THE HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15718, 19 September 1914, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE HOME.

SOME ORANGE RECIPES. Oranges are not nearly as much used in cookery as they should be. They are very cheap and very wholesome, and it is no more expensive* to use oranges for puddings than it is to use jam or marmalade. You should choose them by their thin skins. Good oranges never have very thick skins. Eemembci always that the white part between the yellow rind and yellow pulp is not good to eat. When using the rind, you must take only the yellow, avoiding the white carefully. When using the pulp, you must skin all tho white from it; if you carelessly leave the white, you will spoil the flavour of your dish by making it harsh and bitter. Orange Pudding —Line a puddingbasin with euet pastry. Take part of a stale cake, or a few stale buns or sponge cakes, or anything of that kind you may happon to have. Crumble up the cako into fine crumbs, and mix it with the juice of three or four oranges and the grated rind of one. Put this mixture into the suet just as you put fruit into a boiled fruit pudding. Cover it in with a piece of crust at the top, tie a floured cloth over all, anal boil the pudding for an hour and ahalf. _ Do not fill the basin too full with i the mixture, but leave room for it to swell.

Orange Biscuits—Required: ,ree ounces butter, |lb flour, 3ozs castor sugar, one egg, and one orange. Rub the butter into the flour with the finger-tips. Add the sugar and grated rind. Bind the mixture with the egg, adding a little of the orange juice if necessary. It must be a dry paste. Lightly flour a board, roll out the paste to the thickness of about an eighth of an inch, cut it into fancy shapes with a little tin cutter, and bake them on a flat greased tin in a moderate oven. You must put the biscuits rather far apart on the tin.

Orange Tarts_Take the rind and juice of two oranges, 2oz of butter, 4oz of loaf sugar, yolks of thrao eggs. This is not so extravagant as it sounds as the whiles of the eggs may be used for another pudcing and it is no more wasteful to use three eggs for two puddings than an egg ard a-half for one pudding. Melt the butter in a, small saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook all together for two or three minutes. Then add the rind, juice, rnd sugar. The rind must not be grated, it musfc be put in in large pieces, ana must be fished out afterwards. It is only intended to add to the flavour and not to remain in the mixture. Keep the pan on the fire, stirring carefully till it thickens. Then take out the rind, take the pan away from the fire, and stir in the yolks of the eggs. This makes a kind of orange curd which is a delicious change from lemon curd. Line some small patty tins with flaky pastry, fill them with the curd, and bake them in a moderate oven till the pastry is done.

Orange Sponge.—Take the rind of one orange, and the juice of four, i|oz of gelatine, £ pint of water, 4oz of loaf sugar, whites of three eggs. (These are the eggs spoken of in the last recipe.) Put the sugar, gelatine, rind, and water in a pan on the fire, and let them remain there till the gelatine and sugar are melted. Then add the juice and strain all into a basin. Leave the mixture till it is so cool that it will soon set. Beat the whites of the eggs to a very stiff froth and fold them gently into the mixture. Dip a china mould into cold water, pour the sponge into this, and set it asido'till next day. When turned out it makes a delicious shape. It can be coloured with a little saffron if you like to make it a brighter yellow.

SOME HOME-MADE SWEETS. Honey or Treacle Toffee.—Either one cupful of honey or one cupful of treacle, one-quarter of a pound of butter, a teaspoonful of salt. If honey is used, a quarter of a pound of blanched almonds, if treacle, a lib of Barcelona or "monkey" nuts. To every cupful of either treacle or honey, one cupful of sugar. Mix them well together, add the salt, and boil for a quarter of an hour; then acid the butter, warmed. When the toffee begins to harden in cold water, add the nuts and boil till quite cooked. Pour out on buttered flat tins.

To make Gingor Nougat.—Two cupfuls of white sugar, half a cupful of cold water, one-third of a cupful of golden syrup, wellbeaten whites of two eggs, one teaspoonful of vanilla extract, half a cupful of preserved ginger or figs, one cupful of chopped nuts. Boil the sugar, water and golden syrup until the mixture becomes brittle, when dropped in cold water. Remove from the fire and cool slightly, then pour over the whites of the eggs, stirring constantly. Add the vanilla extract, ginger, and the chopped nuts. Beat well and pour into a buttered mould to cool. Cut in squares.

Walnut Tablet.— cupfuls of white sugar, one cupful of milk, two tablespoonfuls of golden syrup, half a cupful of chopped walnuts, half a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Put the sugar, milk and syrup into a saucepan and stir over the fire until the mixture boils up. Keep boiling for ten minutes without stirring. Pour into a basin and keep stirring until the mixture thickens, and add tho chopped walnuts with the vanilla extract while stirring. Turn into a buttered tin, and when cool mark into squares with a knife. Use when cold.

