THE
AMERICAN :
FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE,
DEDICATED TO THOSE
WHO ARE NOT ASHAMED OF ECONOMY.
BY MRS. CHILD,
AUTHOR OF “HOBOMOK,” “THE MOTHER'S BOOK," EDITOR OF
THE JUVENILE MISCELLANY, &c.
A fat kitchen maketh a lean will.— Franklin.
“Economy is a poor man’s revenue ; extravagance, a rich man’s ruin.”
TWENTY-FIRST EDITION,
ENLARGED AND CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR.
NEW YORK:
SAMUEL S. & WILLIAM WOOD, 261 PEARL STREET,
w. W. ALLEN, PRINTER, 5 HAGUE ST.
1838


INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art
of gathering up all the fragments, so that nothing be lost.
I mean fragments of time, as well as materials. Noth-
ing should be thrown away so long as it is possible to
make any use of it, however trifling that use may be;
and whatever be the size of a family, every member
should be employed either in earning or saving money.
Time is money. For this reason, cheap as stockings
are, it is good economy to knit them. Cotton and woollen
yarn are both cheap; hose that are knit wear twice as
long as woven ones; and they can be done at odd minutes
of time, which would not be otherwise employed. Where
there are children, or aged people, it is suſficient to rec-
ommend knitting, that it is an employment.
In this point of view, patchwork is good economy. It is
indved a foolish waste of time to tear cloth into bits for
the sake of arranging it anew in fantastic figures; but
a large family may be kept out of idleness, and a few
shillings saved, by thus using scraps of gowns, curtains, &c,
In the country, where grain is raised, it is a good plan
co teach children to prepare and braid straw, for their
own bonnets, and their brothers' bats.
Where turkeys and geese are kept, handsome feather
fans may as well be made by the younger members of
a family, as to be bought. The sooner children are
taught to turn their faculties to some account, the better
for them and for their parents.
In this country, we are apt to let children romp away
their existence, till they get to be thirteen or fourteen-
This is not well. It is not well for the purses and pa:


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
ests of our country. To what are the increasing beggary
and discouraged exertions of the present period owing ?
A multitude of causes have no doubt tended to increase
the evil; but the root of the whole matter is the extrava-
gance of all classes of people. We never shall be prosper-
ous till we make pride and vanity yield to the dictates of
honesty and prudence? We never shall be free from
embarrassment until we cease to be ashamed of industry
and economy. Let women do their share towards refor-
mation-Let their fathers and husbands see them happy
without finery; and if their husbands and fathers have
(as is often the case) a foolish pride in seeing them deco-
raled, let them gently and gradually check this feeling
by showing that they have better and surer means of
commanding respect—Let them prove, by the exertion of
ingenuity and economy, that neatness, good taste, and gen-
tility, are attainable without great expense.
• The writer has no apology to offer for this cheap little
book of economical hints, except her deep conviction that
such a book is needed. In this case, renown is out of the
question, and ridicule is a matter of indifference. .
The information conveyed is of a common kind; but
it is such as the majority of young housekeepers do not
possess, and such as they cannot obtain from cookery
books. Books of this kind have usually been written
for the wealthy : I have written for the poor. I have
said nothing about rich cooking ; those who can afford to
be epicures will find the best of information in the 'Sev-
enty-five Receipts. I have attempted to teach how
money can be saved, not how it can be enjoyed. If any
person thinks some of the maxims too rigidly economical,
let them inquire how the largest fortunes among us have
been made. They will find thousands and millions have
been accumulated by a scrupulous attention to sums
infinitely more minute than sixty cents.'
In early childhood, you lay the foundation of poverty
or riches, in ihe habits you give your children. Teach
them to save everything, -not for iheir own use, for that
would make them selfish-but for some use. Teach them


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
ODD SCRAPS FOR THE ECONOMICAL.
If you would avoid waste in your family, attend to the
following rules, and do not despise them because they
appear so unimportant: many a little makes a mickle.'
Look frequently to the pails, 'to see that nothing is
thrown to the pigs which should have been in the
grease-pot.
Look to the grease-pot, and see that nothing is there
which might have served to nourish your own family, or
a poorer one.
See that the beef and pork are always under brine; and
that the brine is sweet and clean.
Count towels, sheets, spoons, &c. occasionally; that
those who use them may not become careless.
See that the vegetables are neither sprouting noor le-
caying: if they are so, remove them to a drior place,
and spread them.
Examine preserves, to see that they are not contract-
ing mould ; and your pickles, to see that they are not
growing soft and tasteless.
As far as it is possible, have bits of bread eaten up be-
fore they become hard. Spread those that are not eaten,
and let them dry, to be pounded for puddings, or soaked
for brewis. Brewis is made of crusts and dry pieces
of bread, soaked a good while in hot milk, mashed up,
and salted, and buttered like toast. Above all, do not let
crusts accumulate in such quantities that they cannot be
used. With proper care, there is no need of losing a
particle of bread, even in the hottest weather.
Attend to all the mending in the house, once a week.
if possible. Never put out sewing. If it be impossible
to do it in your own family, hire some one into the house,
and work with them.


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
Make your own bread and cake. Some people think
it is just as cheap to buy of the baker and confectioner;
but it is not half as cheap. True, it is more convenir
ent; and therefore the rich are justifiable in employing
them; but those who are under the necessity of being
economical, should make convenience a secondary object.
In the first place, confectioners make their cake richer
than people of moderate income can afford to make it ;
in the next place, your domestic, or yourself, may just as
well employ your own time, as to pay them for theirs.
When ivory-handled knives turn yellow, rub them with
nice sand paper, or emery ; it will take off the spots, and
restore their whiteness.
When a carpet is faded, I have been told that it may
be restored, in a great measure, (provided there be no
grease in it,) by being dipped into strong salt and water.
, I never tried this ; but I know that silk pocket handker-
chiefs, and deep blue factory cotton will not fade, if dipped
in salt and water while new.
An ox's gall will set any color,--silk, cotton, or woollen.
I have seen the colors of calico, which faded at one
washing, fixed by it. Where one lives near a slaughter-
house, it is worth while to buy cheap, fading goods, and set
them in this way. The gall can be bought for a few cents.
Get out all the liquid, and cork it up in a large phial.
One large spoonful of this in a gallon of warm water is
sufficient. This is likewise excellent for taking out spots
from bombazine, bombazet, &c. After being washed in
this, they look about as well as when new. It must be
thoroughly stirred into the water, and not put upon the
cloth. It is used without soap. After being washed in
this, cloth which you want to clean should be washed in
warm suds, without using soap.
· Tortoise shell and horn combs last much longer for-
having oil rubbed into them once in a while.
Indian meal and rye meal are in danger of fermenting
w summer ; particularly Indian. They should be kept in
a cool place, and stirred open to the air, once in a while
A large stone, put in the middle of a barrel of meal, is a
good thing to keep it cool.


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
After old coats, pantaloons, &c. have been cut up for
boys, and are no longer capable of being converted into
garments, cut them into strips, and employ the leisure
moments of children, or domestics, in sewing and braid-
ing them for door-mats.
! If you are troubled to get soft water for washing, fill
a tub or barrel half full of ashes, and fill it up with
'water, so that you may have lye whenever you want it.
A gallon of strong lye put into a great kettle of hard water
will make it as soft as rain water. Some people use
pearlash, or potash; but this costs something, and is very
apt to injure the texture of the cloth.
If you have a strip of land, do not throw away suds.
Both ashes and suds are good manure for bushes and
young plants.
When a white Navarino bonnet becomes soiled, rip
it in pieces, and wash it with a sponge and soft water.
While it is yet damp, wash it two or three times with a
clean sponge dipped into a strong saffron tea, nicely
strained. Repeat this till the bonnet is as dark a straw
color as you wish. Press it on the wrong side with a
warm iron, and it will look like a new Leghorn.
About the last of May, or the first of June, the little
millers, which lay moth-eggs begin to appear. Therefore
brush all your woollens, and pack them away in a dark
place covered with linen. Pepper, red-cedar chips, to-
bacco,-indeed, almost any strong spicy smell,—is good to
keep moths out of your chests and drawers. But noth-
ing is so good as camphor. Sprinkle your woollens with
camphorated spirit, and scatter pieces of camphor-gum
among them, and you will never be troubled with moths.
Some people buy camphor-wood trunks, for this purpose;
but they are very expensive, and the gum answers just as
well.
The first young leaves of the common currant-bush,
gathered as soon as they put out, and dried on tin, can
hardly be distinguished from green tea.
Cream of tartar, rubbed upon soiled white kid gloves,
cleanses them very much.


16
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
too large quantities, or too often : if the vinegar once gets
weak, it is difficult to restore it. If possible, it is well to
keep such slops as I have mentioned in a different keg,
and draw them off once in three or four weeks, in such a
quantity as you think the vinegar will bear. If by any
carelessness you do weaken it, a few white beans dropped
in, or white paper dipped in molasses, is said to be useful
If beer grows sour, it may be used to advantage for pan-
cakes and fritters. If very sour indeed, put a pint of mo-
lasses and water to it, and, two or three days after, put a
half pint of vinegar; and in ten days it will be first rate
vinegar.
Barley straw is the best for beds; dry corn husks, slit
into shreds, are far better than straw. ,
Straw beds are much better for being boxed at the sides;
in the same manner upholsterers prepare ticks for feathers.
Brass andirons should be cleaned, done up in papers,
and put in a dry place, during the summer season.
If you have a large family, it is well to keep white rags
separate from colored ones, and cotton separate from
woollen; they bring a higher price. . Paper brings a cent
a pound, and if you have plenty of room, it is well to save
it. “A penny saved is a penny got.' .
Always have plenty of dish-water, and have it hot.
There is no need of asking the character of a domestic, if
you have ever seen her wash dishes in a little greasy water.
When molasses is used in cooking, it is a prodigious im-
provement to boil and skim it before you use it. It takes
out the unpleasant raw taste, and makes it almost as good
as sugar. Where molasses is used much for cooking, it is
well to prepare one or two gallons in this way at a time.
In winter, always set the handle of your pump as high
as possible, before you go to bed. Except in very rigid
weather, this keeps the handle from freezing. When there
is reason to apprehend extreme cold, do not forget to
throw a rug or horse-blanket over your pump; a frozen
puinp is a comfortless preparation for a winter's breakfast.
Never allow ashes to be taken up in wood, or put into
wood. Always have vous tinder-box and lantern ready


18
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
barrier to dust as well as flies. It can easily be re-colored
with saffron tea, when it is faded.
Have a bottle full of brandy, with as large a mouth as
any bottle you have, into which cut your lemon and orange
peel when they are fresh and sweet. This brandy gives a
delicious flavor to all sorts of pies, puddings, and cakes.
Lemon is the pleasantest spice of the two; therefore they
should be kept in separate bottles. It jag a good plan to
preserve rose-leaves in brandy. The Havor is pleasanter
than rose-water; and there are few people who have the
utensils for distilling. Peach leaves steeped in brandy
make excellent spice for custards and puddings.
It is easy to have a supply of horse-radish all winter.
Have a quantity grated, while the root is in perfection, put
it in bottles, fill it with strong vinegar, and keep it corked
tight.
It is thought to be a preventive to the unhealthy influence
of cucumbers to cut the slices very thin, and drop each
one into cold water as you cut it. A few minutes in the
water takes out a large portion of the slimy matter, so
injurious to health. They should be eaten with high sea-
soning. I
Where sweet oil is much used, it is more economical to
buy it by the bottle than by the flask. A bottle holds more
than twice as much as a flask, and it is never double the
price.
If you wish to have free-stone hearths dark, wash them
· with soap, and wipe them with a wet cloth; some people
rub in lamp-oil, once in a while, and wash the hearth faith
fully afterwards. This does very well in a large, dirty
family; for the hearth looks very clean, and is not liable to
show grease spots. But if you wish to preserve the beau-
ty of a freestone hearth, buy a quantity of free-stone pow.
der of the stone-cutter, and rub on a portion of it wet, after
you have washed your hearth in hot water. When it is
dry, brush it off, and it will look like new stone. Bricks can
be kept clean with redding stirred up in water, and put on
with a brush. Pulverized clay mixed with redding, makes.


