AXLE GREASE.--1. Water, 1 gallon; soda, 1/3 pound; palm oil, 10
pounds. Mix by heat, and stir till nearly cold.
2. Water, rape oil, of each 1 gallon; soda, 1/3 pound; palm oil, 1/4
pound.
3. Water, 1 gallon; tallow, 3 pounds; palm oil, 6 pounds; soda, 1/2
pound. Heat to 210 deg. Fahrenheit and stir until cool.
4. Tallow, 8 pounds; palm oil, 10 pounds; plumbago, 1 pound. Makes a
good lubricator for wagon axles.
HOW TO SHELL BEANS EASY.--Pour upon the pods a quantity of scalding
water, and the beans will slip very easily from the pod. By pouring
scalding water on apples the skin may be easily slipped off, and much
labor saved.
HOW TO CLEAN BED-TICKS.--Apply Poland starch, by rubbing it on thick
with a cloth. Place it in the sun. When dry, rub it if necessary. The
soiled part will be clean as new.
HOW TO WASH CARPETS.--Shake and beat it well; lay it upon the floor
and tack it firmly; then with a clean flannel wash it over with a
quart of bullock's gall mixed with three quarts of soft, cold water,
and rub it off with a clean flannel or house-cloth. Any particular
dirty spot should be rubbed with pure gall.
HOW TO CLEAN CARPETS.--Before proceeding to sweep a carpet a few
handfuls of waste tea-leaves should be sprinkled over it. A stiff hair
broom or brush should be employed, unless the carpet is very dirty,
when a whisk or carpet-broom should be used, first followed by another
made of hair, to take off the loose dust. The frequent use of a stiff
carpet-broom soon wears off the beauty of the best carpet. An ordinary
clothes brush is best adapted for superior carpets. When carpets are
very dirty they should be cleaned by shaking and beating.
Beat it well with a stick in the usual manner until all the dust is
removed, then take out the stains, if any, with lemon or sorrel-juice.
When thoroughly dry rub it all over with the crumb of a hot wheaten
loaf, and if the weather is very fine, let hang out in the open air
for a night or two. This treatment will revive the colors, and make
the carpet appear equal to new.
TO REMOVE SPOTS ON CARPETS.--A few drops of carbonate of ammonia,
and a small quantity of warm rain water, will prove a safe and easy
antacid, etc., and will change, if carefully applied, discolored spots
upon carpets, and indeed, all spots, whether produced by acids or
alkalies. If one has the misfortune to have a carpet injured by
whitewash, this will immediately restore it.
HOW TO REMOVE INK SPOTS ON CARPETS.--As soon as the ink has been
spilled, take up as much as you can with a sponge, and then pour on
cold water repeatedly, still taking up the liquid; next rub the place
with a little wet oxalic acid or salt of sorrel, and wash it off
immediately with cold water, and then rub on some hartshorn.
CLEANING AND SCOURING OF CLOTH.--The common method of cleaning cloth
is by beating and brushing, unless when very dirty, when it undergoes
the operation of scouring. This is best done on the small scale, as
for articles of wearing apparel, etc., by dissolving a little curd
soap in water, and after mixing it with a little ox-gall, to touch
over all the spots of grease, dirt, etc., with it, and to rub them
well with a stiff brush, until they are removed, after which the
article may be well rubbed all over with a brush or sponge dipped
into some warm water, to which the previous mixture and a little more
ox-gall has been added. When this has been properly done, it only
remains to thoroughly rinse the article in clean water until the
latter passes off uncolored, when it must be hung up to dry. For dark,
colored cloths the common practice is to add some Fuller's-earth to
the mixture of soap and gall. When nearly dry the nap should be
laid right and the article carefully pressed, after which a brush,
moistened with a drop or two of olive oil, is passed several times
over it, which will give it a superior finish.
