I love reading old household management books and my favourite is Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management. I had to share this lovely recipe for restoring whiteness to scorched linen.
INGREDIENTS.–1/2 pint of vinegar, 2 oz. of fuller’s-earth, 1 oz.
of dried fowls’ dung, 1/2 oz. of soap, the juice of 2 large onions.
Boil all these ingredients together to the consistency of
paste; spread the composition thickly over the damaged part, and if the
threads be not actually consumed, after it has been allowed to dry on,
and the place has subsequently been washed once or twice, every trace of
scorching will disappear.
I am now searching Mrs Beeton’s book for instructions on getting out chicken poo stains.
3 Comments
Sounds like something they used to put on your chest whenever you had the croup- whatever that was.
Amusing. Did women really do these sorts of things? Ugh!
Bo
a builder friend of ours told us this weekend of a method he heard of being used to age new housebricks – soak a number of Brussels sprouts plant stems in a bucket of human pee until the stench is unbearable and the stems begin to rot. After protecting surround floors and walls, (wearing gloves) thrash the Brussels sprouts stems against the brickwork – result instant ageing. What I would like to know is what prompted people to experiment in this way with these sorts of ingredients ??!!