How to Make Silky Smooth Skin Lotion: Italian Balm

Zillah at 17 shortly before her marriage.

Family Jewels

My grandmother's name was Zillah which means shade in Hebrew. She was the daughter of Andrew and Charlotte Mitchell Watson who built a farm in Caledon in the district of Cardwell, Ontario. They began with a small log cabin and determination. They were rewarded with many children and a productive farm.

Andrew built a stone farmhouse from the rock they had cleared from the land. It took years of work and instilled the value of labour and cooperation in each of the children. Zillah told us about how her mother, Charlotte, would gather with her daughters in the kitchen, teaching them the art of cooking, baking, canning and preserving the harvest for the coming winter. She also taught them togetherness, cooperation and love.

When Zillah married, she took with her the lessons from this kitchen and a corner of the Watson family kitchen table. A piece of the family table was given to each of the girls as they left home to become young wives and mothers. It now stands in my hallway waiting to be given to my daughter.

The notebook begins shortly after my grandmother's marriage on July 6, 1897. Inside are hints, recipes and quick notes for easy reference but it was the front page that got my attention right away.

She wrote her name with a flourish that I haven't seen since we were all writing inside our high school text books. There is even a symbol drawn and no matter how hard I try, I can't figure it out.

Zillah was eighteen years old and beginning a new life as Mrs. Douglas.

Ladies Home Journal 1897. This is what her world looked like that year.

Italian Balm

Imagine my surprise at finding so many people on the web looking for this particular lotion! It has been tucked away in the notebook all these years and I never gave it a thought until now. This formula became a very popular commercial lotion in the 1920s through the 1960s but in the old days, women made it at home. It felt wonderfully silky on the skin and was easy for anyone to make. Here's the recipe exactly as written in Grandma's notebook:

Miss Kellett's Italian Balm

1/4 ounce gum tragacanth

1/4 gill glycerine

1/4 gill cologne water

1/4 gill rubbing alcohol

Method:

Dissolve gum in 1 pint of rain water. Leave overnight near heat by a stove. Add other ingredients and shake well.

Explanations

Miss Kellett is a mystery lady so far but perhaps more about her will emerge in time.

What on earth is a gill? It's a unit of measurement that was common years ago, especially in British pubs. In Grandma's book it is an imperial measure so 1/4 gill would be equal to 35.5 ml or 1.2 US ounces.

Gum tragacanth is a viscous, water soluble powder made from the dried sap of what is commonly known as goat thorn. It's available in cake decorating shops, herbal outlets, Bulk Barn and Michael's.

Cologne water was made in every home from either alcohol or witch hazel and essential oils. The mixture was tightly closed, shaken once or twice a day, and left at least a week before use. If you are feeling adventurous and want to try your hand at it, here is one from The White House Cookbook 1887 courtesy of the Gutenberg Press. Note: One drachm is about 1/8 fluid ounce or 3/4 teaspoon.

Ingredients

• oil of lavender two drachms
• oil of rosemary one drachm and a half
• orange, lemon and bergamot, one drachm each of the oil
• two drachms of the essence of musk
• attar of rose ten drops
• a pint of proof spirit

Or try this for a simpler version and a smaller quantity:

• 1/8 teaspoon orange oil
• 1/2 teaspoon bergamot oil
• 1/4 teaspoon lavender oil (you can use lemon, mint, or whatever you like)
• 1/2 cup witch hazel (or alcohol)

Why not try it yourself and make gifts for friends? Search the second-hand shops for interesting bottles, tie with a satin ribbon and add your hand-written label. Anyone can buy a gift but making one says so much more.

My grandmother played the piano by ear and knew the Bible by heart so it is fitting to include a quotation as she might have done.

Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.
--Proverbs 20:11

Ingredients for Italian Balm

	LorAnn Oils Gum Tragacanth - 2.7 oz Amazon Price: $15.00
	NOW Foods Glycerine Vegetable, 16-Fluid Ounces Amazon Price: $6.87 List Price: $12.83
	Essential Oil- Beginners Best of the Best Gift Set Amazon Price: $41.75

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• Sulphur and Milk: The Bitter and the Sweet
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Sulphur and Milk: The Bitter and the Sweet

It was the late 1890s.

