Tried Favourites Cookery Book
With Household Hints And Useful Information
By Mrs E. W. Kirk
Published 1912
I've had a copy of this book since my Great Aunt Doris died quite a few years ago. It was much used by her and there are lots of jottings at the bottom of the pages in her handwriting.
I find it fascinating and I thought you might enjoy some of the ideas that Mrs Kirk has included in the book. Incidentally, it is still available to buy today but I don't know if it has been modified. My copy is a re-issue from 1945.
A lot of the household hints advise using things that would be pretty hard to get hold of nowadays but would have been commonly found in a kitchen or scullery early in the last century.
However ,some are quite familiar, my Mum and my Nan passed the tips onto me when I was younger.
By sharing these tips, I'm not suggesting that they are all good advice, most I haven't even tried but I just think it's interesting to read about how people dealt with little household crises a hundred years ago!
The book also has a stash of old fashioned recipes. Dishes that are rarely heard of these days and I might include some of them in Kyms Kitchen one day, if you'd be interested.
Recipes like:-
Potted meat Old Man's Cake
Gruel Violet Cake
Celery Milk Cabinet Pudding
Potato Pudding Invalid Toast
Mock Turtle Soup Queen Victoria Soup
Singers Soup Martimony Jam
Ladies Cabbage Jugged Hare
and hundreds more unusual dishes!
It also tells how to make Soap, furniture polish, Steel polish, firelighters, and how to cure a sheepskin!
Here are a few of Mrs Kirk's household hints.
1. Breakfast table barometer. Take a cup of very hot coffee and drop a lump of sugar into it. Watch the bubbles rise without disturbing it. If the bubbles collect in the middle of the cup of coffee, the weather will be fine. If they appear around the edge of the cup, there will be rain or snow. If the bubbles separate without any fixed pattern the weather will be changeable.
Mrs Kirk says this is an unfailing way of predicting the weather!
2. Diarrhea cure. Mrs Kirk acknowledges that diarrhea is natures way of putting things right so it's best not to interfere at first but if the symptoms continue, toast some thin bread until it becomes charcoal then crumble it into some milk and drink!
3.. A simple, effective remedy for hiccups according to Mrs Kirk is to drink half a teaspoon of vinegar and hold your arms in an upright position for a minute or so until the hiccups have stopped.
4. Three strawberry leaves, eaten green are said to be an unfailing and immediate cure for summer complaints and dysentry!
5. For keeping house plants watered while you are on holiday, cut some lengths of wool and drape one end of each in a vessel of water and the other ends in the plant pot. The water will soak up into the strands of wool and drip onto the roots of the plant. (Sounds sensible to me!)
6. A lemon will yield up to twice as much juice when squeezed if it is warmed first. (This I do know to be true)
7. Dab a little vinegar onto wasp stings to sooth the pain. (My mum used to keep a small bottle of vinegar in her handbag for this purpose)
8. Cover the base of your frying pan with salt immediately after use, then just wipe it clean with a cloth!
9. A small knob of butter should be rubbed on a bruise straight away (My mum always swore by this, I can't really remember if it helped though!)
10. If you have a plastic food container that smells of something strong - curry, garlic, etc. Put either a small bunch of parsley or a slice of burnt toast in and pop the lid on. Leave for a few hours, the parsley or charcoal will absorb the smells.
More from Mrs. E W Kirk another day
I find it fascinating and I thought you might enjoy some of the ideas that Mrs Kirk has included in the book. Incidentally, it is still available to buy today but I don't know if it has been modified. My copy is a re-issue from 1945.
A lot of the household hints advise using things that would be pretty hard to get hold of nowadays but would have been commonly found in a kitchen or scullery early in the last century.
However ,some are quite familiar, my Mum and my Nan passed the tips onto me when I was younger.
By sharing these tips, I'm not suggesting that they are all good advice, most I haven't even tried but I just think it's interesting to read about how people dealt with little household crises a hundred years ago!
The book also has a stash of old fashioned recipes. Dishes that are rarely heard of these days and I might include some of them in Kyms Kitchen one day, if you'd be interested.
Recipes like:-
Potted meat Old Man's Cake
Gruel Violet Cake
Celery Milk Cabinet Pudding
Potato Pudding Invalid Toast
Mock Turtle Soup Queen Victoria Soup
Singers Soup Martimony Jam
Ladies Cabbage Jugged Hare
and hundreds more unusual dishes!
It also tells how to make Soap, furniture polish, Steel polish, firelighters, and how to cure a sheepskin!
Here are a few of Mrs Kirk's household hints.
1. Breakfast table barometer. Take a cup of very hot coffee and drop a lump of sugar into it. Watch the bubbles rise without disturbing it. If the bubbles collect in the middle of the cup of coffee, the weather will be fine. If they appear around the edge of the cup, there will be rain or snow. If the bubbles separate without any fixed pattern the weather will be changeable.
Mrs Kirk says this is an unfailing way of predicting the weather!
2. Diarrhea cure. Mrs Kirk acknowledges that diarrhea is natures way of putting things right so it's best not to interfere at first but if the symptoms continue, toast some thin bread until it becomes charcoal then crumble it into some milk and drink!
3.. A simple, effective remedy for hiccups according to Mrs Kirk is to drink half a teaspoon of vinegar and hold your arms in an upright position for a minute or so until the hiccups have stopped.
4. Three strawberry leaves, eaten green are said to be an unfailing and immediate cure for summer complaints and dysentry!
5. For keeping house plants watered while you are on holiday, cut some lengths of wool and drape one end of each in a vessel of water and the other ends in the plant pot. The water will soak up into the strands of wool and drip onto the roots of the plant. (Sounds sensible to me!)
6. A lemon will yield up to twice as much juice when squeezed if it is warmed first. (This I do know to be true)
7. Dab a little vinegar onto wasp stings to sooth the pain. (My mum used to keep a small bottle of vinegar in her handbag for this purpose)
8. Cover the base of your frying pan with salt immediately after use, then just wipe it clean with a cloth!
9. A small knob of butter should be rubbed on a bruise straight away (My mum always swore by this, I can't really remember if it helped though!)
10. If you have a plastic food container that smells of something strong - curry, garlic, etc. Put either a small bunch of parsley or a slice of burnt toast in and pop the lid on. Leave for a few hours, the parsley or charcoal will absorb the smells.
More from Mrs. E W Kirk another day
