WOMAN’S WORLD.

Evening Star, Issue 15064, 21 December 1912, Page 9

WOMAN’S WORLD.

[By Viya.l c. *'■ Viva” wilt in this column answer all reasonable questions relating to the home, cooker]/, .domestic economy, arid any topic of interest to her sex: But each letter must hear the bona fide name and address. No notice whatever will be taken of anonymous correspondence. Questions should he concisely put, and the writer’s riom de plume clearly written. ' ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. ... Alrgcnt. (a) Have, given three recipes fcbis week. The fourth was given in last week’s issue, (b) Homo remedies are seldom successful, bub any chemist will make up a suitable mixture, (c) Add a slice of lemon nod and pith. Put it in the boiler, and lei it remain until you take the clothes from tlio Donor. _"HD.”— Try a mixture of equal parts of 43ullors catch and water. Lay it on the slam- Leave till dry. then brush oil. If necessary repeat the process. HOUSEHOLD RECIPES. --Hot Weather Breakfasts.— Scallops.-r-Eight ounces of chopped meat or fish, quarter of a pint of brown or white sauce or thickened gravy, a few browned crumbs, about an ounce of butter or good dripping, salt and pepper. When making meat scallops, you may add a few grains of nutmeg, and sometimes a little‘chopped parsley and herbs. Remove all skin and bone from the moat or fish, and chop it finely. Heat the. sauce in a small pan, add the meat or fish, and pepper and salt to taste. Thickly butter some scallop shells. Shake a few - browned crumbs over them, put in the mixture, sprinkle a good laver of crumbs over the top, pub on a few, tiny bits of butter here and there, and put the shells on a hairing tin in the oven until the mixture is hot through, then serve. The mixture is ail put ready overnight, and sometimes, if there happen to be any cold peas or kidney beans left over, put a border of these round each shell before beating. Biquant Herrings.—Required: A dozen fresh- herrings, quarter of a pint of vine-gar,-a little meat extract or a small piece of glaze, one teaspopnful of castor sugar, on© small onion, quarter of a teaspoonful of mustard seeds, salt, pepper, and tarravinegar to taste. Wash and fillet the herrings that is, cut ITI two and take out the backbone. Lay them in a jar, pour the vinegar over, and leave for 36 hours, ihen pour off the vinegar and sprinkle a tablespoonful of salt over them,‘also tho sugar, mustard seeds, and a little popper. Let Ahem stand in a cool place for two or three honrs. Put a quarter of a pint of vinegar in a small pan, add the glaze and sliced onion, and bring them to the boil Pour it over the fish, adding two or three teaspoonfuls of tan-agon vinegar. Cover th© jar closely, and bake for one and a-half hours. Let the herrings stand for two or three days; they are then ready. Salad.—Required: Six ounces of carefully bailed macaroni, six ounces of any cooked fish, time© teaspoonfuls of chopped parsley, two lettuces, salt and pepper. Remove all skin and bone from the fish, and break the flesh into large flakes. Cut the macaroni into inch lengths, and mix them with the fish; arrange them in the centre of tho salad bowl. ash the lettuces carefully, dry them lightly, and tear them into small pieces; arrange in a border round and sprinkle the parsley over the salad. Hand with it any good salad dressing, or merely the oil and vinegar.

Lgg Salad.—Sometimes for a change I us*> hard-boiled eggs instead of fish; thev make a pleasing change, besides being always procurable, which is not invariably the case with fish—at least, not in the country. I- boil the eggs for 20 minutes, then put them in cold water, shell them, cut them in thick slices, and cut each slice in halves, then proceed as for fish salad. Meat Toasts.—Bequired : Four ounces of any kind of cold meat, one ounce of butter or good dripping, one teaspoonful each of chopped parsley and onion, two tomatoes or a little tomato sauce, hot buttered toast, two eggs, about a tablespoonful of milk, salt, pepper, and a few grains of nutmeg. Chop the meat finely, add the parsley and onion. Melt the butter In a saucepan, and when it is hot pour in the beaten eggs; add the milk and a dust of salt and pepper. Stir this mixture over the fire until it becomes creamy, then rub the two tomatoes through a sieve, and add them and the meat. Stir the mixture over the fire until it is very hot; then heap it up on some neatly-trimmed squares of toast. Sprinkle a little chopped parsley over the top of each, and serve. N.B. :If more convenient, leave out the tomatoes, and use a little Worcester sauce or ketchup instead.

