Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers

it in this an hour, then put it in the tub, let it get cold, cut it in squares and put it on a board to dry. Unless you have plenty of ashes and soap-fat, it is much cheaper to buy hard soap than to make it. If you have but a barrel full of ashes you can make a barrel of soap, bore a hole in the bottom of a barrel, put a few sticks across, when half full of ashes put in a quart of lime and some water; keep the hole plugged up till you are ready to make the soap. You can have a barrel of ashes put in the cellar in winter to use for washing and scrubbing, keep a tub under it to hold the ley as it drops. Potash Soap. Persons living in cities frequently have grease that would do to make soap, but are at a loss for ley, in consequence of burning coal instead of wood. Twelve pounds of pure grease of any kind, put with ten pounds of potash in an oil barrel, and filled with water, makes good thick soap, and is much cheaper than buying hard soap. It should be stirred frequently, and if the ingredients are put together in warm weather, and the barrel stands where it can be exposed to the heat of the sun, without danger of getting rain in it, it will be fit for use in a few weeks without the aid of fire, if you wish to make soap immediately put three pounds of potash, four of grease, and about ten gallons of water in a large iron pot, boil it over the fire, and it will make good thick soap in a few hours, it need only boil long enough to dissolve the potash, which is sometimes in very hard lumps. If you use the crumbled potash, you must put rather more of it, as it is not so strong, and a little lump of quick lime will make it turn quicker. Another Receipt. Two days before you wish to commence