MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1935, Page 7

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

MARMALADE TIME. SOME RECIPES TO TRY. This is the time when housewives are thinking about making marmalade, and the following recipes should prove useful. The first is for "light

texture” marmalade, and there is also a recipe for one slightly thicker, and for the thick, more bitter kind that some people like. For the first you will require 11b. of sugar and of a pint of water to each Seville orange, with 2 lemons to every 8 oranges. Quarter the washed and dried, fruit, and take off the peel thinly from each section, setting aside the pith and pips in a small basin. It is the white pith which gives marmalade its bitter taste, so

in this particular recipe it is not included in the main body of the preserve. Cut the pulp fairly small with a sharp knife, and slice the peel into fine shreds.- For this a pair of sharp scissors is more helpful than a knife. .Put, fruit, peel, and water (except one pint) into an earthenware bowl, and leave to soak for twenty-four hours. Put the reserved pint of water into a saucepan with the pips, pith, and the central pith from each fruit. Bring to the boil, and simmer gently for half an hour. When cool, strain into the preserving pan, having first given the pan a smear of olive oil to prevent possible burning. Now add the fruit mixture.

Bring all to the boil, and simmer gently for one hour, or until the rinds are tender. Fast boiling at this stage not only hardens the rinds but causes the mixture to reduce in quantity, thus upsetting the proportions of the recipe. It may be respnsible for turning the preserve into a hard, toffee-like substance. .

On the other hand, if insufficient cooking is given in the preliminary stage, the result will be a watery preserve with hard rinds. Add the warmed sugar, bring to

the boil, and keep boiling fast for about half hour, or until a little of the mixture will set when tested. The fast boil is essential at this stage

if the preserve is to thicken well and be of good colour. Skim toward, the end of cooking, using a wooden and not a. metal spoon for both skimming and stirring. Not only will a metal spoon discolour the marmalade, but the acid in the fruit will in all probability discolour the spoon. When done, stand the pan on the kitchen table and stir the contents occasionally during the next fifteen minutes. This will ensure an even distribution of fruit and jelly. 2k medium marmalade, slightly thicker in texture and more bitter in flavour, is made from 5 Seville oranges, 1 sweet orange, 1 small lemon, pints of water, and sugar in the proportion of one pound to each pint of prepared fruit and liquid. In this recipe only the pips are removed. These are boiled and simmered in an extra pint of water for half an hour, the liquid being strained into the main fruit-and-water mixture. The rind, pith, and pulp need cutting fairly small, either w|th a marmalade cutter or in a mincing machine with vegetable cutter. The prepared fruit and water must be left to soak overnight. They are then put into the preserving pan ■with the pip water, brought to the boil, and simmered until the rinds are tender. Measure the mixture, add the proportionate amount of sugar, and boil all rapidly for about forty minutes, or until a little of the mixture will set when tested.

THICK TEXTURE For thick, dark marmalade the fruit is cut more thickly, less water used, and longer soaking allowed. Take 3-Llb. Seville oranges and 3 lemons. Wash, dry, and cut up the fruit, putting the pips into a separate basin. Weigh the cut pulp and peel, and to each lb. allow two pints of water. Put all into a bowl. Take from this sufficient water to coyer the pips, and leave both to soak in theii iespective vessels for at least 24 hours. Then boil and simmer the fruit and water until the rinds are tendei about 11 hours—and boil and simmer the pips for one hour. Add the strained pip water to the main mixture, leave all to soak for yet a further 24 hours, and then weigh. To each lb. of pulp and liquid allow lib. of sugar, put all into the pan, bring to the boil, and boil steadily foi one hour or until a little of the marmalade will set.

