KITCHEN WEIGHTS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 120, 18 February 1928, Page 16

KITCHEN WEIGHTS

Measure and weigh carefully. It is a mistake to guess the quantities of ingredients when making cakes and puddings. A good pair of scales is a very useful kitchen possession. If you have to use a substitute for scales in weighing them, don’t forget that the most important point is to keep the exact proportions—just so much shortening to so much Hour, for instance. When cooking have a reliable clock in the kitchen and use it. Cookery books often give time directions.

Test the heat of vour oven when baking. If you have no thermometer, test the oven with a sheet of white notepaper. Shut this in the oven while you count a hundred, then look at it. If it hasn’t coloured, the oven, is too slow—too slow for anything lint meringues; if pale brown, moderate; if deep brown, quick; if actually blackened and burnt, the oven is fierce and must be cooled before use. Most cookery books give directions as to the state of oven required for baking various dishes. Stewed fruit, milk puddings, and casserole dishes are best cooked slowly in a moderale oven. Pastry requires a hot oven. To Make Flowers Last. Many are the ways of prolonging the life and freshness of the contents of the flower bowls, little tricks that the florist knows, and the home-keeper has forgotten or never knew. Here are a few of them to remind the unwary:— Some flowers, such as roses, tulips, and daffodils, respond to fresh water every day, because they thrive best in very' cold water. Shrubby plants and chrysanthemums ' last longer when their receptacles are just filled up every day, without being emptied first. Never allow the foliage of any plant to lie in the water. With all woodystemmed plants, peel the bark off for an inch or two at the bottom, and slit the stem up the centre. With the succulent-stemmed flowers, cut the ends daily, and do a crosscut with scissors or a sharp knife, and perform both operations with the stalks under water. Earthenware is better for flowers than glass.

An asperin tablet in flic water will revive drooping blossoms quickly, almost magically, but thev will recover only for a very short time. Charcoal and carbonate of soda take longer to act, but have more permanent effects. A very small quantity of cither should be put into a jug of water. Let the fading flowers stand in this for four or five hours in a cool place, then rearrange them in their vases. When all sorts of flowers are put into a single receptacle—and many people love an old-fashioned posy arrangement—watch them carefully, for often one variety proves harmful to another. If new shoes and boots are varnished on the sole with best eopal varnish they will wear much longer. An excellent remedy for sprains is to boil wormwood in vinegar and apply it hot to the injured part. If a piece of ammonia is placed in the glove box, it will keep the gloves in good condition.