HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3445, 19 March 1932, Page 7

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Your cakes will not taste of dripping if you add two drops of essence of lemon to the dripping and beat well before adding the sugar.

If the blades of the mincing machine lose their sharpness, break up a little bathbrick into small pieces, put these inside it, and turn handle for a minute or two. You will find the blades as sharp as ever again. Wash the machine before putting any food through.

A wooden match is much better than a pen for addressing parcels. It saves the pen and makes the writing bolder and cleaner.

Potatoes will bake in half the time if they are allowed to stand in hot water for ten minutes before being put into the oven.

Should wine be spilt on a tablecloth or napkin, little damage will be done if dealt with at once. While the stain is wet, sprinkle powdered starch thickly over it and leave it on for an hour or two. Shake out the powder and wash it in the ordinary way, and the stain should disappear.

Add a little borax to your bath water; it softens it as well as any bath salts, and is very invigorating.

A sure preventative of fermentation in jam is to add a small teaspoonful of vinegar to the top of each jar when the contents are quite cold, just before covering it. Any kind of jam may be treated thus, and will keep for a very much longer time.

Axle-grease stains on clothes are a common calamity after motoring week-ends. Smear the stain wHh lard and then wash carefully if the material is a washable one. Chloroform, cautiously handled, will remove the mark from non-washing fabrics

Biscuits will keep fresh and criso for many weeks,, even when the Mn is not perfectly airtight, if a layer of white sugar is placed at the bottom of the box.

Cakes are more likely to turn out without breaking if they are left in the tins for a few minutes after removing from the oven and before being turned on to a wire sieve to cool. Do not open the oven door before the cake has had time to rise, or the sudden rush of colder air is liable to make the cake sink in the middle, and do not move the cake until properly risen a mistake which may make it heavy.

Draining boards can be protected from the action of water if they are rubbed with linseed oil. When the board is new dip a piece of cloth in linseed oil and rub into the board until the oil disappears. When in use scrub the board occasionally and allow to dry thoroughly, then rub in more oil. This takes only a few moments, but the life of the board will be considerably lengthened.

Flour should never be kept in a place which is even slightly damp. But if it does not appear perfectly dry when it is to be used for baking, warm it slowly in quite a cool oven.

Grease stains on wood, which will not respond to scrubbing with hot soapy water with plenty of soda, can be removed by applying ammonia to the spots, scrubbing in the usual way when it has soaked into the wood.

Ink stains on the fingers can be removed by brushinging with a soft nail brush dipped in pure vinegar, and then in salt. The same stains on material should be washed in vinegar and then rinsed well.

Leather-backed books should be dusted thoroughly, then rubbed over lightly with a liquid furniture polish or with a small quantity of linseed oil. This will soften the leather and prevent good bindings from cracking through the warmth of the room.