MRS. PEPYS’S DIARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 341, 30 April 1928, Page 5

MRS. PEPYS’S DIARY

MONDAY. —My maid Jane coming to me this afternoon in a great tosse j how her flat irons are all becoming j rough, also rusty, and this is a serious j plague to her. Do bid her to rub the j sole of her iron, while it be still hot, j with tallow or wax, a candle-end to j serve her well enough. This treat- i ment to keep them smooth and clean and to prevent them rusting in future, and so she doth promise to do as 1 ! TUESDAY, —This day do set about making a very excellent soap ball out of old scraps of soap, saved by me for this purpose; cakes of soap being very difficult to use up to the finish and yet to waste them a grievous pity. The method, when you have collected enough, is to tie them tightly in a piece of old flannel. Then dip into the boiling water until the soap be well softened and the pieces easy to mould together, when you may place in cold water until all is hardened. Removing your flannel, you will find a nice ball of soap all ready for your use, and so the trouble very well worth while. WEDNESDAY. —My maid Jane being out of her juncting, as usual on this day, and a visitor, unexpected to delay me sorely, do decide to curry eggs for our supper, this a dish not to take long in the doing, and yet to make very good eating. The way then, for two persons, is to take one small onion, to cut into small slices and to fry a pale golden brown, in loz of butter. Then add one tablespoonful of curry powder, and fry with your onion until it be a fine dark colour; add one dessertspoonful of flour and a little stock, or, at a pinch, if you have no stock, a little milk to serve. Flavour with salt, pepper, brown sugar and lemon juice; cover your frying-pan and simmer slowly for ten minutes. Take four hard-boiled eggs and remove the shells, with care. Cut them in halves and place each on a crouton of fried bread, and pour over each egg the curry sauce. Serve rice as a vegetable if you desire one. THURSDAY, —Mr. Pepys’s cousin Gladys, having lunch with me this day, doth confide in me how her cooking of dried peas and beans doth leave her very discontented indeed, and yet their use convenient enough. I, therefore, inform her that if she will remember to put a small quantity of bicarbonate of soda into the water in which she doth soak them over-night—-the quantity a-quarter of a teaspoonful to a quart of water—she will find them to cook in a considerably less time. Also do advise her to put a little bi-carbonate into the water in which she doth cook her beans or peas, for improving their colour and to reduce the time of their cooking. Some folk say that dried vegetables should be steamed, instead of boiled, when a very small quantity of ammonium carbonate is to be put into the boiling water at the same time as the beans are put into the strainer, and put the lid on firmly and at once, so that the ammonia, being volatile, lose not its strength. For all of this information, she doth thank me prettily. FRlDAY. —Mistress Towne to take a dish of tea with me this day, do, with my own hands, prepare a sandwich cake fresh for our eating; also trying a jelly filling for same, from a recipe newly found by me at my reading. The manner of it to take half a cupful of sugar, one egg, of butter one tablespoonful and the strained juice of a lemon. Beat all together and boil in a small saucepan, stirring well until your filling be of the consistency of a jelly. When it be cool spread upon your sandwich. This, as a novelty, I would recommend to all in search of one.

SATURDAY. —Mr. Pepys receiving of a present of a brace of wild duck, and he very cock-a-hoop that it should be so, do decide to cook them this night for honouring of a guest he would fain bring home from his golfing. The best way of cooking these birds, I will write of here. This to pluck, singe and draw the birds, to scald and skin the legs, removing the claws, unless, as many wise ones do, you arrange for your fishmonger to do all this cor you. Next, wipe your birds with a damp cloth and put a small piece of butter, with nenner, inside. Truss for roasting, tie pieces of fat bacon over the breasts, and cook for one hour, basting frequently. Now remove the bacon, dredge with flour, and cook again till brown and frothy. For dishing up, remove the string, place upon a hot dish and garnish with watercress in a tasteful manner. Serve with bread sauce, fried bread-crumbs and some good gravy. If all be faithfully carried out as I have writ, I doubt if in the best restaurant you could eat of anything better cooked. To remove sea water stains from brown shoes, dissolve a small piece of washing soda the size of a sixpence in two tablespoonfuls of hot milk. Clean the brown leather with this all over, and allow to dry on. Then polish in the usual way with good polish. * • * A little mustard mixed with batter in which it is proposed to fry meat such as fish or rabbit will improve the flavour very much. * * * When making voile frocks, allow a one-inch hem just above the usual hem line, done with the largest stitch on the machine, which can be taken out just before placing in the wash, to allow for shrinkage.