Victorian living – Practical tips for the 19th-century housewife.

I found these “need to know” items in the “Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine”: Providing Practical Information, Instruction and Amusement ( pub 1855).

EXCELLENT SUBSTITUE FOR CAPER SAUCE –

Boil slowly some parsley, to let it become a bad colour; cut but do not chop it fine. Put it to melted butter with a teaspoonful of salt, and a dessertspoon of vinegar. Boil up and serve.

HOW TO WASH BLACK LACE –

Wash in a pint of warm water with a teaspoonful of borax dissolved in it, using an old black kid glove to sponge with.

MUSHROOM CATSUP –

Sprinkle mushroom flaps, gathered in September, with common salt, stir them occasionally for two or three days, then slightly squeeze out the juice, and add to each gallon bruised cloves and mustard-seed, of each half ounce; gently heat to the boiling point in a covered vessel, macerate for fourteen days [presumably not continually] and strain. Should it exhibit any indications of change in a few weeks, bring it again to the boiling-point, with a little more spice.

AND FINALLY- A CURE FOR CORNS

Soak ivy leaves in vinegar during the space of fifteen days; then place a leaf, or part of one, over the corn. Renew it every morning, and scrape off with pumice stone dipped in vinegar. The vinegar acts by stimulating the absorents; and the friction hastens their action.

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