Frontier Fridays: Removing Wine Stains

Well the Turkey dinner is over and Uncle Ray spilled wine over your brand new tablecloth?  Here is the pioneer's remedy for removing wine stains...

Fresh Wine Stains on TableCloths

Cover stain with table salt and dampen with hot water at once. As soon as possible, pour boiling water on the stain at a height of 2 to 3 feet from a teakettle.

Probably not best to do this while the tablecloth is on the table!  ha!

Frontier Fridays: How to Keep Game and Fowl Pioneer Style

How to Keep Game and Fowl

To preserve game fowl, take out the intestines, remove the feathers, stuff the birds with unground wheat, and bury the fowl in a cask filled with the same grain in such a manner as to cover it completely. In this way fowl may be kept perfectly sweet for weeks on end. You can also fill the cavity of the plucked bird with charcoal and a little salt, rub the exterior with salt, pin up in a linen towel, and hang in a dark, airy place. Be sure to wipe the cavity dry before filling it.

Frontier Fridays: Keeping Fall Foliage Fresh

Arranged fall foliage looks nice as Thanksgiving decorations. To make them last longer, dip the ends of the cut foliage in beeswax.

(Pioneer Hints aren't always very detailed :)  You can still purchase beeswax at most sewing centers.  

Frontier Friday: Making Cheese

How to Make Cheese

Strain the night's milk into the tub, in the morning stir in the cream (if you want rich cheese do not let any of it be taken off), and put part of the milk over a clear fire, in the brass kettle. Heat it enough to make the milk which is still in the tub quite warm, but not hot; pour it back into the tub, and strain in the morning's milk. Put in 1 to 2 teaspoons of rennet (stomach of calf), stir it well, and let it stand 1/2 hour undisturbed. If the curd does not form well by that time, put in more rennet.

To prepare rennet: See if there is anything inside the calf's stomach as sometimes there is a piece of curd left which is the best part. Soak the rennet in 1 quart of water, then salt it and hang it to dry where the flies will not find it, keep the water in a jar or bottle. There is a great difference in the strengths of rennets, some will make 1000 weight of cheese, while others will scarcely make 50. Experience will teach you exactly how much to use.

Next time...MIA Walker?

Frontier Friday: The ABCs of Laundry

ABC's of Washing Clothes

The tub should be a third full of water, not hot but very warm. Stir in enough soap to make a weak suds, and put in the nicest clothes. Rub hankerchiefs, nightcaps, and other fine articles between the hands, using a little soap. Never rub them on the washboard. As fast as they are washed, wring and shake them open, and put them into a old pillowcase or white bag, else they will liable to be torn by the weight of the larger articles when taken out of the boiling kettle. Use a washboard for the large articles and for those which are not easily made clean. Make sure to rub both sides of the garment.

Grass Stain Removal - old stains can be tested with denatured alcohol and then rub the spot gently. Should this fail to work, try glycerine. For new grass stains, rub stains with lard and wash as usual, depending on the nature of the fabric. (My Mother used Fels Naptha Soap for grass stains and I still have a bar in my laundry cabinet)

Hamburgers circa 1865

Hamburgers circa 1825

Pioneers liked hamburgers too! Here is how to make one like they were made in the !800s.

Cut 1/2 pound each of veal and lean beef and 1/4 pound of suet fine. Beat them to a paste in a mortar or wooden bowl.Have a few sweet herbs shredded fine, dried mace beaten fine, a small nutmeg grated, 1 tsp of lemon peel shredded fine, a bit of salt and pepper, and the yolks of 2 eggs. Mix all of these well together, shape into balls, roll them lightly in flour, and fry them brown. Serve with tart brown sauce and mushrooms.

Frontier Fridays: Good and Bad Mushrooms

How to Tell Good Mushrooms from Bad Mushrooms

Test 1 - Sprinkle a little salt on the spongy part or gills of the sample to be tested. If the gills turn yellow, they are poisonous, if they turn black, they are wholesome. Allow the sale time to act before you decide on the question.

Test 2 - False mushrooms have a warty cap, or else fragments of membranes, adhering to the upper surface; they grow in tufts or clusters in woods around the stumps of trees, and so forth, whereas true mushrooms generally grow in open spots such as clearings or pastures.

Test 3 - False mushrooms have an astringent, styptic, and disagreeable taste. When cut, they turn blue; they are moist on the surface and generally of a rose or orange color.

Test 4 - The gills of the true mushroom are a pinky red, changing to a liverish shade; the flesh is white the stem is white, solid and cylindrical.

Hey, get out there and hunt your own mushrooms! Take a friend, find the best spot for hunting in your area, pitch a tent and get back to nature! Just be sure not to eat them before you know they are safe!

Washing a Feather Tick Pillow

The Pioneer Household made our Spring Cleaning seem pure laziness!!   Scrubbing down floors, walls, furniture, windows (if present in the home) ...add to that the linens, rug and pillows.  Here is the correct way to wash and refill a  Feather Tick Pillow.  Providing, of course, you collected the feathers for your whole family's pilliows!



Washing the Tick of a Feather Pillow - Have the pillow tick washed very thoroughly and rinsed in plenty of water. When it is entirely dry, melt together bar soap and beeswax in the proportion of 2 parts soap to 1 of wax. Mix it well, then, having laid the tick inside out upon a large table or ironing board, spread the mixture on it with a knife as thinly as possible. Even a thick tick, when it is washed, does not hold the feathers as securely as before and the use of this mixture is to remedy this defect. 

Do you have a Frontier Household Hint?  Some your grandparents passed down to you?  Leave a comment below and I will publish it on the next Frontier Friday!