Do It Yourself...

And for heaven's sake, don't share needles.

I gotta find this recipe I have for movie blood. It's got a corn syryp base . . .

I don't suppose you have the source for that receipt, do you? My husband does an undertaker's impression from time to time, and that right there is bloody perfect for something to use.

I do not see where this recipe belongs in a "cooking " forum. I am going to ask Macfive to move it to the pub or jesters forums.

" I don't suppose you have the source for that receipt, do you?"

Sorry; I wish I did. However, the use of arsenic, mercury, and zinc compounds was very common of turn-of-the-century embalming techniques; say 1870-1920. Formalin (40% aqueous formaldehyde, as in the last receipe) didn't start to become popular until the 1920's or so. Any of the ones heavy with arsenic and mercury would be consistent for an impression of this time period; perhaps as early as the American Civil War.

This is quite probably from an old "receipt book"; the kind that not only had edible recipes like beer and wine, but soaps, hoof dressings, and patent medicines intended for humans and livestock, and, on occasion, embalming fluid, (probably some animal husbandry and childbirthing instructions, too) which during that time in American history was often done in the home; all of which were cooked up in the kitchen...this is an authentic old "receipt", not a joke, so therefore this is where I posted it.

(hopefully this needn't even be said, but DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! There's a very good reason such incredibly toxic and environmentally persistant chemicals aren't used any more. You could easily fatally poision yourself and your family, and turn your home into a toxic waste HazMat site)

try it at home. . . ?

You did notice it mentions having the entire circulatory system of the embalmee flushed before injecting the receipt? maybe not your average home project.

I kind of see Shadows' point that it's not food or cooking -- but you're right that it isn't a joke or stunt.

"You did notice it mentions having the entire circulatory system of the embalmee flushed before injecting the receipt? maybe not your average home project."

Perhaps not an "average home project", but certainly bleeding a carcass was a very common practice which most people in rural areas would be intimately familiar with. Most of the stuff in an early embalming kit was bottles of chemicals and make-up, not hardware. The earliest embalming kits were portable, usually packaged in a case not unlike a doctors, and very, very simple, usually consisting of just a few tubes, jars, and a large syringe. State licensure was unheard of; the average embalmer of the time was self-taught, or may have received some training (and perhaps a certificate of some sort) from a chemical supply house. Mortuaries or funeral homes as we know them today were nonexistant; a body was almost always prepared for burial at home. If they were embalmed, then they were embalmed at home, too. At that time in our history the entire cycle of life; conception, birth, youth, middle age, old age, and death occurred completely within the context of the family at home, with minimal or no professional intervention. Undertakers were some of the first, and like their predecessors; midwives and doctors, routinely made house calls.

Bingo. This looks exactly like a receipt straight out of one of those books, and seeing as how this one's in none of mine, I wanted to pounce on a new source. Actually, these would be right at home in a lot of "home companion" books. Some are comprised of bits of correspondence from family in friends swapping tips, cuttings from newspapers and magazines, or personal formulae either handed down or played with till perfected. The batch-printed ones are actually less common. You can easily see a remedy for some rather disgusting ailments on the same page as a dessert. :: shrug :: You didn't throw me any.

Looking at the handwriting and all, I'd put it in the mid-late 19th century. I'm hesitating to use it other than a personal reference at the moment because I can't nail it down to the *exact* time frame or a little earlier. Hm...

There was no formal licensing required or sought for embalming for quite some time in the US. Most undertakers were either doctors (who had some of the necessary equipment already) or cabinetmakers (who were kind of an early version of one-stop shopping), at least early on. Much of the embalming fluids used were personal recipes that were handed down from one practitioner to another, with no formalization or standards involved. There wasn't much master-apprenticeship going on in the traditional sense until near the turn of the 20th century, when the funerary trade/ home concept began to take root.

Most of the procedures I've seen involve two main incisions; one at the base of the femurial artery and one at the jugular or corotid. The corpse wasn't ideally "bled out" first unless that was part of the circumstances of the deseased's...well, demise. Otherwise it was more difficult to force fluid through a collapsed circulatory system. The fluid was then pumped in until the outgoing end ran clear.

