Onwards, Miscellaneous Soldiers, Marching As To War!

[kiya]

From roimata: Hmmmmm. His nap-fu is strong!

I went through the recipe book from which I got the thing I made for my father and brooksmoses's brother for their respective birthdays, intending to make notes on some of the recipes involving said thing. There was one recipe. It required two of the other things in the book. I harrumph a great deal.

However, I'm in the middle of making something for brooksmoses, too, and my kitchen smells like a curry. (Mind, teinedreugan was frightened by a curry when he was young, so this may or may not be a good thing.)

For my next trick, I may start up a batch of natron using the evaporative process. Perhaps by the time I feel I've sufficient clue to make ritual use of it, it'll be done. And this way I don't risk scorching.

There's stuff frustrating me, too, but I don't feel like writing about it. Mneah.

Comments

[ardaniel]

What's natron? And if you don't mind me asking, what are its ritual uses?

(I googled like a fiend and nothing was terribly informative. ;)

[kiya]

Natron is a white crystal (I want to say a salt; the recipe for making it is a combination of salt and baking soda) that appears naturally in Egypt. It was one of the chemicals used for the mummification process, and was used around the house as both a physical and spiritual cleanser.

Ritual purpose is purification.

This link covers some of it; searching on the word-combination 'natron Egypt' can probably provide you with more information than you could ever possibly want. ;)

[brooksmoses]

The OED defines it as "Native sesquicarbonate of soda, occurring in solution or as a deposit (mixed with other substances) in various parts of the world." Of course, since the OED doesn't define sesquicarbonate, that's arguably not too useful.

However, one finds with googling that it can be had from The Chemistry Store in 25-pound pails for $31.75 + shipping (also available in smaller sizes). And there are various data sheets with useful information, such as this one, which describes its therapeutic uses as dietary supplement for cows and chickens, and also explains that it's a mixture of sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃) and sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃), which makes sense from the name. (There's also a certain amount of water in it, which probably also isn't unexpected.)

Arm & Hammer also has a page on the stuff, explaining where they get theirs from -- specifically, a basin in Green River, Wyoming. And, finally, there's a proper definition here. Oh, and this place has a bunch of recipes for "herbal hydrotherapy" bath mixes that involve it. And an interesting description of a large natural deposit, which is to some extent colored red by what the writer thinks is from flamingo feathers (!). Also, a data sheet mainly on toxic effects (which are mainly what one would expect from alkaline dust; it's largely an irritant) but also provides a good overview of sources and uses.

Finally, in an interesting bit of circularity, it's also available as a cleanser -- specifically, as media for use in sandblasting. Also useful in archeological conservation of non-ferrous metals, specifically in cleaning and conserving copper-alloy coins, for which there are detailed instructions here.

And that's probably enough googling on sodium sesquicarbonate. *grin*

- Brooks