Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers Part 31

Chrome Yellow-wash.

Mix four pounds of whiting with as much water as will go over the room; dissolve a tea-cupful of glue, and put in; then wash the walls with this to prevent the lime from affecting the chrome; if they come in contact, the walls will be striped, and will not look at all well. Mix a wash of whiting, water and glue, and color it with two pounds of chrome yellow. After walls have been yellow, and you want to have them white, they must be washed over with whiting and glue, and then white-washed in the usual way.

Yellow Ochre wash.

Dissolve a pound of glue in hot water, and stir into it three pounds of yellow ochre, and one of whiting; mix it well, and thin it with water or skim milk. It is a suitable wash for a common room or kitchen.

Lamp-black mixed with mola.s.ses, and put in white-wash, makes a good color for a kitchen.

To Dye Orange Color.

For five pounds of woolen yarn, have one pound of annotta; dissolve it in boiling water, and put it in a pot of soft water with half a pound of pearl-ash; boil them ten minutes, stirring it well; wet the yarn in soap-suds; put it in, and let it boil twenty minutes; then hang it in the sun, and when dry, if it is not deep enough, dip it in again; and after it is thoroughly dry, wash it in soap and water.

Green-wash.

Take four pounds of blue vitriol, pound it fine, and mix with it three pounds of beat whiting, and half a pound of potash; pour on them six quarts of boiling water, and mix in half a pound of glue dissolved in water. Wash the walls with whiting before it is put on.

Chrome Yellow for Dyeing Carpet Rags.

Dissolve the chrome in warm water in an earthen vessel; dip the rags in vinegar and water, then in the chrome dye, and hang in the sun to dry.

This color will stand for years in a rag carpet, and is very little trouble. Six cents worth of chrome will dye several pounds.

To Dye a Dark Drab.

For ten pounds of cotton or wool, have half a bushel of maple bark, the same of sumach berries, and a peck of walnut hulls or bark; put a layer of this in an iron pot, and a layer of the wool, till all is in; cover it with water, and boil it slowly for three hours, keeping the pot filled with water; then hang it out, and when dry, wash one skein, and if it is not dark enough, strain the dye, and put in a tea-cup of copperas; put in the yarn, and let it scald a few minutes; take it out, dry it, and wash it well with soft soap and water.

To Dye Cotton or Woollen Black.

To each pound of yarn, have one ounce of copperas, nine of logwood, a handful of salt, and a quart of good vinegar, which boil with copperas ten minutes in a bra.s.s kettle; shave the logwood, and boil it in an iron pot; when the color is extracted, strain it into the vinegar; put in the yarn, and let it simmer twenty minutes stirring it; then hang it in the air, and if it is not black enough, boil it over. You should have a clear day to do all coloring in.

Cedar Dye.

Boil the boughs of cedar in two or three gallons of water, for several hours, in an iron vessel; strain it off, add half a tea-spoonful of copperas, put it on the fire, and put in the articles you wish to dye; let them boil a few minutes, then hang them up to dry. This will dye sage color, and can be used for cotton, woollen or silk, and has the advantage of retaining its color. The cedar boughs should he used in the fall of the year, when the berries are on them. Pear bark is an improvement and makes the color darker.

To Dye Olive.

Make a strong sage tea, and add copperas and alum till it is dark; strain it; dip the cloth or silk in weak soap-suds, and then in the dye, and air it, till it is the color you wish.

Maple bark and copperas make a good dark color for common purposes.

To Dye Yellow.

Boil peach leaves when they are turning yellow in the fall, with a little alum.

Onion skins boiled with alum make a good yellow.

To Dye Brown.

Take young walnuts, with some of the leaves and bark; wash your wool in soap-suds; put a layer of it in a barrel, and a layer of the walnuts; fill it up with water, and put a weight on the top; at the end of a week wring it out, and let it lay in the hot sun two hours; put it back in the dye, and at the end of another week, sun it again; keep it in until sufficiently dark, when wash it in soap-suds. This makes a pretty brown that will not fade, and is stronger than when dyed with copperas.

To Dye Red.

To four pounds of yarn, take one pound of fine alum, and boil it in as much water as will cover the yarn; put in the yarn, and let it boil gently half an hour; then take it out and dry it; make a dye of two pounds of madder, and two ounces of crude tartar pulverized, and boil it; then put in the yarn, and let it boil half an hour; take it out and air it, and if it is not dark enough, put it in again, and boil it longer.

Brazil Wood Dye.

Tie two pounds of red or Brazil wood in a thin bag, and boil it for several hours in a bra.s.s or copper kettle in water; take out the Brazil wood and add a pound of alum, then put the rags in, and let them boil some time; hang them in the sun, and dry without washing them. This will dye woolen _red_, and cotton _pink_. Washing in soap suds will change it to purple.

Lead Color.

Take four ounces of red wood, two of logwood, half an ounce of pounded nut-galls, and quarter of a pound of green copperas; boil them in ten gallons of water, and strain it; wash the wool or cloth in soap-suds, put it in, and let it remain till it is as dark as you wish it; dry it in the sun, and wash it in soap-suds. Sugar paper, boiled in vinegar, makes a good lead color for stockings.

To Dye Scarlet.

Take one pound of blood root, and one pound of madder, boil them in six gallons of ley, then stir them three or four times in twenty-four hours, till there are signs of fermentation. This dyes ten pounds of cotton or linen.

To Dye Yarn Green.

Take one ounce of best Spanish indigo, finely powdered, and half a pound of oil of vitriol; put them in a bottle, and let them stand in the sun a week; shake it often, but do not cork it tight, lest it should burst the bottle; take four pounds of black-oak bark, and the same of hickory, shave them fine, and soak them till wet through; then boil them in ten gallons of water till all the color is extracted; when take out the chips, put in a pound of alum; shake the bottle of indigo and vitriol, and pour it in; let them boil together a few minutes, and put in the yarn; turn it over several times, and let it boil half an hour; then spread it out in the sun for about an hour, and wash it well in strong soap-suds through two waters, to keep it from becoming tender. This will color ten pounds of yarn. You may have a fine blue color by omitting the bark. It will not answer for any thing but wool or silk, as the vitriol will destroy linen or cotton.

To Dye Cotton Blue.

Boil a pound of chipped logwood in water enough to cover the cotton; take out half a gallon, and dissolve in it an ounce of verdigris, and one of alum; boil the yarn in the logwood water an hour, stirring it, and keeping it loose; then take it out, and mix in the verdigris; put back the yarn, and let it boil four hours, stir all the time, and take it out every hour to give it air, dry it in the sun, and the next day boil it in soap-suds. This will dye six pounds of cotton a deep blue. After it is done, you may put in as much more, and it will dye a pale blue.

To Keep Apples in Winter.

Pick them carefully, so as not to bruise them; put them in an out-house, exposed to the north, either in boxes, or barrels, or lying in heaps; after they have been several weeks in this situation, pick them over and put them in barrels which should be headed; if the weather is not severe, let them remain in this cold situation as long as it will be safe, without their being frozen, then remove them to the cellar. Do not shut the windows till the severe weather comes on. Some persons pack them, in dry chaff, or sand, and put them in barrels and boxes in a cool garret.

Directions for Making Matresses.