Ok, I'll shut up now. LOL Thanks muchly for the recipe, though!

"Most of the procedures I've seen involve two main incisions; one at the base of the femurial artery and one at the jugular or corotid...The fluid was then pumped in until the outgoing end ran clear."

That's the common procedure for modern arterial embalming today; using either the femoral artery or right common carotid, and draining through the jugular vein.

"You can easily see a remedy for some rather disgusting ailments on the same page as a dessert. :: shrug :: You didn't throw me any."

If you'd like, I'll try and borrow one I know of this weekend. As I recall it's got several recipes for cures for consumption (tuberculosis) and dropsy (ascites secondary to congestive heart failure), among other things (an original printing, I can properly cite that one, too).

What would be the actual purpose for embalming in any case? Is it to keep a presentable corpse for more than a day or two, for viewing, even at the funeral? Or just one that doesn't reek for about the same amount of time in a closed casket, until the funeral and burial? I would imagine that would have something to do with what's used, and what it does to the tissues -- some of that stuff must be pretty corrosive or drying. I did notice the aromatics and the glycerin, which seem to point to keeping a presentable odor and maybe less dessicated tissues.

Sekhmet wrote: "Most of the procedures I've seen involve two main incisions; one at the base of the femurial artery and one at the jugular or corotid. The corpse wasn't ideally "bled out" first unless that was part of the circumstances of the deceased's...well, demise. Otherwise it was more difficult to force fluid through a collapsed circulatory system. The fluid was then pumped in until the outgoing end ran clear. "

Aha. That makes sense.

I don't mean to annoy Shadows, and if this isn't where he wants this thread I hope it gets moved to someplace good. But I do find it very interesting.

"What would be the actual purpose for embalming in any case? Is it to keep a presentable corpse for more than a day or two, for viewing, even at the funeral?"

Precisely. Embalming doesn't prevent decay, only retards it long enough for visitation and funeral rites, which otherwise would need to occurr within about 24 hours. Embalming is also used when remains need to be shipped elsewhere for burial, usually by air freight. Originally developed during the American Civil War, it was an effort to preserve the bodies of wealthy Federal officers for shipment home to their families for burial. In April of 1865, the body of Abraham Lincoln, the first President to be embalmed, after lying in state at the White House for a week, was shipped across country by a funeral train, stopping in 13 cities in 14 days before finally being interred in Springfield Illinois, having been viewed in an open casket by an estimated 1.5 million people. Such a long and elaborate funeral procession couldn't be done without embalming.

I know it is not a joke, but it is not food, which is the subject matter of this forums topic. I have asked Macfive to move it out of this forum and into where ever he sees it fit. I am locking the topic until it is moved.

Moved and re-opened Per Shadows

On the topic of food, it's interesting to note that when Lord Horatio Nelson was killed aboard the HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar on the 12th of October 1805, his body was preserved in a barrel of rum for shipment home to England (a highly unusual practice; at the time the dead were usually simply tossed overboard, at least those without peerage). Upon arrival in London on the 11th of December, it was found that Nelson's field-expedient casket was much lighter than expected; someone had surreptitiously gotten into the ship's stores, drilled as small hole in the cask and drained off the rum, presumably for it's original purpose. To this day in the British Navy rum is referred to as "Nelson's Blood".

"The King, God bless him!"

Well, no, they couldn't very well just dump the hero of Trafalgar overboard, could they? One hopes the poor man had soaked up enough to do the trick before the excess was recycled, and that some of it was drunk in his memory: "The Admiral, heaven preserve him!"

Did you know, you can make a more lifelike texture of the brain for students doing cadaver dissection by adding fabric softener to the formalin? Apparently it is a great advantage for the training of future brain surgeons, since the formalin makes the tissues very rubbery and hard (as I remember from the high school days, with the frog, the kittycat and the fetal pig).
http://www.neurosurgery-online.com/pt/re/n...#33;9001!-1

Another one of those things you find out when searching for something else entirely. (But talking about "Don't try this one at home. . .")