Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches by Eliza Leslie Published: 1840
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PERFUMERY, ETC.
COLOGNE WATER.
Procure at a druggists, one drachm of oil of lavender, the same
quantity of oil of lemon, of oil of rosemary, and of oil of
cinnamon; with two drachms of oil of bergamot, all mixed in the
same phial, which should be a new one. Shake the oils well, and
pour them into a pint of spirits of wine. Cork the bottle tightly,
shake it hard, and it will be fit for immediate use; though it
improves by keeping. You may add to the oils, if you choose, ten
drops of the tincture of musk, or ten drops of extract of
ambergris.
For very fine cologne water, mix together in a new phial oil of
lemon, two drachms; oil of bergamot, two drachms; oil of lavender,
two drachms; oil of cedrat, one drachm; tincture of benzoin, three
drachms; neroli, ten drops; ambergris, ten drops; attar of roses,
two drops. Pour the mixture into a pint of spirits of wine; cork
and shake the bottle, and set it away for use.
Another receipt for cologne water is to mix with a pint of
alcohol, sixty drops or two large tea-spoonfuls of orange-flower
water, and the same quantity of the essential oils of lemon,
lavender, and bergamot.
LAVENDER WATER.
Mix two ounces of essential oil of lavender, and two drachms of
essence of ambergris, with a pint of spirits of wine; cork the
bottle, and shake it hard every day for a fortnight.
HUNGARY WATER.
Mix together one ounce of oil of rosemary and two drachms of
essence of ambergris; add them to a pint of spirits of wine. Shake
it daily for a month, and then transfer it to small bottles.
ROSE VINEGAR.
Fill a stone or china jar with fresh rose leaves put in loosely.
Then pour on them as much of the best white wine vinegar as the
jar will hold. Cover it, and set it in the sun, or in some other
warm place for three weeks. Then strain it through a flannel bag,
and bottle it for use, This vinegar will he found very fine for
salads, or for any nice purposes.
THIEVES' VINEGAR.
Take a large handful of lavender blossoms, and the same quantity
of sage, mint, rue, wormwood and rosemary. Chop and mix them well.
Put them into a jar, with half an ounce of camphor that has been
dissolved in a little alcohol, and pour in three quarts of strong
clear vinegar. Keep the jar for two or three weeks in the hot sun,
and at night plunge it into a box of heated sand. Afterwards
strain and bottle the liquid, putting into each bottle a clove of
garlic sliced. To have it very clear, after it has been bottled
for a week, you should pour it off carefully from the sediment,
and filter it through blotting paper. Then wash the bottles, and
return the vinegar to them. It should be kept very tightly corked.
It is used for sprinkling about in sick-rooms; and also in close
damp oppressive weather. Inhaling the odour from a small bottle
will frequently prevent faintness in a crowd.
It is best to make it in June.
This vinegar is so called from an old tradition, that during the
prevalence of the plague in London the composition was invented by
four thieves, who found it a preservative from contagion; and were
by that means enabled to remain in the city and exercise their
profession to great advantage, after most of the inhabitants had
fled.
OIL OF FLOWERS.
A French process for obtaining essential oils from flowers or
herbs has been described as follows:--Take carded cotton, or split
wadding and steep it in some pure Florence oil, such as is quite
clear and has no smell. Then place a layer of this cotton in the
bottom of a deep china dish, or in an earthen pipkin. Cover it
with a thick layer of fresh rose leaves, or the leaves of sweet
pink, jasmine, wall-flower, tuberose, magnolia blossoms, or any
other odoriferous flower or plant from which you wish to obtain
the perfume. Spread over the flower-leaves another layer of cotton
that has been steeped in oil. Afterwards a second layer of
flowers, and repeat them alternately till the vessel is quite
full. Cover it closely, and let it stand in the sun for a week.
Then throw away the flower-leaves, carefully press out the oil
from the cotton, and put it into a small bottle for use. The oil
will be found to have imbibed the odour of the flowers.
