WHEN PRESERVES SHOW SIGNS OF DETERIORATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 857, 28 December 1929, Page 24

WHEN PRESERVES SHOW SIGNS OF DETERIORATION

If your preserves show signs of deterioration, a little care now will save a lot of trouble later on. You can improve “sugary” jam by putting It in the oven to melt the sugar, allowing It to cool again before use, of course.

If the preserves seen to be fermenting, remove the old covers, heat the jars by standing them In a bowl of hot water, dip new covers in vinegar, and tie them down firmly.

Should jam become mildewed, scrape off the mildewed part and a little underneath, boil up the rest, and put in clean pots. Sometimes jam goes wrong because the place of storage lacks proper ventilation. In this case, extra precautions should be taken when covering the jars. Have a little brandy ready in a saucer, cut the papers in rounds, soak them in the brandy, cover the jars immediately and tie securely. Treated in this way your jam will keep indefinitely if stored in a cool place. If you are compelled to use a slightly damp cupboard for storing preserves, place a bowl of lime on the shelf. The lime absorbs the moisture and the preserves are prevented from gathering mould on the top. Replace with fresh lime as the old became ineffective.

When re-covering preserves, you may find you are out of jam covers. In this case take two layers of tissue paper, dip them into skimmed milk, and apply them to the jar while still wet. No cream should be on the milk and care should be taken not to tear the paper. When dry the jar will be quite airtight.

SNAPSHOT CALENDARS There is a "sameness” about the calendars that you shower upon your friends at the New Year, and that they in turn shower upon you, which tends to make them become terribly monotonous! Photographic calendars made from you own snapshots are quite a novel change. They take very little time to make. You can turn out about a dozen in half an hour, given the necessary materials. These consist of some stiff paper mounts, which can be had in a variety of effective tints, a yard or two of coloured ribbon, some gum or paste, a few small calendar refills, and, of course, a collection of prints from snaps of your own taking. The little calendar refills can be got at most stationers’ at prices from a penny upward. The ones with a month to a page are really the best for this purpose; the thick tear-off blocks are rather too bulky and, incidentally, more expensive. Mount the photos as artistically as possible by lightly pasting them on to the stiff paper mounts, then pierce a couple of holes near the top edge of the latter, thread a piece of ribbon through them, and tie it into a bow, not forgetting, of course, to leave a loop by which to hang up the calendar. The small refill itself can either be pasted directly on to the lower margin of the mount, or else suspended from it by two short pieces of ribbon. Paper discs can be pasted over the ends of the ribbon for the sake of neatness. .