HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9620, 19 September 1894, Page 3

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

THE TABLE. . Snowdrops.—One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, whites of five eggs, one half-cup of milk, three cups of flour, two teaspoonfuls of powder. Bake in small round tins, and frost.

Shin Pudding.—This pudding, if boiled for about five hours, is equal to one made of beef steak, and is less expensive. Line a basin with suet crust; _ fill it with pieces of shin of beef, cut into two-inch squares, and dipped into well-seasoned flour ; pour in a little gravy. Cover the basin with a layer of paste, tie a cloth over, and boil.

Making Pastry.—ln making pastry there are several points to be remembered apart from the actual making of it. Be careful that everything you use is scrupulously clean and dry. See that your oven is properly heated, or your pastry will be spoilt, though you have made ib properly. Always mix pastry with the tips of your fingers, and not with the wholo hand. Always roll pastry from you, and not backwards and forwards heavily. The less pastry is handled and the quicker it is made the better.

Rice for Curry.There are various ways of cooking the rice for curry: but this recipe is aboub the simplest and best way of preparing it: —Half an hour before the curry is to be used begin to cook the rice. To well-washed rice add one pint and a-half of cold water and a pinch of salt. Let it boil rapidly, but do not stir or shake it up. Watch it carefully, and when it is seen that water no longer shows on the rice draw the saucepan on to the bob, and give a little time for the rice to dry, which it soon does, turning out beautifully cooked, with each grain separate.

Breast of Lamb Braised.— the skin from a breast of lamb, and scald ib for two or three minutes in boiling water. Drain it, and plunge ib at once into cold water. Peel a lemon, cub it into thin slices; lay these on the breast, and afterwards cover ib all over with bacon. Put the meat into a braising pan, pour over ib half a pint of nicely flavoured stock, and let ib simmer very gently until done enough. Have ready boiled macaroni, put it on a hot dish, place the lamb upon it, and cover the whole with half a pint of good brown gravy. If preferred, the macaroni may be omitted, and spinach served with the lamb.

GENERAL NOTES. < Ply Papers.—Linseed oil, thickened with resin, is a good mixture for making fly papers; or, boil to a thick paste lib of resin, 3£oz of treacle, and the same of linseed oil. To Clean Silver.—One of the simplest means of cleaning silver that has become badly blackened by gas or time is to mix a teaspoonful of ammonia with a cup of water, and use a little of this liquid to form a paste with whiting. Polish the article to be cleaned with the paste, using a soft chamois leather to apply it and another to dry it. Spring Cleaning.Many find thab the use of tea leaves in sweeping light-coloured or delicately-textured carpets leaves stains on the material. Bran, slightly moistened, or fresh-cut grass, forms a capital substitute ; the former, especially, not only gathering up all dust, but reviving the hues of the carpet. A Good Complexion.—A good complexion never goes with a bad diet. Strong coffee, hot bread and butter, heated grease, highly-spiced soups, meats or game, hot drinks, alcoholic liquors, fab meats are all damaging to its beauty. Elder flower water, if properly distilled, is one of the simplest skin lotions we have; none the less is it efficacious in the prevention of undue redness, and in the removal of pimples and other blemishes of like character. * Stained Linen,—Powdered starch will take stains out of linen if applied immediately. Tea stains may be removed from a tablecloth by immersing it in a strong solution of sugar for a few minutes, and then rinsing it in soft water.