Keep the scented cotton to perfume your clothes-presses.
BALM OF GILEAD OIL.
Put loosely into a bottle as many balm of Gilead flowers as will
come up to a third part of its height; then nearly fill up the
bottle with sweet oil, which should be of the best quality. Let it
infuse (shaking it occasionally) for several days, and it will
then be fit for use. It is considered a good remedy for bruises of
the skin; also for cuts, burns, and scalds that are not very bad,
and should be applied immediately,--by wetting a soft rag with it;
renewing it frequently,
LIP SALVE.
Put into a wide-mouthed bottle four ounces of the best olive oil,
with one ounce of the small parts of alkanet root. Stop up the
bottle, and set it in the sun, (shaking it often,) till you find
the liquid of a beautiful crimson. Then strain off the oil very
clear from the alkanet root, put it into an earthen pipkin, and
add to it an ounce of white wax, and an ounce and a half of the
best mutton suet, which has been previously clarified, or boiled
and skimmed. Set the mixture on the embers of coals, and melt it
slowly: stirring it well. After it has simmered slowly far a
little while, take it off; and while still hot, mix with it a few
drops of oil of roses, or of oil of neroli, or tincture of musk.
COLD CREAM.
Cut very fine a drachm of white wax and a drachm of spermaceti.
Put it into a small sauce-pan with one ounce of oil of sweet
almonds, and mix them well together. Set it on hot coals, and as
soon as it has boiled take it off, and stir in an ounce of orange-flower
or rose-water. Beat it very hard, and then put it into
gallipots.
SOFT POMATUM.
Soak half a pound of fresh lard and a quarter of a pound of beef
marrow in water for two or three days; squeezing and pressing it
every day, and changing the water. Afterwards drain off the water,
and put the lard and marrow into a sieve to dry. Then transfer it
to a jar, and set the jar into a pot of boiling water. When the
mixture is melted, put it into a basin, and beat it with two
spoonfuls of brandy. Then drain off the brandy, perfume the
pomatum by mixing with it any scented essence that you please, and
tie it up in gallipots.
COSMETIC PASTE.
Take a quarter of a pound of Castile soap, and cut it into small
pieces. Then, put it into a tin or porcelain sauce-pan, with just
water enough to moisten it well, and set it on hot coals. Let it
simmer till it is entirely dissolved; stirring it till it becomes
a smooth paste, and thickening it with Indian meal, (which even in
a raw state is excellent for the hands.) Then take it from the
fire, and when cool scent it with rose-water, or with any fragrant
essence you please. Beat and stir it hard with a silver spoon, and
when it is thoroughly mixed put it into little pots with covers.
ACID SALT.
This is the composition commonly, but erroneously called salt of
lemon, and is excellent for removing ink and other stains from the
hands, and for taking ink spots out of white clothes. Pound
together in a marble mortar an ounce of salt of sorrel, and an
ounce of the best cream of tartar, mixing them thoroughly. Then,
put it in little wooden boxes or covered gallipots, and rub it on
your hands when they are stained, washing them in cold water, and
using the acid salt instead of soap; a very small quantity will
immediately remove the stain. In applying it to linen or muslin
that is spotted with ink or fruit juice, hold the stained part
tightly stretched over a cup or bowl of boiling water. Then with
your finger rub on the acid salt till the stain disappears. It
must always be done before the article is washed.
This mixture costs about twenty-five cents, and the above quantity
(if kept dry) will be sufficient for a year or more.
Ink stains may frequently be taken out of white clothes by rubbing
on (before they go to the wash) some bits of cold tallow picked
from the bottom of a mould candle; Leave the tallow sticking on in
a lump, and when the article comes from the wash, it will
generally be found that the spot has disappeared. This experiment
is so easy and so generally successful that it is always worth
trying. When it fails, it is in consequence of some peculiarity in
the composition of the ink.
SWEET JARS.
