Mrs. Hudson's Grimoire - Cleaning the Victorian Home

Plain sorrel leaves and water will shine up your copper.

After making starch, cover it with a plate until required for use; otherwise it forms a useless skin on the top. To prevent starch sticking to the irons, the addition of a small piece of solid paraffin, as the end of a paraffin-candle, will be found more cleanly and efficacious than tallow.

Blacking the stove.

When water has once been made to boil, the fire in the copper or grate may be very much lessened, as but little heat is required to keep it at the boiling point. There is no advantage whatever in making water boil furiously, for it is not in the slightest degree hotter than when merely simmering, as all the extra heat given to boiling water goes off in the steam, without raising the heat in the slightest degree.