PULLING THE PURSE-STRINGS TIGHTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 150, 21 December 1940, Page 19

PULLING THE PURSE-STRINGS TIGHTER

HOUSEWIVES CAN SAVE FOR VICTORY

Much kitchen waste is due to ignorance of the uses to which scraps can be put and to laziness—"it's such a bother." Also there are many people

who are terrified their neighbours will think them mean. But the wastage of only one tea-1 spoonful of cake mixture every time cakes are made, through failure to scrape out the basin thoroughly, means that countless buns per annum are washed down the sink, presuming that the average household makes cakes twice a week. Pounds of butter go to waste every year because the paper is not peeled off to begin with and the butter put on a plate or in a refrigerator container. And butter paper is an excellent covering for a steamed pudding, or a lining for cake tins. SOUPS AND FATS. A very good foundation for soups, stews, and sauces can be made out of things usually thrown away. Carrot tops are rich in vegetable salts, as are turnip peelings, celery leaves, pea pods, broad bean shells, and the tops of leek. All these should be well washed, cut up roughly, put into a large pot with water, lemon rind, salt, and a j little nutmeg or mace. Boil for three or four hours, then strain it and rub the vegetables through a coarse wire sieve. The resulting liquid is well flavoured and rich in the vegetable salts so necessary for clear skin and pure blood. Kept in large bottles in the refrigerator, it can be used as required and may be converted into soup by thickening with diced vegetables, rice, or barley.

Fat is a most essential item in the diet, but'many peopie do not like fat meat, so, although you may cook the meat with fat for the benefit of those who are sensible enough to like it, don't serve it to those who only leave it on their plates. Cut it up and let it frizzle out in the oven while other baking is being done.

Even the little brown pieces that remain can be used. Mix with an equal quantity of sugar and double the quantity, of flour, and salt, baking powder, and spice, they may be mixed to a •stiff paste with egg and milk if eggs are cheap (or plain milk otherwise), rolled out, cut to shape, and baked. They make delicious biscuits. PEEL HAS ITS USES. Sour milk is used for mixing scones, , but if the curd is strained -through muslin first to make a cottage cheese, the whey may still be used for scones with as much success as the full milk. Scraps of meat can be finely minced, seasoned, and mixed with a little melted butter to make a good spread for sandwiches, while even the scrapings of the porridge pot make good soup thickening.

Potatoes should never be peeled. Roast them, bake them round the meat, boil or steam them in their skins. By this means no nourishment is lost and the time wasted in ruining their food value can be better employed. Spinach stalks make a delicious vegetable if boiled for 15 minutes in salted water with a couple of cloves and a little mace. Serve very hot with a little butter.

Fruit peels should never find their way into the dustbin, for they make splendid cool drinks. Pineapples should be washed and the peel boiled with a sprinkle of sugar and plenty of water for 20 minutes. When cold

it has been estimated that if every person in the British Isles were to throw away half a thin slice of bread daily, 250,000 tons of wheat would have been wasted every year, comments a writer in the "Cape Times." The most cursory glance at any dustbin would convince you that we are wasting far more than that without even bothering about it. For years the Germans have been paying the most meticulous attention to every scrap of household waste, and in the British Isles the conversion of waste materials is the seventh largest industry.

it is a delicious drink. Apple peels make beautiful jelly, and the skins of pears, quinces, and apples make cool drinks, very acceptable to invalids and children. FOR CLEANSING PURPOSES. The yellow rind of lemons and [oranges makes a delicious flavouring and should never be thrown into the | dustbin either. Grated thinly, dried, and stored in a tin, it is available for cakes and puddings—a much more I wholesome flavouring than synthetic essence, and much cheaper. v After all the juice has been extracted the pith may be used for removing stains from brass, copper, and white wood, if used with salt. And for softening and whitening the hands lemons have no equal. When dried, even after they have been used for cleaning brass, they make good kindling. In all-electric homes there are no ashes, but where fires are still. used cinders should be sifted and used with coal dust and coffee grounds for keeping in the fire. Ash makes an excellent abrasive and with whiting is 3 cheap and effective scourer for white wood. Dried and powdered egg shells mixed with soft soap will clean enamel ware, while banana skins will clean brown leather.

S\ "\ >T ERRY CHRISTMAS- W\ ®JJ l\/l The old wish may |WJ Wl. seem to many a little y*K W ironical and out of place this «PjL at year when anxiety is casting Taj \[ its shadow over the majority of If A homes. But just as England 'h. Wi has set an example to her iwJ mi Dominions throughout these jfi IS Past months, when in the fff a 7 iace or danger and suffering taji 11 her slogan has been "Business W f |\ As Usual," so is she certain to 'ML JO set a furthet* example of forti- \Mjft ||f tude and defiance this Christ- Jim JjS mas by making merry in so far In\ ,&' as circumstances permit. It is ViJ \± in order that Christmas may ,f <'A always be as usual for the i±\ &} people of the British Empire 115) ie that our men are fighting, J|| W therefore let us not forgo our fnT C" traditions even whilst the battle «aJ is on. A Merry Christmas. W