Lime Water

Slaked lime steeped in water, a teaspoon in a cup of milk, for children's summer complaint.

From: The Home Cook Book
Published: 1887
Also printed in: 1 other book
Yikes Scale: Yikes

Exactly as printed, 1887

Mrs. E. C. Lynde.

One of the most useful agents of household economy if rightly understood, is lime water. Its mode of preparation is as follows: Put a stone of fresh unslacked lime about the size of a half-peck measure into a large stone jar or unpainted pail, and pour over it slowly and carefully, (so as not to slacken too rapidly,) a tea-kettle full (four gallons,) of hot water, and stir thoroughly; let it settle, and then stir again two or three times in twentyfour hours. Then bottle carefully, all that can be poured off in a clear and limpid state.

USES.--It is often sold by druggists as a remedy for children's summer complaints, a teaspoon being a dose in a cup of milk, and when diarrhea is caused by acidity of the stomach. it is an excellent remedy, and when put into milk gives no unpleasant taste, but rather improves the flavour.

When put into milk that might curdle when heated, it will prevent its so doing, and can then be used for puddings and pies. A little stirred into cream or milk, after a hot day or night, will prevent its turning when used for tea or coffee.

It is unequalled in cleansing bottles or small milk vessels, or babies' nursing bottles, as it sweetens and purifies without leaving an unpleasant odour or flavour A cupful, or even more, mixed in the sponge of bread or cakes made over night, will prevent it from souring.

The Home Cook Book, 1887. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Lime water is a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide, and it is strongly alkaline. As an antacid in milk it works, which is why it was used — but the strength depends entirely on how the household made it.

The recipe starts with a lump of unslaked lime the size of a half-peck measure. Slaking quicklime is violently exothermic and throws caustic dust, and that step happens in a domestic kitchen.

Notes from the 21st century

It has a real medical history. Lime water was official in pharmacopoeias and genuinely used in infant feeding to reduce curd tension in cow's milk.
“Summer complaint” was infant diarrhoea. A major cause of infant death before milk was pasteurised. The lime water was treating a symptom of contaminated milk.
The bread use is the odd one. Added to a sponge to stop it souring — which is to say, to mask an over-fermented dough rather than fix it.

Also in this book

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Cough Mixture — A lemonade of gum arabic and sugar candy, carrying an ounce of opium tincture.
Gardner (Cholera Remedy &c.) — Laudanum, capsicum, camphor and spirits of nitre — two to ten drops for children, every fifteen minutes.

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