Memory Monday: Homemaker's Advice

My Daddy

HOMEMAKER’S ADVICE FROM MY GRANDMOTHER’S DAY

            I love to look at old books from the 19^th and early 20^th century, and recently came across a book from 1913 titled Things My Mother Used to Make. This book came out a little while after my grandparents married in 1910.

            Following is some of the things my grandmother might have done while she was married. Unfortunately, she passed away in 1926 when my dad was only nine years old, so I never got to know her.

Homemade Shortening

Do not throw away small pieces of fat from pork, lamb or steak. Put them on the stove, in a skillet or agate dish and cook them till there is nothing left, but scraps. Then pare a potato, wash clean, cut into thin slices and cook in the fat for a half hour to clarify it. Strain through a cloth. This will be good to fry doughnuts in and for all purposes, where shortening is needed, except for pie crust.

Pieces of fat, not fit for shortening can be saved in some old utensil and made into kitchen soap.  pg. 88.

To Try out Lard

If you want good sweet lard, buy from your butcher, leaf lard. Skin carefully, cut into small pieces and put it into a kettle or sauce pan. Pour in a half-cupful of water, to prevent burning, and cook slowly, until there is nothing left but scraps. Remove the scraps with a skimmer, salt it a little, and strain through a clean cloth, into tin pails. Be sure not to scorch it. p. 90.

How to Keep Eggs

In the summer, when eggs are cheap, buy a sufficient number of freshly laid ones to last through the winter.

Take one part of liquid glass, and nine parts of cold water which has been boiled, and mix thoroughly.

Put the eggs into a stone crock, and pour over them this mixture, having it come an inch above the eggs. The eggs will keep six months, if they are perfectly fresh when packed and will have no taste, as when put into lime water. p. 90.

To Remove Disagreeable Odors from the House

Sprinkle fresh ground coffee, on a shovel of hot coals, or burn sugar on the shovel. This is an old-fashioned disinfectant, still good. p. 91

To Lengthen the Life of a Broom

Your broom will last much longer and be made tough and pliable, by dipping for a minute or two, in a pail of boiling suds, once a week. A carpet will wear longer if swept with a broom treated in this way. Leave your broom bottom side up, or hang it. p. 91

When I read things like this about how women in the early 20^th century did things, it helps me to see the grandmother I never knew and draws me a little closer to her when I read how she might have done things.

Most of the books I have used in this blog can be found at Google Books Advanced Search. If you are interested in seeing more from these books, go there and spend wonderful hours seeing how those who came before us lived.