LADIES' COLUMN.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 221, 11 December 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

LADIES' COLUMN.

COOKERY. Roast Pork. —To prepare pork for roasting it is better to s-ore the skin •cross with a sharp knife, this makes it easier to carve ; let the scores be just the width of a slice apart. It must be placed in the centre of the ovn, or if to be roasted before the fire, not too close Sometimes a small piece of butter is put in a mußlin bag and the roast rubbed occasionally with thi«, until the fat melts thoroughly. If the pork is lean baste it well. Serve with apple sauce and pickled beetroot. t t t

Mock Hare Soup. - Ingredients : lib. lentils, pinch of carbonate of soda, loz. butter, i teaspoonful Jamaica pepper, white pepper, salt, carrot and turnip. Preparation : Soak the lentils all night in cold water with the roda, then wash tbem well and put them into a saucepan with cold water sufficient for the soup required.. Boil three hours, then strain and rub through a sieve into a clean warm saucepan, add the pepper, dissolved in a little cold ruiter. then the salt, the butter and a small piece of carrot and turnip cut into dice and boiled separately. If preferred the vegetables may be cookid with the lentils and rubbed through the sieve with them.

Stewed Fowl and Rice.—Pick and singe the fowl free from hairs acd feathers. Cut cfF the head, draw out the neck and cut open just above the breast, but leave the skin of the neck whole. Take out the crop from the neck, slip in the fingers and loose t' e entrails from their fastenings at the breast. Then cut a slit just under the tail tip, put in the fingers at this opening and gently remove the entraila, taking care not to break them. Take the gall bag from the liver, also slit up the gizzard and remove the inner skin and its contents, wash the outer covering well. Remove all the fat also from the inside of the fowl, as tbiß is very heavy. Wash the io»vl well out. Put in a little pepper arid salt, turn in the wings, tie the hind legs together with the tail top, put in the following stnffiing where the crop was taken out. For the stuffing: Some fine breadcrumbs, loz butter, 1 egg or more according to quantity of stuffing, and a little minced parsley. Beat up the egg and mix well together. Put this into the fowl and sew over the neck the skin to the breast with white cotton. Melt 2oz. of butter in a stewpan, put in the fowl and brown it well, turning it over and over. When Die ly browned add a little boiling water, set to the side of the fire, dredge over a little flonr, pepper and salt, cook till tender. Cook all the giblets after cleaning them thoroughly for stock. Boil some rice plainly, when done, strain the giblets and arid sufficient stock to the rice after seasoning it, to moisten it; dish the fowl on a meat dish, making a border of rice round. Thicken the gravy with a little flour dissolved in some cold wattr, season well then, pour over the fowl and •erre.

t t + Simple Christmas Pies.—lngredients : }lb. apples, Jib. figs, Jib. currants, Jib. raisins, Jib. sugar, Joz. ground cinnamon, soz. ginger, lib. flour, Jib. lard, 1 teaspoonful baking powder Preparation : Peel and core the apples and cut them into small dice, put them in a basin with tho sugar, mince the figs finely, atone and chop the raisins, or use sultanas, pick the currants and rub them carefully in. a cloth, sprinkling first a little floor over them, which helps to clean them ; mix all the ingredients together with the spices. Mince is better to be prepared some time before it is wanted. For the crust, mix the flour, lard and baking powder together, add enough cold water to make a stiff paste, roll out to about a quarter of an inch thick. The pies may be made in patty pana or shallow plates. Rub the tins well with lard, cut the pastry to fit them, put in the mince meat - , wet the edges and cover the top with paste, notch the edge neatly and bake in a moderate oven.

Carobee Boia- Poly.—lngredients : 1 break fastcupful of flour, 1 do. breadcrumbs, 2cz. suet, lib. jam, 1 tablespoonful sugar, 1 Broall tcaspoonful carbonate of eoda Preparation : Put into a basin the flour, breadcrumbs, suet chopped very fioely, soda and sugar, and mix with cold water into a stiff paste and roll out into a thin sheet about J-iuch thick. Grease a pudding basin, line it with part of the paste, spread a little jam in the bottom, then put in a layer of paste, repeating layers of jam and paste until the basin is full, wet the edges of the last layer of paste and turn down over it the lining of the basin. Cover the top with a piece of greased paper end steam for two hours. This pudding is very good made with app'ea instead of jam.

Rhubarb and Tapioca Tart.—lngredients : Jib. tapioca, Jib. sugar, Jib. rhubarb, grated rind of half a lemon. Preparation : Soak the tapioca all night in cold water. Put a layer of rhubarb cut in inch lengths in the bottom of the piedish, spriukle over a little grated lemon rind, then some sugar, then a layer of tapioca ; continue until all is in. For the crust : fib. flour, 3oz. butter or lard, 1 teaspoonful baking powder. Mix the flour, butter and baking powder with a pinch of salt well together ; then add enough water to make a stiff paste, roll out, cover the piedish, ornament neatly, and bake for an hour and a-half. r t t Fig Podding. figs, £lb. flour, Jib. breadcrumbs, Jib. euet, 207 i. sugar, half a teaspoonful of nutmeg, 1 do. cinnamon, 1 small do. baking powder, milk or water. Preparation : Chop tho suet and ihe figs very finely, mix the flour, breadcrumbs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder well together, then add the suet and the figs, with enough milk or water to make into dough. Put it into a floured cloth, leaving room for it to swell, and boil very fast for three hours. Serve with lemon sauce. ♦ft Pastkt Eggb.—Boil some eggs hard, roll them on the table and then remove the shells ; cover each well with finely minced cooked meat, nicely seasoned, then with a thin layer of good pastry. Brush over with egg and bake from ten to fifteen minutes. t t f Cabinet Podding. Bome slices of stale bread buttered, 2 tablespoonfuls sugar, Jib. sultana raisins. a little candied peel, 1 pint of miik, 2 eggs, .grate of nutmeg. Preparation : Butter a pudding dish, cut part of the bread into fingars, line the dish ueatly with them, put all the scraps with the seasonings into the centre, beat the eggs and sugar together, then add the milk and pour over the bread. Bake a light brown in a moderate oven. This pudding is generally steamed in a wellbuttered basin. Turn out carefully, serve with a sweet sauce poured over. t t t Apples Glacss.— Peel some small apples und make a good syrup with sugar and water, then put in the apples whole. Lift them out carefully and lay on a dish to gpt cold, then brush them over with white of egg well beaten. Sift powdered sugar over and put them in a cool oven to candv. t t f Chocolate Creams.—lngredients : 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of water or milk, 1 teaspoonful essence of vanilla. Preparation : Boil the sugar and water or milk seven minutes, add the vanilla when a little cold, st*nd the pan in a basin of cold water and beat until thick enough to roll into drops. Place on a buttered dish to dry ; grate some chocolate, moisten with a little milk or water,

stand Ihe basin over hot water to melt, drop the oreams in separately with a fork when they are dry. lift out quickly ai,d spread on a bu!t<red plate, ft'

Scgay Casdy.—lngredients : 2 cups ( f sugar, 1 do. water, 1 ta' lespoonful of vinegar, Pr-p'ration : Boil the c e ingredients half an hour, without stirring ; try a little in cold water, when it snaps, pour it on to a well-buttered dish and mark it in squares or form it into twists.