HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 316, 30 November 1910, Page 6

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

SOME USEFUL RECIPES. Baked Mackerel. —Cooked as follows these form an excellent dish:—Take two large mackerel, first clean them, removing the heads and roes. Boil the roes in salted water, then chop them with mixed parsley and thyme, some lemon peel, and breadcrumbs (which have been moistened with a little vinegar) ; pepper and salt to taste. Beat an egg, add it to the seasoning, and stuff the fish with this. Brush over the fish with dissolved butter, and bake steadily til! brown. Serve with a a very savoury anchovy sauce, into which chopped parsley and onions are added.

For Greengage Jam. —Be aure that the fruit is quite dry and sound. Cut the greengages in half, and remove the stones, allow.three-quarters of a pound of sugar to each pound of whole fruit. Place the fruit in a preserving pan with just enough water to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pan. Let the fruit boil, then add the sugar, and stir constantly, removing the scum as it rises. Simmer gently for a few minutes before allowing it to boil up quickly. Some people like a few kernels added to this jam. Rice and Fruit Pudding.—lngredients: Half pound rice, one pint fruit, sugar. Method: Cook rice in water or milk and water until soft and stiff; sweeten to taste. Butter a basin, line it thickly with rice,- leaving sufficient to cover top. Fill up with any kind of fresh fruit, add some sugar, cover with remaining rice. Steam one and a-half hours. Serve hot or cold.

A Pineapple Dainty.—Peel a pineapple and cut it into rounds about a quarter of an inch thick, and then cut each round into quarters. Have ready a preserving jar, and into it sprinkle some castor sugar and lemon juice. Then put in a layer of pineapple, some castor sugar and lemon juice. Do this alternately until you have used the pineapple, then sprinkle with chopped almonds. Potato Cakes. —Allow two-thirds of potato (mashed) one to one-third of flour. Sift the flour twice with a teaspoonful of baking powder, and some salt. Next work up the potato and flour together, using enough lard to make a stiff dough, then roll this out flat. Never use water or milk, as either make 3 the dough tough. Grease a large baking-tin, cut the dough into diamond shapes, lay in the tin, and bake. To turn the cakes, handle carefully, and cook for a good ten minutes in a quick oven. Split open, butter generously, and serve. Butter is not as good as lard in this recipe.

Macaroon Tartlets. Line some patty tins with pastry, put a little jam in each, then make a light sponge mixture, flavoured with ratafia. Put two spoonfuls on each tart, and bake till brown. Serve hot or cold.

BREVITIES. If the colour has been taken out from silks by acids, it may be restored by applying to the spots a little hartshorn or sal-volatile. A cup of cold water before retiring and a cup of hot water in the morning before breakfast work like magic as a cure for indigestion. Macaroni requires boiling milk for sweet puddings, and boiling salted water for the cheese course. Quantities are three pints water to half pound macaroni. Simple puddings, boiled, baked, or stuamed, made with rice, tapioca, sago, macaroni, or semolina are inexpensive, and especially good for children.

For a whist drive hire folding card tables instead of using odd tables about the house. Folding tables take less room, and they can be easily taken away if an impromptu dance is required to finish off the evening. A simple remedy for moths is to place whole cloves among the clothes, or pieces of cotton wool or lint saturated with oil of cloves.

When making jelly with fresh fruit, the juice should always be allowed to drip into a china or glass dish. A tin one will spoil the colour.

Children who cannot be induced to take milk as a beverage will often take it willingly in the form of soup, custard, curds and whey, or junket. A good solvent for.old putty and paint is soft soap mixed with solution of potash or caustic soda with slacked lime mixed with sufficient water to form a paste. Lay this on a rag or soft brush and leave on for a few hours. This will remove either easily. Don't say behind people's backs what you would not say to their faces. The popular woman is sincere without being offensive, not necessarily always agreeing with her friends, nor always suiting her opinions to her hearer's inclinations.

To keep sandwich cakes from rising in the centre, spread te mixture away from the centre of the tin towards the sides, and the cake will come out of the oven beautifully light and quite even.

Short curtains which blow out of the window are a great source of annoyance to a tidy housewife. Not only do the curtains when blowing in this way make the house look untidy, but they get very dirty. To prevent this, sew three rings in the hem of the curtain, and put three cup hooks into the window sill. Hooked down in this way, the curtain will keep in place without looking stiff. Umbrellas when wet are generally stood point downwards to dry. This is a mistake, for the water congregates at the point, rots the silk, and makes that part of the frame, rusty. To avoid this it is a good plan with a new umbrella to put a very small quantity of vaseline into the hinges by the ferrule. This will prevent rust and will not spread to the silk. For cleaning baths, wet an old piece of flannel with turpentine, and rub until all grease disappears, rinse well with hot soda water, then with plenty of warm clear water. Dry well. If a bath has been neglected and is very soiled take half a pint of paraffin and a large lump of salt, go over it all thoroughly, rubbing, hard to remove grease, rinse several times, first with soda water, then plenty of hot to remove all traces of paraffin.