•Rabbit and _ Ham Cake.—Required : One large -rabbit, half a pound of ham, two teaspoonfnls of chopped parsley, one teaspoonfol of grated lemon rind, half an ounce of leaf gelatine, three hard-boiled egga. Decorate the bottom and sides of a plain mould with slices of hard-boiled e gg> and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Out the meat from the rabbit and the ham into neat cubes: then fill the mould with alternate layers of meat, hard-boiled egg, adding a seasoning of salt, pepper, and grated lemon rind. Next pour in a quarter of a pint of stock made from the bones of the rabbit. Cover the top of the , .mould with a piece of greased paper, and •*' let it cook in a slow oven for about four hours. Then take off the paper, fill the mould up to the top with stock in which the gelatine has been melted. Leave it until-it is cold and set. Then dip the mould into some tepid water, and turn the cake- carefully on to a dish. Serve it garnished with a sprig of fresh parslev. __ Baked Tomatoes and Eggs.—Required : Four or more well-shaped," even-sized tomatoes, an egg for each tomato, pepper and salt, a little chopped parsley. Cut the top neatly off each tomato, then with a pointed knife scoop out the pulp from the inside, leaving, a neat case. Break an egg into a cup, then slip it carefully into a tomato. Arrange the tomatoes on a baking tin, keeping them upright with wedges of crust of bread. Bake them gently until the egg is just set. Sprinkleeach with a dust of salt, pepper, and parsley, and serve them on a hot dish on neat rounds of hot toast or fried bread. Waltham Pudding.—Required: Eight ounces of flour, six ounces of chopped suet, three ounces of breadcrumbs, one teaepoonful of baking powder, one teaspoonrnl of salt, three ounces of raisins, four ounces of Demcrata sugar, two ounces of chopped peel, rind and juice of one lemon, about a gill of milk. Mix together the flour, crumbs, salt, baking powder, suet, sugar, peel, stoned and halved raismsy and the grated rind and strained the lemon. Mix all to a soft dough with milk. Turn the mixture into a greased basin, tie a floured cloth over, and toil steadily for at least two hours—longer of possible. Turn out, and serve with hatter and Demerara sugar, or with syrup jam, or sweet sauce. Hop Beer (by request).—Pvequired: Six gallons of water, half a pound of hops, seven mounds of brown sugar, one teacupfui of good yeast. Boil the hops in a little of the water for half an- hour, add the sugar, and stir well until melted strain into a small barrel or wooden tub add the rest of the water, and when lukewarm the yeast. Let this ferment five davs, skimming each day, and add a cup of hot water and-a tablespoonful of sugar. &kim, strain, aud bottle, tying down the corks or close tho barrel tightly. It is ready to use in two days, and will , keep *ny length of time. r A Christmas Cake.—Required: One pound of flour, three-quarters of a pound *f sugar, three-quarters of a pound oi totter, 10 ounces each of currants, sultanas, ■ cherries, mixed peel, six ounces of •weet almonds, seven or eight eggs, one , *uhcß or lees of mixed spice (less if you *ro not very fond of spice), the rinds of two oranges and two lemons, a quarter A » pint of brandy or home-made wine or milk, half a teacupful of caramel, if vou want the cake to look very dark. Put the butter and sugar in a large basin, and beat with a wooden spoon till it is soft and 'creamy. Next break each egg separately into a cup, to make sure that it is good, then add to the butter and sugar, beating each.one in thoroughly. Halve or chop to? cheirjflfc tto jgeel coarsely,, shell

and shred or chop the almonds, clean and stalk the sultanas and currants. Mix ail the fruit together on a plate, with the grated orange and lemon rinds and spice, .remembering that, if you like very little spice, half the given quantity will probably bo quite enough. Sieve together the flour and salt ; stir them lightly into the butter aftd sugar. Then add the mixed fruit, mixing it thoroughly but lightly in it. If you wish to use caramel (which is burnt sugar, such as is used for coloring gravy), add it to the brandy, wine, or milk, whichever you may be using. Then stir into the other ingredients. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.' and bake it carefully from threeand a-half to four hours. Take out of the tin. and put the cake on a sieve to cool. Then wrap it up in tissue paper, and put it away in a tin until a day or two before it is to ho used, when it may bo iced if so desired. THE LAST PIT WOMAN. INTERESTING "REMINISCENCES. A report published recently of the death of the ” last pit woman in East Lothian” has disclosed the fact that another pit woman is still alive, and bale and hear tv, m the person of Mrs Smith, nee Katie Wilson, who resides at Ormiston. To an interviewer Mrs Smith gave interesting details of her experience as a pit woman. “ 1 was born,” she said, “at Pencaitlancl. vvhere’my folks had been during, and remained after, the slavery period. I mind very we cl the collier families all lived by themselves in a square near the Cross. Huntlaw colliery was going then. I wasna’ Moon,. but heard mother say coal was not so difficult to work, but getting it out was beastly. The roof was so laich creels could not be used, and it had to be siypped ; that is, it had all to be drawn out in wooden boxes without wheels. The women did this, for which they wore graith. and a tail-chain, and had to crawl on hands and knees among the sludge, and pull behind them like ponies. I was nearly eight years old then, and would have been down the pit at Huntlaw, but was of no use, owing to the severe nature of the work. —A Fearful Dangle “Me shifted to Eiphinstono collierv. My first impressions on riding the shaft at Waterloo pit were terrible. There wore no slides in the shaft and no cages. We were run down in baskets. Father twined one arm round the rope and me lest I tumbled out, and ho had to guard with his other hand from the ascending basket and the wall all around. Oh, it was a fearful dangle in midair ail the way up and down. And still there were fcwaccidents. I then went to the Nancy pit. There was an engine there for winding purposes, elides and cages in the shaft, and hatches with wheels for putting. An elder brother and I putted for father. —Fun in the Mine.— “We had rare fun there. The roads wore dry and easy. We used to throw aside our shoes and skelp barefoot behind the hutches all day long till lowsing time. Some of _ the lassies were rare players on the Jewish harp, and when trade was slack they used to dance like daft around the pit bottom to the strains of the Jewish harp. There were various games we engaged in which used to take up our time. Lvery Hansel Monday Are had a procession, all the girls dressed in white, down to Buxley, Mr Doric’s farm, and had a day’s fun there. I’ll never forget that day the line was sent down the shaft intimating that henceforth (1843) female labor was to be prohibited in the mines. AVomen and girls of every age cried outright, they had sore hearts, and grab all the wav home. How were they to Jive? They conic! do nothing but pit work, and saw nothing but starvation before them.”