Women’s Realm

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12887, 13 June 1936, Page 10

Women’s Realm

By “Marie"

COOKERY FAILURES \ TIPS ON MAKING CAKES AND PASTRY There* *l*o. housewives who tiro inspired cooks, whose dashes arc never failures; then© are others who are quite definitely failures in the kitchen 'and who spoil good hood even under the best conditions; and then there arc a, vast number of housewives who are never quite wure whether their essays' in cooking will be an outstanding 'success or quite a failure. They may make the same dish several times and it will turn out splendidly; they will make it a. fourth or fifth time and, it will be quite spoilt. Why? They fc-ead a new recipe, and try 'it, ami it is not a success, or another recipe almost exactly the same and it is. Why? Always: they are wondering about their success or their failure—quite all right—and cooking becomes a real nightmare instead of an intorc,sting adventure. The housewife who has inherited, a, stock of well-tried and well proved recipes is fortunate, lor she is able to begin tier cooking with the happy knowledge that.her recip;is are basically sound; but many a. young; cook lias to find out by bitter (experience those recipes which arc good and which are not foredoomed to failure because, the foundation proportions are not correct.

If the recipe Is correctly chosen, then failure may bo due to the method of making or mixing, or to had cooking or in a misunderstanding oh the effect of heat. Fur instance, in cooking food in water it is possible bo achieve two quite different results. Meat, fruit, vegetables, etc., can be cooked so a>x to retain their maximum flavour, or these same foods* can be cooked so that the diffusion of the juices is procured. In making soup, for instance, it is necessary to extract, the juices from the meat or vegetables, but, in boiling meat for eating the maximum flavour must be retained. This its achieved by plunging the meat into boiling .salted water, wlrlo in soup making the meat is placed in cold water and the Lemperaturc raised very slowly.

J3ASJS UF CAKE C OOKriRY Perhaps the home cook's biggest failures are in cake-making. Knot of all she should examine lur recipes .so as to consider the proportions. How much baking powder or carbonate of rodu' and cream of tartar should there be in proportion to the flour; how much sugar and butter or fat, bow many egffu For plain cakes the basic proportions are from four to six ounces of fat, two to six eggs, four to eight ounces of sugar, two teaspoons of baking powder and from four to eight ounces of fruit to a pound: of flour. Within these limits your ree:pc is sound. For rich cakes the quantities are from cght ounces to a pound of Hour, tile same proportion of ’saga", from light ounces to three pounds of fruit., any number of eggs from six to fourteen, mul one tablespoonfulj of baking powder to a pound of (lour. For sponge cakes a. safe proportion is, for each egg add the weight in sugar and half the weight in flour. Rut even with a thoroughly sound recipe failures do occur. A, common happening in making fruit cakes is to find the. fruit sunk to the bottom. This is generally due to the mixture being too moist, or it may happen if the fruit lias been added to the o".‘earned butter and sugar before some flour has been stirred in. I’crimps the cake ha.s '.sunk in the centre. This may he due to using too much raising (Taking powder or soda, and cream of tartar), or the oven, may have been too hot; this is generally tins reason when sponge cakes, rich cakes and gingerbread sink: in the centre. Ocea.sknially •slamming the oven door will do this, especially F the door is pdammedt causing an inrush of eolil air, he';)ro tin; cake is •set.

Perhaps a. cake will have a- peak in the centre, or the top may he cracked and the inside hoi led over. Too hot. an oven generally causes this, or the cake may have been placed too near the top or too near the solid sheet, which reflects 1 the heal, with the result that the top is cooked and hardened too quickly, and the inside, when it began to rise, had to force its may out. A thin cake tin may ho the reason why a- cake has burned at the bottom, or this may result from placing the cake too low down in .a. gas or electric oven. Sometimes a Swish roll will crack badly. The reason for this will generally he found to: be too cool, an oven, for a Swiss roll, Requires, a hotter oven than a. sponge cake. Sometimes the outside appearance of a, cake i« excellent, hut when cut (he mixture seems to ho too

close. .Generally the reason for this is to he found in the mixing of the cake—the fat became oiled when it

NOTES, NEWS and HINTS

was rubbed into the Hour. When this occurs in rich cakes it is probable that the fat and sugar has not been sufficiently beaten, and in sponge cakes when the eggs and '.sugar have not been whipped together for a long enough period. In sponge cakes, too, perhaps too great a proportion of 'flour has been added, for this has a tendency to make the mixture close.

PITFALLS OF PASTRY MAKING Pastry las many pitfalls for the unwary, and though a, light band is more than half the battle, there are other considerations, too, which’ go to successful pastry making. As far as the foundation, proportions of the recipes are concerned—for suet pastry the proportions: should be from six to eight ounce** of suet and two teaspoons of baking powder to a pound of flour. The dough should he rolled once. In ordinary short pastry the proportions are the same—sav from six to eight ounces cf fat to a pound of flour. For rough pastry the proportion is from ten to twelve ounces of fat (the dough is rolled three times); for flaky pastry, twelve ounces of fat (rolled five times), and for puli' pastry a pound of: fat to a. pound of flour, and the dough is lolled seven l times.

