Cleaning Pots, Kettles, and Tins.
Boil a double handful of hay or grass in a new iron pot, before attempting to cook with it; scrub out with soap and sand; then set on full of fair water, and let it boil half an hour. After this, you may use it without fear. As soon as you empty a pot or frying-pan of that which has been cooked in it, fill with hot or cold water (hot is best) and set back upon the fire to scald thoroughly.
New tins should stand near the fire with boiling water in them, in which has been dissolved a spoonful of soda, for an hour; then be scoured inside with soft soap; afterward rinsed with hot water. Keep them clean by rubbing with sifted wood-ashes, or whitening.
Copper utensils should be cleaned with brickdust and flannel.
Never set a vessel in the pot-closet without cleaning and wiping it thoroughly. If grease be left in it, it will grow rancid. If set aside wet, it is apt to rust.