HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 368, 10 June 1911, Page 6

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Don't buy'cheap finery—it is extravagant in the long run. Tupentine is an excellent cleaner for many things. It will remove the marks of black lead from a marbel mantlepiece, amongst other things. A little salt placed at the bottom of the oil reservoir of a lamp will cause it to burn with a brighter light. When short of oil fill up the reservoir with water till the oil is all at the top. It will burn till every drop of oil is used up. This is also a useful expedient in the case of short wicks.

For fish omelet, beat up any cooked fish with a little butter and anchovy sauce, or lemon juice, parsley, and herbs finely minced. Stir over the fire for a few minutes, but do not let it boil. Then proceed as in usual recipes, mixing fish well with the yolks before adding the whites. Before putting milk into the saucepan, boil rapidly a few spoonfuls of water enough to just cover the bottom of the pan, and it will never burn, however fierce the fire. Kitchen chairs should always have wooden, not cane, seats, then if anything greasy be spilled, they can be scrubbed. They should be kept in good condition by an occasional polish with beeswax and turpentine.. A little milk added to baby's bath water will help to keep his skin soft and smooth, especially if the water used is hard. Use boiled water if the rain-water cannot be obtained. Hard water that is boiled for twenty minutes and has a little oatmeal or milk added to it will be beautifully soft.

Never allow knives to be long in water. When they are being washed they should be taken one at a time an d be held out of the water while they are being washed with the dish cloth. A small cloth should be kept for the purpose of wiping wet knives, since, if a tea-cloth is used, the threads get weakened and soon fall into holes, even if no actual cuts are made at the time.

If the asheg and cinders taken from dining and breasfast rooms are put on one side of the coalhouse and some very small coal dust with them, also tea leaves and potato-parings, damped well.and mixed all thoroughly together it makes an excellent backing for the kitchen fire during the afternoon. It burns brightly when caked and makes a lovely fire, "and is a great saving of coal. You may back up the dining room fire with good results. The most perfect wax for polishing floors can be made at home with very little trouble. To every pound of beeswax allow three pints of turpentine. Cut the wax into small pieces, and put these into a pan. Set the pan in a saucepan of boiling water, and let the ' beeswax melt thoroughly. Take it off the fire, add the turpentine to the beeswax, and mix them well together.

Carpet cleaning is a duty which should precede spring cleaning. Both mats and carpets should, in turn, be taken in. hand. Among the various methods which are given for the cleaning and freshening of a shabby carpet is to wipe it over with a cloth which has been wrung out of warm water and vinegar in the proportion of a cupful of the latter to a pailfui of water. This process must not be carried out, however, until the carpet has been carefully and assiduously brushed, and care must be taken to let it dry thoroughly before it is walked over.

Five minutes attention to the teeth every day will do much towards preserving them. They should be thoroughly, brushed night and morning, with precipitated chalk, both inside and out, and the brush should be used with an up to date movement. When pos3ible the mouth should be rinsed out after every meal. Don't use too hurd a toothbrush. One with moderately hard bristles, and not too many of them, is the best. Once the bristles begin to fall out, the brush should be thrown away. When not in use, the toothbrush should stand on end with the bristles uppermost.

Kidneys in tomatoes: Choose large ripe tomatoes, scoop out the inside, and lay in the hollows of each minced lamb's kidneys, season with pepper and salt. Put back the pulp as much as the fruit will hold. Place upon each a thin rolled piece of fat bacon. Secure it with a tiny skewer, and send the tomatoes to table upon slices 01 well made buttered toast. Pork saveloys: Cut the meat clear from the bone of about three pounds of pork, salt it with a half ounce of salt petre. and a half pound of table salt for two days. Chop it very fine, season with two teaspoonsful of pepper, a dozen chopped leaves of sage, and three-quarters of a pound of breadcrumbs. Bake all together, with it fill the guts. Bake for half an hour in a slow oven. These may be eaten boiled, hot or cold. Bacon and baked beans .-—Required: One pound of haricot beans, one onion, one ounce of dripping, chopped parsley, quarter of a pound of thin rashers of bacon. Wash and soak the beans over night. Rinse them well, and put on to boil in cold water with the onion and the dripping. Boil for one hour and a quarter. Remove the onion and drain the beans in a colander. Fry the bacon carefully and keep it hot; into the frying pan put the beans, some chopped parsley, pepper and salt. Stir till all is quite hot and the fat absorbed. Place the beans on a hot dish and arrange the bacon on them. Serve very hot. Stewed soles: Take the soles ready as for frying. When half done, take them up and put them into the following: One ouart of veal stock, two tablespoonsful of anchovy sauce, one sliced onion. Simmer for a quarter of an hour. Place in the fish and cook for fifteen minutes. When done, dish the fish carefully and thicken the liquor with a lump of butter rolled in flour. Throw in it a half pint of shrimps, shelled quickly, then pour the whole around the soles. Serve with half lemons and cayenne.