The archives hold a wealth of information on homemade remedies and recipes to save money during these trying times; from making your own cheese, biscuits, cakes, and sweets to your own cold remedies… (a disclaimer – while some are interesting insights into how ailments were treated in the past we would not recommend all)!
There are lots of colds, flu and viruses circulating this time of year. Whilst a hot toddy may help a cold, the Poole Rental Book of 1839 was suggesting this remedy for a cough:
For a Cough
1oz Blanched almonds, 1oz sugar Candy
2 small spoonfulls paregoric in a quart of boiling water
Paregoric was made from an opium tincture which would give an anaesthetic effect. It was a household remedy in the 18th and 19th centuries with many uses; it was widely used to control diarrhoea in adults and children, as an expectorant and cough medicine, and as an aid to calm fretful children, also easing the pain from teething when rubbed on gums.
A recommendation for a sore throat from Mrs Harries
Dip a black ribbon in spirits of hartshorn and tie it round the neck.
Spirits of Hartshorn was a mixture of ammonium bicarbonate and ammonium carbamate, was formerly used as an expectorant and in smelling salts. It got its name from the deer antlers that were used to produce it.
Dave Gilson (a San Francisco journalist) cites his great, great grandmother, Emma Burke Gilson’s tonic remedy. Emma out lived 8 of her 9 siblings making it to the grand age of 80. Surviving the 1918 flu pandemic, her tip was ‘an excellent tonic for the blood’. The tonic included “an occasional dose of honey and ginger mixed with freshly shaved iron filings.” She recommended getting friendly with the local blacksmith, not something that we would recommend here!
If these remedies are not for you than perhaps try feeding a cold with some comforting money saving homemade soup…
Stinging Nettle soup
Chicken soup might be good for the soul, but The War Time Cookery Book 1939-1945 suggests this nettle soup as an effective way of getting the vitamins and nutrients needed to fight a cold:
Pick the tops of the nettles to a length of three or four inches. Put them into a very small quantity of boiling salted water. Don’t leave them there longer than five minutes. Drain, and serve like spinach. Nettles also make a good soup if they are cooked and passed through a sieve, and simmered with a little milk and thickening – Home Service
Nettles have long been used as a natural remedy in many cultures helping detoxify the body, acting as an anti-inflammatory agent, improving circulation and allergies.
As well as nettle soup there are also appetising recipes for veg, carrot, potato and watercress, golden and Russian soup here too!
Make your own cheese
People have been making their own cheese for years, this excerpt from the Windrose archive includes footage from The Dairy showing butter and cheese making classes run by the County Council.
The War Time Cookery Book also gives instructions on making cheese…
Cheese From Your Sour Milk
In Hot Weather milk sometimes goes sour and as its war time we may as well know how to avoid wasting it. Here is a cream cheese recipe. Let the sour milk set until it gets thick and then put two layers of butter-muslin into a bowl and ladle the thick milk into it. Tie the four corners of the cloth together and hang the cloth up overnight. Next morning scrape the curd from the cloth with a knife, add some salt to taste and put the curd between two plates. Put a flat iron on top of the plates and leave for three hours. You will get the best results if you let the milk get sour in a wide mouthed vessel. – Home Service
And if savoury is not tempting, how about a sweet treat?
Make your own Chocolate fudge
Taken from a notebook of recipes c1940-1960 compiled by Nancy Hoskins, a Dorset resident.
Put into a saucepan…
3 tablespoons evaporated milk
4 tablespoons water
3oz white sugar
1 heaped dessertspoon cocoa powder
1/2oz margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Stir over a low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. That’s the secret to make your fudge smooth and not gritty. Now bring to the boil and boil quickly for about 12 min stirring all the time. Reducing the heat a little towards the end. When it makes a soft ball when dropped into cold water beat until nearly set. Then pour into a greased tin and mark in squares before it hardens.
This collection contains a mixture of hand-written recipes and recipes cut-out from magazines and newspapers. (Other interesting recipes include War Time Sponge, Bread Fritters, Savoury Toad in the Hole, and Special Rabbit Pie).
Ever wonder what to do with an excess of carrots? This 18th century recipe from the Gillingham Museum archive will certainly give you your fill of vitamin C…
Carrot pudding baked or fried
Boyle your carrots very tender peel and primp them through a range then mix some cream with a little grated bread sliced nutmeg a little cinamon the yolks of five eggs the whites of 3 to a pint of cream then add some currans and as much sugar as will sweeten it a little salt and rose water make it a little thicker with the carrot. Then fritters batter fry them about the size of 6 fritters & scrape sugar over them before you send them to the table fry them brown but if you make the pudding to bake add a quarter of a pint of scak & a little marrow and & put it in a deep dish and cover it with puff past
(NB sack referred to fortified wine, perhaps miss-spelt here as scak)
And lastly; a wartime favourite using up ingredients left over from Christmas…
Frugal Spiced Biscuits
Home-made biscuits save points. These spiced biscuits are specially good.
Melt together in a pan 2 oz. of margarine and a good tablespoon of syrup or treacle.
Mix well together 6 oz. flour, a heaped tablespoon of cocoa, ½ teaspoonful of ground ginger, ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, a pinch of mixed spice, and 2 teaspoonsful sugar.
Gradually stir the dry mixture into the syrup. When mixed turn on to a floured board, knead lightly, roll out thinly, cut into rounds, and prick with a fork.
Lift on to a greased flat tin and bake in a moderately hot oven for 15-20 minutes.
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Come and explore these, and other money saving tips in the archives. If you try any of the recipes above let us know how they turn out for you!
I enjoyed reading this. For nettle soup I’d recommend waiting for the young leaves in spring.