The Remedy 🌿 Guide 3–5 ingredients
← 🫁 Cough & Chest

Old-Fashioned Mustard Plaster

⏱ 10 min πŸ₯„ 1 chest compress 5 ingredients
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Why it works: A mustard plaster is one of the oldest chest remedies there is. The gentle warmth brings blood to the surface and the mustard vapor helps a stuffy chest feel like it can breathe again. Your great-grandmother almost certainly made one.
From my cabinet

Cold-pressed and high in carvacrol, the compound that does the actual work. A bottle of drops lasts months.

This is the Oil of Oregano I recommend β†’

β˜… 4.6 Β· 1,100+ Amazon reviews

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Ingredients

Steps

  1. Mix the mustard powder and flour, then stir in warm water a little at a time until you have a spreadable paste. The flour is what keeps it gentle, never use mustard alone on skin.

  2. Rub a thin layer of olive oil over the chest first. This protects the skin.

  3. Spread the paste onto the cloth, not directly on the skin, then lay the cloth paste-side down on the chest.

    From my cabinet

    A plaster works from the outside. Through cold season I support my chest from the inside too, with 2-3 drops of oil of oregano in water. This is the bottle I keep stocked from fall to spring.

    βœ“Cold-pressed and high in carvacrol, the compound that does the actual work. A bottle of drops lasts months.

    This is the Oil of Oregano I recommend β†’

    β˜… 4.6 Β· 1,100+ Amazon reviews

    Opens on Amazon Β· We may earn a commission at no cost to you

  4. Leave it on for 10 to 15 minutes at most, checking the skin often. Take it off right away if it stings or burns.

Kitchen noteNever leave a mustard plaster on longer than 15 minutes, and don't use it on young children or sensitive skin. It should feel warm, never painful. Pink skin is normal, a burn is not.
More from my cabinet

The 8 things I actually keep at home, and what each one is for.

See everything I keep β†’

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