homemade cold medicine

debodun

debodun

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Location
way upstate in New York, USA
My mom used to make this when I had a cold. I only remember the 4 ingredients, but I don't know what proportion goes with what ingredient only that it was 8 parts, 6 parts , 4 parts and 2 parts in some combination of honey, butter, lemon juice and whisky and heated up in a saucepan. Then she'd give me a couple of tablespoons of it. Don't know how effective it was a a cold medicine, but I felt better - probably the whisky had the most to do with it. LOL. I found this which almost describes it. They called it a hot toddy.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325196
 

yes we all were given hot toddys too when we were little, I hated it, can't stand the smell of alcohol even then... much less the taste .

they didn't mess about with butter and lemon in Scotland when I was little they just heated the whisky or brandy , some hot water & gave it to us on a spoon...
 
Sliverfox said:
Anyone remember mustard plasters?
Always got one stuck on my chest when had bad cold.
Click to expand...

My mother was a great believer in mustard plasters. The slightest hint of chest condition and we would smell like a hot-dog stand for a week.

The spring of my junior year in high school, I went through a bout of pneumonia. It was almost prom time and I wanted to get well as fast as possible, so I was submitting to her ministrations. The druggist had sold her on a strange Japanese plaster product that involved chlorophyll as its active ingredient and she couldn't WAIT to slap that thing on my chest. The day before prom, she slathered the concoction on me, throat to navel and covered everything with the cloth.

The next day, day of prom, I peeled it off to find out that I was bright green. OK, please God, it'll wash off. It didn't. Several sessions in a hot shower finally reduced it to a lovely shade of pale green. Unfortunately, my prom dress wasn't a turtle neck and I looked like I had some sort of creeping rot setting in. And I smelled like a mint julep.

Much powdering later and the addition of a stole draped artistically over my Easter-egg-colored chest and I was off to the prom. I could only hope people thought I was chewing mint gum.

Mom still loves her mustard plasters. I stick with Mucinex.
 
jujube said:
My mother was a great believer in mustard plasters. The slightest hint of chest condition and we would smell like a hot-dog stand for a week.

The spring of my junior year in high school, I went through a bout of pneumonia. It was almost prom time and I wanted to get well as fast as possible, so I was submitting to her ministrations. The druggist had sold her on a strange Japanese plaster product that involved chlorophyll as its active ingredient and she couldn't WAIT to slap that thing on my chest. The day before prom, she slathered the concoction on me, throat to navel and covered everything with the cloth.

The next day, day of prom, I peeled it off to find out that I was bright green. OK, please God, it'll wash off. It didn't. Several sessions in a hot shower finally reduced it to a lovely shade of pale green. Unfortunately, my prom dress wasn't a turtle neck and I looked like I had some sort of creeping rot setting in. And I smelled like a mint julep.

Much powdering later and the addition of a stole draped artistically over my Easter-egg-colored chest and I was off to the prom. I could only hope people thought I was chewing mint gum.

Mom still loves her mustard plasters. I stick with Mucinex.
Click to expand...
Was it Salonpas? I remember the smell, and .. it was potent stuff!
 
I always LOL when I hear about how alcohol cures or prevents a cold. I've heard that from a couple of alcoholics.
I worked in an aerospace plant. A group of us were discussing what we like to do to relax after we get home from work.
One engineer said, "The first thing I do is suck down a six pack of suds."
I said, "Six cans? Isn't that too much?"
"Oh, no," he said. "Beer's good for you." (Yeah...it's doing wonders for him)

When someone is addicted to something or just likes it, it cures everything.
 
There is one old grandma's remedy that does work.
Foods from the sulfur family--onions, garlic, shallots--do kill viruses & bacteria & boost the immune system function. That ingredient that makes your eyes tear is what does it. Works for me. The catch is, they only work when they are raw. Cooking neutralizes it.
Another one that kills viruses is Capsaicin - found in peppers & salsa.
 
jujube said:
My mother was a great believer in mustard plasters. The slightest hint of chest condition and we would smell like a hot-dog stand for a week.

The spring of my junior year in high school, I went through a bout of pneumonia. It was almost prom time and I wanted to get well as fast as possible, so I was submitting to her ministrations. The druggist had sold her on a strange Japanese plaster product that involved chlorophyll as its active ingredient and she couldn't WAIT to slap that thing on my chest. The day before prom, she slathered the concoction on me, throat to navel and covered everything with the cloth.

The next day, day of prom, I peeled it off to find out that I was bright green. OK, please God, it'll wash off. It didn't. Several sessions in a hot shower finally reduced it to a lovely shade of pale green. Unfortunately, my prom dress wasn't a turtle neck and I looked like I had some sort of creeping rot setting in. And I smelled like a mint julep.

Much powdering later and the addition of a stole draped artistically over my Easter-egg-colored chest and I was off to the prom. I could only hope people thought I was chewing mint gum.

Mom still loves her mustard plasters. I stick with Mucinex.
Click to expand...
Oh my - hysterically funny anecdote... sorry for laughing, but! (I'm assuming you are over the prom trauma by now and this is really well written!)
 
Mom's favorite "cure" for a cold was to take a whole onion, put it in a baking pan and drench it in honey and bake it for an hour or so until it was all "goopy." She would then feed me the syrup and take the onions and make a plaster for my chest. It seemed to work. I don't know if I just got better so I wouldn't have to lie around with goop all over my chest or if it actually helped. :p
 
Luckily I was born too late to suffer these treatments. I just got slathered in Vicks Vaporub and had it fed to me by a teaspoonful. šŸ˜„
 
My parents, also, believed in various "home" remedies....and they seemed to work.

Today, it seems to be all about the latest "Ask your Doctor" prescription drug....which often has side effects necessitating the need to take even more drugs.
 

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