Here's your Answer

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 281, 17 February 1928, Page 5

Here's your Answer

TEY THE SUN Service Bureau assist you with your prob> lems, whether they relate to dress, health and beauty culture, cookery, homecraft, travel, sport or any other of the many things on which we are all constantly needing information. Whatever you** particular puzzle may be, we will be glad to give our advice whenever possible. All communications must be accompanied by the inquirer’s name and address (not for publication), and sent to THE SUN “Service Bureau,” Women’s Page, THE SUN, Auckland. Answers will appear weekly in this column. BEETROOT JELLY Take 2 quarts of jellied veal stock, 2 ounces of gelatine, 1 glass of sherry (optional), i pint of vinegar, the shells and whites of 2 eggs, some parsley, thyme and bay leaf and two strips of celery. Let the stock become quite cold, and remove every particle of fat. Put it into a stewpan with the gelatine, herbs, celery cut into large pieces, the egg-shells and the whites previously beaten. Whisk over a sharp tire until near boiling, and add the wino and vinegar. Continue the whisking until quite boiling, then draw the stewpan aside, let the contents simmer for about 10 minutes, strain till clear, and chop beetroot into cubes or slices and add to liquid before setting it aside in moulds to cool. “AMERICAN POPOVERS” • American popovers, when well made, are delicious with hot meat dishes. They are made rather after the style of Yorkshire batter puddings, but everything which is put into them must be kept very cold or they go flat. Grease several fairly deep patty pans and keep them in a hot place until needed. Now beat up two eggs and add, gradually, a cupful of milk, beating after each addition of the milk. To this add half a breakfastcupful of finely sieved flour and beat again. About a tablespoonful of melted butter and a pincli of salt go in next, and then it is well to beat the whole of the mixture three to five minutes with a wheel egg-beater. Pour the mixture into the greased tins, and bake in a hot oven for ljalf an hour. The popovers should be served immediately they come out of the oven. BREAD ECONOMY Bread requires almost as much care as milk if it is to be kept wholesome and fresh, though few housewives, and still fewer maids, recognise the fact. As soon as it is cold, it should be placed in a large earthen pan with a cover which must be frequently scalded and well dried. Leaves which have been cut should have a smaller pan set apart for them, and this should have the loose crumbs wiped from it daily. It is a good plan to raise bread pans from the floor of the larder by means of two flat wedges, so as to allow a current of air to pass under them.

To Freshen Stale Bread If entire loaves be placed in a gentle oven and heated right through, without being previously dipped into cold water, they will become almost like new bread. They must not, however, ■remain in the oven long enough to get hard and dry. To Slice New Bread To cut new bread easily, use a knife which has been heated in a pan of boiling water; this will prevent crumbling. Brown in the oven every scrap of left-over bread. Grind in one of the bread-crumb machines now on th Q market and store in air-tight tins. These raspings you can use for breadcrumbing flsli and rissoles, and lor puddings, etc. Hon»e-made Yeast If you make your bread at home, it is an economy to make the yeast also. Here is a recipe which you will find both useful and reliable:—Put two ounces of hops into nine pints of cold water, and boil for half an hour; strain while hot, and dissolve in the liquor two ounces of table salt and half a pound of moist sugar. While still luke-warm pour the liquor over a pound of Hour in a basin; pour by degrees, stirring it round till it is evenly mixed with the flour. Add half a pint of old yeast-—if there is not any left from a former brewing, brewer’s yeast, well blanched will do. If the weather be cold, set the pan with its contents near the stove for 48 hours. On the third day, boil and mash three pounds of good potatoes, with their skins, and mix them with the liquor. On the fourth day stir the yeast thoroughly and strain it through a sieve into a two-gallon bottle, cork and tie it down firmly, and keep it in a cool cellar. It should be shaken before being used. Half a pint of this should always be kept to add to a new brew. STYE ON THE EYELID This very painful and disfiguring outbreak can be effectually cured with the aid of an eyebath and a solution of salt and water, in the proportion of one teaspoonful of salt to a pint of lukewarm water. Or, alternatively, a lotion of boracie powder. Bathe the eye with one or other of these preparations, night and morning. After the bathing, put on a poultice of tealeaves, lukewarm. The troublewill soon disappear. PREVENTING FERMENTATION This question has been answered many times in these columns, and even as recently as last Friday. All liquors, syrups, preserves, pickles and sauces may be kept free from fermentation by the addition of a few grains of sulphate of potassium. GLAZED APPLES Pare and core the apples, and simmer them very gently in water, to which sugar to taste and a little lemonjuice has been added. Drain well, pour over them a little. syrup and cove» closely. When cold, coat the apples with a plain toffee mixture, first filling the cavities from which the cores were removed with a little ordinary jelly.