A Fig Delight— of a pound of chopped figs, two cupfuls of granulated sugar, quarter of a teaspoonful of ground ginger, ono cupful of cold water, a few grains of salt, butter the size of a walnut. Let the ingredients boil together, stirring frequently to prevent burning, for about five minutes, or until the mixture is quite thick. Remove from the fire and beat until it begins to turn creamy and stiff. Pour into a buttered pan; when cold mark into squares—and eat.

■> Peppermint Oreams.—Beat well the white of an egg, then stir in, gradually, sufficient icing sugar to bring the mixture to a consistency that can be handled and rolled on a pasteboard. Keep sprinkling sugar if it sticks at all to the board; roll out to the thickness of a quarter of an inch, cut into squares or rounds, and set aside' for twelve hours. During the process of mixing, add a teaspoonful of essence of peppermint to tho mixture. This will make a small quantity. „

POINTERS FOR THE COOK Stand a small jar in the centre of .1 bowl and pour the blancmange or jelly round. When turned out fill the space with stewed fruit or any other sweet preimed - u -ii 1 J A too-hot oven may bo quickly cooled by placing a basin of cold water in it. This also prevents cakes and meat from burning. It will not injure anything in the cooking but puff pastry. If a little salt is added to the water when scraping new potatoes they will not stain the hands, and they are easier to

scrape. Preterit a steamed pudding from becoming heavy by putting a cloth over the steamer before placing the lid on. This prevents the moisture from settling and making the pudding heavy. Cut off the rinds and soak rashers of bacon in cold milk for an hour. Take them out, dredge well with flour, and fry in fat. This is a delicious improvement on the ordinary method of frying bacon.

To improve the flavour of currants and sultanas which are to be used for cakes, place them in a bowl, pour boiling water over them, and leave to soak all night. The fruit swells to twice its former size, but should be draine i from the water and dried in the oven before being added to tho other ingredients. Directly the milk is left at the house take it at once into a cool larder or cellar and stand the jug in a basin of cold water with a handful of salt in it. Place a piece of wet butter-muslin over the top of the jug. The water must reach the milk-line in the jug. When infants are being fed on milk this method should always be put into practice. Cream should be treated in the same way.

HOUSEHOLD HINTS. Before using tinware of any kind, rub it well over with fresh lard. If treated in this way it will never rust. A saturated solution of Epsom salts is a good remedy for burns. Apply as soon as possible, and keep wet continually until the pain ceases. A good way of stiffening the bristles of hairbrushes after washing is to dip them into a mixture of equal quantities of milk and water, and then dry before the fire. For chronic night coughs try taking a tcaspoonful of whisky and pure glycerine in equal parts. This can do "kept in a bottle by the bed in case of need, and will be found invaluable.

Old putty can bo removed without injury to the sash or glass by passing a hot soldering iron over it. The heat of the iron softens it readily, and permits its removal with a knife or chisel without much trouble.

Charcoal put in the water in which parsley, mint, and fresh herbs are kept will preserve them fresh for quite a long while. Stalks only should be in the water, and cut the tips daily. ,

When marking linen, first -write the name in blacklead pencil, then mark over the pencil with marking-ink. You will find that the pencil prevents the ink from spreading and looking unsightly, as is so often the case. Always use a, new pennib.

If a room becomes filled with smoke, a towel dipper in vinegar and hot water and wrung out, then taken and thrown above one's head through the room, will remove all smoke in a lew moments. A small portion of vinegar in a little water is sufficient for tho purpose.

Soda should be thoroughly dissolved in the washing water before its clothes are put in. Never allow it to lie about on, the clothes, as this sometimes causes ironmould. Soda should never be added to water in which woollen things are being washed, as it causes them to shrink.

To remoro a fish-bone from the throat, swallow a. raw egg, and follow, if possible, by eating plenty of mashed potatoes. The egg will carry the bone into the stomach, and the potatoes will prevent it from 'doing any injury there.

Grass stairs may be removed from white clothes by first of all rubbing the soiled parts carefully with a little fresh lard before washing in the usual way. After being treated in this manner the stains will have entirely disappeared.

Leaky baths, buckets, etc., can bo mended with cotton tape wide enough to fill the hole when passed through. Pass one end through, getting someone to grasp the other end lightly. Split the piece inside and tie in a hard knot close up to the hole inside. Do the same with the other end, and you will find by following this simple plan that the article will be water-tight.

The nervous housewife who lives in constant dread of fire may, with, very little trouble, make an extinguisher that will put out a blaze if used at once. All she needs to do is to put 31b of salt in a gallon of water, and to tin's add of' sal ammoniac. This liquid should be bottled, and when the fire is discovered it should be poured on it.