Cloth may also be cleaned in the dry way, as follows: First remove the
spots, as above, and when the parts have dried, strew clean, damp sand
over it, and beat it in with a brush, after which brush the article
with a hard brush when the sand will readily come out, and bring the
dirt with it. Black cloth which is very rusty should receive a coat of
reviver after drying, and be hung up until the next day, when it
may be pressed and finished off as before. Scarlet cloth requires
considerable caution. After being thoroughly rinsed, it should be
repeatedly passed through cold spring water, to which a tablespoonful
or two of solution of tin has been added. If much faded, it should
be dipped in a scarlet dye-bath. Buff cloth is generally cleansed by
covering it with a paste made with pipe-clay and water, which, when
dry,-is rubbed and brushed off.
RENOVATION OF CLOTH.--The article undergoes the process of scouring
before described, and, after being well rinsed and drained, it is put
on a board, and the thread-bare parts rubbed with a half-worn hatter's
card, filled with flocks, or with a teazle or a prickly thistle, until
a nap is raised. It is next hung up to dry, the nap laid the right
way with a hard brush, and finished as before. When the cloth is much
faded, it is usual to give it a dip, as it is called, or to pass it
through a dye-bath, to freshen up the color.
HOW TO REVIVE THE COLOR OF BLACK CLOTH.--If a coat, clean it well,
then boil from two to four ounces of logwood in your copper, or
boiler, for half an hour; dip your coat in warm water, and squeeze it
as dry as you can, then put it into the copper and boil it for half an
hour. Take it out, and add a piece of green copperas, about the size
of a horse-bean; boil it another half hour, then draw it, and hang it
in the air for an hour or two; take it down; rinse it in two or three
cold waters; dry it, and let it be well brushed with a soft brush, over
which a drop or two of the oil of olives has been rubbed, then stroke
your coat regularly over.
HOW TO RESTORE CRAPE.--Skimmed milk and water, with a little bit of
glue in it, made scalding hot, is excellent to restore rusty Italian
crape. If clapped and pulled dry like muslin, it will look as good
as new; or, brush the veil till all the dust is removed, then fold
it lengthwise, and roll it smoothly and tightly on a roller. Steam it
till it is thoroughly dampened, and dry on the roller.
HOW TO CLEANSE FEATHER BEDS.--When feather beds become soiled and
heavy they may be made clean and light by being treated in the
following manner: Rub them over with a stiff brush, dipped in hot
soap-suds. When clean lay them on a shed, or any other clean place
where the rain will fall on them. When thoroughly soaked let them dry
in a hot sun for six or seven successive days, shaking them up well
and turning them over each day. They should be covered over with a
thick cloth during the night; if exposed to the night air they will
become damp and mildew. This way of washing the bed-ticking and
feathers makes them very fresh and light, and is much easier than
the old-fashioned way of emptying the beds and washing the feathers
separately, while it answers quite as well. Care must be taken to dry
the bed perfectly before sleeping on it. Hair mattresses that have
become hard and dirty can be made nearly as good as new by ripping
them, washing the ticking, and picking the hair free from bunches and
keeping it in a dry, airy place several days. Whenever the ticking
gets dry fill it lightly with the hair, and tack it together. HOW TO
CUT UP AND CURE PORK.--Have the hog laid on his back on a stout, clean
bench; cut off the head close to the base. If the hog is large, there
will come off a considerable collar, between head and shoulders,
which, pickled or dried, is useful for cooking with vegetables.
Separate the jowl from the face at the natural joint; open the skull
lengthwise and take out the brains, esteemed a luxury. Then with a
sharp knife remove the back-bone the whole length, then the long
strip of fat underlying it, leaving about one inch of fat covering the
spinal column.
The leaf lard, if not before taken out for the housewife's
convenience, is removed, as is also the tenderloin--a fishy-shaped
piece of flesh--often used for sausage, but which makes delicious
steak. The middling or sides are now cut out, leaving the shoulders
square-shaped and the hams pointed, or they may be rounded to your
taste. The spare-ribs are usually wholly removed from the sides, with
but little meat adhering. It is the sides of small, young hogs cured
as hams that bear the name of breakfast bacon, The sausage meat comes
chiefly in strips from the backbone, part of which may also be used as
steak. The lean trimmings from about the joints are used for sausage,
the fat scraps rendered up with the backbone lard.
