This recipe from A Profitable Booke, is specific to use on linen but starts with a pre-treatment of hot salt and orange juice. I only found one recipe like this in the documents I reviewed but it sounded like an interesting technique.
Another against stains on linen cloth.
First take your cloth and rub it well all over with hot salt, then take a halved orange and squeeze the juice upon and lay the orange on the spots. Let it rest an hour or two, then lay it in a buck [lye solution] and wash them and they will be fair and clean. Or else you may lay thereon sorrel juice and so put them into the buck as stated before.
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup sea salt
- Orange(s) – cut in half
- Lye solution (from cold lye recipe)
Heat salt in a pan (do not get it too hot to scald the fabric). Apply to stains. Squeeze the juice of an orange on the stains. Place the orange halves on top of the stains and let sit for 1-2 hours. Wash items in lye solution and rinse with clean water. Again, being careful and using the safety precautions with the lye solution.
RESULTS:
This recipe was the one that did the best overall after the regular cold lye solution. I think the addition of salt and acid (orange juice) treatment also helped to remove a lot of the stains.
A. Olive Oil – Gone
B. Red Wine – Gone
C. Mustard Sauce – Mostly gone
D. Green Sauce – Mostly gone
E. Blood – Mostly gone
F. Mud – Mostly gone
G. Beeswax – Not Good
H. Iron Gall Ink – Not Good
| Gone | No noticeable trace of stain remaining |
| Mostly gone | The stain has mostly been removed but there is a slight discoloration |
| OK | The stain has been lightened but there is still a noticeable discoloration. |
| Not Good | No change or the stain is still very noticeable. |
The Spinning Sheep 