Take a china jar, and put into it three handfuls of fresh damask
rose-leaves; three of sweet pinks, three of wall-flowers, and
stock gilly-flowers, and equal proportions of any other fragrant
flowers that you can procure. Place them in layers; strewing fine
salt thickly between each layer, and mixing with them an ounce of
sliced orris root.
You may fill another jar with equal quantities of lavender,
knotted marjoram, rosemary, lemon thyme, balm of Gilead, lemon-peel,
and smaller quantities of laurel leaves and mint; and some
sliced orris root. You may mix with the herbs, (which must all be
chopped,) cloves, cinnamon, and sliced nutmeg; strewing salt
between the layers.
Flowers, herbs, and spice may all be mixed in the same jar; adding
always some orris root. Every thing that is put in should be
perfectly free from damp.
The jar should be kept closely covered, except when the cover is
occasionally removed for the purpose of diffusing the scent
through the room.
SCENTED BAGS.
Take a quarter of a pound of coriander seeds, a
quarter of a pound of orris root, a quarter of a pound of aromatic
calamus, a quarter of a pound of damask rose leaves, two ounces of
lavender blossoms, half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of
cinnamon, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, and two drachms of
musk-powder. Beat them all separately in a mortar, and then mix
them well together. Make small silk or satin bags; fill each with
a portion of the mixture, and sew them closely all round. Lay them
among your clothes in the drawers.
VIOLET PERFUME.
Drop twelve drops of genuine oil of rhodium on a lump of loaf-sugar.
Then pound the sugar in a marble mortar with two ounces of
orris root powder. This will afford an excellent imitation of the
scent of violets. If you add more oil of rhodium, it will produce
a rose perfume. Sew up the powder in little silk bags, or keep it
in a tight box.
DURABLE INK.
Take, when empty, one of the little bottles that has contained
indelible ink, such as is sold in cases, and wash and rinse it
clean. Put into it half an inch of lunar caustic; fill it up with
good vinegar, and cork it tightly. This is the marking ink.
Prepare the larger bottle that has contained the liquid used for
the first wash, by making it quite clean. Take a large tea-spoonful
of salt of tartar, and a lump of gum arabic the size of a
hickory nut. Put them into the wash bottle, and fill it up with
clear rain water, Cork both bottles tightly, and set them for two
days in the sun. The liquids will then be fit for use.
Linen cannot be marked well with durable ink unless the weather is
clear and dry. Dip a camel's hair pencil in the large bottle that
contains the gum liquid, and wash over with it a small space on a
corner of the linen, about large enough to contain the name. Dry
it in the sun, and let it alone till next day. Then take a very
good pen, acid with the ink from the smallest bottle, write the
name you intend, on the place that has been prepared by the first
liquid. This also must be dried in the sun. See that the bottles
are always well corked, and keep them in a covered box.
After the linen is dried, iron it before you write on it.
ANOTHER DURABLE INK.
For the marking liquid--rub together in a small mortar five
scruples of lunar caustic with one drachm of gum arabic, one
scruple of sap-green and one ounce of rain water.
For wetting the linen--mix together one ounce of salt of soda, two
ounces of boiling water, and a table-spoonful of powdered gum
arabic.
TO KEEP PEARL-ASH.
Take three ounces of pearl-ash, and put it into a clean black
bottle with a pint and a half (not more) of soft water. The
proportion is an ounce of pearl-ash to half a pint of water. Cork
it very tightly, shake it, and it will be fit for use as soon as
all the pearl-ash is dissolved. A table-spoonful of this liquid is
equal to a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in the lump or powder.
Keeping it ready dissolved will be found very convenient.
ALMOND PASTE.
Blanch half a pound of shelled sweet, almonds, and a quarter of a
pound of bitter ones, and beat them in a mortar to a smooth paste
--adding by degrees a jill of rose or orange-flower water. Then
beat in, gradually, half a pound of clear strained honey. When the
whole is well incorporated, put it into gallipots, pouring on the
top of each some orange-flower or rose-water. Keep it closely
covered. This is a celebrated cosmetic for the hands.
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