Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers

tallow fine, and put it to boil in a large pot with a quart of water; stir it frequently and keep it boiling moderately for six hours; when the cracklings begin to turn brown, it should boil very slowly till done. Put a little water in the bottom of your dutch-ovens or tin pans, and strain it in with a cloth over the colander, or the settlings will run through and hurt the looks of your candles. Soap. It requires some care and experience to have good soap; but when you once get beforehand, it is easy to keep up the supply if the ashes are good. The leystand should be made of cedar or pine boards, in the shape of a mill-hopper, and have holes bored in the bottom for the ley to run through; have four posts planted in the ground to support it; let it be high enough for a small tub to set under. If you cannot have it under a shed, there should be a tight cover of boards to protect it from the rain. Put some sticks in the bottom of the leystand, and some straw, and pack in a bushel of ashes, then half a peck of lime, and when it is half full of ashes, put in two buckets of water, and another when you get near the top; pack it well, and put on some more water; then cover it over; pour on hot water three times a day for several days. When you are ready to make soap, have a large pot of water, which must be kept boiling, and put it on as fast as it will bear, save the strongest ley by itself, (if the ley will float an egg, it will answer,) have your soap-fat laying in strong ley through the winter, put a gallon of this in a large pot, and put to it a gallon of the strongest ley; let it boil an hour, stirring it often, then put in two gallons more of strong ley, when this has boiled, put in weak ley till