Soap

 I am planning a trip to see my brother, Keith and his wife Linda and of course, his daughter, Jenna, in a few days. I am taking my mother's old cookbook so that Jenna can look at her recipes and take pictures of some of them. I was slowly leafing through the pages and found this gem. A recipe for soap. Homemade soap making was a chore that I was not allowed to help with.

 If you are reading this recipe you will see that it calls for soft water. I am sure that my mother caught that water from the eaves spout on our front porch. I can remember standing as close as I was able to watch this little miracle that my mother made happen. She took fat, and soft water, and lye, and ammonia and mixed them together with a wooden stick. It had borax in it too. It sounds like something out of the movies, but that soap is what we used for washing clothes and bathing, My mom did buy shampoo, but rinsed my hair with vinegar and egg. She said that it brought out the red highlights in my hair.

 As I was going through those years old recipes I found a similar ingredient in most cakes and cookies; fat. It doesn't designate what kind of fat, but I am presuming lard. I did see my mother use lard in her piecrusts for many years.

This recipe was from Eleanor Sheldon. She was the sweetest most kind woman that I can remember. Her granddaughter is now a friend of mine. She remembers my mother's homemade bread. I wonder if she can remember homemade soap.

Going through my mother's cookbook is a joy and a treasure. When I read her recipes she always gave credit to the one who gave her a recipe and the recipes were written in such lovely handwriting. I had the honor of being asked by my mother for some of my recipes. My handwriting was not lovely. My instructions were vague. My language contained the word "goo" in one of them and at the end of the same recipe I said, Good luck! I love 'em. A bit of a difference that goes down for posterity, but also the difference in women. My cookbook is full of bits of "goo" and of course, hers was immaculate. I just don't understand how she did it. Many many of her cakes and cookies were baked in a corn cob stove and a lonely baking thermometer to help her along.