A New Collection of Genuine Receipts

A New England receipt book from the 1830s — cures, dyes, inks and kitchen secrets, preserved exactly as printed.

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Another method (Reduce four pounds)

Reduce four pounds of the roots of barbary, by sawing into dust, which put into a copper or brass pan, add four ounces of tumeric, to which put four gallons of water, then put in as many holly veneers as the liquor will cover; boil them together for three hours, often turning them. When cool, add two ounces of aqua-fortis, and the dye will strike through much sooner. Bright green. - Proceed as before to produce a yellow; but instead of aqua-fortis, add as much of the vitriolated indigo as will produce the desired colour.

Another method. -- To three pints of the strongest vinegar, add four ounces of the best verdigris, ground fine, half an ounce of sap-green, and half an ounce of indigo. Proceed in straining as before.

Bright red. -- To two pounds of genuine Brazil dust, add 4 gallons of water, put in as many veneers as the liquor will well cover, boil them for three hours, and let them cool; then add two ounces of aqua-fortis, and keep it luke-warm until it has struck through.

Purple. -- To two ounces of chip logwood, and half a pound of Brazil-dust, add four gallons of water. Put in the veneers, and boil them well; then add six ounces of pearl-ash and two ounces of alum; let them boil two or three hours every day, till the colour has struck through.

Fine blue. -- Into a pound of oil of vitriol in a glass bottle, put four ounces of indigo, and proceed as before directed.

To stain paper or parchment. -- Yellow.

Paper may be stained a beautiful yellow by the tincture of turmeric formed by infusing an ounce or more of the root, powdered, in a pint of spirit of wine. This may be made to give any tint of yellow, from the lightest straw to the full colour, called French yellow, and will be equal in brightness even to the best dyed silks. If yellow be wanted of a warmer or redder cast, annatto, or dragon's blood, must be added. The best manner of using these, and the following tinctures, is to spread them even on the paper, or parchment by means of a broad brush, in the manner of varnishing. Crimson. -- A very fine crimson stain may be given to paper by a tincture of the Indian Lake, which may be made by infusing the lake some days in spirit of wine, and then pouring off the tincture from the dregs. It may be stained red by red ink. It may also be stained of a scarlet hue by the tincture of dragon's blood in spirit of wine, but this will not be bright. Green. -- Paper or parchment may be stained green, by the solution of verdigris in vinegar, or by the crystals of verdigris dissolved in water. Orange. -- Stain the paper or parchment first of a full yellow, by means of the tincture of tumerick; then brush it over with a solution of fixed alkaline salt, made by dissolving half an ounce of pearl-ashes, or salt of tartar, in a quart of water, and filtering the solution.

Purple. -- Paper or parchment may be stained purple, by archil, or by the tincture of logwood.

The juice of ripe privet berries expressed will likewise give a purple dye.

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