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
19
a pretty rose color. Some think it is less likely to come
off, if mixed with skim milk instead of water. But black
lead is far handsomer than anything else for this purpose.
It looks very well mixed with water, like redding; but it
gives it a glossy appearance to boil the lead in soft soap,
with a little water to keep it from burning. It should be
put on with a brush, in the same manner as redding ; ;
looks nice for a long time, when done in this way.
Keep a bag for odd pieces of tape and strings; they
will come in use. Keep a bag or box for old buttons, so
that you may know where to go when you want one.
Run the heels of stockings faithfully; and mend thin
places, as well as holes. A stitch in time saves nine.'
Poke-root, boiled in water and mixed with a good quan-
tity of molasses, set about the kitchen, the pantry, &c. in
large deep plates, will kill cockroaches in great numbers,
and finally rid the house of them. The Indians say that
poke-root boiled into a soft poultice is the cure for the bite
of a snake. I have heard of a fine horse saved by it.
A little salt sprinkled in starch while it is boiling, tends
to prevent it from sticking; it is likewise good to stir it
with a clean spermaceti candle.
A few potatoes sliced, and boiling water poured over
them, makes an excellent preparation for cleansing and
stiffening old rusty black silk.
Green tea is excellent to restore rusty silk. It should
be boiled in iron, nearly a cup full to three quarts. The
silk should not be wrung, and should be ironed damp.
Lime pulverized, sifted through coarse muslin, and stir-
red up tolerably thick in white of eggs, makes a strong ce-
ment for glass and china. Plaster of Paris is still better;
particularly for mending broken images of the same ma-
terial. It should be stirred up by the spoonful, as it is
wanted.*
A bit of isinglass dissolved in gin, or boiled in spirits oi
wine, is said to make strong cement for broken glass, china,
and sea-shells.
* Some think it an improvement to make whey of vinegar and milk, and
heat it well up with the eggs before the lime is put in. I have heard of iro
mended with it,


20
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
The lemon syrup, usually sold at fifty cents a bottle,
may be made much cheaper. Those who use a great
quantity of it will find it worth their while to make it
Take about a pound of Havana sugar; boil it in water
down to a quart; drop in the white of an egg, to clarify
it; strain it; add one quarter of an oz. of tartaric acid
or citric acid ; if you do not find it sour enough, after it
has stood two or three days and shaken freely, add more
of the acid. A few drops of the oil of lemon improves it.
If you wish to clarify sugar and water, you are about to
boil, it is well to stir in the white of one egg, while cold;
if put in after it boils, the egg is apt to get hardened be-
fore it can do any good.
Those who are fond of soda powders will do well to
inquire at the apothecaries for the suitable acid and alkali,
and buy them by the ounce, or the pound, according to
the size of their families. Experience soon teaches the
right proportions; and, sweetened with a little sugar or
lemon syrup, it is quite as good as what one gives five times
as much for, done up in papers. The case is the same
with Rochelle powders.
When the stopper of a glass decanter becomes too tight,
a cloth wet with hot water and applied to the neck, will
cause the glass to expand, so that the stopper may be
easily removed.
Glass vessels in a cylindrical form, may be cut in two,
by tying around them a worsted thread, thoroughly wet
with spirits of turpentine, and then setting fire to the thread.
Court plaster is made of thin silk first dipped in dissolv-
ed isinglass and dried, then dipped several times in the
white of egg and dried.
When plain tortoise-shell combs are defaced, the polish
may be renewed by rubbing them with pulverized rotten-
stone and oil. The rotten-stone should be sifted through
muslin. It looks better to be rubbed on by the hand. The
jewellers afterwards polish them by rubbing them with dry
rouge powder ; but sifted magnesia does just as well—and
if the ladies had rouge, perhaps they would, by mistake
put it upon their cheeks, instead of their combs; and there.
by spoil their complexions


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
21
The best way to cleanse gold is, to wash it in warm suds
made of delicate soap, with ten or fifteen drops of sab-
volatile in it. This makes jewels very brilliant.
Straw carpets should be washed in salt and water, and
wiped with a dry, coarse towel. They have a strong tendency
to turn yellow; and the salt prevents it. Moisture makes
them decay soon; therefore they should be kept thorough-
ly dry.
Rye paste is more adhesive than any other paste ; be-
cause that grain is very glutinous. It is much improved
by adding a little pounded alum, while it is boiling. This
makes it almost as strong as głue.
Red ants are among the worst plagues that can infest
a house. A lady who had long been troubled with them,
assured me she destroyed them in a few days, after the
following manner. She placed a dish of cracked shag-
barks (of which they are more fond than of anything else)
in the closet. They soon gathered upon it in troops.
She then put some corrosive sublimate in a cup; order-
ed the dish to be carried carefully to the fire, and all its
contents brushed in ; while she swept the few that drop-
ped upon the shelf into the cup, and, with a feather, wet all
the cracks from whence they came, with corrosive subli-
mate. When this had been repeated four or five times, the
house was effectually cleared. Too much care cannot
be taken of corrosive sublimate, especially when children
are about. Many dreadful accidents have happened
in consequence of carelessness. Bottles which have con-
tained it should be broken, and buried; and cups should
be boiled out in ashes and water. If kept in the house, it
should be hung up high, out of reach, with POISON written
upon it in large letters..
The neatest way to separate wax from honey-comb is
to tie the comb up in a linen or woollen bag; place it in a
kettle of cold water, and hang it over the fire. As the wa-
ter heats, the wax melts, and rises to the surface, while all
The impurities remain in the bag. It is well to put a few
pebbles in the bag, to keep it from floating.


22
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
Honey may be separated from the comb, by placing it
in the hot sun, or before the fire, with two or three colan-
ders or sieves, each finer than the other, under it.
SOAP.
In the city, I believe, it is better to exchange ashes and
grease for soap; but in the country, I am certain, it is
good economy to make one's own soap. If you burn wood,
you can make your own lye; but the ashes of coal is not
worth much. Bore small holes in the bottom of a barrel,
place four bricks around, and fill the barrel with ashes.
Wet the ashes well, but not enough to drop ; let it soak
thus three or four days; then pour a gallon of water in
every hour or two, for a day or more, and let it drop into a
pail or tub beneath. Keep it dripping till the color of the
lye shows the strength is exhausted. If your lye is not
strong enough, you must fill your barrel with fresh ashes,
and let the lye run through it. Some people take a bar-
rel without any bottom, and lay sticks and straw across to
prevent the ashes from falling through. To make a barrel
of soap, it will require about five or six bushels of ashes,
with at least four quarts of unslacked stone lime; if slacked,
double the quantity.
When you have drawn off a part of the lye, put the lime
(whether slack or not) into two or three pails of boiling
water, and add it to the ashes, and let it drain through.
It is the practice of some people, in making soap, to put
the lime near the bottom of the ashes when they first set it
up; but the lime becomes like mortar, and the lye does
not run through, so as to get the strength of it, which is very
mportant in making soap, as it contracts the nitrous salts
which collect in ashes, and prevents the soap from coming,


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
23
(as the saying is.) Old ashes are very apt to be impreg
nated with it.
Three pounds of grease should be put into a pailful of
lye. The great difficulty in making soap come' origi-
nates in want of judgment about the strength of the lye.
One rule may be safely trusted—If your lye will bear up
an egg, or a potato, so that you can see a piece of the
surface as big as ninepence, it is just strong enough. If it
sink below the top of the lye, it is too weak, and will never
make soap; if it is buoyed up half way, the lye is too
strong; and that is just as bad. A bit of quick-lime, thrown
in while the lye and grease are boiling together, is of ser-
vice. When the soap becomes thick and ropy, carry it
· down cellar in pails and empty it into a barrel.
Cold soap is less trouble, because it does not need to
boil; the sun does the work of fire. The lye must be
· prepared and tried in the usual way. The grease must
be tried out, and strained from the scraps. Two pounds
of grease (instead of three) must be used to a pailful;
unless the weather is very sultry, the lye should be hot
when put to the grease. It should stand in the sun, and
be stirred every day. If it does not begin to look like
soap in the course of five or six days, add a little hot iyo
to it; if this does not help it, try whether it be grease that
it wants. Perhaps you will think cold soap wasteful, be-
cause the grease must be strained; but if the scraps are
boiled thoroughly in strong lye, the grease will all float upon
the surface, and nothing be lost.


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
25
till the wound begins to discharge itself; when the pa
tient will find relief.
If you happen to cut yourself slightly while cooking,
bind on some fine salt: molasses is likewise good.
Flour boiled thoroughly in milk, so as to make quite a
thick porridge, is good in cases of dysentery. A table-
spoonful of W. I. rum, a table-spoonful of sugar-baker's
molasses, and the same quantity of sweet oil, well sim-
mered together, is likewise good for this disorder; the oil
softens the harshness of the other ingredients.
Black or green tea, steeped in boiling milk, seasoned
with nutmeg, and best of loaf sugar, is excellent for the
dysentery. Cork burnt to charcoal, about as big as a
hazel-nut, macerated, and put in a tea-spoonful of brandy,
with a little loaf sugar and nutmeg, is very efficacious in
cases of dysentery and cholera-morbus. If nutmeg be
wanting, peppermint-water may be used. Flannel wet
with brandy, powdered with Cayenne pepper, and laid
upon the bowels, affords great relief in cases of extreme
distress.
Dissolve as much table-salt in keen vinegar, as will fer-
ment and work clear. When the foam is discharged,
cork it up in a bottle, and put it away for use. A large
spoonful of this, in a gill of boiling water, is very effica-
cious in cases of dysentery and colic.*
Whortleberries, commonly called huckleberries, dried,
are a useful medicine for children. Made into tea, and
sweetened with molasses, they are very beneficial, when
the system is in a restricted state, and the digestive pow-
ers out of order.
Blackberries are extremely useful in cases of dysentery.
To eat the berries is very healthy ; tea made of the roots
and leaves is beneficial; and a syrup made of the berries
is still better. Blackberries have sometimes effected a
cure when physicians despaired.
* Among the numerous medicines for this disease, perhaps none, after all, is
better, particularly where the bowels are inflamed, than the old-fashioned one
of English-mallows steeped in milk, and drank freely. Every body knows,
of course, that English-mallows and marsh-mallows are differeni terbs.


26
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
Loaf sugar and brandy relieves a sore throat; when ve-
ng bad, it is good to inhale the steam of scalding hot vine-
gar through the tube of a tunnel. This should be tried
carefully at first, lest the throat be scalded. For chil-
dren, it should be allowed to cool a little. .
A stocking bound on warm from the foot, at night, is
good for the sore throat.
An ointment made from the common ground-worms,
which boys dig to bait fishes, rubbed on with the hand, is
said to be excellent, when the sinews are drawn up by
any disease or accident.
A gentleman in Missouri advertises that he had an
inveterate cancer upon his nose cured by a strong pot-
ash made of the lye of the ashes of red oak bark, boiled
down to the consistence of molasses. The cancer was
covered with this, and, about an hour after, covered with a
plaster of tar. This must be removed in a few days,
and, if any protuberances remain in the wound, apply
more potash to them, and the plaster again, until they
entirely disappear : after which heal the wound with any
common soothing salve. I never knew this to be tried.
If a wound bleeds very fast, and there is no physician
at hand, cover it with the scrapings of sole-leather,
scraped like coarse lint. This stops blood very soon.
Always have vinegar, camphor, hartshorn, or something
of that kind, in readiness, as the sudden stoppage of
blood almost always makes a person faint.
Balm-of-Gilead buds bottled up in N. E. rum, make
the best cure in the world for fresh cuts and wounds.
Every family should have a bottle of it. The buds should
be gathered in a peeuliar state ; just when they are well
swelled, ready to burst into leaves, and well covered with
gum. They last but two or three days in this state.
Plantain and house-leek, boiled in cream, and strained
before it is put away to cool, makes a very cooling, sooth-
ing ointment. Plantain leaves laid upon a wound are
cooling and healing.
Half a spoonful of citric acid, (which may always be
bought of the apothecaries,) stirred in half a tumbler of
water, is excellent for the head-ache.


