it.

Source: Valuable Receipts, J.M. Prescott

Whooping Cough

Two level tablespoonfuls of powdered alum, two-thirds of a cupful of brown sugar, dissolved in two quarts of water; bottle and put in a dark closet where it is cool.

For a child one year old, a teaspoonful three times a day on an empty stomach. For a child two years old, two teaspoonfuls for a dose. For a child five years old, a tablespoonful. The state of the bowels must be attended to, and the doses repeated accordingly. No other medicine to be taken, except an emetic, at first, if desirable. Except in the case of an infant, a milk diet is to be avoided.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

A Bread and Milk Poultice

-Put a tablespoonful of the crumbs of stale bread into a gill of milk, and give the whole one boil up. Or, take stale bread crumbs, pour over them boiling water and boil till soft, stirring well; take from the fire and gradually stir in a little glycerine or sweet oil, so as to render the poultice pliable when applied.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

Milk as a Remedy

An article appeared lately in which it is stated on the authority of a very celebrated physician, that in the East warm milk is used to a great extent as a specific for diarrhea. A pint every four hours it is said will check the most violent diarrhea, incipient cholera, and dysentery. The milk should never be boiled, but only heated sufficiently to be agreeably warm, not too hot to drink. Milk which has been boiled is unfit for use. This writer says: “It has never failed in curing in six or twelve hours, and I have tried it at least fifty times. I also gave it to a dying man who had been subject to dysentery eight months, and it acted on him like a charm, he is still living, a hale, hearty man, and now nothing that may hereafter occur will ever shake his faith in hot milk.”

Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook

Bran

Get nice clean coarse bran from the mill, and after your breakfast put about five teaspoonfuls into a tumbler, and fill it up with cream, (milk will do if you have no cream,) put a little salt in if you prefer. Most excellent for dyspepsia, or constipation, and will prolong ones life indefinitely, and you may possibly live to see your great-great-grand-children.

Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook

An excellent Water for the Stomach, or against Infection

Take Carduus, Mint and Wormwood, of each a like quantity, shred them small and put them into new Milk, distil them in an ordinary Still with a temperate fire; when you take any of it, sweeten it with Sugar, or with any Syrrup, what pleases you best; it is a very good water, though the Ingredients are but mean.

Source: The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet, Hannah Wolley

Ingredient: Nutmeg

The medicinal qualities of nutmegs are worthy of considerable attention, on account of their value in the treatment of diarrhea, many cases quickly yielding to the administration of half a drachm
in milk. Sleeplessness may be effectually relieved by them when opium fails and chloral is not advisable. They are also a sedative in delirium tremens, and can be given with safety and marked benefit.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts