Friday 13 June 2008

If You Hadn't Noticed.....

I've actually put pictures from last weekends cookery up on the Flickr site.....not many I admit, but at least they are there!
This one of the new and improved astronomical clock and gateway


Is a very rough and ready cobbling together of 2 pictures, but it does give you the idea of how good the brickwork looks after the restoration work.

All in all the weekend went well I think. It was a nice surprise to see how the public took to the cleaning and writing aspects of the weekend......as you can see here


Jorge was rarely left to his own devices with both him and Robert spending their weekend explaining how writing and accounts are at the heart of the kitchen, both then and now.....explaining the science behind ink, letting people try their hand at writing, talking about administrating a large kitchen and the like.

Carter and Pick were also kept busy showing that in the past people weren't left wanting when it came to cleaning methods that could be used in the kitchen.....admittedly the older methods were a little more abrasive and needed a little more effort, but generally speaking people were more impressed with the 'old school' cleaning than they were with the results of the modern product.....suffice to say I can't see many multinational manufacturers beating a path to our door with offers of sponsorship based on the results of the last weekend.
The lye that I made on Saturday added to Pick and Carters repertoire on Sunday, leading to some very clean table tops and chopping boards.....I also spent the day on Sunday playing at making some rough and ready soap to add to their armoury.

O.K. so it wasn't perfect, but it was pH neutral.........if your skin is naturally pH 13!! (bring on the Nivea again) It did work though with test grease spots removed and a slight lather achieved, the main problem was in not having an alkali that was dense enough.....something to work on in the future I think.

3 comments:

Doc said...

Yikes! I'm amazed you still have fingers after working with such caustic stuff.

What recipe are you using for the soap?

Tudor Cook said...

nah....not that bad....I can still count to 9 ;-)

Not using a recipe per se as it was more to show visitors that in the past people didn't sit around on their thumbs waiting for 'product' to be invented and that cleaning products are/were made very easily.

Anonymous said...

TC did a good job of it despite all that, there are literally dozens of recipes for soaps, hard and soft, smelly and abrasive, they do not include home made versions that people who have access to ash and fats may well use.

May we do it again Sir? I can bring some recipes in, but I recommend you don't use the one with verdigris in it.

Gorge