Housekeeper.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 429, 4 August 1904, Page 6

Housekeeper.

POTATO CHIPS.

yWFfc **« potatoes, then cut them •jIGIC lutu Bi * ceß tae same thickness; dry 3KJ3? thoroughly in a cloth. It is best

to prepare them at least an hour before cooking, so that they are quite dry. Put into a frying-basket, and plunge into a pan of perfectly boiling fat; good dripping is best for the purpose. When the chips are a golden brown, put them on kitchen paper to drain for a minute or two in the oven or before the fire, then send to table in a hot tureen, BEETROOT IN WHITE SAUCE. Buy a large cooked beet from the greengrocer, put it in a Bteamor over a saucepan of boiling water and steam for one hour; remove the skin, cut the beet into thiok Blices, which put into a hot vegetable dish; pour white sauce over and serve very hot. SOUFFLE OF DRIED HADDOCK. Take half a pound of dried haddock, two ounces of flour, half a pint of milk, and four fresh eggs. Melt the butter, stir the flour, add the milk, and boil well; stir in the yolks of eggs, and t haddock, ohopped finely, season to taste, and lastly stir in the whites of the eggs, whipped to a stiff froth J puS ia small souffle eases, sprinkle a few crumbs on top, and bake fifteen minutes. Serve immediately, TO PREP ABE AND*" CURE HAMS Cut the leg of a fat Scotch ox as nearly ia the shape of a ham as you can. Take lob of bay salt, Icz of saltpetre, lib of common salt, 31b of brown sugar, which will be sufficient for 151bs of beef; pound the ingredients, mix them well together, rub the meat with it, turn it every day, at theruw time baßte it well with the pickle. Let it lay in this state for a month; then take it out. roll it in bran, or sawdust, and hang it in a woodsmoVe for a month. Ifc i 8 then ready for use. It can be dressed in a variety of ways. A piece can be cut of and boiled; and when cold it will eat like Dutch beef, or it is good cut in rashers, and broiled with poached eggs kid on the top of each rasher. . <

SPONGE OAKE ,A recipe for sponge cake.is always useful. I have jotted down the following from particulars given me by a first-rate cook. Take three tablespoonfnls of, selfraising flour { the same quantity' of castor sugar, and' two eggs. Beat up the eggs and eugar together, add the flour gently and add one. tablespoon!ul of cold water,

and flavour with Vanilla. Grease a mould or fiat tia, pour in the mixture, and put in into a sharp oven for five or eight minutes. If the sponge cake is wanted for a Victoria sandwich, divide it, before putting' into the oven, into two portions. When the first portion is cooked, lay it on castor sugar and spread the uppermost side with j»m, to which a little warm wvter has been added. Fat the other cake into the oven, and when cooked lay it on the jam and turn the sandwich over, resting it on sifted sugar. WHITE HANDS. In seeking to preserve the hands white, not only should local applications be employed, but it must be remembered that tight lacing has a great influence upon the colour of the skin, and it is as important therefore to abolish tight ligatures as to use cold cream. The latter should be gontly massaged into the hands at night or after they have bsen washed during the day. A fresh-out Blice of lemon, dipped in borax and rubbed over the hands, will help to whiten them; and glove-wearing when sports are pursued or dusty work of any Bort engaged in, is an inducement for the hands to remain white.

FIRING FOB THE SICK BOOM. As a rule, a eiofc room always needs a fire, - save, perhaps, in extremely hot weather, for no matter how ill the patient may be, the sick-room must receive an adequate amount of ventilation. If there is time to arrange details before installing a patient in what is to be the sick-room, see that the chimney does not smoke, and that the fire is properly laid, so that it can be lighted at a moment's notice, The firing put ia must ba quite dry, and a good supply of fuel must be at hand. Before the arrival of the patient the coals should be brought up in-: a fairly large quantity, so that there is no unnecessary noise to disturb him or her. Let about 21bs of coal be put into paper bags, as these can be easily lifted on to the fire, and all noise of shovelling will be avoided. Sometimes a little firing only will be w anted for the night. Three parts fill np the grata with lumps of ooal, then lay the fire in the ordinary way, with more coal on the top. Bricquets are useful; and if you start with a small fire of hot embers and then pat on a bricqust, the fire will smoulder gently until the morning, burning slowly downwards. If a large fire is ceecbd, use bags of coal, as already suggested: Fire-irons have a tiresome habit of falling down and causing a disturbing sound. Therefore, get rid of fire-irons in the.sickroom, and use instead, of a poker an old walking-stick, It is noiseless. Another precaution to be taken to avoid noise, this time of coals falling, is to draw the fender well out and spread the hearth with fine sand. Coals dropping on to this will be practically noiseless. A TASTY "STEW. Place in a small stewpot half a pound of lean steak and half a ponnd of sausage; cut up the steak in pieces about the slza of a walnut; add one small onion (chopped fine)."'a teaspoonfal of sage, salt, pepper, and a small piece of butter; ponr over about three gills of water, and stew gently in the oven for an hour and a half. When done thicken with a little flour and water.

CEEAM BASKETS. Make sis castla puddings of. the follow, ing:'-—Mix two well-beaten eggs, two ouaces of butter, four tablespoonfals of sugar, five tablespoonfuls of flour, and two teaspooafuls of baking-powder well together. Add a little milk if required, and bake in small, rousd tins in a Bharp oven for twenty minutes. When cold cut off the tops, and scoop out the middle; place in each a little jam, then fill up with whipped cream. Brush over the sides of the baskets with the white of an egg, and sprinkle them with angelica, blanched almonds and crystallised cherries well chopped up. Sprinkle the same over the top of the baskets. The handles are formed of thin strips of angelica. Should be served on a pretty lace doyley in a glass dish.