Regency Household: Potpourri Receipt

From A New System of Practical Domestic Economy (1823) is a delightful recipe for preparing potpourri to keep rooms smelling nice and gently fragrant:

“An elegant mode of combining the odours of different flowers is, by preserving the leaves in vases, or china jars, in the form of a pot pourri, as the French term it; for which fine perfume, the following is a genuine receipt. Take one pound of orange-flowers and common rose-leaves, half a pound each of the leaves of red pinks, marjoram and myrtle; the leaves of musk roses, thyme, la vender, rosemary, sage, camomile, melilot, hyssop, sweet basil, and balm, two ounces of each ; two or three handfuls of jessamine flowers, a large hand ful of lemon rinds, cut as thin as possible; the same quantity of those of small green oranges, and fifteen or twenty laurel leaves. Put them all into a well leaded earthen jar, with half a pound of bay salt, and stir the whole carefully with a wooden spatula, or spoon, twice a day for a month; then add Florentine white iris and benzoin, of each twelve ounces; powdered cloves and cinnamon, two ounces of each; mace, storax, calamus aroma ticus, and cypress, of each one ounce; lemon coloured sandal, and long sweet cypress, of each six drams. Stir all together, and if the propor tions be carefully attended to, according to the above directions, a most delightful compound of fine odours will be obtained, in which no one scent will predominate, whilst the fragrance of the whole will remain unimpaired for a great number of years.”

It was believed this would contribute to the wholesomeness of air and its impact on health.