LADIES' COLUMN.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2132, 23 December 1880, Page 4

LADIES' COLUMN.

FASHION SPBAYS. A shell is the last new shape for a watch -ease. The woollen handkerchief suits are caiied shawl costumes in London. Color clashes is the expressive name given to some of the new combinations. The newest gold cloth is of fine net, wrought with leaves and blossoms in bright colors. Flesh-colored ruohing is newer than oream eolor or plain white, but it is exceedingly -trying to the complexion. Nicely fitting pelisses are made of oaahmere shawls. Wide belts are sometimes laced in front and -at the back. Two studs are worn in the high linen collars 'ifliat fit bo closely about the throat. Lining about the lower edge of basques is prophesied by a Paris correspondent. The Pilgrim suit is made up for children and the T*m o* Shanter bonnet is worn with it.

When laces are used on wedding dresses, sound point and the finest duchesse are •elected. Bonnets of peaoook feathers, with strings of peacock blue, are pretty head coverings for little girls. Veils of rose-coloured tulle are worn by Bnglish ladies. They impart a roseate tint to the complexion. Cashmere coloured buttons and belt buckler are used on the Oriental costumes so fashionable at present. Bioh, stiff white satin, brocaded in silver or gold, is the appropriate fabric for an elegant wedding dress. A foreign fashion is that of wearing scented petticoats, with sachet powder quilted in among the linings. The imitation spider, whioh is the newest thing in jewellery.has its body of pearls and its legs of oxidised silver. Some of the new Week stockings have red hands woven into them, so as to make them look as if cross-gartered. Gray plaid silks, in soft qualities and Eastern colors, are shown for sashes and caps for wear with light evening dresses. One of the new uses of chenille is to imitate feathers, and some imported bonnets have plumes of chenille lying on their crowns. Yellow pineapple cloth handkerchiefs, with one corner ornamented with an embroidered design in high colors, are considered elegant. " Carriage cloaks are made of India shawls, trimmed with fringes and passementeries, displaying many shades of rich India em--broidery. > Among the silks are quaint twilled fabrics -with Egyptian designs, such as jars, lotus leaves, -wading birds, and ferns brocaded on their surface.

Princess gowns with fronts of colored satin are very fashionable. Several fronts go with one gown, and a change in the tint transforms the gown. Crochet is revived in England, but instead of being done in white thread, it is made in colors, both laces and quilts being made in contrasting hues. Hoods are never sown to the edge of the garment they are worn with unless tbe dressmaker is too careless to finish both the neok of the hood and of the garment. Hooks and eyes of filigree sold are placed en the'bonnets to clasp the broad ribbons, and under the chins to fasten the strings. Cloaks will also be fastened with them.

The last term used by fashion writers is calling a gown " restful; " a style of gown seldom mentioned is "restful," but it is not known as a walking or out-door costume. Turkish and Bulgarian embroideries are sow much used for ties and cap trimmings. This work is easily imitated by those who find artistic embroidery beyond their skill. A new boot is of fine French kid, the tops of which- are rolled over, the reverse being lined with silk and embroidered in shades to match the colors in the costume worn at the time.

Dresß material of heavy blacks brocaded satin, the figures of which are out-lined with jet beads, a jet tassel or bell hanging from each figure, is novel and pretty. It only costs SOdols per-yard. New fans are made of black cook's feathers, ao arranged that the curly tips overtie eaoh other, and the small blue-green feathers of the pea-fowl's breast are also used in combination with the little red feathers from the wing of the gray parrot. THE HOME. • [.From the "Queen." 3 When economy becomes a strict necessity in a household,' the first items of expenditure which are cut down are usually those connected with the cuisine. Possibly this is as it should be, for as a nation we are proverbial for taking more than is necessary to health in the matter-of food and drink ; therefore the cutting off of a luxury here and there can do no harm, while very often cheaper yet quite aa wholesome substitutes may be found. Take as example butter and eggs, for which may be substituted dripping and baking powder (I mean, of eourse, for cooking purposes). If you do not know much about dripping, your oook will probably tell you that it is impossible to use it for light pastry—it would be detected at once by its unpleasant smoll or taste. How, this is only the case when it has been kept too long and allowed to become rancid. Nothing makes lighter or more deliciocs pastry than fresh beef dripping, if properly handled. I have known a house where the oook was a professional, receiving high wages, where the cuisine was of the choicest. Yet dripping to this London cook was never allowed as a perquisite:; it was always used •by her in the making of -pastry, both for tarts and pies, and most delicious was her pastry—like Chloe'e, it melted in the mouth, and one bit only made one long for more. Tbe family consisted of eight persona—two ladies, one gentleman, and five servants. Each servant was allowed half a pound of butter weekly ; yet the average consumption of the whole family amounted to 3Jlb, thus showing that for making cakes and pastry it was seldom if aver used.

