07-023: Some Recipes

By Dorthea CalverleyHAND SOAP (Superior Quality)

3 pints cold water

1 cup liquid ammonia

1 can lye

1 large tablespoon borax

Save every piece of fat and grease and “try it out” by heating until the fat pours off as oil. When a five-pound pailfull has been accumulated, proceed with soap making.

Dissolve the lye in cold water. Be careful! Pour slowly into water! It will become hot. Let it cool 30-40 minutes. When cold, put in ammonia and borax. Melt and strain grease through cheesecloth and add it to lye, stirring slowly until as thick as honey. Put a clean cloth in the bottom of an old, shallow baking pan. Put a thick piece of wrapping paper over the cloth. Grease the paper. When the soap hardens cut into bars.

This is good soap. It will float on water, is good for shaving and for chapped hands and face. Always make soap in an iron kettle.

 

VINEGAR

8 gallons rain water

3 quarts molasses

2 yeast cakes

Place in a keg, shake well, put in a warm place and in 10 days add a sheet of wrapping paper, covered with molasses, and torn in strips. This is supposed become “mother” or “vinegar plant” which develops the active acid in the fermented juice.

 

IMITATION MAPLE SYRUP

Boil clean corncobs in water. Remove corncobs and add brown sugar

And boil down to a nice thick syrup. Hard to tell from maple syrup.