HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9656, 31 October 1894, Page 3

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

THE TABLE.

Sponge Cakes. —Five eggs, weight of four in sugar, weight of three in flour, beat eggs and sugar for half an hour, then add flour (no baking-powder required) with a pinch of salt. Put in a cake tin and bake in moderate oven for an hour. Do not open oven until cake is'seb or it will sink.

Turkey- dressing. —For turkey• dressing rub to crumbs a loaf of stale bread from which the crust has been pared or removed. Season sharply with salt and pepper, and moisten until sufficiently rich with melted butter. This will make a light, dry, digestible stuffing acceptable to a majority of tastes; but oysters, celery, sage, thyme, basil, or other flavouring can be added with the salt and pepper, if desired. Broiled Shoulder ob Lamb.—Many excellent dishes can be made from the cheaper parts of lamb. Take the shoulder, weighing two or three pounds, and cook slowly in water until tender; lift out and press between two plates until cold. Then score the flesh to the bones in inch squares, and rub well with a powder made by mixing one teaspoonful each of salt and pepper and half a teaspoonful of mustard. Broil over a clear fire, but several inches above it, until hot through, place on a hot dish, dot with butter, add a few drops of lemon juice and serve. Ginger Beer.— the thinly-peeled rind of four lemons into a large earthern pan with the strained juice, two ounces of bruised ginger, two and a-half pounds of loaf sugar, and half an ounce of cream of tartar. Pour over these ingredients two and a-half gallons of boiling water, and, when lukewarm, add two bablespoonfuls of fresh brewers' yeast. Stir the liquid, and leave it to ferment until the next day. Skim the yeast from the top, pour the beer carefully from the sediment, and bottle for use. The corks should be perfectly sound, put into boiling water just before being used, and then securely wired down. The ginger beer will be ready for use in two days. Plain Mock-tortle Soup. — Clean a calf's head and soak it over-night in salt water. The next morning wash it well and put it on to boil with a gallon of cold water and two largo onions. When the meat is ready to drop from the bones take out the head and cub the meat into small squares ; keep them in a cool place ; strain the broth and return it tc the pot. Add some parsley, half-a-dozen potatoes, and a small head of cabbage. Tie a tablespoonful of sweet marjoram and a tablespoonful of allspice in small bags of thin muslin, and throw them into the soup. Let it simmer gently for an hour, then strain and return it to the pot. Season well with cayenne pepper and salt, and pat in the squares of moat; let it simmer until the meat is quite tender. About five minutes before it is served add three chopped, hard-boiled eggs.

GENERAL NOTES. To Remove Grease or Oil from Boards.—Make a paste of Fuller's earth, soda, and water, spread it on the boards, and leave it a day and night, then scour the place with hob water. Grease may be removed from carpets in the same way ; in this case, when the Fuller's earth is perfectly dry brush it off with a stiff brush. To Clean Straw Hats.—White straw hats that are dirty or discoloured by the sun may be cleaned and made to look quite new in the following way : —To one pennyworth of oxalic acid put half-a-pint of boiling water. Then, with a piece of flannel, rub the hat well all over, using the acid as hot as the hand can bear. After thoroughly rubbing, rinse the hat in cold water and dry, taking care to keep the shape. When dry the straw will be found to be as clean and crisp as new. Black-and-white speckled hats cleaned in the same way will turn a very good brown. Great care should be taken in using the oxalic acid, as it will turn the colour.

To Dislodge a Fish Bone.lt sometimes happens that a fish bone, accidentally swallowed, will remain in the oesophagus and be troublesome. In such cases, as soon as possible, give four grains of tartar emetic dissolved in one pint of warm water, and immediately after the whites of six eggs. This will nob remain on the stomach more than two or three minutes, and probably the bone will be ejected with the coagulated mass. If tartar emetic is not convenient, a spoonful of mustard dissolved in lukewarm water and swallowed will answer every purpose of the emetic. To Whiten the Hands and Arms.— These two recipes are for use in whitening the arms and hands :—No. 1: Mix one drachm of powdered borax, half an ounce of glycerine, elder-flower water eight ounces, and hazelino two drachms. Apply after washing, and bandage the arms with pieces of soft old linen. No. 2: Cub into small pieces a skinned cucumber. Boil in half apint of milk for an hour, strain, and add a pinch of boracic acid and a tablespoonful of glycerine. The acid keeps the milk good for two days, and, as the mixture must not be used when sour, it should be made in small quantities. A strong lotion for whitening the hands consists of a teaspoonful of chloride of lime dissolved in a quart of warm water; once a week the hands may be steeped in this for a minute or so, bub not onger, or the lime will burn them,