INFORMATION EXCHANGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21861, 25 July 1934, Page 5

INFORMATION EXCHANGED

ANSWERS FROM READERS CON UI'CTI'.IJ IJY IKMIN A Home-made Vinegar The following directions for making home-made vinegar have been forwarded by Mrs. Onion (Orini), in answer to K.M.l'.'s inquiry. Take one and a-quar-ter pounds sugar, six quarts boiling water, one cup good yeast. Place the sugar and yeast in a large earthenware jar, add the wafer when cold, tie down with strong paper and prick holes in the paper. Keep in a warm place for about a month, strain off the vinegar and bottle. Colour with burnt sugar if wanted brown. A large plant will be found in the bottom of the jar. To make another lot of fresh vinegar do as before, omitting the yeast however, and pour into the jar with the plant when cold. Leave as before. A continual supply can always be had if made in this way, using the yeast to start the first lot onlv.

Further directions for making vinegar with a vinegar plant are also sent in by M,I:I. (Auckland. She writes: —Leave a small basin of beer or some cheap wine exposed to the air in a quiet warm (but not brilliantly sunny) room for a few days. Watch it, and when a thin scum grows on the surface, you have your vinegar plant. Do not leavf the plant to make too thick a growth, but take or skim a spoonful of it after one to two days' .growth, and place this skimming on the surface of the liquid you wish to make into vinegar, it is best set out in wide, shallow, open tubs or pans, in a quiet room which has an even temperature of about 50 Fahrenheit. or not much above or under this point. Under these conditions you should find by testing that the liquor is all changed to vinegar in from three days to a week. Any fermented liquor—beer or wine—may be used to set the vinegar plant upon. The shallower and more open the layer of liquor to be acted on the better. Directions for another way of making vinegar from a plant are sent in by "M.C.li." (Epsom). She writes: —Take 'lib. brown sugar, lib. treacle and 1 gallon water. l3ring to the boil, strain through muslin and when cold put in the vinegar plant. Let it stay in a jar till quite acid, then bottle for use. When it is drained off the plant left in the jar should be covered with a little sugar and water to keep it moist ready for going into the next making. Only a small portion of the plant is sufficient to start the vinegar. Blackberry Wine A.B. Potorua. —To make blackberry wine:—To one gallon blackberries allow one quart of boiling water, and to one gallon of juice from one to two pounds of sugar. Gather tlio fruit when ripe and on a fine, dry day. Pick it carefully, measure and put it into a tub or into a vessel with a tap. Pour the boiling water over, and when cool enough bruise the berries with the'hands until they are all broken. Cover and leave for three or four days or until tlio pulp rises to tlje surface and forms a crust. Drain off the liquor and add sugar in the above proportion. Mix well, and when dissolved put into a cask. Leave with the bung-hole lightly covered until fermentation ceases (from seven to ten days) .»ud keep the cask well filled up with extra liquor. A little stick cinnamon and brandy or gin may then bo added. Close the bung-hole tightly and leave from six to twelve months. Then bottle and cork tightly. To Make Apple Cider

" Brown."—Select good, firm, mod-erately-sweet apples. Crush them in a tub or barrel with a heavy wooden el lib; put the crushed pulp in another tub or barrel with bored outlet holes at the bottom, uuder which are set basins to receive juice. Place a closefitting cap of wood on toj> of the pulp inside the tub and place about 501b. in weight on it. Gradually increase this weight till all tjie juice that will come lias flowed out. Strain the juice as it comes out and place in shallow, open tubs or basins in a quiet room to stand. When white bubbles begin to appear on the surface draw it off carefully into a clean tub so as not to disturb the dregs and close the bung hole loosely. When white bubbles begin to ooze through it draw off again into clean casks. Continue this drawing-off as long as any gas bubbles show on standing. When no more come, turn it into clean casks and close bung-hole tightly. If it is desired to keep it as sweet cider add Joz. sulphite of lime per gallon. Leave it to stand now in a cool, quiet room to mature about G-12 months. At the end of this time it is ready for use. If it is desired to keep it, prepare a cask or casks by rinsing them thoroughly inside with a solution of ,\lb. calcium sulphite (sulphite of lime) to one gallon of water. Such treatment of the store casks will keep the cider good for years. As a further note it is best to keep the cider while in the fermenting stage in a room where the temperature does not vary much above or below 50 degrees Fahr. Shading and light ventilation, also the use of a cellar if possible, could secure this. Too high a temperature in the room gives a danger of cider becoming vinegnr. Tomato Soup "Interested Header" writes in answer to the inquiry of Mrs. 11. (NVaihi) to prevent milk curdling when making tomato soup. After quite a lot of experimenting the following has proved very satisfactory. Bring tomato pulp to the boil, add a good pinch of carbonate of soda and stir well while frothing. Mix a little flour to a smooth paste with water, add pepper and salt to taste and stir in slowly. Simmer a few minutes. Heat the milk to about the same temperature and stir in slowly.

Mrs. TT. (W.'iilii) will bo. able to make very good tomato soup without curdling the milk if she heats the hitter in a separate saueepan and adds it to the soup just before serving, writes Mrs. Onion (Orini). Mrs. Onion wishes to thank" M.H. (Auckland) for the answers to her inquiries of a few weeks ago. To Remove Tracing Marks

To remove tracing marks M.H. (Auckland) advises that if they are made from paper patterns pressed on by heat, try rubbing the marks firmly with a sponge or piece of cloth soaked in benzine, or simply soak the parts of the apron affected in the benzine for a while, taking care afterwards to give it a good airing in the open away from all fires till nil the solvent has evaporated. If marks are due to a. tracing wheel. In damping the apron well and passing it through a tight wringer, or under a heavy roller. This will tend to obliterate such marks if not, too pronounced. To Make Soft Soap In reply to an inquiry a correspondent lias sent in the following directions for making a soft, soap. Take one large bar soap and lib. borax; cut up the soap in thin slices and put into a clean kerosene tin half-full of cold water. Add borax and stir. Put on the fire until all is dissolved, stirring well. Then take off the fire and put away. You will have enough soft soap to last si.\ months to do blankets, flannels and other woollen goods. Home-made Stout A.B. (Kotorua) asks if any of our readers can supply a recipe for homemade stout. To Make Marzipan D.F. (Kpsoin) asks for a recipe for making mar/.ipan, also a good filling for currant squares. Genoa Cake Mrs. F. M. Smith (Mt. Eden) asks for a recipe for a good Genoa cake.