FUEL SAVING TIPS AND RECIPES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 209, 25 June 1943, Page 11

FUEL SAVING TIPS AND RECIPES

HIS winter we MUST be economical in our use of every kind of fuel-electricity, gas, coal, wood or kerosene. The war industries need as much as they can get, and even they are practising economy. It is up to us home-makers to use as much ingenuity in fuel-saving as our sisters in Great Britain have cheerfully done for the past three years. Send in your good ideas to "Aunt Daisy" so that they may be broadcast to the Daisy Chain throughout New Zealand. Room Warming: reduce the heat as soon as the room is warm. Water Heating: use much less hot water in your bath. Give up lying luxuriously in hot water. Don’t run the hot tap unnecessarily. Do the washingup as well as the laundry in bigger batches instead of frequent little bits. Cooking: plan ahead. Never light up the oven for one cake or pudding. Arrange a baking day. Pre-heat the oven. Bake a joint of meat, surrounded by potatoes, onions, carrots or parsnips, nearest to top of oven. Cut up green vegetables small (just wash Brussels sprouts), pour boiling water over, and boil for 3 minutes on top of stove, then drain off nearly all water, put into oven in casserole or covered basin, add a knob of butter, pepper and salt, and put into oven under the meat. They will cook beautifully. Prepare steamed pudding; cover the basin with two layers of greased paper, sprinkling first layer with cold water to prevent browning the top of pudding; stand pudding in an outer basin or saucepan and pour about two inches of boiling water round it. Cover the whole with paper or lid to keep in steam, and put into the hot oven. Alternatively, put a baked pudding like Apple Charlotte or Cottage, or Bread and Butter, or Queen Pudding, into this oven-space, and fill up any empty spaces’ with jacket potatoes or apples; or, if you have room, cook a covered basin-full of steak-and-kidney, or cut up rabbit and onion, ready for a future pie. You could even make a short pastry while the above dinner is cooking, and have it ready to put on the pie when the dinner comes out, Then cook the pie while the oven is still hot, with perhaps some biscuits or buns lower down, If the top*shelf food is getting too brown, you can always make the different shelves "change places,’ thus speeding up the dishes from the lower heat, and steadying the cooking of the upper ones. Thus you will have a meat pie and some cookies ready for another

day, with only about’ half an _ hour’s longer use of oven, and practically no use of stove-top. Of course this applies only to gas or electric stoves, With a kitchen range, you will cook as much as possible on top, as well as "packing" the oven, when a good fire is on. Pot Roasting This roasts a joint without lighting the | oven. Use a stout saucepan with a wellfitting lid. Melt some dripping in it, and when sizzling hot, put in the joint and brown it for a minute or two on every side, to seal in the juices. Cheaper cuts of meat can well be used for pot-roasting because of the long, slow cooking. After the joint is browned all over, take it up and put aside while you put in some sliced carrots and onions, and cook over low heat for about 3 minutes. Some outside stalks and leaves of celery may be chopped and put in, too; these give a fine flavour to the meat. Now put the sealed joint back upon the bed of vegetables, add a cup of boiling water, put lid on tightly.and cook over a VERY LOW HEAT for about two hours, or according to the size of joint. If the pan gets too dry, add a little hot vegetable stock or water. If you can fit a steamer on top of this saucepan, you can also cook a green vegetable and some potatoes over the same heat, Or you may add the potatoes to the meat saucepan for the last half-hour. To serve. dish up the meat and vegetables and thicken the gravy in the usual way. The Hay-Box This old Swedsh method for the economical cooking of food which takes a long time, has been revived with success in war-time Britain. The principle is roughly the same as a thermos-flask. Food must be started on a cooking stove and sometimes finished on one also, but hours of slow cooking in between can be done in the Hay-Box without using any fuel at all. Time Table (Approximate) Porridge.-Boil 5 mins. on stove, all night in hay-box. Stews.-Boil 20 to 30 mins. on stove, 4 hrs or more in haybox. Ham, Corned Beet.-Boil 40 mins. on stove, 6 hrs. or more in hay-box. Potatoes.-Boil 5 mins. on stove, 142 to 2 hrs. in hay-box. Haricot Beans.-Boil 20 mins. on stove, 4 to 6 hrs. in haybox. Milk Puddings.-Boil 5 to 10 mins. on stove, 3 to 4 hrs. in hay-box. Steam Puddings.-Boil 45 to 60 mins. on stove, 2 to 3 hrs. in hay-box. Experience will teach further ‘use. To Make Procure a box with well-fitting lid. Line thickly with newspapers, lid as well, Fill box with hay, packing very tightly for 5 or 6 inches thick all round. See that corners are well-packed, Make nests in middle of box for two or more saucepans of different sizes, according to individual needs. Saucepan lids must fit tightly. Make thick cushion of hay to cover over the top of saucepans. Finally, tuck all in with old blanket and close box-lid 4 st a