!i short pastry i’s 1 hard an insufficient amount of fat has been used, or perhaps the fat has not been well rubbed in. Tn rough puff pastry this fault is usually caused by tile addition of too much water or perhaps the pastry has been put into too cool an oven. Sodden pastry in tarts is probably due to the fact that the steam off the jrrut has been unable to escape; n, slit in the top as soon as pastry is firm on the oullide will prevent this. If (he slit is made too soon the pastry will fall; on,, to the top o.' the limit, or this may happen il the oven as too cool. When a rough Puff pastry on pics, etc., seems quite brown and crisp outside and yet is soft and uncooked inside, the reason -S to found in the oven. It was too hot when the pastry wap put in. Few people attempt real puff pastry in their everyday home baking, and those who do arc usually proficent Woks. Sometimes, however, they are worried to find that their pastry has risen, unevenly. This may be due to uneven, rolling in the making, or by irregular beat. The oven may have been holler on one side than the other, and '.so it will r.se more qtrcklv 011 tire hotter side.

TREATMENT OF STAINS OX CARPETS. Iu keep carpets in good condition they snoukl bo rubbed oceasionallv v.ith a. little soap. A good soil]) for the purpose is made by dissolving half ii pound ol yellow soap in a pint of boiling water; when it has cooled, add two lubiespooniuls of ammonia and mix well. Hu use the soap, first of all vacuum or brush the carpet thoroughly to remove all loose dust. I hen get a clean flannel cloth, dip it into tire soap, and rub it thoroughly over about a square yard of the carpel, rubbing up the pile. Then wring out another cloth in fresh water and wash off all il to soap, taking care not to wet the carpet through. Repeal until tho whole of the carpet is dean, and do not allow it to he walked on until it is drv.

This treatment will remove all dirt and many marks, but stair and hall carpets, which got badly marked at times, need a little extra treatment. Therefore, a little turpentine and ammonia should be added to a howl of hot wafer, a cloth wrung out in this and rubbed over the carpet. To bring up “the colours and pattern of a carpet wring out a cloth in equal parts o! vinegar and water, and rub briskly

Stains should he removed as soon as they appear. Methylated spirit is good for damp ink stains, hut if the slain has dried, vinegar should be tried, rubbing it oil' ■with a clean rag after it has been applied. Sometimes milk or lemon juice will do the trick. Tar stains can be removed if a paste made with fullers’ earth and turpentine is allowed to dry on. afterwards being brushed off. Or butter can be used, hut it must be removed with benzine afterwards. Grease stains can be sprinkled thickly with flour, left for a, time, (hen brushed off. Afterwards rub (he spot with a few drops of turpentine. More obstinate greaso stains can be removed by rubbing on a. paste made by dissolving half a pound of soap in a cupful of .water and adding four ounces of fullers’ earth. Soot stains should bo dusted with plenty of salt, and soot and salt stains can he removed with paste made of fullers’ earth and water, with a few drops of ammonia added.

To clean uncolored leather apply a solution of oxalic acid and hot water with a sponge.

REALTY HINTS

CHAPPED HANDS, Do you still suffer from chapped hands in tho winter? So many women do, if their skin is delicate and ha.s to he dipped in and out of hot and cold water goodness knows how many times a day. Of course, the first thing to be careful of is the drying of the hands, advises Georgia Rivers, Beauty Expert of “Tho Australian Journal.” I know how tiresome it is to stand drying your fingers very carefully while all around you new work is trying out for attention, hut it’s the quickest road in the long run, for comfortable hands will accomplish'* every task much' mere quickly and efficiently than over-tender ones. The daily discomfort of over-dry, ever-reddening skin which gradually cracks in tiny fissures and finally shows quite deep cuts at times is one of the worst ills the delicate-skinned woman has to contend with in tho winter months.

Not only dry them well after they have been in water, but keep on band a little jar of fine oatmeal powder and dust them lightly now and then. I; the hands are only slightly chapped a good skin lotion is probably all you need, but if the skin is verycracked try the homely old remedy of mutton suet. Fill a cup and place this in a saucepan of boiling water, rendering down slowly. Strain off carefully and add a few drops of rosewater if you do not like the odour of puro fat. Every night for perhaps a week rub this well into the hands and draw on ar> old pair of clean cotton gloves. It is a good idea to buy a very cheap pair of gloves, as you will bo ablo to have them a size larger than you would ordinarily need and this makes for comfort when wearing them at night.

I know of no simple remedy so good as this fat, and the comfort which follows its use is well worth any little trouble entailed.'