St. Brides Church Kirk Douglas

This late 14th century church currently in the care of Historic Scotland is now the Mausoleum of the Black Douglases and contains the tomb of the Good Sir James Douglas who carried Robert the Bruce's heart on crusade.

Thomas Barrie Douglas was a little wild.

Born in 1869, he was from the Black Douglas clan and very proud of the role his family had played throughout history.

They had fought alongside William Wallace and again with Robert the Bruce. After the Douglas lands had been taken and the family scattered, some made their living by luring the English ships onto the rocks. Thomas was descended from these wreckers.

Thomas’s father was a very stern man, a Scot who tolerated no nonsense and ran his household accordingly. He was very tall, well over six feet, with a propensity to drink excessively and fight as a result. Rumours surfaced about his living in a treehouse with a native woman but that was never substantiated, although it certainly is possible. Thomas did not inherit his father’s manner. His mother Caroline’s family were cabinet makers and the base of their business had been caskets. This was sound thinking since there would never be a time in their foreseeable future when the need for such things would diminish. They agreed to take young Thomas on as an apprentice, mostly to help Caroline who found herself in an increasingly difficult marriage and wanting better for her son. It was a successful venture and Thomas became exceptionally good at his craft.

He was honest, kind, gregarious and loved to laugh. He had arrived at the Watson farm to do business when he first saw seventeen-year-old Zillah. His manner was charming, she would later recall. His blond hair was slightly disheveled from the wind and his bright blue eyes danced when he caught her looking at him in the yard. He became good friends with her older brothers and was often over to the house on a visit. Eventually he asked permission to court her properly and in later years she would talk of how worldly he seemed compared with the other young men she knew. He was ten years her senior and the two couldn’t have been more different. She was dark-haired and dark-eyed and from a hardworking Scottish farm family. Her mother was a Mitchell from Fife.

Source: Ian Mitchell via Wikipedia Commons

It was not a match her parents had encouraged. There was some wild blood in his line from the Borderlands that they considered a problem but she was in love and finally her parents relented. They married in July of 1897 and Thomas declared that never was there such a love as he felt for her.

Their first child was born March 4, 1899, just two weeks before Zillah’s twentieth birthday. It was a girl and they named her Alma Louella. The name came from a heroine in a novel my grandmother had been reading. 

Their second child, a son named Norman, was born January 18, 1901. Another boy, Thomas Beverly, arrived on November 26, 1902. Life was filled with babies and domestic bliss. Thomas was gifted at his craft and earned well for his growing family at first. Then he began to drink. He wasn’t a man to drink every day or even every week. It happened once in a while but then he would be gone for days. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for a young mother whose husband suddenly does not come home. She had three children, all aged three and under. When Thomas returned to her, he begged her forgiveness and she nursed him back to health.

Her friend Ida gave her a solution for detoxification. In her notes, it says to put "a heaping teaspoon of sulphur powder in milk, 1/2 cup afterwards and take for 15 nights". The sulphur powder would be known as MSM today and is not only good for arthritis and rheumatism but also for alcoholism and liver damage. Zillah sat by her husband's side until he was well again. He returned to work where they were glad to have him back. There would be no more children for almost four years.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:7

	Beyond the Influence: Understanding and Defeating Alcoholism Amazon Price: $5.00 List Price: $17.00
	Under the Influence: A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism Amazon Price: $3.68 List Price: $7.99

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  Living at the turn of the 20th century was not as easy as it may appear. Could you do it?
• Homelife in the Early 20th Century: The Kitchen
  The old photographs make kitchens look beautiful, artistic and enviable for their simple and organic textures. Sounds from the street would drift through the open kitchen window; children playing, horses...
• A Bushel and a Peck: How to translate old recipe measures
  If you are curious about old recipes and decide to try a few, you may run into a problem trying to determine the correct measurements. Here's all the information you need to start cooking!
• How to Make Silky Smooth Skin Lotion: Italian Balm
  Italian Balm was available commercially decades ago and still today is a cherished lotion. You can make your own from this recipe I found in my grandmother's notebook.