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
27
People in general think they must go abroad for vapor-
baths; but a very simple one can be made at home.
Place strong sticks across a tub of water, at the boiling
point, and sit upon them, entirely enveloped in a blanket,
feet and all. The steam from the water will be a vapor -
bath. Some people put herbs into the water. Steam..
baths are excellent for severe colds, and for some disor-
ders in the bowels. They should not be taken without
the advice of an experienced nurse, or physician. Great
care should be taken not to renew the cold after; it would
be doubly dangerous.
Boiled potatoes are said to cleanse the hands as well
as common soap; they prevent chops in the winter season,
and keep the skin soft and healthy.
Water-gruel, with three or four onions simmered in it,
prepared with a lump of butter, pepper, and salt, eaten
just before one goes to bed, is said to be a cure for a
hoarse cold. A syrup made of horseradish-root and sugar
is excellent for a cold.
Very strong salt and water, when frequently applied, has
been known to cure wens.
The following poultice for the throat disteraper, has been
much approved in England :--The pulp of a roasted apple,
mixed with an ounce of tobacco, the whole wet with spirits
of wine, or any other high spirits, spread on a linen rag,
and bound upon the throat at any period of the disorder.
Nothing is so good to take down swellings, as a soft
poultice of stewed white beans, put on in a thin muslin
bag, and renewed every hour or two. .
The thin white skin, which comes from suet, is excellent
to bind upon the feet for chilblains. Rubbing with Castile,
soap, and afterwards, with honey, is likewise highly recom-
mended. But, to cure the chilblains effectually, they must
be attended to often, and for a long time.
Always apply diluted laudanum to fresh wounds.
A poultice of elder-blow tea and biscuit is good as a pre-
ventive to mortification. The approach of mortification is
generally shown by the formation of blisters filled with:
'lood; water blisters are not alarming.


28
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
Burnt alum held in the mouth is good for the canker.
The common dark-blue violet makes a slimy tea, which
is excellent for the canker. Leaves and blossoms are both
good. Those who have families should take some pains
to dry these flowers.
When people have a sore mouth, from taking calomel,
or any other cause, tea made of low-blackberry leaves is
extremely beneficial.
Tea made of slippery elm is good for the piles, and for.
humors in the blood ; to be drank plentifully. Winter
evergreen* is considered good for all humors, particularly
scrofula. Some call it rheumatism-weed; because a tea
made from it is supposed to check that painful disorder.
An ointment of lard, sulphur, and cream-of-tartar, sini-
mered together, is good for the piles. ,
Elixir proprietatis is a useful family medicine for all
cases when the digestive powers are out of order. One
ounce of saffron, one ounce of myrrh, and one ounce of
aloes. Pulverize them; let the myrrh steep in half a pint
of brandy, or N. E. rum, for four days; then add the
saffron and aloes; let it stand in the sunshine, or in some
warm place, for å fortnight; taking care to shake it well
twice a day. At the end of the fortnight, fill up the bottle
(a common sized one) with brandy, or N. E. rùm, and let
it stand a month. It costs six times as much to buy it in
small quantities, as it does to make it.
The constant use of malt beer, or malt in any way, is
said to be a preservative against fevers."
Black cherry-tree bark, barberry bark, mustard-seed,
petty morrel-root, and horseradish, well steeped in cider,
are excellent for the jaundice.
Cotton wool and oil are the best things for a burn
When children are burned, it is difficult to make them en-
lure the application of cotton wool. I have known the
aflammation of a very bad burn extracted in one night, by
he constant application of brandy, vinegar, and water,
* This plant resembles the poisonous kill-lamb, both in the shape and the
glossiness of the leaves great care should be used to distinguish them.


32
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
until it becomes quite clear; then put in lemon juice, wine
and loaf sugar.
SAGO JELLY.
The sago should be soaked in cold water an hour, and
washed thoroughly ; simmered with lemon-peel and a few
cloves. Add wine and loaf sugar when nearly done; and
let it all boil together a few minutes.
BEEF TEA.
Beef tea, for the sick, is made by broiling a tender steak
nicely, seasoning it with pepper and salt, cutting it up, and
pouring water over it, not quite boiling. Put in a little water
at a time, and let it stand to soak the goodness out.
WINE WHEY.
Wine whey is a cooling and safe drink in fevers. Set
half a pint of sweet milk at the fire, pour in one glass of
wine, and let it remain perfectly still, till it curdles; when
the curds settle, strain it, and let it cool. It should not get
more than blood-warm. A spoonful of rennet-water has-
tens the operation. Made palatable with loaf sugar and
nutmeg, if the patient can bear it.
APPLE WATER.
This is given as sustenance when the stomach is too
weak to bear broth, &c. It may be made thus,-Pour
boiling water on roasted apples; let them stand three
hours, then strain and sweeten lightly :-Or it may be
made thus,-Peel and slice tart apples, add some sugar
and lemon-peel; then pour some boiling water over the
whole, and let it stand covered by the fire, more than an
hour.
MILK PORRIDGE.
Boil new milk; stir flour thoroughly into some cold
milk in a bowl, and pour it into the kettle while the milk


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
is boiling : let it all boil six or eight minutes. Some
people like it thicker than others; I should think three
large spoonfuls of flour to a quart of milk was about right.
It should always be seasoned with salt; and if the patient
likes, loaf sugar and nutmeg may be put in. In cases of
fever, little salt or spice should be put into any nourish-
ment; but in cases of dysentery, salt and nutmeg may be
used freely : in such cases too, more flour should be put
in porridge, and it should be boiled very thoroughly in-
deed.
STEWED PRUNES.
Stew them very gently in a small quantity of water, till
the stones slip out. Physicians consider them safe nour-
ishment in fevers.
VEGETABLES.
PARSNIPS should be kept down cellar, covered up in
sand, entirely excluded from the air. They are good only
in the spring.
Cabbages put into 2 hole in the ground will keep well
during the winter, and be hard, fresh, and sweet, in the
spring. Many farmers keep potatoes in the same way.
Onions should be kept very dry, and never carried in-
to the cellar except in severe weather, when there is dan-
ger of their freezing. By no means let them be in the cel-
'far after March; they will sprout and spoil. Potatoes
should likewise be careſully looked to in the spring, and
che sprouts broken off. The cellar is the best place for
them, because they are injured by wilting ; but sprout them
carefully, if you want to keep them. They never sprout
out three times; therefore, after you have sprouted them
* three times, they will trouble you no more.
Squashes should never be kept down cellar when it is


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE
35
,
cording to age. Dandelions are very much improved by
cultivation. If cut off, without injuring the root, they will
spring up again, fresh and tender, till late in the season.
Beet-tops should be boiled twenty minutes; and spinage
three or four minutes. Put in no green vegetables till the
water boils, if you would keep all their sweetness.
When green peas have become old and yellow, they
may be made tender and green by sprinkling in a pinch
or two of pearlash, while they are boiling. Pearlash has
the same effect upon all summer vegetables, rendered
tough by being too old. If your well-water is very hard,
it is always an advantage to use a little pearlash in cook-
ing.
Tomatoes should be skinned by pouring boiling water
over them. After they are skinned, they should be stewed
half an hour, in tin, with a little salt, a small bit of butter,
and a spoonful of water, to keep them from burning. This
is a delicious vegetable. It is easily cultivated, and yields
a most abundant crop. Some people pluck them green,
and pickle them.
The best sort of catsup is made from tomatoes. The
vegetables should be squeezed up in the hand, salt put to
them, and set by for twenty-four hours. After being pass-
ed through a sieve, cloves, allspice, pepper, mace, garlic,
and whole mustard-seed should be added. It should be
boiled down one third, and bottled after it is cool. No
liquid is necessary, as the tomatoes are very juicy. A
good deal of salt and spice is necessary o keep the catsup
well. It is delicious with roast meat; and a cupful adds
much to the richness of soup and chowder. The garlic
should be taken out before it is bott-d.
Celery should be kept in the cellar, the roots coverect
with tan, to keep them moist.
Green squashes that are turning yellow, and striped
squashes, are more uniformly sweet and mealy than any
other kind.
If the tops of lettuce be cut off when it is becoming too
old for use, it will grow up again fresh and tender, and
may thus be kept good through the summer.


36
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
It is a good plan to boil onions in milk and water ; it
diminishes the strong taste of that vegetable. It is an ex-
cellent way of serving up onions, to chop them after they
are boiled, and put them in a stewpan, with a little milk,
butter, salt, and pepper, and let them stew about fifteen
minutes. This gives them a fine flavor, and they can be
served up very hot.
HERBS.
If left till
to get theortant herbatch of sto goes into
All herbs should be carefully kept from the air. Herb
tea, to do any good, should be made very strong.
Herbs should be gathered while in blossom. If left till
they have gone to seed, the strength goes into the seed.
Those who have a little patch of ground, will do wel to
raise the most important herbs; and those who have not, will
do well to get them in quantities from some friend in the
country; for apothecaries make very great profit upon
them.
Sage is very useful both as a medicine, for the head-
ache-when made into tea and for all kinds of stuffing,
when dried and rubbed into powder. It should be kept
tight from the air.
Summer-savory is excellent to season soup, broth, and
sausages. As a medicine, it' relieves the cholic. Penny-
royal and tansy are good for the same medicinal purpose.
Green wormwood bruised is excellent for a fresh wound
of any kind. In winter, when wormwood is dry, it is ne-
cessary to soften it in warm vinegar, or spirit, before it is.
bruised, and applied to the wound.
Hyssop tea is good for sudden colds, and disorders. on
the lungs. It is necessary to be very careful about expo-
sure after taking it; it is peculiarly opening to the pores.
Tea made of colt's-foot and fax-seed, sweetened with
honey, is a cure for inveterate coughs. Consumptions have


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
37
been prevented by it. It should be drank when going to
bed ; though it does good to drink it at any time. Hoar-
hound is useful in consumptive complaints."
Motherwort tea is very quieting to the nerves. Students,
and people troubled with wakefulness, find it useful.
Thoroughwort is excellent for dyspepsy, and every dis-
order occasioned by indigestion. If the stomach be foul,
ti operates like a gentle emetic.
Sweet-balm tea is cooling when one is in a feverish state.
Catnip, particularly the blossoms, made into tea, is good
to prevent a threatened fever. It produces a fine perspi-
ration. It should be taken in bed, and the patient kept
warm.
Housekeepers should always dry leaves of the burdock
and horseradish. Burdocks warmed in vinegar, with the
hard, stalky parts cut out, are very soothing, applied to the
feet; they produce a sweet and gentle perspiration.
Horseradish is more powerful. It is excellent in cases
of the ague, placed on the part affected. Warmed in vin-
egar, and clapped.
Succory is a very valuable herb. The tea, sweetened
with molasses, is good for the piles. It is a gentle and
healthy physic, a preventive of dyspepsy, humors, “inflam-
mation, and all the evils resulting from a restricted state
of the system.
Elder-blow tea has a similar effect. It is cool and sooth-
ing, and peculiarly efficacious either for babes or grown
people, when the digestive powers are out of order.
Lungwort, maiden-hair, hyssop, elecampane and hoar-
hound steeped together, is an almost certain cure for a
çough. A wine-glass full to be taken when going to bed.
Few people know how to keep the flavor of sweet-mar-
joram ; the best of all herbs for broth and stuffing. It
should be gathered in bud or blossom, and dried in a tin-
kitchen at a moderate distance from the fire ; when dry,
it should be immediately rubbed, sifted, and corked up in
a bottle carefully.
English-mallows steeped in milk is good for the dysen-
tery,


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
39
old Aannel for covering a desk, &c; it is likewise a hand-
some color for ribbons.
Balm blossoms, steeped in water, color a pretty rose-
color. This answers very well for the linings of children's
bonnets, for ribbons, &c. It fades in the course of one
season ; but it is very little trouble to recolor with it. It
merely requires to be steeped and strained. Perhaps a
small piece of alum might serve to set the color, in some
degree. In earthen or tin.
Saffron, steeped in earthen and strained, colors a fine
straw color. It makes a delicate or deep shade according
to the strength of the tea. The dry outside skins of onions,
steeped in scalding water and strained, color a yellow very
much like bird of paradise' color. Peach leaves, or
bark scraped from the barberry bush, colors a common
bright yellow. In all these cases, a little piece of alum does
no harm, and may help to fix the color. Ribbons, gauze
bandkerchiefs, &c. are colored well in this way, especially
if they be stiffened by a bit of gum-Arabic, dropped in
while the stuff is steeping.
The purple paper, which comes on loaf sugar, boiled in
cider, or vinegar, with a small bit of alum, makes a fine
purple slate color. Done in iron.
White maple bark makes a good light-brown slate color.
This should be boiled in water, set with alum. The color
is reckoned better when boiled in brass, instead of iron,
The purple slate and the brown slate are suitable col-
ors for stockings; and it is an economical plan, after they
have been mended and cut down, so that they will no
longer look decent, to color old stockings, and make them
up for children.
A pailful of lye, with a piece of copperas half as big as a
hen's egg boiled in it, will color a fine nankin color, which
will never wash out. This is very useful for the linings of
bed-quilts, conforters, &c. Old faded gowns, colored in
this way, may be made into good petticoats. Cheap cot-
ton cloth may be colored to advantage for petticoats, and
pelisses for little girls.


