The Back of the Cupboard

The stranger shelves of the great American kitchen.

The 1877 housekeeping bible fed the Midwest — and its shelves held remedies, warnings and household chemistry as strange as any recipe. The oddest here, each linking to its page.

The A-to-Z "Housekeeper's Alphabet." A whole rhyming mnemonic of tips runs the alphabet: *"LOVE lightens labor,"* *"NUTMEGS — prick with a pin, and if good, oil will run out,"* *"QUICK- SILVER and white of an egg destroys bedbugs,"* *"XANTIPPE was a scold. Don't imitate her,"* — and, shamelessly, *"JARS — To prevent, coax 'husband' to buy 'Buckeye Cookery.'"* — housekeepers- alphabet — A+
Remove a blackhead with a watch-key. *"To remove 'black heads' in the face, place over the black spot the hollow end of a watch-key, and press firmly. This forces the foreign substance out."*Read it: BLACK HEADS
De-stink your clothes by burying them. *"Articles of clothing… which have become impregnated with bad-smelling substances, will be freed from them by burying for a day or two in the ground. Wrap up lightly before burying."*Read it: BAD SMELLS
"Bad dinners go hand in hand with total depravity." The book's philosophy of the kitchen, in full: *"A dirty kitchen and bad cooking have driven many a husband and son… from a home,"* and — quoting the maxim — *"Bad dinners go hand in hand with total depravity; while a properly fed man is already half saved."*Read it: Clearing The Table (Dust pan To clear the table)
A hat is a life-preserver. *"A felt or silk hat, held so as to keep the crown full of air, will sustain a person above water for a great length of time."*Read it: A LIFE-PRESERVER
In a panic, keep your seat. *"If in a public hall in a panic, keep your seat; even in case of fire the chance of life is greater if free from the crowd."* And in a runaway carriage, *"it is safer to remain in the vehicle… than to jump."*Read it: A LIFE-PRESERVER
Night-caps are "a relic of barbarism." The hair advice is blunt: at night the hair should be loosened and left free — *"Night-caps are a relic of barbarism."*Read it: Queen Bess Complexion Wash
Lost children, solved like lost luggage. *"Label children's hats with the name and place of residence so that, if lost, they may be easily restored."*Read it: LOST CHILDREN
"A woman can throw out with a spoon faster than a man can throw in with a shovel." The book's proverb on kitchen waste, opening a page-long catalogue of the hundred small ways a careless housekeeper *"wastes, without heeding, the hard-earned wages of her husband."*Read it: Clearing The Table (Dust pan To clear the table)
Superfluous facial hair, removed "root and branch." Spread a galbanum-and-pitch plaster on leather, press it over the hairs, and rip it off: *"This is severe but effective."*Read it: BAY RUM
A cheap carpet you hang like wallpaper. Tack cheap cotton cloth to the floor, *"paper it as you would a wall with paper resembling a carpet,"* varnish twice, and it lasts two years. — a- cheap-carpet — A
Mad-dog bite? Burn it out. *"The only safe remedy… is to burn out the wound thoroughly with a red-hot iron, or with lunar caustic, for fully eight seconds."*Read it: BITES OF DOGS
Snakebite, then whisky "to intoxication." The serpent-bite remedy: apply fire to the wound at once, ammonia freely — *"followed by whisky to intoxication."*Read it: Bite Of Serpent
Purify foul water with a flower-pot. A "cheap filter": sponge over the hole, fill with sand and pea-sized charcoal, pour the *"most impure water"* through a cloth on top, *"and it will come out pure."*Read it: A CHEAP FILTER
Why your collar never fits. *"The fact is, the laundress stretches them the wrong way"* — lengthwise instead of crosswise — pulling the neckband up under your chin. — collars-that-do-not- fit — B
Franklin's warning on moving house. *"Three removes are as bad as a fire"* — and an empty, shut-up house can become *"a fever breeder"* through disused drains, so air it thoroughly before moving in.Read it: FARMER'S DOOR MAT
Ice-free windows, courtesy of alcohol. *"Windows may be kept free from ice and polished by rubbing the glass with a sponge dipped in alcohol."*Read it: ICY WINDOWS
Never burn an almost-empty lamp — *"the empty space is nearly always filled with a very explosive gas."* And to test kerosene: good oil won't easily ignite from a match; *"poor oil will ignite instantly."*Read it: Clearing The Table (Dust pan To clear the table)
Camphor keeps mice away. *"CAMPHOR — put in drawers or trunks will keep away mice."* — for- the-hair — B
Kill a corn with a cranberry. *"Half a cranberry, or a piece of lemon, bound on a corn will soon kill it."*Read it: Queen Bess Complexion Wash
Paste that lasts a year. A "perpetual paste" of flour, alum, and *"half a dozen cloves to give it a pleasant odor"* keeps a year and *"is better than gum, as it does not gloss the paper."*Read it: PERPETUAL PASTE
Homemade indelible ink. Write on treated linen with silver-nitrate ink, then *"exposed to a hot sun for twelve hours"* — and *"never write without using the preparation, as it will rot the cloth."*Read it: INDELIBLE INK
Freckle cure from the garden. *"Grate horse-radish fine: let it stand a few hours in buttermilk, then strain and use the wash night and morning"* — most other freckle remedies being *"poisonous."*Read it: DRESS
Kerosene on the carpet? Bury it in flour. Spill oil on a carpet and *"sprinkle buckwheat flour… let it lie without disturbing it for a week; brush off, and there will be no trace."*Read it: KEROSENE AND CARPETS