HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 343, 8 March 1911, Page 3

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

GENERALITIES. Tinned and bottled fruit should be kept in the dark. A dry cupboard is the best place for it. Rice has a finer flavour if washed in hot water instead of cold before cooking. Tieces of linen saturated with pure recti lied spirit placed on the temples of a sleepless patient will often bring relief. If when reading or sewing by lamplight a sheet of white paper is placed under the lamp, it will be found that a far stronger light is shed all over the room. A small pinch of carbnnate of. soda in the water in which cabbages are boiled, preserves the colour of the vegetables and lessens the unpleasant odour whilst cooking.

Always remove the cake of fat that settles on the top oc cold soups; if allowed to remain, the soup will turn sour more quickly than it otherwise would. Cut (lowers may be kept fresh for a long time by placing their stems in a potato. Bore holes with a skewer and fix in the (lowers. Stand potato in flower-bowl —no water is required. Boiled starch is much improved by the addition of a little salt or a little dissolved gum arabic. To prevent the iron sticking to starched articles, mix the starch with soapy water. Salt and vinegar make an excellent mixture for cleaning water-bottles and wine-decanters. Put a dessertspoonful of rough salt in a decanter, moisten it with vinegar, and then shake the decanter till the stains are removed. If suet be melted down in the oven and put into jars, it will keep for any length of time, and is much easier to chop up if treated in this way. Puddings will keep better if made with suet that has been melted in the oven. The economy of brushes is quite worth studying, as they quickly mount up to a heavy item in the year's expenditure. A scrubbing brush that is left to soak in a bucket quickly rots. Sweeping brooms should never touch the floor except when in actual use; they should at once be stood on the point of the handle, head upwards, against the wall, if there is not a brooin rack. Dusting brushes should have a string on the handle and be hung up after use. Brushes should all be washed from time to time, as they get dirty, just as clusters do.

The shelves in the pantry often mean a great deal of scrubbing. This nted not be so if the shelves are covered with white oil-cloth, such as is used for tables. Cut the oilcloth in long strips about three inches wider than the shelves. Make flour paste, and with it stick the oil-cloth on the shelves, covering the front edge and pasting it underneath, and letting the oil-cloth come up about an inch against the wall at the back. Shelves covered with oil-cloth will keep tidy for years, and only need wiping ovei* with a cloth and warm water to clean them. To ensure success with herbs for winter use, fee that the mint, parsley, sage, and thryme are perfectly dry. Wash well, lay on a towel and partly dry; place on dishes in a brisk oven. When dry rub lightly between the palms of the hands until fine, throwing away all stalks. Put in glass jars and cork tightly. If the above directions are carried out, the herbs will remain their natural colour.

To prevent, broken button holes in children's garments, cut band for skirts and under clothnig long enough to turn back about an inch, and work the button holes through four thicknesses. For button holes that show, it is a good plan to face with a double strip of material. It may look a little clumsy at first, but is less unsightly than darned or torn button holes. In the same way buttons should be sewn on with small e.xtra squares of material underneath. To clean sewing machines lirst place them near the fire to warm, so that the congealed oil may melt, then oil them thoroughly with paraflin. Work them quickly for a few minutes, then wipe oil' all the paratlin and dirt. Treat them to a little of the lubricating oil. and after the applicati'-n of a little more paraflin wipe them again, and they will be ready for use. People often shirk the trouble of cleansing their machines like this, but a clogged and heavy machine under this treatment will become like new, and its working easy will be ample reward Cor the trouble incurred. USEFUL RECIPES. Pandores. --Required : I 1 at and lean meat, pepper and salt, minced onion, one yolk of egg, tablespoonful of I cream, thin bread, frying batter, and i boiling fat. Take equal quantities j of lean and fat from a cold cooked joint, chop both very finely, season with the minced onion, pepper and salt. Bind with the yolk of an egg j and a spoonful of cream. Make all | these ingredients into a smooth paste. ! Cut some bread into two-inch strips, 1 spread the mixture on them. Dip into this batter and fry lightly in ! deep boiling fat. Serve very hot, : piled on a hot dish, garnished with ' parsley. : Savoury Sausages. - - One pound ■ sausages, one pound ripe tomatoes, i breadcrumbs, half an ounce of butter, ; pepner and salt.. Method: Butter a i piedisb, skin and roll in sausages; | sprinkle dish with breadcrumbbs seai soiled, lay in sausage, slice over tomaj toes, cover with a good layer of bread- ; crumbs, pour over all a half-cup of ' warm water in which butter lias : melted. Bake half an hour. Sugar-loaf Cream.—Take a pint of jelly and put in a little dissolved isinglass. Make it firm with almonds or : cream, sweeten it well, and then put jin tin moulds Dip the moulds into ' warm water an second and turn them i out whole and in shape.

| Every-day Cake. —Required: Three- : quarters of a pound of flour, three : ounces of beef dripping, one quarter j of a pound of currants and sultanas ! mixed, two ounces of chopped peel, throe ounces of sugar, one r.easpoonful : of baking powder, half a teaspoonful of spice, one dessertspoonful of trea- : cle, one teacupful of milk. Cream the dripping and sugar. Slightly j warm the treacle and milk so that they blend, and stir into the dripping sugar. Gradually beat in the dry : ingredients, and place in a greased tin, then bake for one and a half to two hours.

Rock Cakes.--Ingredients: Threequarters of a pound of fluur, quarter of a pound each lard, currants, sugar, three teaspoonsful baking powder, one of carbonate of soda, one egg, about a teacupful of milk. Method: Rub lard into flour, add sugar, currants, mix; add baking powder and soda, mix well. Beat egg, add milk, and pour slowly into dry ingredients, beating well at the same time. Put into small patty tins and bake twenty minutes. Calf's Foot Soup. Required: A prepared Calf's foot, one onion, a car rot, a stick of celery, two tablespoonsful of tapioca, herb 3, lemon rind, tablesooonful of grated cheese. Take a prepared calf's foot and simmer slowly till tender in two quarts of water with an onion stuck with cloves, a carrot and a stick of celery- Strip the meat from the bones, strain the stock, and let it stand till cold so as to remove every particle of fat. When rqeuired for use, place a quart of the stock in a stevvpan, add to it two tablespoonsful of crushed tapioca, a bouquet of herbs tied in muslin, and a piece of cocked lemon rind. Boil all slowly till the tapioca is tender, then add some of the meat from the foot cut into small dice. Place a tablespoonful of grated cheese in the tureen, pour the soup over, and serve.