40
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
A very beautiful nankin color may likewise be obtained
from birch-bark, set with alum. The bark should be cor-
ered with water, and boiled thoroughly in brass or tin. A
bit of alum half as big as a hen's egg is sufficient. If cop-
peras be used instead of alum, slate color will be produced.
Tea-grounds boiled in iron, and set with copperas, make
a very good slate color.
Log-wood and cider, in iron, set with copperas, makes
a good black. Rusty nails, or any rusty iron, boiled in
vinegar, with a small bit of copperas, makes a good black,
black ink-powder done in the same way answers the
same purpose.
MEAT CORNED, OR SALTED, HAMS, &c
WHEN you merely want to corn meat, you have nothing
to do but to rub in salt plentifully, and let it set in the cel
lar a day or two. If you have provided more meat than
you can use while it is good, it is well to corn it in season
to save it. In summer, it will not keep well more than a
day and a half;'if you are compelled to keep it longer, be
sure and rub in more salt, and keep it carefully covered
from cellar-flies. In winter, there is no difficulty in keep-
ing a piece of corned beef a fortnight or more. Some
people corn meat by throwing it into their beef barrel for
a few days; but this method does not make it so sweet.
A little salt-petre rubbed in before you apply the com-
inon salt, makes the meat tender; but in summer it is not
well to use it, because it prevents the other salt from im-
pregnating; and the meat does not keep as well.
If you wish to salt fat pork, scald coarse salt in water
and skim it, till the salt will no longer melt in the water.
Pack your pork down in tight layers; salt every layer;
when the brine is cool, cover the pork with it, and keep a
heavy stone on the top to keep the pork under brine.
Look to it once in a while, for the first few weeks, and if


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
43
down with heavy weights for a day or two. A small leg
of bacon should be boiled three hours; ten pounds four
hours ; twelve pounds five hours. All meat should boil
moderately ; furious boiling injures the flavor.
Buffalo's tongue should soak a day and a night, and boil
as much as six hours.
_
CHOICE OF MEAT.
If people wish to be economical, they should take some
pains to ascertain what are the cheapest pieces of meat to
buy; not merely those which are cheapest in price, but
those which go farthest when cooked. That part of mut-
ton called the rack, which consists of the neck, and a few
of the rib bones below, is cheap food. It is not more than
four or five cents a pound; and four pounds will make a
dinner for six people. The neck, cut into pieces, and boile
ed slowly an hour and a quarter, in little more than water
enough to cover it, makes very nice broth. A great
spoonful of rice should be washed and thrown in with the
meat. About twenty minutes before it is done, put in a
little thickening, and season with salt, pepper, and sifted
summer-savory, or sage. The bones below the neck,
broiled, make a good mutton chop. If your family be
small, a rack of mutton will make you two dinners,-broth
once, and mutton chop with a few slices of salt pork, for
another; if your family consist of six or seven, you can
have two dishes for a dinner. If you boil the whole rack
for broth, there will be some left for mince meat.
Liver is usually much despised; but when well cooked,
't is very palatable; and it is the cheapest of all animal
food. Veal liver is by some considered the best. Veal
liver is usually two cents a pound; beef liver is one cent.
After you have fried a few slices of salt pork, put the liver
in while the fat is very hot, and cook it through thorough -


44'
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
stripe nether it mbt when
ly. If you doubt whether it be done, cut into a slice, and
see whether it has turned entirely brown, without any red
stripe in the middle. Season it with pepper and salt, and
butter, if you live on a farm, and have butter in plenty.
It should not be cooked on furiously hot coals, as it is very
apt to scorch. Sprinkle in a little flour, stir it, and pour
in boiling water to make gravy, just as you would for fried
meat. Some think liver is better dipped in sifted Indian
meal before it is fried. It is good broiled and buttered
like a steak. It should be cut into slices about as thick as
are cut for steaks.
The heart, liver, &c. of a pig is good fried; so is that of
a lamb. The latter is commonly called lamb-fry; and a
dinner may be bought for six,or eight cents. Be sure and
ask for the sweet-bread; for butchers are extremely apt to
reserve it for their own use; and therefore lamb-fry is al
most always sold without it. Fry five or six slices of salt
pork; after it is taken out, put in your lamb-fry while the
fat is hot. Do it thoroughly; but be careful the fire is not
too furious, as it is apt to scorch. Take a large handful of
parsley, see that it is washed clean, cut it up pretty fine;
then pour a little boiling water into the fat in which your
dinner has been fried, and let the parsley cook in it a min-
ute or two ; then take it out in a spoon, and lay it over
your slices of meat. Some people, who like thick gravies,
shake in a little flour into the spider, before pouring in the
boiling water.
Bones from which roasting pieces have been cut, may
be bought in the market for ten or twelve cents, from which
a very rich soup may be made, besides skimming off fat
for shortening. If the bones left from the rump be bought,
they will be found full of marrow, and will give more than a
pint of good shortening, without injuring the richness of the
soup. The richest piece of beef for a soup is the leg and
the shin of beef; the leg is on the hind quarter, and the shin
is on the fore quarter. The leg rand, that is, the thick
part of the leg above the bony parts, is very nice for mince
pies. Some people have an objection to these parts of
beef, thinking they must be stringy; but, if boiled very ten-


48
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
hangs out of the pot while the head is cooking, all the
froth will escape through it. The brains, after being
thoroughly washed, should be put in a little bag, with one
pounded cracker, or as much crumbled bread, seasoned
with sifted sage, and tied up and boiled one hour. After
the brains are boiled, they should be well broken up with
a knife, and peppered, salted, and buttered. They should
be put upon the table in a bowl by themselves. Boiling
water, thickened with flour and water, with butter melted
in it, is the proper sauce; some people love vinegar and
pepper mixed with the melted butter ; but all are not fond
of it; and it is easy for each one to add it for themselves.
you had boil the soup ique or sixtcup is dontifully ; it
BEEF.
Beef soup should be stewed four hours over a slow
fire. Just water enough to keep the meat covered. If
you have any bones left of roast ineat, &c. it is a good
plan to boil them with the meat, and take them out half an
hour before the soup is done. A pint of flour and water,
with salt, pepper, twelve or sixteen onions, should be put
in twenty minutes before the soup is done. Be careful
and not throw in salt and pepper too plentifully ; it is easy
to add to it, and not easy to diminish. A lemon, cut up
and put in half an hour before it is done, adds to the flavor.
If you have tomato catsup in the house, a cupful will
make soup rich. Some people put in crackers; some
thin slices of crust, made nearly as short as common short-
cake; and some stir up two or three eggs with milk and
flour, and drop it in with a spoon.
A quarter of an hour to each pound of beef is consider-
ed a good rule for roasting ; but this is too much when
the bone is large, and the meat thin. Six pounds of the
rump should roast six quarters of an hour; but bony pieces
less It should be done before a quick fire.
The quicker beef-steak can be broiled the better. Sea.
soned after it is taken from the gridiron.


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
57
O,
you may happen to have. Cover the top with crust, and
put it in the oven, or bake-kettle, to cook half an hour, or an
hour, according to the size of the pie. Some people think
this the nicest way of cooking fresh chickens. When thus
cooked, they should be parboiled before they are put into
the pan, and the water they are boiled in should be added.
A chicken pie needs to be cooked an hour and a half, if
parboiled ; two hours, if not.
If you wish to make a pot pie instead of a baked pie,
you have only to line the bottom of a porridge pot with
paste, lay in your meat, season and moisten it in the same
way, cover it with paste, and keep it slowly stewing about
the same time that the other takes. In both cases, it is
well to lift the upper crust, a little while before you take up
the pie, and see whether the moisture has dried away; if
so, pour in flour and water well mixed, and let it boil up.
Potatoes should be boiled in a separate vessel.
If you have fear that poultry may become musty before
you want to cook it, skin an onion, and put in it; a little
pepper sprinkled in is good ; it should be kept hung up,
in a dry, cool place.
If poultry is injured before you are aware of it, wash
it very thoroughly in pearlash and water, and sprinkle pep-
per inside when you cook it. Some people hang up poul-
try with a muslin bag of charcoal inside. It is a good plan
to singe injured poultry over lighted charcoal, and to hold a
piece of lighted charcoal inside, a few minutes.
Many people parboil the liver and gizzard, and cut it up
very fine, to be put into the gravy, while the fowls are
cooking; in this case, the water they are boiled in should
be used to make the gravy.,
FISH.
Cod has white stripes, and a haddock black stripes; they
may be known apart by this. Haddock is the best for fry-
ing; and cod is the best for boiling, or for a chowder. A
thin tail is a sign of a poor fish; always choose a thick
fish.


58
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
When you are buying mackerel, pinch the belly to asi
certain whether it is good. If it gives under your finger,
like a bladder half filled with wind, the fish is poor; if it
feels hard like butter, the fish is good. It is cheaper to
buy one large mackerel for ninepence, than two for four
pence half-penny, each.
Fish should not be put in to fry until the fat is boiling
hot; it is very necessary to observe this. It should be
dipped in Indian meal before it is put in; and the skinny
side uppermost, when first put in, to prevent its breaking.
It relishes better to be fried after salt pork, than to be fried
in lard alone. People are mistaken, who think fresh fish
should be put into cold water' as soon as it is brought into
the house; soaking it in water is injurious. If you want
to keep it sweet, clean it, wash it, wipe it dry with a clean
towel, sprinkle salt inside and out, put it in a covered dish,
and keep it on the cellar floor until you want to cook it.
If you live remote from the seaport, and cannot get fish
while hard and fresh, wet it with an egg beaten, before you
meal it, to prevent its breaking.
Fish gravy is very much improved by taking out some
of the fat, after the fish is fried, and putting in a little but-
ter. The fat thus taken out will do to fry fish again; but
it will not do for any kind of shortening. Shake in a little
flour into the hot fat, and pour in a little boiling water:
stir it up well, as it boils, à minute or so. Some people
put in vinegar ; but this is easily added by those who
like it.
A common sized cod-fish should be put in when the
water is boiling hot, and boil about twenty minutes. Had-
dock is not as good for boiling as cod; it takes about the
same time to boil.
A piece of halibut which weighs four pounds is a large
dinner for a family of six or seven. It should boil forty
minutes. No fish put in till the water boils. Melted but.
ter for sauce.
Clams should boil about fifteen minutes in their own
water; no other need be added, except a spoonful to keep
the bottom shells from burning. It is easy to tell when


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
39
they are done, by the shells starting wide open. After
they are done, they should be taken from the shells, wash-
ed thoroughly in their own water, and put in a stewing
pan. The water should then be strained through a cloth,
so as to get out all the grit; the clams should be simmered
in it ten or fifteen minutes; a little thickening of flour and
water added; half a dozen slices of toasted bread or crack-
er; and pepper, vinegar and butter to your taste. Salt
s not needed.
Four pounds of fish are enough to make a chowder for
four or five people; half a dozen slices of salt pork in the
bottom of the pot; hang it high, so that the pork may not
burn; take it out when done very brown; put in a lay-
er of fish, cut in lengthwise slices, then à layer formed
of crackers, small or sliced onions, and potatoes sliced as
thin as a four-pence, mixed with pieces of pork you have
fried; then a layer of fish again, and so on. Six crack
ers are enough. Strew a little salt and pepper over each
layer; over the whole pour a bowl-full of flour and water,
enough to come up even with the surface of what you have
in the pot. A sliced lemon adds to the flavor. A cup
of tomato catsup is very excellent. Some people put
in a cup of beer. A few clams are, a pleasant addition.
It should be covered so as not to let a particle of steamı
escape, if possible. Do not open it, except when nearly
done, to taste if it be well seasoned.
Salt fish should be put in a deep plate, with just water
enough to cover it, the night before you intend to cook it.
It should not be boiled an instant; boiling renders it hard.
It should lie in scalding hot water two or three hours.
The less water is used, and the more fish is cooked at
once, the better. Water thickened with flour and water
while boiling, with sweet butter put in to melt, is the com-
non sauce. It is more economical to cut salt pork into
small bits, and try it till the pork is brown and crispy. It
should not be done too fast, lest the sweetness be scorch-
ed out.
Salted shad and mackerel should be put into a deep
plate and covered with boiling water for about ten minutes


