Household Hints

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 268, 15 June 1910, Page 3

Household Hints

RECIPES. Hash of Cold Beef or Mutton.— Some one said that a warmed-up dish was never worth anything. I believe the man who expressed that opinion was in some sense justified because hashes, as they are oftenest served, are horribly messy, flavourless, watery, and the meat very like leather for toughness. Indifferent cooks will boil hashes. It is a gastronomic crime for which they deserve trouncing. Try this plan if you are re-warming meats: —Cut the meat into thin slices, free it from skin and gristle. Put a large onion in a saucepan with two ounces of butter and a tablespoonful of flour. Stir these over the fire until smoothly mixed and brown. Be careful they do not burn. Add gradually half a pint of good stock oc water and the trimmings of the meat and the bones. Simmer gently till the sauce is as thick as cream. Strain it, and put in the meat. Let it remain until hot — but the sauce must never boil after the meat is put in. I would like to write that admonition in capitals, for as surely as you boil the meat, it becomes leathery. A hash must be served on very hot plates, and promptly. It may be varied in flavour by the introduction of finley-minced green pickles, a few stewed mushrooms, or tomatoes, these to be added before the meat is put. in. Serve with toasted tippets. So made the hashes, instead of being despised as they are, might become not only economical, but favourite dishes.

Tea Buns.—Half a pound of flour, a quarter of a pound of sugar, a quarter of a pound of butter, one teaspoonful of baking powder, and a small cupful of cream; also three eggs. Mix well, shape the buns, and bake in a quick oven. Hasty Puddings.—Here I give two recipes for these simple puddings, which, if well made, all children and most adults like. Put a pint of milk in a pan, add a pinch of salt, and when at boiling point sprinkle in some flour with the left hand, beating vigorously with a fork in the right hand to keep the flour from getting into lumps. Continue until a very thick batter is made. Let it boil for a few minutes to cook, beating rapidly all the time. Turn the whole into a pie dish, put plenty of raw sugar, liberal allowance of butter, and a grate of nutmeg at the top, and serve. N.B. —Unless the milk is quite boiling when the flour is first put in, no amount of boiling afterwards will prevent the pudding tasting pasty.

Baked .Hasty Pudding.—Mix two ounces of flour with a pint of boiling milk. Beat it over the fire until it is as stiff as batter; then pour it out, sweeten and flavour according to taste; add also, an ounce of fresh butter. When cold stir in three well-beaten eggs, spread a little marmalade or jam at the bottom of a pie dish, pour in the mixture, and bake the pudding for half-an-hour.

Fruit Chutney.—Required: Two and a half pounds of green tomatoes, lib of sugar, three-quarters of an ounce of ground ginger, one quart of vinegar, half a pound of sultanas, one ounce and a half of onions, one ounce of mustard seed, eight large apples, one saltspoonful of cayenne, one teaspoonful of salt. Peel and core the apples, cut them in halves, halve the tomatose, and stew till tender. Boil the sultanas to a pulp in a pint of vinegar. Pass through a sieve, chop with a knife the pieces that will not go through, and mix all together. Leave this in a basin while the sugar is boiled in the other pint of vinegar to a syrup. Chop up the onions, then mix the mustard with a little vinegar and other ingredients, the small pieces of raw onion last of all. Stir well and bottle next day after again stirring.