MRS. PEPYS’S DIARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 44, 14 May 1927, Page 7

MRS. PEPYS’S DIARY

MONDAY.—To my great pleasure that it should be so, do this day hear of a way (vouched for on good authority) for preventing the smell of cabbage, when cooking, becoming a nuisance in a small house; also a cause for grumbling, as naught to make Mr. Pepys more inclined to bad temper and the expression of same. The remedy, which I would have others to note, no more than to put a small piece of bread into the saucepan while your cabbage is boiling, this to quite take all smell away.

TUESDAY.—For sending to my good gossip, Mistress Bassett, do copy out my recipe, now very famous, for boiling a fowl that hath not any longer the merit of youth. The way of it to put sufficient water into a caserole which would not quite cover the fowl, the reason for this that any scum rising may not go on the breast. Next to add salt and pepper, a bunch of parsley with two bay leaves, a sprig of thyme, also one carrot cut into rounds and one large or several smaller onions treated in a like fashion. Let all these last boil together for half an hour, then put in your fowl, which has been well picked. The time for cooking should be from four and a-half to five hours, and this to be determined by the size, and the age of your bird, but whatever the time chosen you must do no more than keep all simmering, for if it should boil it would spoil in a naughty manner. WEDNESDAY.—That it may take the place of a sweet do prepare with my own hand a Kedgeree for eating at our supper, this from an Indian recipe, having shrimps to it for variety. The way to boil 4ozs. of rice till tender and dry as for a currie, and when it is cooled down to put it into a saucepan with your shrimps, peeled with care, what quantity of shrimps you use not to be determined except by your own taste. Now to cut up one or two ounces of butter, and to add it with a full seasoning of cayenne and as much salt as may be required. Stir your Kedgeree constantly until it be very hot; then mingle quickly with it two eggs slightly beaten. But now you must have a care that it does not boil after your eggs are stirred in, but serve the dish when they are just set. This also a very good breakfast dish, as all should know by experience. THURSDAY.—At a gossip with Mr. Pepy’s Cousin Gladys do hear from her how she did make her a good supply of orangeade, on a recent occasion when she would offer some refreshments during an evening spent at her house, with bridge for the entertainment. This she sayth she thought of as suitable because of the talk being now all concerned with the virtue of fruit juice. A pretty drink the result and well liked by her guests. Her recipe is to put same, with |lb. of loaf sugar to one pint of water, and to simmer all gently for 20 minutes. Now to strain the juice of 15 oranges of a fair size and to put it into a jug with three pints of water; when your syrup is cold to add that also, straining it. Thus is your orangeade ready. But before you would serve it a handful of ice, crushed small, improves it mightily. FRIDAY.—To my kitchen, there to find my maid Jane much exercised of her mind as to how she shall best weigh her some treacle, needed for a pudding, and this, she declares a sticky and wasteful process. Do bid her dredge her scale well with flour, to pour her treacle into it, and when it is weighed, promise her it shall run clear off the scale as it is poured into the basin; also to leave the scale clean. I do leave her again much the better for my coming, she tells me. And this, I think, well done of her.

SATURDAY. For eating at our supper (cold) upon the Lord’s Day, do prepare a sweet, new to my table, yet taken from a very old book indeed, and that called a Cranberry and Rice Jelly. The way of making it to boil well and to strain the juice, and, by degree, to mix into it as much ground rice as well, when boiled, thicken to a jelly; now to boil it gently, stirring and sweeten to your taste. Put it into a mould that has been wetted and leave until the next day. Cream or custard to be served with this dish for rendering it as good as may be.

An easy method of lengthening children’s petticoats is to open the shouldei seam, face- the edges and make a buttonhole on each end. Then make two straps the width of the piece over the shoulder and sew two buttons on each. These straps can then be buttoned in place, and will not only give greater length to the garment, but will provide the larger armhole which is also necessary. A squeeze of lemon in any stew or hash will greatly improve the flavour. Washing a stained teapot in hot soapsuds sets the stain. The most effective way is to put in a teaspoon of washing soda, fill up with water and boil it for a while. * * * If the wind-screen of a motor-car is rubbed with a cut raw apple it will not become blurred. * # * If the fire will not burn up quickly and you require some boiling water in a hurry, soak a lump of salt about 3 inches square in paraffin, put in s the grate and apply a match. The kettle will soon be boiling.