Black lead fireside range (please help)

[Jethro]

Hi Dotti, very interesting, can you think back to when your mother was cooking on the ( black lead fireside range) did she cook vegetables in a pan on the open fire or did she put the pan on the hot plate, the shelf above the oven !!!. Also Dotti apart from baking bread and cooking poultry in the oven what other meals would she have cooked/ baked in the oven.

[dotti34]

Rabbit pies, meat pies. Rabbits straight from the traps so had to be skinned and gutted. Mondays we always had stewed potatoes with left-over meat from Sunday, stews. Cheap, wholesome food. Baking took up a full day, think it might have been Wednesday. Apple pies, cakes and biscuits. No gadgets to help with the beating. As a special treat mum made toffee in a pan on the stove. Pretty sure that vegetables were cooked on the hot plate. Himself can remember his grandmother’s mouth-watering pies and currant cake, also cooked in oven next to fire.
I remember the goose being plucked at Christmas before it could be cooked, what a treat this was – the goose that is not the plucking! Feathers flying. Goose grease saved to ease chapped hands.
This was also a time when kids could go off for the day roaming the fields. I took a bottle of cold (black) tea for my thirst (luxury instead of plain water) and a couple of jam butts to ease the hunger, which has absolutely nothing to do with your question - sorry!

[Jethro]

Thank you for sharing that lovely story with us, didn't no about the toffee.

[dotti34]

Treacle toffee great for bonfire nights and for cold nights sitting by the fire at home. Russian toffee and fudge just to name a couple more. A lot of stirring needed and then a patient wait for the toffee to cool and set. Many times a burnt tongue by being impatient!
No idea how mum managed to give us these treats, very little money. Btw, the kettle was always on the stove ready and waiting.

[dotti34]

...and mustn't forget the rice puddings!

[Jethro]

Hi Dotti can you remember bath nights !!! Who went in first adults or children and did they use the cloths horse as a privacy screen. I've head the saying ( don't throw the baby out in the bath water) but that would imply children went last.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Jethro...I remember bath nights........it was babies first, girls second, boys next....new water for Ma and Pa........and yes the clothes horse was used, not just for privacy, but to allow the towels somewhere warm to hang and to keep the draughts off those little pale bodies.
The water for our bath night was warmed by a Slaxone Copper, heated by a gas ring under the boiler(a very large water boiler - used for laundry on a Monday) the water in the range was for top up purposes, or that was the arrangement in out house.

Also the baby got pears soap...where we just got carbolic or green olive soap.

[susie123]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Also the baby got pears soap...where we just got carbolic or green olive soap.

Ah... Pears soap - haven't used it for years but the smell would still take me back - except they seem to have changed it, as with so many other things these days, can't leave well alone. And sad to say, although a rethink was promised, it doesn't seem to have gone far.

And even sadder, it seems that soap is hard to find in many shops now - it's all gels and liquids - try scraping those into your tin bath on a Friday night!

Pears Traditional Soap abandons new recipe after Facebook campaign - Telegraph

This Pears soap just won't wash! | Life and style | The Guardian

[Eric]

And don't forget Dr. Lovelace's floating soap ... from Clayton

[Margaret Pilkington]

I bought some pears soap recently( my skin on my hands is wrecked from lots of hand washing with harsh soap) thinking if it was good enough for babies, then it would be gentle on my hands.........it was not good at all.......though himself quite liked it for his morning ablutions...It certainly didn't smell the same.
I do wish they would leave tried and tested products alone.

[MargaretR]

Dr Bronner's soaps and toiletries are made the old fashioned way ie. no nasty petrochemicals.

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps All-One!

Dr Bronner's - Natural Health Welwyn

[Margaret Pilkington]

I might just try some of that.......it isn't cheap but if it stops my hands from being sore then it will be worth it.

[dotti34]

Not sure about the baby and the bath-water but the talk of tin baths - Friday night bath-time for me in the kitchen, as I was the youngest I think the others had their baths at a different time, Pears soap (I can still smell it) all bring so many memories back. Fennings Fever Cure, Malt Extract, wearing a Liberty bodice, pink pads to put on the chest (can't recall the name), Cod Liver Oil Capsules, etc., etc., - all to keep the colds at bay (didn't work though!). An orange or a few grapes (luxuries) from the street cart to help me get better if I had been ill - worked like magic.

[dotti34]

Also remember Sloan's liniment for dad's aching back - remember the day when it came out too fast and ran down his back and 'under' - whoops!!!! a lot of cursing (and mum really hadn't done it on purpose).
Talking of soap before and cursing now reminds me of the carbolic soap threat 'you'll get your mouth washed out with carbolic soap if you say that again...' (and I did!)

[susie123]

Originally Posted by dotti34

pink pads to put on the chest (can't recall the name)

Thermogene medicated wadding?