Household Hints.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 86, 12 June 1908, Page 4

Household Hints.

When Meat Appears Tough.—Add a tablesooonful of vinegar to the water or gravy in which it is cooked, and simmer very gently. To Clean Baths and Bedroom Ware.- Rub with dry salt, on a piece of coarse flannel. This removes all dirt, does not injure the surface, and leaves all bright and shining. Silk Cannot be Successfully Ironed Out. —Without first sprinkling it with water, rolling it up tightly in a towel, and letting it rest for an hour. If the iron is at all too hot it will injure the silk, so it should first be tried on a scrap of old material.

Ink Stains on Leather.—May be removed by several applications of weak solution of oxalic acid. This should be painted over the stain, and after a few . minutes, be wiped off. When thoroughly dry, repeat the process.

Piquant Sauce for Keeping. —And which makes a good relish for cold meat, is prepared as follows: Sleep three ounces of scraped horse-radish, and half an ounce of ginger in three pints of boiling vinegar. Stand this for twenty-four hours, then strain through thick muslin, and bottle for use. A clove or garlic will be found a great improvement to the above ingredients. To Cook a Tongue.—Place it in a saucepan, cover with tepid water, add a seasoning of herbs and whole spices. Bring to the boil and simmer very slowly for two and a half to three and a half hours, according to weight. When cooked, remove the skin, brush the entire surface with beaten eggs, and strew with bread-crumbs. Bake for half an hour in a steady oven, basting frequently. Serve hot with brown gravy. Boiled potatoes and a green vegetable should accompany this dish.

Staffordshire Beef Steaks. Buy of beef cut from the bladebone —you will find it very tender — beat it a little with your knife upon the board, pepper it, and fry it in a little beef dripping ; then lay it into a stewpan, with enough gravy stock or broth to cover it, and set to stew slowly. Now cut the onions into thin slices, and fry in the pan in which you cooked the meat, then add them to the steak. When all has simmered for an hour and a half, thicken it with a tablespoonful of flour. Have ready upon a dish a wall of well-mashed potatoes that have just been tinted golden in the oven, then pour the steak and gravy into the centre. This is a welcome dish for the working man.

To Clean Glass.—The best way to make windows, mirrors, or lamp chimneys look shiny and bright is simply to rub them with a newspaper. A large piece should be crushed up and used as a duster, rubbing vigorously. When very dirty, a little paraffin should be rubbed over the window, and then polished off with newspaper.

Washing Blankets.—March winds are very good for drying blankets, so householders would do well to begin examining theirs to see which need washing. Choose nice, blowy, sunny day, and the blankets will soon be dry and sweet and ready to use again. Shred half a bar of best yellow soap, boil it in two quarts of water. Pour this into a washing-tub of lukewarm water, adding a tablespoonful of liquid ammonia for every gallon of water. Rub the blankets well in the lather, and when clean rinse in tepid water. Wring, and hang out to dry. Good Polish For Bright WorkMix together a gill of raw oil, a gill of turpentine, a gill of vinegar, and the whites of two eggs. The mixture must be kept in a corked bottle, and shaken well before it is used. It improves by keeping. It should be put on with a rag, and as little used as possible, and then polished with a soft cloth.

To drive away mice.—The smell of peppermint is most obnoxious to mice, and a little oil of peppermint placed about their holes will soon drive them away. To clean the knives.—Bath-brick, scraped on to brown paper, is an excellent thing for cleaning knives, and does not wear out the edges. Gloves.—A piece of ammonia is said to keep gloves in good condition if placed in the box with them. Care must be taken, however, that the ammonia does not touch the gloves. An uurivalled cosmetic—lf your skin is inclined to be rough and coarse in texture, or sallow in appearance, you cannot do better than use a cosmetic made from horseradish. Well scrape and wash isome horseradish roots, cut into very thin slices, or scrape as if for horseradish sauce ; pour over about half an ounce of the roots a pint of boiling cover it closely, and leave to infuse until quite cold. Strain with pressure, and the decoction is fit to use. First wash the face with soft water and a good soap, rinse, and dry thoroughly, and then bathe the skin with the horseradish infusion. The process may be repeated two or three times a day.