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
61
PUDDINGS.
BAKED INDIAN PUDDING.
INDIAN pudding is good baked. Scald a quart of milk
(skimmed milk will do,) and stir in seyen table spoon..
fuls of sifted Indian meal, a tea-spoonful of salt, a tea-
cupful of molasses, and a great spoonful of ginger, or
sifted cinnamon. Baked three or four hours. If you want
whey, you must be sure and pour in a little cold milk, af-
ter it is all mixed.
BOILED INDIAN PUDDING.
Indian pudding should be boiled four or five hours. Sift-
ed Indian meal and warm milk should be stirred together
pretty stiff. A little salt, and two or three great spoonfuls
of molasses, added; a spoonful of ginger, if you like that
spice. Boil it in a tight covered pan, or a very thick
cloth; if the water gets in, it will ruin it. Leave plenty
of room; for Indian swells very much. The milk with
which you mix it should be merely warm; if it be scald-
ing, the pudding will break to pieces. Some people chop
sweet suet fine, and warm in the milk; others warm thin
slices of sweet apple to be stirred into the pudding Water
will answer instead of milk.
FLOUR OR BATTER PUDDING.
Common flour pudding, or batter pudding, is easily made. :
Those who live in the country can beat up five or six eggs
with a quart of milk, and a little salt, with flour enough to
make it just thick enough to pour without difficulty. Those
who live in the city, and are obliged to buy eggs, can do
with three eggs to a quart, and more flour in proportion.
Boil about three quarters of an hour..


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
BREAD PUDDING.
A nice pudding may be made of bits of bread. They
should be crumbled and soaked in milk over night. In
the morning, beat up three eggs with it, add a little salt, tie
it up in a bag, or in a pan that will exclude every drop of
water, and boil it little more than an hour. No puddings
should be put into the pot, till the water boils. Bread
prepared in the same way makes good plum-puddings.
Milk enough to make it quite soft; four eggs; a little cin-
namon; a spoonful of rose-water, or lemon-brandy, if you
have it; a tea-cupful of molasses, or sugar to your taste, if
you prefer it; a few dry, clean raisins, sprinkled in, and
stirred up thoroughly, is all that is necessary. It should
bake or boil two hours.
RENNET PUDDING.
If your husband brings home company when you are un
prepared, rennet pudding may be made at five minutes
notice; provided you keep a piece of calf's rennet ready
prepared soaking in a bottle of wine. One glass of this
wine to a quart of milk will make a sort of cold custard.
Sweetened with white sugar, and spiced with nutmeg, it is
very good. It should be eaten immediately; in a few
hours, it begins to curdle.
CUSTARD PUDDINGS.
Custard puddings sufficiently good for common use can
be made with five eggs to a quart of milk, sweetened with
brown sugar, and spiced with cinnamon, or nutmeg, and
very little salt. It is well to boil your milk, and set it away
till it gets cold. Boiling milk enriches it so much, that
poiled skim-milk is about as good as new milk. · A little
cinnamon, or lemon peel, or peach leaves, if you do not
dislike the taste, boiled in the milk, and afterwards strained
from it, give a pleasant flavor. Bake fifteen or twenty
minutes.


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
RICE PUDDINGS.
If you want a conimon rice pudding to retain its flavor,
do not soak it, or put it in to boil when the water is cold.
Wash it, tie it in a bag, leave plenty of room for it to swell,
throw it in when the water boils, and let it boil about an
hour and a half. The same sauce answers for all these
kinds of puddings. If you have rice left cold, break it up
in a little warm milk, pour custard over it, and bake it as
long as you should custard. It makes very good puddings
and pies.
BIRD'S NEST PUDDING. ,
If you wish to make what is called "bird's nest pud-
dings, prepare your custard,-take eight or ten pleasant
apples, pare them, and dig, out the core, but leave them
whole, set them in a pudding dish, pour your custard over
them, and bake them about thirty minutes.
APPLE PUDDING.
A plain, unexpensive apple pudding may be made
by rolling out a bit of common pie-crust, and filling it full
of quartered apples; tied up in a bag, and boiled an hour and
a half; if the apples are sweet, it will take two hours; for
acid things cook easily. Some people like little dumplings,
made by rolling up one apple, pared and cored, in a piece
of crust, and tying them up in spots all over the bag. These
do not need to be boiled more than an hour: three quar-
ters is enough, if the apples are tender.
Take sweet, or pleasant flavored apples, pare them,
and bore out the core, without cutting the apple in two
Fill up the holes with washed rice, boil them in a bag, tied
very tight, an hour, or hour and a half. Each apple should
be tied up separately, in different corners of the pudding
bag
. CHERRY PUDDING.
For cherry dumpling, make a paste about as rich as you
make short-cake; roll it out, and put in a pint and a half,


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
beat up, and prepared just as you do for custards. Let it
bake about an hour.
One saụce answers for common use for all sorts of
puddings. Flour-and-water stirred into boiling water,
sweetened to your taste with either molasses or sugar, ac-
cording to your ideas of economy; a great spoonful of rose-
water, if you have it; butter half as big as a hen's egg. If
you want to make it very nice, put in a glass of wine, and
grate nutmeg on the top.
- When you wish better sauce than common, take a quar-
ter of a pound of butter and the same of sugar, mould them
well together with your hand, add a little wine, if you
choose. Make it into a lump, set it away to cool, and
grate nutmeg over it.
HASTY PUDDING.
Boil water, a quart, three pints, or two quarts, according
to the size of your family ; sift your meal, stir five or six
spoonfuls of it thoroughly into a bowl of water ; when the
water in the kettle boils, pour into it the contents of the bowl ;
stir it well, and let it boil up thick ; put in salt to suit your
own taste, then stand over the kettle, and sprinkle in meal,
handful after handful, stirring it very thoroughly all the
time, and letting it boil between whiles. When it is so
thick that you stir it with great difficulty, it is about right., dia
It takes about half an hour's cooking. Eat it with milk or
molasses. Either Indian meal or rye meal may be used.
If the system is in a restricted state, nothing can be bets
ter than rye hasty pudding and West India molasses.
This diet would save many a ane the horrors of dys.
pepsia,
It takes ab sou stir it with between why thoroughly in meal,
CHEAP CUSTARDS.
ONE quart. of milk, boiled; when boiling, add three tae
ble spoonfuls of ground rice, or rice that is boiled, mixed


68
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
Some people do not stew them at all, but cut them up in
very thin slices, and lay them in the crust. Pies made in
this way may retain more of the spirit of the apple ; but I
do not think the seasoning mixes in as well. Put in sugar
to your taste ; it is impossible to make a precise rule, be-
cause apples vary so much in acidity. A very little salt,
and a small piece of butter in each pie, makes them richer.
Cloves and cinnamon are both suitable spice. Lemon-
brandy and rose-water are both excellent. A wine-glass
full of each is sufficient for three or four pies. If your ap-
ples lack spirit, grate in a whole lemon.
CUSTARD PIE.
It is a general rule to put eight eggs to a quart of milk,
in making custard pies; but six eggs are a plenty for any
common use. The milk should be boiled and cooled
before it is used ; and bits of stick-cinnamon and bits of
lemon-peel boiled in it. Sweeten to your taste with clean
sugar; a very little sprinkling of salt makes them taste bet-
ter. Grate in a nutmeg. Bake in a deep plate. About
20 minutes are usually enough. If you are doubtful whe-
ther they are done, dip in the handle of a silver spoon, or
the blade of a small knife ; if it come out clean, the pie is
done. Do not pour them into your plates till the minute
you put them into the oven; it makes the crust wet and
heavy. To be baked with an under crust only. Some
people bake the under crust a little before the custard is
poured in ; this is to keep it from being clammy
CRANBERRY PIE.
Cranberry pies need very little spice: A little nutmeg,
or cinnamon, improves them. They need a great deal of
sweetening. It is well to stew the sweetening with them ;
at least a part of it. It is easy to add, if you find them
too sour for your taste. When cranberries are strained,
and added to about their own weight in sugar, they make
very delicious tarts. No upper crust.


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
RHUBARB STALKS, OR PERSIAN APPLE.
Rhubarb stalks, or the Persian apple, is the earliest in
gredient for pies, which the spring offers. The skin should
be carefully stripped, and the stalks cut into small bits, and
stewed very tender. These are dear pies, for they take
an enormous quantity of sugar. Seasoned like apple pies
Gooseberries, currants, &c., are stewed, sweetened and
seasoned like apple pies, in proportions suited to the sweet-
ness of the fruit; there is no way to judge but by your own
taste. Always remember it is more easy to add season-
ing than to diminish it.
PIE CRUST.
To make pie crust for common rise, a quarter of a pound
of butter is enough for a half a pound of flour. Take out
about a quarter part of the flour you intend to use, and lay
it aside. Into the remainder of the flour rub butter thor-
oughly with your hands, until it is so short that a handful
of it, clasped tight, will remain in a ball, without any tenden-
cy to fall in pieces. Then wet it with cold water, roll it
out on a board, rub over the surface with flour, stick little
lumps of butter all over it, sprinkle some flour over the but-
ter, and roll the dough all up; flour the paste, and flour the
rolling-pin; roll it lightly and quickly; flour it again; stick
in bits of butter ; do it up; flour the rolling-pin, and roll
it quickly and lightly; and so on, till you have used up your
butter. Always roll from you. Pie crust should be made
as cold as possible, and set in a cool place; but be care-
ful it does not freeze. Do not use more flour than you
can help in sprinkling and rolling. The paste should not
be rolled out more than three times; if rolled too much,
t will not be flaky


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
COMMON CAKES.
In all cakes where butter or eggs are used, the butter
should be very faithfully rubbed into the flour, and the
eggs beat to a foam, before the ingredients are mixed
GINGERBREAD.
sugarf ginger, ou of rose tineaded
ake on flat pangt up, Kneaded and a handful
A very good way to make molasses gingerbread is to
rub four pounds and a half of flour with half a pound
of lard and half a pound of butter ; a pint of molasses, a
gill of milk, tea-cup of ginger, a tea-spoonful of dissolved
pearlash stirred together. All mixed, baked in shallow
pans twenty or thirty minutes.
Hard gingerbread is good to have in the family, it keeps
so well. One pound of flour, half a pound of butter and
sugar, rubbed into it; half a pound of sugar; great spoon-
ful of ginger, or more, according to the strength of the gin-
ger; a spoonful of rose-water, and a handful of caraway
seed. Well beat up. Kneaded stiff enough to roll out and
bake on flat pans. Bake twenty or thirty minutes.
A cake of common gingerbread can be stirred up very
quick in the following way. Rub in a bit of shortening as
big as an egg into a pint of flour; if you use lard, add a
little salt; two or three great spoonfuls of ginger; one
cup of molasses, one cup and a half of cider, and a great
spoonful of dissolved pearlash, put together and poured
into the shortened flour while it is foaming ; to be put in
the oven in a minute. It ought to be just thick enough
to pour into the pans with difficulty ; if these proportions
make it too thin, use less liquid the next time you try.
Bake about twenty minutes.
If by carelessness you let a piece of short-cake dough
grow sour, put in a little pearlash and water, warm a little
· butter, according to the size of the dough, knead in a cup
or two of sugar, (two cups, unless it is a very small bit,)
two or three spoonfuls of ginger, and a little rose-water


