The Home

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 33, 17 August 1905, Page 29

The Home

By Maureen

Cafcfinct Bread Pudding

Butter the sides of a pudding mould and arrange crystallise^ iruit on the bottom and sides of the mould. Place a layer of stale bread, rolled fine, then a», layer ot fruit, and »o on until the dish is full, the top layer being crumfb^. Make a rich custard and pour it over the top of the pudding, and bake three-quarters of an hour. To be served with whipped cream.

Banana Fritters.

Select very ripe bananas for this purpose. Pare these and out them in small pieces. Beat the yolks of three eggs very light and add to the bananas, and beat to a pulp. Then add a tablespoonful of sugar, a tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of lemon juice, a little grated nutmeg, a cup of milk, and one and one-half cups of flour, or enough to make a batter thick enough to drop easily from, a spoon. Sift a teasrpoonful of baking powder in the flour before mixing. Beat the white of the eggs to a stiff froth, and fold into the batter. Diop from a spoon into hot fat, and fry* a light brown.

A Good Cleaning Mixture

For tin covers, etc., the following mixture is excellent -—Shred half a pound of soap into a bowl with a large ball of pounded whiting, and add enough warm rain water to make a paste of the consistency of cream. Take a little of this paste on a piece of clean flannel, and with it ,rub the metal. When dry, polish with a leather and a little dry whiting.

In Cooking Pies,

To prevent the juice from running out while baking make an opening in the centre of the tfpper crust and insert a little roll of brown paper perpendicularly. The steam will escape from it as from a chimney, and the juice be retained in the pie.

A Remedy for Toothache

Fill a small cup with boiling vinegar. Dip a piece of cotton wool into the vinegar and rub the gum-; let the vinegar be as hot as you can endure. Stop ' the aching tooth with some wool. Toothache caused by a cold in the facial nerves may often be relieved by wringing a soft towel out of cold water and sprinkling it with strong \inegar. This should be laid on the face like a poultice, and it will often be followed by refreshing sleep.

How to Serve Toast

There is hardly a well-appointed table to-day on which toast is not served at each meal. It is the fashion to i-lace a tiny toast-rack before each person— a truly dainty custom and one to be commended. The little silver racks, too, are pretty, and add much to the appearance of a table. But what of the toast which they hold ? Toast wants as much care in its preparation as any article of the menu, and much that passes for toast is unworthy of the name.

It is not sullicient to cut a slice of bread more or less thin (generally less than more), and hold it to the fire so that part is scorched while the rest is not baked, then to put three or four of these pieces in a rack, where by close contact they quickly become sodden and unwholesome.

Good toast is a dainty which is worthy the cook's best attention. For its achievement take a tin loaf and cut from it a thin slice. Place this- for a few minutes on the rack over the range or in the mouth of the oven to dry ; then toast it lightly or evenly on both sides before a clear fire, put it on the rack again to keep hot and be quite crisp before serving.

Trim it neatly, cut into three-cornered pieces, and serve. The result will be excellent, and the difference between it and the thick, sodden stuff generally served as toast will be as wide as the poles are asunder. The one is wholesome ami delicious ; the other, alas ! is too often met with to need description here.'