Tried a wheat paste recipe from 1887 and my book covers looked completely different...

I was digging through this old bookbinding manual I found at a thrift store downtown, and it had a recipe for wheat paste that called for boiling the flour for 45 minutes straight. I figured hey, how different could it be from my usual 10 minute microwave method? Well, after I let that stuff cool overnight and used it the next morning, the glue was way more tacky and held the spine lining like a dream. Usually I get these little bubbles or warping after a day or two, but this batch stayed flat and smooth. The color was even different too, it dried a bit more matte instead of shiny. I'm wondering if the long boil breaks down the starches in a whole other way... has anyone else tried old school paste recipes that just blew their modern technique out of the water?

3 comments

3 Comments

terry_jones23d agoMost Upvoted

And I'll be real, I was totally that person rolling my eyes at "old timey" methods thinking modern shortcuts were better. This post seriously flipped my whole approach to paste making.

anderson.david10d ago

Hang on, you let it cool overnight? I always slap mine on while it's still warm because I'm impatient. Does letting it sit that long really change how it grabs onto the paper? That's wild. I've definitely had those little bubbles show up a day later and it drives me nuts. Might have to try just leaving a batch on the counter and seeing what happens.

graceblack23d ago

Forty five minutes of boiling? Whoa. I didn't even know people did that. I mean I've burned paste in the microwave plenty of times but I never thought about going that long. Pretty wild that the color and texture changed that much. Might have to try it myself this weekend.