---
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
75
Sour beer, with a spoonful of pearlash, is good both for
pancakes and fritters.
If you have any cold rice left, it is nice to break it up
fine in warm milk ; put in a little salt; after you have put
milk enough for the cakes you wish to make, (a half pint,
or more,) stir in flour till it is thick enough to pour for
fritters. It does very well without an egg; but better with
one. To be fried like other flat-jacks. Sugar and nut-
meg, are to be put on when they are buttered, if you
like.
SHORT CAKE.
If you have sour milk, or butter-milk, it is well to make
it imo short cakes for tea. Riib in a very small bit of
shortening, or three table-spoonfuls of cream, with the
flour; put in a tea-spoonful of strong dissolved pearlash,
into your sour milk, and mix your cake pretty stiff, to bake
in the spider, on a few embers.
When people have to buy butter and lard, short cakes
are not economical food. A half 'pint of flour will make
a crke large enough to cover a common plate. Rub in thor-
ouhly a bit of shortening as big as a hen's egg; put in a
tea-spoonful of dissolved pearlash; wet it with cold water;
kroad it stiff enough to roll well, to bake on a plate, or in
a «pider. It should bake as quick as it can, and not burn.
The first side should stand longer to the fire than the last
INDIAN CAKE.
Indian cake, or bannock, is sweet and cheap food.
O le quart of sifted meal, two great spoonfuls of molasses,
two tea-spoonfuls of salt, a bit of shortening half as big as
a hen's egg, stirred together ; make it pretty moist with
sculding water, put it into a well greased pan, sinooth over
the surface with a spoon, and bake it brown on both sides,
before a quick fire. A little stewed pumpkin, scalded
with the meal, iinproves the cake. Bannock split and dip-
ped in butter makes very nice toast.,


76
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
A richer Indian cake may be made by stirring one egg
to a half pint of milk, sweetened with two great spoonfuls
of molasses ; a little ginger, or cinnamon ; Indian stirred in
till it is just about thick enough to pour. Spider or bake-
kettle well greased; cake poured in, covered up, baked
half an hour, or three quarters, according to the thickness
of the cake. If you have sour milk, or butter-milk, it is
very nice for this kind of cake; the acidity corrected by
a tea-spoonful of dissolved pearlash. It is a rule never to
use pearlash for Indian, unless to correct the sourness of
milk; it injures the flavor of the meal.
Nice suet improves all kinds of Indian cakes very
much.
Two cups of Indian meal, one table spoonful molasses,
two cups milk, a little salt, a handful flour, a little saleratus,
mixed up thin, and poured into a buttered bake-kettle,
hung over the fire uncovered, until you can bear your fin-
ger upon it, and then set down before the fire. Bake half
an hour.
BREAD, YEAST, &c.
It is more difficult to give rules for making bread than
for anything else ; it depends so much on judgment and
experience. In summer, bread should be mixed with cold
water; during a chilly, damp spell, the water should be
slightly warm ; in severe cold weather, it should be mixed
quite warm, and set in a warm place during the night.
If your yeast is new and lively, a small quantity will make
the bread rise; if it be old and heavy, it will take more.
In these things I believe wisdom must be gained by a few
mistakes.
Six quarts of ineal will make two good sized loaves of
Brown Bread. Some like to have it half "Indian meal
ond half rye meal; others prefer it one third Indian, and


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
177
two thirds rye. Many mix their brown bread over night .
but there is no need of it; and it is more likely to sour,
particularly in summer. If you do mix it the night
before you bake it, you must not put in more than half the
yeast I am about to mention, unless the weather is intense-
ly cold. The meal should be sifted separately. Put the
Indian in your bread-pan, sprinkle a little salt among it, and
wet it thoroughly with scalding water. Stir it up while
you are scalding it. Be sure and have hot water enough,
for Indian absorbs a great deal of water. When it is cool,
pour in your rye; add two gills of lively yeast, and mix it
with water as stiff as you can knead it. Let it stand an hour
and a half, in a cool place in summer, on the hearth in
winter. It should be put into a very hot oven, and baked
three or four hours. It is all the better for remaining in
the oven over night.
Flour Bread should have a sponge set the night before.
The sponge should be soft enough to pour; mixed with
water, warm or cold, according to the temperature of the
weather. One gill of lively yeast is enough to put into
sponge for two loaves. I should judge about three pints
of sponge would be right for two loaves. The warmth of
the place in which the sponge is set, should be determin-
ed by the coldness of the weather. If your sponge looks
frothy in the morning, it is a sign your bread will be good;
if it does not rise, stir in a little more emptings; if it rises
too much, taste of it, to see if it has any acid taste; if so,
put in a tea-spoonful of pearlash when you mould in your
Hour; be sure the pearlash is well dissolved in water; if
there are little lumps, your bread will be full of bitter spots.
About an hour before your oven is ready, stir in flour into
your sponge till it is stiff enough to lay on a well floured
board or table. Knead it up pretty stiff, and put it into
well greased pans, and let it stand in a cool or warın place
according to the weather. If the oven is ready, put then
in fifteen or twenty minutes after the dough begins te
rise up and crack; if the oven is not ready, move the pans
to a cooler spot, to prevent the dough from becoming sour
by too much rising. Common sized loaves will bake in


82
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
in a jar, and kept in boiling water, and cooked before they
are strained, they are more likely to keep a long time with-
out fermenting.
CURRANT WINE.
Those who have more currants than they have money,
will do well to use no wine but of veir own manufacture.
Break and squeeze the currants, put three pounds and a
half of sugar to two quarts of juice and two quarts of wa-
ter. Put 'n a keg or barrel. Do not close the bung tight
for three or four days, that the air may escape while it is
fermenting. After it is done fermenting, close it up tight.
Where raspberries are plenty, it is a great improvement
to use half raspberry juice, and half currant juice. Bran-
dy is unnecessary when the above-mentioned propor-
tions are observed. It should not be used under a year
or two. Age improves it.
RASPBERRY SHRUB.
· Raspberry shrub mixed with water is a pure, delicious
drink for summer; and in a country where raspberries are
abundant, it is good economy to make it answer instead
of Port and Catalonia wine. Put raspberries in a pan, and
scarcely cover them with strong vinegar. Add a pint of
sugar to a pint of juice; (of this you can judge by first
trying your pan to see how much it holds ;) scald it, skim
it, and bottle it when cold.
COFFEE.
. As substitutes for coffee, some use dry brown bread
crusts, and roast them; others soak rye grain in rum, ana
roast it; others roast peas in the same way as coffee
None of these are very good ; and peas so used are con-
sidered unhealthy. Where there is a large family of appren-
tices and workmen, and coffee is very dear, it may be
worth while to use the substitutes, or to mix them half and
half with coffee ; but, after all, the best economy is to go
without.


84
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
and let them boil together three or four minutes. It is
much richer with the milk, boiled in it. Put the sugar in
either before or after, as you please. Nutmeg improves
it. ' The chocolate should be scraped fine before it is put
into the water.
TEA.
Young Hyson is supposed to be a more profitable tea
than Hyson; but though the quantity to a pound is greater,
it has not so much strength. In point of economy, there-
fore, there is not much difference between them. Hyson tea
and Souchong mixed together, half and half, is a pleasant
beverage, and is more healthy than green tea alone. Be
sure that water boils before it is poured upon tea. A
tea-spoonful to each person, and one extra thrown in, is a
good rule. Steep ten or fifteen minutes.
PICKLES.
Musk-melons should be picked for mangoes, when they
are green and hard. They should be cut open after they
have been in salt water ten days, the inside scraped out
clean, and filled with mustard-seed, allspice, horseradish,
small onions, &c., and sewed up again. Scalding vinegar
poured upon them. :
When walnuts are so ripe that a pin will go into them
easily, Ley are ready for pickling. They should be soak-
ed twelve days in very strong cold salt and water, which has
been boiled and skimmed. A quantity of vinegar, enough
to cover them well, should be boiled with whole pepper,
mustard-seed, small onions, or garlic, cloves, ginger, and
horseradish; this should not be poured upon them till it
is cold. They should be pickled a few months before
dey are eaten. To be kept close covered; for the air
softens them. The liquor is an excellent catsup to be
eaten on fish.
Put peppers into strong salt and water, until they become
yellow; then turn them green by keeping them iri warm
salt and water, shifting them every two days. Then drain


THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIF
them, and pour scalding vinegar over them. A bag of
mustard-seed is an improvement. If there is mother in
vinegar, scald and strain it.
Cucumbers should be in weak brine three or four days
after they are picked; then they should be put in a tin
or wooden pail of clean water, and kept slightly warm in
the kitchen corner for two or three days. Then take as
much vinegar as you think your pickle jar will hold; scald
it with pepper, allspice, mustard-seed, flag-root, horseradish,
&c., if you happen to have them; half of them will spice
the pickles very well. Throw in a bit of alum as big as a
walnut; this serves to make pickles hard. Skim the vine-
gar clean, and pour it scalding hot upon the cucumbers.
Brass vessels are not healthy for preparing anything acid.
Red cabbages need no other pickling than scalding, spiced
vinegar poured upon them, and suffered to remain eight
or ten days before you eat them. Some people think it
improves them to keep them in salt and water twenty-four
hours before they are pickled.
If you find your pickles soft and insipid, it is owing to
the weakness of the vinegar. Throw away the vinegar,
(or keep it to clean your brass kettles,) then cover your
pickles with strong, scalding vinegar, into which a little all-
spice, ginger, horseradish and alum have been thrown.
By no means omit a pretty large bit of alum. Pickles at-
tended to in this way, will keep for years, and be better
and better every year.
Some people prefer pickled nasturtion-seed to capers.
They should be kept several days after they are gathered,
and then covered with boiling vinegar, and bottled when
cold. They are not fit to be eaten for some months.
Martinoes are prepared in nearly the same way as oth-
er pickles. The salt and water in which they are put, two
or three days previous to pickling, should be changed eve-
ry day; because martinoes are very apt to become soft.
No spice should be used but allspice, cloves, and cinna-
mon. The martinoes and the spice should be scalded in
the vinegar, instead of pouring the vinegar over the marti-
poes.


THE FROGAL HOC SEWIFE.
87
or not. The following is the receipt for making :-Select
good white potatoes, boil them, and, when cold, peel and
reduce them to a pulp with a rasp or mortar ; to five pounds
of this pulp, which must be very uniform and homogene-
cus, add a pint of sour milk and the requisite portion of
salt; knead the whole well, cover it, and let it remain
three or four days, according to the season; then knead
it afresh, and place the cheeses in small baskets, when they
will part with their superfluous moisture; dry them in the
shade, and place them in layers in large pots or kegs, where
they may remain a fortnight. The older they are, the finer
they become.
This cheese has the advantage of never engendering
worms, and of being preserved fresh for many years,
provided it is kept in a dry place, and in well closed ves -
sels.
GENERAL MAXIMS FOR HEALTH.
RISE EARLY. Eat simple food. Take plenty of exer-
cise. Never fear a little fatigue. Let not children be
dressed in tight clothes; it is necessary their limbs and
muscles should have full play, if you wish for either health
or beauty.
Avoid the necessity of a physician, if you can, by care
ful attention to your diet. Eat what best agrees with your
system, and resolutely abstain from what hurts you, how-
ever well you may like it A few days' abstinence, and
cold water for a beverage, has driven off many an approach-
ing disease.
If you find yourself really ill, send for a good physician.
Have nothing to do with quacks; and do not tamper with
quack medicines. You do not know what they are; and
what security have you that they know what they are ?
Wear shoes that are large enough. It not only produces
corns, but makes the feet misshapen, to cramp them.


