Recipe Book owned by Lady de Rutzen, Slebech Hall, c.1845 [image 1 of 31]

Description

This is a volume of recipes, herbal remedies and household hints, compiled during the mid-nineteenth century (c.1845) and owned by Lady de Rutzen of Slebech Hall (near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire). It contains an interesting assortment of recipes, including 'calves feet jelly', 'hare soup', goosebery wine and the intriguingly-named 'Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding'. The herbal remedies include cures for 'corns', 'gnat bites' and 'sea sickness' as well as a medicine which was believed to alleviate whooping cough. Among the 'household hints' we find advice on the cleaning and varnishing of pictures, how 'to take spots out of Marble', how to 'prevent water penetrating boots or shoes', as well as recipes for homemade soap and the removal of iron mould from linen. Prior to the advent of modern, manufactured products, housekeepers and housewives had to devise their own cleaning agents, often using 'recipes', such as these, which had been handed down through the generations.