The thick part of the backbone that lies between the shoulders, called
griskin or chine, is separated from the tapering, bony part, called
backbone by way of distinction, and used as flesh. The chines are
smoked with jowls, and used in late winter or spring.
When your meat is to be pickled it should be dusted lightly with
saltpetre sprinkled with salt, and allowed to drain twenty-four hours;
then plunge it into pickle, and keep under with a weight. It is good
policy to pickle a portion of the sides. They, after soaking, are
sweeter to cook with vegetables, and the grease fried from them is
much more useful than that of smoked meat.
If your meat is to be dry salted, allow one teaspoonful of pulverized
saltpetre to one gallon of salt, and keep the mixture warm beside you.
Put on a hog's ear as a mitten, and rub each piece of meat thoroughly.
Then pack skin side down, ham upon ham, side upon side, strewing on
salt abundantly. It is best to put large and small pieces in different
boxes for the convenience of getting at them to hang up at the
different times they will come into readiness. The weather has so much
to do with the time that meat requires to take salt that no particular
time can be specified for leaving it in.
The best test is to try a medium-sized ham; if salt enough, all
similar and smaller pieces are surely ready, and it is well to
remember that the saltness increases in drying. Ribs and steaks should
be kept in a cold, dark place, without salting, until ready for use.
If you have many, or the weather is warm, they keep better in pickle
than dry salt. Many persons turn and rub their meat frequently. We
have never practiced this, and have never lost any.
When the meat is ready for smoking, dip the hocks of the joints in
ground black pepper and dust the raw surface thickly with it. Sacks,
after this treatment, may be used for double security, and I think
bacon high and dry is sweeter than packed in any substance. For
sugar-cured hams we append the best recipe we have ever used, though
troublesome.
_English Recipe for Sugar-Curing Hams_.--So soon as the meat comes
from the butcher's hand rub it thoroughly with the salt. Repeat this
four days, keeping the meat where it can drain. The fourth day rub
it with saltpetre and a handful of common salt, allowing one pound of
saltpetre to seventy pounds of meat. Now mix one pound of brown sugar
and one of molasses, rub over the ham every day for a fortnight, and
then smoke with hickory chips or cobs. Hams should be hung highest
in meat-houses, because there they are less liable to the attacks of
insects, for insects do not so much infest high places--unlike human
pests.
_Pickle_.--Make eight gallons of brine strong enough to float an egg;
add two pounds of brown sugar or a quart of molasses, and four ounces
of saltpetre; boil and skim clean, and pour cold on your meat. Meat
intended for smoking should remain in pickle about four weeks. This
pickle can be boiled over, and with a fresh cup of sugar and salt
used all summer. Some persons use as much soda as saltpetre. It will
correct acidity, but we think impairs the meat.
WASHING PREPARATION.--Take a 1/4 of a pound of soap, a 1/4 of a
pound of soda, and a 1/4 of a pound of quicklime. Cut up the soup and
dissolve it in 1 quart of boiling water; pour 1 quart of boiling water
over the soda, and 3 quarts of boiling water upon the quicklime.
The lime must be quick and fresh; if it is good it will bubble up
on pouring the hot water upon it. Each must be prepared in separate
vessels. The lime must settle so as to leave the water on the
top perfectly clear; then strain it carefully (not disturbing the
settlings) into the washboiler with the soda and soap; let it scald
long enough to dissolve the soap, then add 6 gallons of soap water.
The clothes must be put to soak over night, after rubbing soap upon
the dirtiest parts of them. After having the above in readiness, wring
out the clothes which have been put in soak, put them on to boil, and
let each lot boil half an hour; the same water will answer for the
whole washing. After boiling each lot half an hour drain them from
the boiling water put them in a tub and pour upon them two or three
pailsful of clear, hot water; after this they will want very little
rubbing; then rinse through two waters, blueing the last. When dried
they will be a beautiful white. After washing the cleanest part of
the white clothes, take two pails of the suds in which they have been
washed, put it over the fire and scald, and this will wash all
the flannels and colored clothes without any extra soap. The white
flannels, after being well washed in the suds, will require to be
scalded by turning on a teakettle of boiling water.
* * * * *