KITCHEN WORK

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 310, 22 March 1928, Page 9

KITCHEN WORK

MAKING IT EASIER FOR THE HOUSEWIFE

Intelligent shelving can be made to take the place of the desirable but expensive kitchen-cabinet. If this can be grouped about the window, so much the better; but im the sink already occupies that position, then the next lightest place should be selected. Flap tables can be bought quite cheaply, and one should be fixed in front of the window. Then permanent shelves could be put up on each side of the window within easy reach of the worker at the table. Two sets of three would be sufficient to take the dry goods containers, and the other pars and tins holding materials required for cooking, on the one side, and cooking utensils on the other. When not in use the contents of the shelves are hidden by curtains of gingham to match the window curtain. The shell curtains must be put up on easy running window fitments, so that when the shelves are being used the curtains can be pushed completely out of the way. The gas cooker should be placed as near to the cooking table as is convenient, for this obviously saves steps, particularly when one has to keep an eye on a dish already cooking, while something else is being prepared. If you hare roo mto fix up yet another small drop table near the cooker, sb much the better. This one should- be covered with zinc or some other similar protective material, so that saucepans, baking tins, etc., may be placed there from the cooker without harm, and the mess easily wiped up afterwards, Zinc is very easily kept clean with hot water and salt.

prepared but most professional-look-ing dish. Custards should always form an important part of the sweet course in summer.

To Make a Custard. —In making a custard the. milk should be slightly heated before being added to the eggs. In a boiled custard this hastens the cooking; in a baked custard it prevents the collection of water at the bottom of the dish that so often spoils this sweet. Eggs should be beaten only just sufficiently to mix the yolks and the whites. If you beat too much the custard will rise and be full of holes. Beat the eggs and the sugar, which will make the latter' dissolve the more readily. Strain before cooking to get rid of the specks of unbeaten albumen, which will otherwise appear as white spots in the cooked custard. Cook a custard very slowly. A boiled custard can be served “with stewed currants or raspberries, or used to make one of the many variants of trifle. A simple trifle can be made by soaking sponge cakes in milk, flavoured with sherry, arranging them in a glass dish, sprinkling, with ratafias, and pouring a liberal quantity of custard over. A few drops of ratafia essence can be added to the custard if Ifited.

Custard in solid form is less often met with but forms an ideal summer sweet.

Gelatine or cornflower can be added to th« liquid custard, which is then set in a mould.