A Bushel and a Peck: How to translate old recipe measures

Grandma just before her marriage at age 17.

From Grandma's House

Do you know how many apples are in a peck?

If you are curious about old recipes and decide to try a few, you may run into a problem trying to determine the correct measurements. Liquids were measured in ounces and gills and dry things were measured in pints, pecks and bushels.

How many apples are in a peck? Because it’s a dry measurement of volume, there is no precise weight for a peck and it varies depending on the food. Experience and some excellent resources tell us that there are about 12 pounds of apples in a peck.

Things are measured many ways. We count them by the dozen and the gross. We pour liquids into containers of various sizes. We also weigh them by the pound and by the kilogram. We stuff them into baskets and barrels and determine how much volume they take up.

Escali Pana V136, Volume Measuring Scale Amazon Price: Too low to display List Price: $79.95

When recipes were written in the old days, they often cited measures that we don't use much anymore, especially for things like pickles, relishes, canned fruits, compotes, jams and jellies. We also see recipes from Britain or other European nations that measure ingredients by weight in both imperial and metric. This makes a good kitchen scale essential.

The one I use is by Escali and it reads in grams, kilograms, ounces and pounds. It also measures in volume and I find this indispensable for European recipes. I even use it for dividing my dough into equal portions for bread and buns.

Counting in "Batches"

12 things = 1 dozen (doz.)

12 dozen = 1 gross (gr.)

12 gross = 1 great gross

20 things = 1 score

Four score and seven years... sound familiar?

Measuring Liquids

U.S. measurements:

1 gill = 4 ounces (oz.) or 1/2 cup

2 gills = 1 cup (8 oz.)

4 gills = 1 pint (pt.) or 2 cups

2 pints = 1 quart (qt.) or 32 oz.

4 quarts = 1 gallon (gal.)

1 gallon = 231 cubic inches

Measuring Dry Foods

U.S. measurements:

2 pints (pt.) = 1 quart (qt.)

4 quarts = 1 gallon (gal.)

8 quarts or 2 dry gallons = 1 peck (pk.)

4 pecks = 1 bushel (bu.)

10 pecks, 2-1/2 bushels = 1 barrel (bbl.)

1 bushel = 2105.42 cu. in.

Fruits and Vegetables: Quick Reference for Canning

Food	Weight in pounds per bushel	Processed Food	How Much Does it Make?
Apples	48	Applesauce (unsweetened)	12-15 quarts
Winter Squash (acorn, butternut etc)	40	Canned	16-20 quarts
Snap Beans	30	Canned	15-20 quarts
Corn (in husk)	70
Pears	56	Canned	20-25 quarts
Plums	53	Canned	24-30 quarts
Peaches	50	Canned	18-24 quarts
Tomatoes	53	Canned	15-20 quarts (10-12 qt. juice)
Garden Peas	30	Canned	6-7 quarts

Remember that all weights are approximate. Bushels measure in volume, not weight but this may provide a general guide if you are planning on processing some of your own harvest and "putting a few things by".

Berries don't usually come by the bushel but are purchased by the quart or pint.

Most people freeze berries but if you are trying to be independent of electricity and have something on hand that you can enjoy without the worry of power outages, then count on 1 quart of berries making about 1 pint of canned berries. This applies to blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.

In other words, you will get about half the quantity of canned as you have fresh. This is only an approximation and when you are canning you will see that it may vary depending on the size of the berries and amount of syrup added.

Jam is different. You are adding sugar and volume and this varies greatly depending on the fruit used.

Points to Remember:

Tablespoons and teaspoons were not the same as the ones we use today to carefully measure things. They used what was in the kitchen drawer and it was always slightly rounded to match the curve of the bottom of the spoon. Exception: when you read the words small or scant then make it level. The same is true of cups but it is a bit safer for cakes to use a measuring cup. In the old recipes, the same cup was used so everything was in the right ratio.

"Give and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over..." ~ Luke 6:38

More Measurement Conversions

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