Margaret’s recipe book contained more than just food recipes.
I made these notes on some other “recipes” that a nineteenth century Southern woman might need.
Green dye can be made with oil of vitrol. Orange dye from hickory bark. Black dye from walnut hulls.
“To get rid of cockroaches, put molasses in a bowl with porter or beer and put a stick for them to walk on.” Apparently, when the roaches walk out on the stick, it dips and drops them into the liquid. (Of course, unless you are the real hearty type, it ruins the beer).
To make red dye, when you are through with a tea bag for your drink, leave it in a pot of boiling water.
Margaret also had recipes for curing a rattlesnake bite, getting red of bed bugs, and making grape wine.
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