Of fatty substances which como tinder the head of dripping there are more than most mistresses hare any idea of. Besides the orthodox drippings from the meat which is being roasted, there is fat which is "ran down," i.e., ends of cooked beef too fat to be eaten, bait which, if cat in pieoes, put into a jar with a lid and stood in a tolerably hot oven for an hour, will subside into & liquid in which some shrivelled parchment-like lumps «re floating. This liquid fat, when strained, is of a pale yellow color, about the consistency of butter, and most valuable for the best kinds of pastry, ft has no unpleasant smell or taste. The lumps oi shrivelled meat need not be discarded; they will make what are termed "shell biscuits/' a nice accompanineat to cheese. For this purpose they should *• lUownd to toil, tkeu i>h°P finely, add a

pinch of salt and double the weight in flour, mix into a thiok paste with water, roll out the paite lo about the thioknesß of a saucer, cut with a tumbler, and bake in a moderata oven till a pale brown oolor. Mutton dripping is not in any way eo valuable as beef or pork, it being only fio for fiyinsr purposes; but bacon fat should nevor be discarded, it being equal to lard for cakes and pastry. A great objection to it, however, is that it looks so dark ; but this, being the fault of the cook, can be remedied. Bacon should be cooked in a perfectly clean fryingpan, and the fat, when the pan is emptied, be run through a tin strainer previously dipped in hot water; then a little boiling water should be poured with the fat itself into the basin. Thi3 will take all remaining impurities to the bottom, leaving the upper crust white and pure. Not only bacon fat, but all dripping should be treated in this way while it is hot. Strangely enough, the idea of utilising dripping Beems to havo been utterly lost sight of by the compilers of cookery books; probably because, uufortunately for employers, it has for so long been looked upon as a legitimate perquisite by the cooks, and so tolerated, if not sanctioned, by those in authority. Thus a recipe for the simplest nursery cake must have a certain quantity of butter, and not unfrequently one or two eggs. The notion is of course absurd, aa with Jhese expensive ingredients it can no lopger be deemed a plain cake. I append a xecipe for nursery cake. To two pounds of flour add half a pound of beef dripping or bacon fat, half a pound of sultanas, four ounces of moist sugar, one ounce of lemon peel, a litttle salt. Let the flour be dried, then rub into it the dripping, taking care that both are well mixed and free from lumps, shred the lemon peel finely, and add with the salt, sugar, nod sultanas, these latter being thoroughly freed from stalks and gritty matter. Bub all together, make a hole in the centre of the «iass, and pour in a tablespoonful of fresb brewer's yeast, then with warm water mix the whole well till it is of the consistence of moist dough; well cover, and stand in a warm place to rise, then bake in tins. This quantity will make two large cakes, each ol which will take an hour and a half to b»le in a moderate oven. If yeast is not procurable a tablespoonful of Borwick's baking powder may be substituted; when this is the case the cake raay be at once put into thetins and consigned to the oven. It sometimes happens that brewer's yeaßt has a very bitter taste; this should be ascertained before its use by dipping a bit of bread into it and tasting. The bitterness can be removed by mixing with it a little fresh bran, and straining through a horsehair sieve, or by dropping into the yeast a lump about the size of a walnut of red hot charcoal, then straining carefully as above. Endless small reoipes might be enumerated where the one or two ounces of butter, though seemingly little, but which, like the schoolboy's sum, " tots up to a good big total in the end," might be substituted by the well clarified dripping whioh ought to be found in every house where joints of meat are consumed.

One of the simplest ways to get rid of rats is to place within their reaoh a pan of flour mixed with unslacked lime, and a pah of water plased beside it. The lime causes thirst, and the rats die almost directly they drink. PioklißD .—Ssleot small onions, remove with a knife all the outer skin so that eaoh will be white and clean; drop into brine strong enough to float an egg and let remain there six hours. Bring strong vinegar to a boil; add bits of horse-radish and cinnamon bark, with a few oloves and two or three red peppers, and pour hot over the onions, previously drained from the brine. Rump Stkak, btswbd -with Onions. — Take a pound of tender rnmp steak, and dredge pepper and a little salt over it. Butter a saucepan, which has a tightly fitting lid, very thiokly; or, if preferred, rub it over with good beef dripping. Lay the steak in it, add two large Spanish onions thinly sliced, and an ounce of butter or dripping. Coyer the saucepan olosely, and put it by the side of the fire to steam as gently as possible for two hours and a half. Take it up, lay the steak upon a dish, put the onions upon it, and : serve immediately. It will be found that sufficient moisture has exuded from the onions to make gravy, although no liquor was put into the pan. Time, two hours and a half. Sufficient for two or three persons.— Casßell's " Dictionary of Cookery."