LEMON AND GRAPEFRUIT For lemon marmalade use the following recipe:—6 lemons, 61b. sugar, 6 pints water. Slice lemons thinly, removing and discarding the pips. Cover tho fruit pulp with the water and stand over-night. Bring to the boil and cook till the rinds are tender (about one hpur), then add the sugar, and boil until it jellies. This makes a delicious marmalade and takes from 2j to 3 hours altogether to cook. Grapefruit marmalade is made as follows: —21b. grapefruit, 2 quarts water, 61t>. sugar. Cut. the grapefruit into four sections and remove the seeds and white pithy centres. Place pips and centres in a bowl with sutllcient water to cover. Shred the remainder of the fruit very finely and place in another bowl with the remainder of the water. Stand lor 21 hours. Drain the liquid off the pips and add to the fruit pulp, and bring to the boil and boil for one hour. Then add the sugar and boil another hour, or until the syrup jells when tested hi a saucer.

RED-HEADS AGAIN “FOR” AND “AGAINST” Red-headed people have been getting into trouble again, writes a correspondent of the “Daily Mail.” A history examiner at Oxford, the Rev. J. M. Thompson, of Magdalen College, has announced (to an audience of Socialist undergraduates) that the redder the hair the less brains there are

likely to be under it. According to his painstakingly compiled statistics, no young man or woman with red hair has ever achieved the glory of a history “first” at Oxford.

Most people are always ready to take sides about red-heads. You are either for them or against them. You either consider them monsters of temper, flightiness, and inefficiency, or you see them as the epitome of all that is warm-hearted, generous, seductive, and even intellectual. The only thing a red-head never experiences is being completely ignored. I

Red hair in women is always taken as a warning signal. Three years ago one of those odd leagues that are always being formed in America was established for the protection of men against these supposed harpies. While it is impossible to believe the league was serious, it shows which way the wind blows in the matter of general opinion. Not so long ago, too, Hollywood’s prime platinum blonde, Jean Harlow, made a picture about red-headed women, and greatly to their discredit.

Being officially a blonde she could afford to do it, but it cannot have made life easier for the thousands of girls who from their school days have been labelled either “Ginger” or “Carrots.”

It is more than likely that all the disagreeable things said about redheaded people are wrong. Every now' and then an anthropologist or specialist in some other learned “ology” sends out the word from his laboratory that red-heads have more vitality, mental vigour, or immunity from disease. Some famous charmers and some very great men are claimed by the red-heads as being of their colour. Cleopatra had (as far as we know) reddish hair, Mary Queen of Scots was as warm in colour as in temperament, even Helen of Troy’s goldwas of the fiery kind. Nell Gwynn’s hair is said to have been as red as Clara Bow’s, and Queen Elizabeth (even when her red hair was only a wig) had a fine company of admirers. In more recent times Sarah Bernhardt made red hair seem a divine beauty in a wpman, and in our own day women of such talent and charm as Fay Compton and Conchita Supervia show us what a glorious thing red hair can really be. Red-headed men get less admiration.

Though they claim Caesar, Napoleon, Columbus, and even Cromwell among their number, I doubt if there are many red-haired men who would not gladly change to a less conspicuous colour. GETTING RID OF MOTHS Moths do so much damage to clothes, furnishings and carpets that many housewives declare that mothballs are useless for repelling their attacks. This belief is erroneous. Moth-balls are quite effective in keeping moths away. Where they fall short of the ideal is in failing to kill the larvae which hatch from eggs already on the clothing or furnishings, andi this is the cause of most damage. In the case of garments, wash and clean them immediately before storing, and put them, together with some moth-balls, in an unbleached calico bag. Bo sure to see that opening to the bag is securely sealed. It is worth the trifling cost involved, if you have reason to suspect that fabrics or garments are impregnated with larvae, to spray them with some of the excellent compounds now manufactured for the purpose. Carpets, furnishings, and upholstery can be guarded against the depredations of moths by sprinkling them with alum. In the case of carpets, sprinkle alum under the carpet at, intervals. The Vacuum cleaner, when drawing in through the carpet, will ensure that the alum powder is well distributed.