Starch Recipe

To make good flour starch, mix flour gradually with cold water, so that

it may be free from lumps. Stir in cold water till it will pour easily;

then stir it into a pot of boiling water, and let it boil five or six

minutes, stirring it frequently. A tallow or spermaceti candle, stirred

round in the starch several times, will make it smoother--strain it

through a thick cloth. Starch made in this manner will answer for both

cotton and linen very well. Some people do not boil their starch, but

merely turn boiling water on the mixed flour and water, but it does not

make clothes look nice. Poland starch is made in the same manner as

wheat starch. When rice is boiled in a pot without being tied up in a

bag, the water in which it is boiled is as good as Poland starch for

clear-starching muslins, if boiled to a thick consistency after it is

turned off from the boiled rice, and then strained. Muslins, to look

clear, should be starched, and clapped dry, while the starch is hot,

then folded in a very damp cloth, and suffered to remain in it till they

become quite damp, before ironing them. If muslins are sprinkled, they

are apt to look spotted. Garments that are not worn, when laid by,

should not be starched, as it rots them when not exposed to the air.