HINTS
TO
PERSONS OF MODERATE FORTUNE
[FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE MASSACHUSETTS JOURNAL.]
When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks. SHAKSTE ARE
FURNITURE
The prevailing evil of the present day is extravagance.
I know very well that the old are too prone to preach about
modern degeneracy, whether they have cause or not; but,
laugh as we may at the sage advice of our fathers, it is too
plain that our present expensive habits are productive of
much domestic unhappiness, and injurious to public pros-
perity. Our wealthy people copy all the foolish and ex-
travagant caprice of European fashion, without considering
that we have not their laws of inheritance among us; and
that our frequent changes of policy render property far
more precarious here than in the old world. However, it
is not to the rich I would speak. They have an undoubt-
ed right to spend their thousands as they please; and if
they spend them ridiculously, it is consoling to reflect that
they must, in some way or other, benefit the poorer classes.
People of moderate fortunes have likewise an unquestion-
ed right to dispose of their hundreds as they please; but I
would ask, Is it wise to risk your happiness in a foolish at-
tempt to keep up with the opulent? Of what use is the ef-


92
HINTS TO PERSONS
about showing off the attentions of somebody, no matter
whom, is attended with consequences seriously injurious. It
promotes envy and rivalship; it leads our young girls to
spend their time between the public streets, the ball room,
and the toilet; and, worst of all, it leads them to contract
engagements, without any knowledge of their own hearts,
merely for the sake of being married as soon as their com-
panions. When married, they find themselves ignorant of
the important duties of domestic life; and its quiet pleas-
ures soon grow tiresome to minds worn out by frivolous
excitements. If they remain unmarried, their disappoint-
ment and discontent are, of course, in proportion to their
exaggerated idea of the eclat attendant upon having a love
er. The evil increases in a startling ratio ; for these girls,
so injudiciously educated, will, nine times out of ten, make
injudicious mothers, aunts, and friends; thus follies will be
accumulated unto the third and fourth generation. Young
ladies should be taught that usefulness is happiness, and
that all other things are but incidental. With regard to
matrimonial speculations, they should be taught nothing !
Leave the affections to nature and to truth, and all will
end well. How many can I at this moment recollect, who
have made themselves unhappy by marrying for the sake
of the name of being married! How many do I know, who
have been instructed to such watchfulness in the game, that
they have lost it by trumping their orin tricks !
One great cause of the vanity, extravagance and idle-
ness that are so fast growing upon our young ladies, is the
absence of domestic education. By domestic education, I
do not mean the sending daughters into the kitchen some
half dozen times, to weary the patience of the cook, and to
boast of it the next day in the parlor. I mean two or three
years spent with a mother, assisting her in her duties, in-
structing brothers and sisters, and taking care of their own
clothes. This is the way to make them happy, as well as
good wives; for, being early accustomed to the duties of
life, they will sit lightly as well as gracefully upon them.
But what time do modern girls have for the formation
of quiet, domestic habits ? Until sixteen they go to school;


94
HINTS TO PERSONS
:
ucation of girls such a series of man-traps, makes the
whole system unhealthy, by poisoning the motive.
* * '* * * * * *
In tracing evils of any kind, which exist in society, we
must, after all, be brought up against the great cause of all
mişchief-mismanagement in education ; and this remark
applies with peculiar force to the leading fault of the pres-
ent day, viz. extravagance. It is useless to expend our
ingenuity in purifying the stream, unless the fountain be
cleansed. If young men and young women are brought up
to consider frugality contemptible, and industry degrading,
it is vain to expect they will at once become prudent and
useful, when the cares of life press heavily upon them.
Generally speaking, when misfortune comes upon those who
have been accustomed to thoughtless expenditure, it sinks
them to discouragement, or, what is worse, drives them to
desperation. It is true there are exceptions. There are
a few, an honorable few, who, late in life, with Roman se-
verity of resolution, learn the long-neglected lesson of econ-
omy. But how small is the number, compared with the
whole mass of the population! And with what bitter ago-
ny, with what biting humiliation, is the hard lesson often learn-
ed! How easily might it have been engrafted on early
habits, and naturally and gracefully 'grown with their
growth, and strengthened with their strength!
Yet it was but lately that I visited a family, not of mod.
erate fortune,' but of no fortune at all; one of those peo-
ple who live nobody knows how ;' and I found a young
girl, about sixteen, practising on the piano, while an elder-
ly lady beside her was darning her stockings. I was told
(for the mother was proud of bringing up her child so gen
teelly) that the daughter had almost forgotten how to sew,
and that a woman was hired into the house to do her mend-
ing! But why,' said I, “ have you suffered your daughter
to be ignorant of so useful an employment ? If she is poor,
the knowledge will be necessary to her; if she is rich, it
is the easiest thing in the world to lay it aside, if she


96
HINTS TO PERSONS
soon they will lose the glittering temptation, to which they
have been willing to sacrifice so much? And even if riches
last as long as life, the evil is not remedied. Education
has given a wrong end and aim to their whole existence;
they have been taught to look for happiness where it never
can be found, viz. in the absence of all occupation, or the
unsatisfactory and ruinous excitement of fashionable com-
petition.
The difficulty is, education does not usually point the
female heart to its only true resting-place. That dear Eng-
lish word 'home,' is not half so powerful a talisman as 'the
world. Instead of the salutary truth, that happiness is in
duty, they are taught to consider the two things totally dis-
rinct; and that whoever seeks oné, must sacrifice the other
✓ The fact is, our girls have no home education. When
quite young, they are sent to schools where no feminine
* employments, no domestic habits, can be learned ; and
there they continue till they come out into the world.
After this, few find any time to arrange, and make use of,
the mass of elementary knowledge they have acquired;
and fewer still have either leisure or taste for the inelegant,
every-day duties of life. Thus prepared, they enter upon
matrimony. Those early habits, which would have made
domestic care a light and easy task, have never been taught,
for fear it would interrupt their happiness; and the result
is, that when cares come, as come they must, they find
them misery. I am convinced that indifference and dislike
between husband and wife are more frequently occasioned
by this great error in education, than by any other cause.
The bride is awakened from her delightful dream, in
which carpets, vases, sofas, white gloves, and pearl ear-
rings, are oddly jumbled up with her lover's looks and prom-
ises. Perhaps she would be surprised if she knew exactly
how much of the fascination of being engaged was owing to
the aforesaid inanimate concern. Be that as it will, she is
awakened by the' unpleasant conviction that cares devolve
upon her. And what 'effect does this produce upon her
character? Do the holy and tender influences of domestic
love render self-denial and exertion a bliss ? No! They


98
HINTS TO PERSONS
pelled to do it, try to conceal it. A few years since, very
respectable young men at our colleges, cut their own wood,
and blacked their own shoes. Now, how few, even of the
sons of plain farmers and industrious mechanics, have mor-
al courage enough to do without a seryant; yet when they
leave college, and come out into the battle of life, they
must do without servants; and in these times it will be for-
tunate if one half of them get what is called ' a decent liv-
ing,' even by rigid economy and patient toil. Yet I would
not that servile and laborious employment should be forced
upon the young. I would merely have each one educated
according to his probable situation in life ; and be taught
that whatever is his duty, is honorable; and that no mere-
ly external circumstance can in reality injure true dignity
of character. I would not cramp a boy's energies by com-
pelling him always to cut wood, or draw water; but I would
teach him not to be ashamed, should his companions hap-
pen to find him doing either one or the other. A few
days since, I asked a grocer's lad to bring home some ar
ticles I had just purchased at his master's. The bundle
was large; he was visibly reluctant to take it; and wished
very much that I should send for it. This, however, was
impossible ; and he subdued his pride ; but when I asked
him to take back an empty bottle which belonged to the
store, he, with a mortified look, begged me to do it up neat-
ly in a paper, that it might look like a small package. Is
this boy likely to be happier for cherishing a foolish pride,
which will forever be jarring against his duties? Is he in
reality one whit more respectable than the industrious lad
who sweeps stores, or carries bottles, without troubling him-
self with the idea that all the world is observing his little un-
important self? For, in relation to the rest of the world,
each individual is unimportant; and he alone is wise who
forms his habits according to his own wants, his own prose
pects, and his own principles.


104
HINTS TO PERSONS
PHILOSOPHY AND CONSISTENCY.
AMONG all the fine things Mrs. Barbauld wrote, she nev-
er wrote anything better than her essay on the Inconsis-
tency of Human Expectations. Everything,' says she,
is marked at a settled price. Our time, our labor, our
ingenuity, is so much ready money, which we are to lay
nut to the best advantage. Examine, compare, choose, re-
ject; but stand to your own judgment; and do not, like
children, when you have purchased one thing, repine that
you do not possess another, which you wzuld not purchase.
Would you be rich? Do you think that the single point
worth sacrificing everything else to? You may then be
rich. Thousands have become so from the lowest begin-
nings by toil, and diligence, and attention to the minutest
articles of expense and profit. But you must give up the
pleasures of leisure, of an unembarrassed mind, and of a
free, unsuspicious temper. You must learn to do hard, if
not unjust things; and as for the embarrassment of a deli-
cate and ingenuous spirit, it is necessary for you to get rid
of it as fast as possible. You must not stop to enlarge
your mind, polish your taste, or refine your sentiments ;
but must keep on in one beaten track, without turning aside
to the right hand or the left. “But,” you say, “I cannot
submit to drudgery like this; I feel a spirit above it.” 'Tis
well; be above it then; only do not repine because you
are not rich. Is knowledge the pearl of price in your estima-
tion? That too may be purchased by steady application,
and long, solitary hours of study and reflection. “But,” says
the man of letters, “ what a hardship is it that many an
illiterate fellow, who cannot construe the motto on his coach,
shall raise a fortune, and make a figure, while I possess
merely the common conveniences of life.” Was it for for-
tune, then, that you grew pale over the midnight lamp, and
gave the sprightly years of youth to study and reflection?
You then have mistaken your path, and ill employed your in-
dustry, “What reward have I then for all my labor? What
cate unjust thinibus temom an unem But you


OF MODERATE FORTUNE,
105
reward! A large comprehensive soul, purged from 'vul-
gar fears and prejudices, able to interpret the works of man
and God. A perpetual spring of fresh ideas, and the con-
scious dignity of superior intelligence. Good Heaven!
what other reward can you ask! “But is it not a reproach
upon the economy of Providence that such a one, who is
a mean, dirty fellow, should have amassed wealth enough
to buy half a nation ?" Not in the least. He made him-
self a mean, dirty fellow, for that very end. He has paid
his health, his conscience, and his liberty for it. Do you
envy him his bargain? Will you hang your head in his
presence, because he outshines you in equipage and show?
Lift up your brow with a noble confidence, and say to your-
self, “ I have not these things, it is true; but it is because
I have not desired, or sought them; it is because I possess
something better. I have chosen my lot! I am content,
and satisfied.” The most characteristic mark of a great
mind is to choose some one object, which it considers im-
portant, and pursue that object through life. If we expect
the purchase, we must pay the price.' .
There is a pretty passage in one of Lucian's dialogues,
where Jupiter complains to Cupid, that, though he has had
so many intrigues, he was never sincerely beloved. “In
order to be loved,” says Cupid, “ you must lay aside your
ægis and your thunder-bolts; you must curl and perfume
your hair, and place a garland on your head, and walk with
a soft step, and assume a winning, obsequious deportment."
“But,” replied Jupiter, “I am not willing to resign so
much of my dignity.” “Then,” returned Cupid, “ leave
off desiring to be loved.”
These remarks by Mrs. Barbauld are full of sound phi-
losophy. Who has not observed, in his circle of acquaint-
ance, and in the recesses of his own heart, the same in-
consistency of expectation, the same peevishness of discon-
tent.
Says Germanicus, · There is my dunce of a classmate
has found his way into Congress, and is living amid the
perpetual excitement of intellectual minds, while I am
cooped up in an ignorant country parish, obliged to be at


OF MODERATE FORTUNE.
107
pend on outward circumstances. The wise woman, to
whom I have alluded, walks to Boston, from a distance of
twenty-five or thirty wiles, to sell a bag of brown thread and
stockings; and then patiently foots it back again with her
little gains. Her dress, though tidy, is a grotesque collec-
tion of shreds and patches,' coarse in the extreme. Why
don't you come down in a wagon ?' said I, when I obser-
ved that she was soon to become a mother, and was evi-
denily wearied with her long journey. "We h'an't got any
horse,' replied she; the neighbors are very kind to me,
but they can't spare their'n; and it would cost as much to
hire one, as all my thread will come to. You have a
husband-don't he do anything for you. He is a good
man; he does all he can; but he's a cripple and an inva-
lid. He reels my yarn, and specks the children's shoes:
He's as kind a husband as a woman need to have. But
his being a cripple is a heavy misfortune to you,' said I.
• Why, ma'am, I don't look upon it in that light,' replied
the thread-woman; 'I consider that I've great reason to
be thankful he never took to any bad habits. How ma-
ny children have you?" "Six sons, and five darters,
ma'am.' "Six sons and five daughters! What a family
for a poor woman to support ! It's a family, surely,
ma'am ; but there an't one of 'em I'd be willing to lose.
They are as good children as need to be-all willing to
work, and all clever to me. Even the littlest boy, when
he gets a cent now and then for doing 'a chore, will be sure
and bring it to ma'am. “Do your daughters spin your
thread ? No, ma’am; as soon as they are old enough,
they go out to sarvice. I don't want to keep them always
dolving for me; they are always willing to give me what
they can, but it is right and fair they should do a little for
themselves. I do all my spinning after the folks are abed.'
· Don't you think you should be better off, if you had no
one but yourself to provide for Why, no, ma'am, I don't.
If I had'nt been married, I should always have had to work
as hard as I could ; and now I can't do more than that.
My children are a great comfort to me; and I look forward
10


