Molasses Possets
Put into a sauce-pan a pint of the best West India molasses; a tea-spoonful of powdered white ginger; and a quarter of a pound of fresh butter. Set it on hot coals, and simmer it slowly for half an hour; stirring it frequently. Do not let it come to a boil. Then stir in the juice of two lemons, or two table-spoonfuls of vinegar; cover the pan, and let it stand by the fire five minutes longer. This is good for a cold. Some of it may be taken warm at once, and the remainder kept at hand for occasional use.
It is the preparation absurdly called by the common people a stewed quaker.
Half a pint of strained honey mixed cold with the juice of a lemon, and a table-spoonful of sweet oil, is another remedy for a cold; a tea-spoonful or two to be taken whenever the cough is troublesome.
Source: Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie
Filed under Remedy | Tags: butter, cold, colds, cough, coughs, ginger, honey, lemon, lemons, leslie, molasses, posset, quaker, stewed quaker, sweet oil, vinegar | Comment (0)How to make a Stringent Gargle
Put the following ingredients into a very clean earthen pipkin:— Twenty sage leaves, a handful of red rose leaves, and a pint of water; boil these for twenty minutes, then add a gill of vinegar, and two table-spoonfuls of honey; boil again for ten minutes, and strain the gargle through a muslin rag, to be used when cold.
Source: A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes, C.E. Francatelli
To Clean a Vinegar Cruet on the Inside
Put into it shot, pebblestones, or beans. Fill it with a strong soap suds, and one teaspoonful of bread soda or ammonia. Let stand an hour, shake well and often. Rinse with clean water.
Source: Things Mother Used To Make, L.M. Gurney
To Clean Brass and Copper
Scrape a little rotten-stone fine, and make into a paste with sweet oil. Rub on with a piece of flannel; let it dry, and polish with a chamois-skin. Copper is cleaned either with vinegar and salt mixed in equal parts, or with oxalic acid. The latter is a deadly poison, and must be treated accordingly.
Source: The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking, H. Campbell
A Cure for Sprains
Bruise thoroughly a handful of sage-leaves, and boil them in a gill of vinegar for ten minutes, or until reduced to half the original quantity; apply this in a folded rag to the part affected, and tie it on securely with a bandage.
Source: A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes, C.E. Francatelli
Specific for a Cough
Take equal quantities of camomile flowers, elecampane, life-everlasting, mullen, a few races of ginger, and as much fat lightwood splinters as camomile. Boil to a strong tea; strain it, and add enough honey and sugar mixed in equal quantities; boil down to a syrup; add enough good apple vinegar to give a pleasant acid taste. Pills made of fresh tar, brown sugar, and the yolk of an egg,
are good for a cough. Pills of fresh rosin taken from the pine tree are also good.
Source: Mrs Hill’s New Cook-Book
Putrid Sore Throat
Mix one gill of strong apple vinegar, cue tablespoonful of common salt, tablespoonful of strained honey, half a pod of red pepper; boil them together; strain into half a pint of strong sage tea. In severe cases give half a teaspoonful for an adult every hour; decrease the dose as the disease is relieved. Use some as a gargle.
Source: Mrs Hill’s New Cook-Book
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
Filed under Remedy | Tags: apple vinegar, bark, bowel, bowels, brandy, diarrhea, diarrhoea, dysentery, hill, laudanum, loaf-sugar, milk, salt, spirits of turpentine, sweet gum, sweet gum bark, turpentine, vinegar | Comment (0)Pepper Tea
Six red peppers broken in small pieces, one pint of boiling water poured over them, one teaspoonful of salt, one-half pint of vinegar. This is a good remedy for sore throat.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook