To make good flour starch, mix flour gradually with cold water, so that
it may be free from lumps. Stir in cold water till it will pour easily;
then stir it into a pot of boiling water, and let it boil five or six
minutes, stirring it frequently. A tallow or spermaceti candle, stirred
round in the starch several times, will make it smoother--strain it
through a thick cloth. Starch made in this manner will answer for both
cotton and linen very well. Some people do not boil their starch, but
merely turn boiling water on the mixed flour and water, but it does not
make clothes look nice. Poland starch is made in the same manner as
wheat starch. When rice is boiled in a pot without being tied up in a
bag, the water in which it is boiled is as good as Poland starch for
clear-starching muslins, if boiled to a thick consistency after it is
turned off from the boiled rice, and then strained. Muslins, to look
clear, should be starched, and clapped dry, while the starch is hot,
then folded in a very damp cloth, and suffered to remain in it till they
become quite damp, before ironing them. If muslins are sprinkled, they
are apt to look spotted. Garments that are not worn, when laid by,
should not be starched, as it rots them when not exposed to the air.