09/15/2016 THAT EXTRA INGREDIENT
Acts 2:44 And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything with each other, selling their possessions and dividing with those in need. They worshiped together regularly at the Temple each day, met in small groups in homes for Communion, and shared their meals with great joy and thankfulness, praising. [Living Bible Translation]
Summary
The expression “Elbow Grease” is an idiom for working hard at manual labor. It is also a humorous expression of the fact that many tasks require something more to get the job done---not something mechanical like a screw driver or a chemical product like oil, but something extra special, “elbow grease.” The expression was also a tradesman joke. A seasoned tradesman (e.g. a mechanic) would tell an apprentice to “go fetch some elbow grease,” and then watch as the unwitting apprentice went scurrying off to another mechanic to get it. That mechanic would in turn send the apprentice to another journeyman mechanic who then sent the poor guy on to another mechanic. Each of the journeymen laughed as they watched the apprentice run in circles looking for the elusive “elbow grease.”
Perhaps the idea that you need to put “more” than your hands to a task is what prompted the equally humorous expression: “she put her foot in it,” as a compliment to someone’s “fine” cooking. In other words, not only did the cook use his/her hands to whip up a wonderful meal, but that he or she put in a “whole lot more”---the whole foot!