Today we buy our cleaning goods and our
remedies in ready-made bottles and cans and boxes. Prior to the era of mass manufacturing, which
started after the Regency, all these items were manufactured in the
household. This stands out at once in
the household books from the late 1700's and early 1800's.
The
variety of 'tips' offered is astonishing, covering everything from cookery for the
sick, to making pomades, to how to blacken fire grates and clean marble, to how
to keep the rot off sheep. ("Keep
them in pens till the dew is off the grass," advises Mrs. Rundell in her book on Domestic
Cookery.)
Some
directions are quite straightforward. To
keep a door from squeaking, "Rub a bit of soap on the hinges." Other directions can list either products not
readily available today, such as the orris-root and storax listed in a recipe
for potpourri, or the spermaceti (from whales) to be used to make ointment for chapped
lips. Also, amounts are often
inexact. For chapped lip, "twopenny-worth
of alkanet-root" is also required--probably a small amount, unless
alkanet-root came very, very cheep.
Within
the household, items would be made for beauty as well as practicality. Recipes are given for Hungary Water (early
cologne), which took a month to actually make. There is also Lavender Water, a recipe to prevent hair from falling out
and thicken it which includes using honey and rosemary tops, a paste for
chapped hands, and pomades for the hair.
The
time spent on making up these recipes could be considerable. To make black ink with rain water, bruised
blue galls, brandy and a few other items meant stirring the concoction every
day for three weeks. Other recipes, such
as Shank Jelly for an invalid, requires lamb to be left salted for four hours,
then brushed with herbs and simmered for five hours. Time passed differently in the 1800's.
Sick
cookery is an item of importance, from recipes for heart burn to how to make
"Dr. Ratcliff's restorative Pork Jelly." Coffee milk is recommended for invalids as is
asses' milk, milk porridge, saloop (water, wine, lemon-peel and sugar),
chocolate, barley water, and baked soup.
An
interesting distinction is made in that recipes pertaining to personal
appearance and sick-cookery address the reader--and owner of the book. However, recipes for household cleaning and
those not related to a person--such as how to mend china--are listed under
"Directions to Servants." This
shows clearly the distinction that the mistress of the house also acted as
mistress of the still room, tending to the really important matters, and
leaving the heavy work to her staff.
1 comment:
Well, yes, I would imagine these books would be aimed at the class who had servants to do the heavy work. ;-) Actually, I believe it's not that hard to get orris-root even today - I have a friend who likes making potpourri herself and she says you need it to keep the potpourri from rotting. She doesn't seem to have much problem getting it.
Post a Comment