108
HINTS TO PERSONS
to the time when they'll do as much for me as I have done
for them.
Here was true philosophy! I learned a lesson from that
poor woman which I shall not soon forget. If I wanted
true, hearty, well principled service, I would employ chil-
dren brought up by such a inother.
REASONS FOR HARD TIMES.
PERHAPS there never was a time when the depressing
effects of stagnation in business were so universally felt, all
the world over, as they are now. The merchant sends
out old dollars, and is lucky if he gets the same number
of new ones in return; and he who has a share in manu-
factures, has bought a bottle imp,' which he will do well
to hawk about the street for the lowest possible coin. The
effects of this depression must of course be felt by all
grades of society. Yet who that passes through Cornhill at
one o'clock, and sees the bright array of wives and daugh-
ters, as various in their decorations as the insects, the birds
and the shells, would believe that the community was stag-
gering under a weight which almost paralyzes its move-
ments? • Everything is so cheap,' say the ladies, that it
is inexcusable not to dress well.' But do they reflect why
things are so cheap? Do they know how much wealth has
been sacrificed, how many families ruined, to produce this
boasted result? Do they not know enough of The machin-
ery of society, to suppose that the stunning effect of crash
afier crash, may eventually be felt by those on whom they
depend for support?
Luxuries are cheaper now than necessaries were a few
years since ; yet it is a lamentable fact, that it costs more
to live now than it did formerly. When silk was nine shil-
lings per yard, seven or eight yards sufficed for a dress;


110
HINTS TO PERSONS
less than her companions, or wasting some few hours less
in the empty conversation of coxcombs ? A man often ad
mires a style of dress, which he would not venture to sup-
port in a wife. Extravagance has prevented many mar
riages, and rendered still more unhappy. And should your
daughters fail in forming good connexions, what have you
to leave them, save extravagant habits, too deeply rooted
to be eradicated. Think you those who now laugh at
them for a soiled glove, or an unfashionable ribbon, will
assist their poverty, or cheer their neglected old age? No;
they would find them as cold and selfish as they are vain.
A few thousands in the bank are worth all the fashionable
friends in Christendom.'
Whether my friend was convinced, or not, I cannot say;
but I saw her daughters in Cornhill, the next week, with
new French hats and blonde veils.
It is really melancholy to see how this fever of extrava-
gance rages, and how it is sapping the strength of our bap-
py country. It has no bounds; it pervades all ranks, and
characterizes all ages,
I know the wife of a pavier, who spends her three hun-
dred a year in 'outward adorning,' and who will not con-
descend to speak to her husband, while engaged in his hon-
est calling.
Mechanics, who should have too high a sense of their
own respectability to resort to such pitiful competition,
will indulge their daughters in dressing like the wealthiest ;
and a domestic would certainly leave you, should you dare
advise her to lay up one cent of her wages.
These things ought not to be. Every man and every
woman should lay up some portion of their income, wheth-
er that income be great or small.


OF MODERATE FORTUNE.
111
HOW TO ENDURE POVERTY.
Tant a thorough, religious, useful education is the best
security against misfortune, disgrace and poverty, is univer-
sally believed and acknowledged; and to this we add the
firm conviction, that, when poverty comes (as it sometimes
will) upon the prudent, the industrious, and the well-in-
formed, a judicious education is all-powerful in enabling
them to endure the evils it cannot always prevent. A mind
full of piety and knowledge is always rich; it is a bank that
never fails; it yields a perpetual dividend of happiness.
In a late visit to the alıns-house at — , we saw a re-
markable evidence of the truth of this doctrine. Mrs. -
was early left an orphan. She was educated by an uncle
and aunt, both of whom had attained the middle age of life.
Theirs was an industrious, well-ordered, and cheerful fam-
ily. Her uncle was a man of sound judgment, liberal feel-
ings, and great knowledge of human nature. This he
showed by the education of the young people under his
care. He allowed them to waste no time ; every moment
must be spent in learning something, or in doing something.
He encouraged an entertaining, lively style of conversation,
but discountenanced all remarks about persons, families,
dress, and engagements ; he used to say, parents were not
aware how such topics frittered away the minds of young peoa
ple, and what inordinate importance they learned to attach
to thein, when they heard them constantly talked about.
In his family, Sunday was a happy day; for it was made
a day of religious instruction, without any unnatural cona
straint upon the gayety of the young. The Bible was the
text book; the places mentioned in it were traced on inaps;
the manners and customs of different nations were explain-
ed; curious phenomena in the natural history of those coun-
tries were read; in a word, everything was done to cherish
a spirit of humble, yet earnest inquiry. In this excellent
fạmily Mrs. — reinained till her marriage. In the course
of fiſieen years, she lost her uncle, her aunt, and her 11115c
10*


116
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
be twisted off. The vegetation of the crown takes the goodness
from the fruit, n the same way that sprouts injure vegetables.
The crown can be stuck on for ornament, if necessary
*THE PILES.—Those who have tried other remedies for this
disorder in vain, have found relief from the following medicine :
Stew a handful of low mallows in about three gills of milk; strain
it, and mix about half the quantity of West India molasses with
it. As warm as is agreeable.
WARTS.-It is said that if the top of a wart be wet and rubbed
two or three times a day with a piece of unslaked lime, it cures
the wart soon, and leaves no scar.
*CANCERS.--The Indians have great belief in the efficacy of
poultices of stewed cranberries, for the relief of cancers. They
apply them fresh and warm every ten or fifteen minutes, night
and day. Whether this will effect a cure I know not ; I simply
know that the Indians strongly recommend it. Salts, or some
simple physic, is taken every day during the process.
EAR-WAX.-Nothing is better than ear-wax to prevent the
painful effects resulting from a wound by a nail, skewer, &c. It
should be put on as soon as possible. Those who are troubled
with cracked lips have found this remedy successful when others
have failed. It is one of those sorts of cures, which are very likely
to be laughed at; but I know of its having produced very bene-
ficial results.
*BURNS.-If a person who is burned will patiently hold the in
jured part in water, it will prevent the formation of a blister. If
the water be too cold, it may be slightly warmed, and produce
the same effect. People in general are not willing to try it for a
sufficiently long time. Chalk and hog's lard simmered together
are said to make a good ointment for a burn.
· *BRUISES.-Constant application of warm water is very sooth-
ing to bruised flesh, and may serve to prevent bad consequences
while other things are in preparation.
SORE NIPPLES,--Put twenty grains of sugar of lead into a
vial with one gill of rose-water; shake it up thoroughly ; wet a
piece of soft linen with this preparation, and put it on; renew
this as often as the linen becomes dry. Before nursing, wash
this off with something soothing ; rose-water is very good ; but
the best thing is quince-seed warmed in a little cold tea until the
liquid becomes quite glutinous. This application is alike healing
and pleasant.
A raw onion is an excellent remedy for the STING OF A WĄSP.


122
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
BEEF.--Good beef has an open grain, and a tender, oily smooth-
Dess; a pleasant carnation color, and clear white suet, betoken
good meat; yellow suet is not so good.
PORK.—If young, the lean will break in pinching, and if you nip
the skin with your nails, it will make a dent; the fat will be soft
and pulpy, like lard. If the lean be tough, and the fat flabby and
spongy, feeling rough, it is old, especially if the rind be stub-
born, and you cannot nip it with your nails. Little kernels, like
nail-shot, in the fat, are a sign that it is measly, and dangerous to
be eaten.
To judge of the age of Poultry, see page 53.
CARVING.
(Written for the American Frugal Housewife.]
TO CARVE A TURKEY.-Fix the fork firmly on one side of the
thin bone that rises in the centre of the breast; the fork should be
placed parallel with the bone, and as close to it as possible. Cut
the meat from the breast lengthwise, in slices of about half an
inch in thickness. Then turn the turkey upon the side nearest
you, and cut off the leg and the wing; when the knife is passed
between the limbs and the body, and pressed outward, the joint
will be easily perceived. Then turn the turkey on the other side,
and cut off the other leg and wing. Separate the drum-sticks
from the leg-bones, and the pinions from the wings; it is hardly
possible to mistake the joint. Cut the stuffing in thin slices,
lengthwise. Take off the neck-bones, which are two triangular
bones on each side of the breast; this is done by passing the
knife from the back under the blade-part of each neck-bone, unti]
it reaches the end ; by raising the knife, the other branch will
easily crack off. Separate the carcass from the back by passing
the knife lengthwise from the neck downward. Turn the back
upwards, and lay the edge of the knife across the back-bone,
about midway between the legs and wings; at the same moment,
place the fork within the lower part of the turkey, and lift it up;
this will make the back-bone crack at the knife. The croup, or
lower part of the back, being cut off, put it on the plate, with the
rump from you, and split off the side-bones by forcing the knife
throngh from the rump to the other end.
The choicest parts of a turkey are the side-bones, the breast,


126
INDEX.
Dyspepsia, incid.......
Dyspepsia Bread, ......
11
Ear-ache, ...
Earthen Ware, ......
ure, ..............................................
Education of Daughters,
S, ..............
Eggs, .......
Egg Gruel, ..
Election Cake, .......
Elixir Proprietatis, .........
Faded Carpets, Cloth, &c, .......
Feathers, and Feather Beds, .........
Fevers, .....
...........................................
Fish, fried, ..
Fish, salt, ........
Flour Pudding,
..........................................
Fresh Meat in Summer,...
ner, ..........................
Fresh Wounds, ......
Fried Pork and Apples, ........
Fritters, or Flatjacks, .......
n oniture.
Furniture, .........
............
17, 47
Geese, .........
Gingerbread, ..........
Ginger Beer, ......
Glass, cut, ......
Glass Stoppers, ..
rs, ...........................................
Gloves, white, .
e, ...........................................
Gold cleansed,
Gravy for Fish,
Gravy for Meat,
Gravy for Poultry, ..............
Green Peas,
Gruel, ............
.......... 57, 58
... 12
......... 41, 42
........ 26, 36
Haddock, .......
Hair, ....
Hams, cured, .....
..........................
Hasty Pudding, ....
...... ...............
Head-ache, ....
Hearths, ..........
Herbs, .............
Honey,.............
Horseradish, .........
Horseradish Leaves, ......
How to endure Poverty, .......
........ 36
to 37
UISIT Leaves, ....................
.......... 18
....... 18
........... 111
ke,
.......
......................
.......
.....
...
Icing for Cake, .
Indian Cakes, .....
Indian Puddings, ......................
Inflamed Wounds, ................
Inflammation,
Iron,............... ...
Ironing, ............


INDEX.
129
Squashes, ......
Squash Pie, ...........
..............
................
................................
Stewed Prunes, ....
Sting of Bees,* .....
...................
Stockings, ..........
Straw Beds, ........
Straw Carpets, ......
Suet, .......
Sweet Marjoram, ..
Swellings, ........
Tapioca Jelly,......
.............................................. 3 1
Tea, ...
.............................................. 84
Tea Cake, .........................
...................
Teeth,..
Throat Distemper,
Toe Nails, ......
Tomatoes, ........
Tongue, ....
Tooth-ache, .........
Tortoise-shell Combs, ........
Towels, ..........
Travelling and Public Amusements, ........
Tripe, ....
Turkeys, .................
Vapor Bath, ........
Veal, cooked, .........................................
Vegetables, ................
Vials,"..............
Vinegar, ....
Walnuts, pickled, .................
................. 84
Wash-leather Gloves, ........
Water, purified, ....
............
Water, soft, ........
Wax,
Wedding Cake, .......
Wens,.....
White Kid Gloves, ........
Whortleberry Pie, ..............
Whortleberry Pudding, ........
Wicks of Lamps, Candles, &c. ....
Wine Whey, .........
Woollens, washed, ......................
Woollen Y
Worins, ....
.............. 24
Yeast, . .....
........ 79, 80
.......... 33 to 36
-