HINTS AND RECIPES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 41, 18 February 1939, Page 3

HINTS AND RECIPES

SOMETHING TO INTEREST THE HOUSEWIFE. To save expenses when using a gasstove, place over the top of the stove a piece of sheet-iron just large enough to cover it. Turn on one burner only, and enough heat will be diffused to cook several saucepans and steamers. Whatever requires the greatest heat should be put directly over the burner. The juice of a lemon taken in the morning while fasting is often a preventive of those attacks to which bilious people are so frequently subjetced. Jellies or blancmanges will set more quickly in mild w’eather if you stand the basin or mould containing them in a bowl of water in which equal parts of ordinary salt and washing soda have been dissolved.

| Refrigerators need careful cleaning. Fist remove the shelves, cleaning these and the inner walls of the refrigerator with a good scouring powder. Rinse with hot water and wipe thoroughly dry. Wash the framework with warm, soapy water, and rinse with clean warm water. Dry thoroughly. Oranges needed for fruit salad or cake can be peeled quickly and easily, and the pith is cleanly removed, if they are put into the oven for about eight minutes beforehand.

Eggs, to be hard, should be boiled for fifteen minutes; if done longer the yolk will have a circle of green round it. They will shell more easily if plunged at once into cold water. Made Better by Butter—Fresh butter is an excellent remedy for sore lips, chapped hands, and cuts and bruises. Rub a little over the affected parts before retiring. Butter will remove tar stains from any kind of material. Rub well into the fabric, leave for a little while, then wash in a warm, soapy lather, and rinse in tepid water. Foodstuffs that contain no fat will not boil over if a piece of butter the size of a walnut is dropped into the water just before it reaches boiling point.

Little Rock Cakes.—These are “emergency” cakes which can be made be made and baked at very short notice. They are very nice eaten hot. Ingredients: To 4Lb. flour allow 1 teaspoonfu! baking powder, 1 egg, 41b butter, lib castor sugar, lib currants, and, if liked, a little peel. For currants, cherries, raisins, sultanas, or carraway seeds may be substituted. Sieve the flour and clean and prepare fruit. Rub the shortening into the flour, add the sugar, fruit, baking powder and peel, then beat up the egg and add. If necessary add a little milk. Have a greased tin ready, put little heaps of the mixture on this, and bake for 1520 minutes.

Storing Vegetables and Fruit.—Buy fresh vegetables and store them in wire racks, root and green vegetables being stored separately. Fresh fruits and vegetables are best stored at a temperature of 40 degrees to 50 degrees, since they continue to ‘breathe’ and in many cases to ripen after they have been picked. Apples, etc.. stored in barrels and boxes should be sorted frequently, and all specimens which show any signs of decay should be removed. Soft fruits should preferably be stored in single layers. When Lighting Fires.—An aid to fire-lighting is to save every scrap of orange peel, dry it slightly in the oven, and then plact it with paper and wood in tlie grate when laying the fire. The oil in the peel will cause it to blaze fiercely, and the fire will quickly be got going. For the Hands.—Hands that are red and rough should be treated to regular applications of yolk of egg and honey. Take the yolk of an egg and a dessertspoonful of liquid honey, and beat thoroughly. Apply to the hands at night and sleep in gloves. Only the plainest and purest of soaps should be used if it is available. Otherwise a handful of fine oatmeal, securely tied in a muslin bag, should be placed for a few hours in all water destined for toilet purposes. Hard water is injurious to the skin. ChutneyApple Chutney.—Blb apples, 21b moist sugar, 21b raisins, stoned and chopped, Boz shallots, loz ground ginger, loz allspice, loz cayenne pepper (or 1 teaspoonful), 6oz salt, loz mustard seed (or dry mustard), 21 pints vinegar. Peel and core the apples, cut them in slices, stew them in the vinegar till quite soft, and when cold add the other ingredients. If mustard seed is used it should be scalded to make it swell.

Piccililli. Ingredients: 1 peck green tomatoes, 4oz salt, 6 shallots or small onions, 1 bunch of celery, 2 cupfuls of Demerara sugar, 2 teaspoonfuls white pepper, 1 tablespoonful each of allspice (ground), dry mustard and ground cinnamon, 2 quarts brown vinegar. Chop up the tomatoes and sprinkle with the salt, put them in a bowl and leave to stand all night. Drain thoroughly in the morning. Now chop shallots and celery finely. Mix sugar, spices and mustard and put in layers with onions, chopped tomatoes, celery and spice's in a pan, pour the vinegar over and cook very slowly for 7-8 hours. Grated or sliced horse radish improves the flavour. Mixed Fruit Chutney.—Jib apples peeled, cored and sliced, Jib tomatoes, Jib prunes (stoned), Jib dates (stoned), 21b brown sugar, loz mustard, teaspoonful mace, J teaspoonful cayenne pepper, loz tumeric, 3oz mixed spice in muslin bag, U pints

vinegar, loz. salt. Put fruit in stewpan with enough water to cover, and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Add sugar, mustard, mace, pepper, salt and spice, well stirring with a wooden spoon. Add more vinegar, boil 10 minutes, lastly add turmeric. Pour into jars, tie down when cold.

Marrow Chutney.—For this you require, 2 to 31b marrow, lib apples, 11b onions, 21b brown sugar, loz ground ginger, loz turmeric (for colouring, if liked), and four or five chillies, if a very spicy result be required, and 1 quart vinegar. Pepper, salt and mustard to ete. Peel and cut the marrow into small cubes, place in a large basin, add onions, peeled and chopped finely, and the other ingredients, sprinkle with salt and leave for 24 hours before putting into a pan and boiling all together till soft and thick, stirring well during the process or. it will burn. When done, put into jars and cork closely. This chutney is improved with the addition of three or four ounces of raisins, stoned and chopped.

Prune Chutney.—lngredients: 31b. stoned and soaked prunes, 2oz salt, 1 clove garlic, 1 pint vinegar, 2 tablespoonfuls chopped preserved ginger, 21b brown sugar, 3oz chopped onion, lib stoned and chopped raisins, saltspoonful cayenne pepper, 41b blanched and chopped almonds. Place the prunes cut in halves in a saucepan with the vinegar and boil gently till tender. Lift out the prunes, place in a basin. Boil onions and raisins in the same vinegar, when they are done add salt and sugar, bring to the boil, add other ingredients, and when a syrup pour over the prunes. Place in a large jar and stand in a warm place for two hours, then pot and seal.