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New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22027, 6 February 1935, Page 5

INFORMATION EXCHANGED

ANSWEnS FROM READERS CONDUCTED BY FEMINA Coffee Stains M.A.C. (Matamata) will be glad if information can be supplied as to how to remove coffee stains that have become hardened by heat. The material is bluo slub linen. Query About Cream Puzzled asks if any reader can tell her why the cream on the milk is slimy and if it is harmful to use? She writes: —"When the cream is set in the afternoon it is full of bubbles and it makes me think of bubbles in a stream which, I have been told, are full of germs." A Damp Room E. T. F. (Bayswater) asks if a reader can suggest means of drying a damp room. She writes: —" The outer walls are concrete and the rooms always seem damp. Anything hanging in a cupboard gets mouldy and anything that will rust gets rusty, even if put away in drawers." Bottling Tomatoes A correspondent (Onehunga) has forwarded the following directions for bottling tomatoes: —Make a brine (a tablespoon of salt to a quart of water). Pack tomatoes in preserving jars (as plums), pour over the boiling salted water, pack in preserving pan with cloths to keep bottles from touching,

fill pan with water to within two inches of tops of jars, boil until you see tomatoes cracking, remove tops, place rings on, overflow with boiling water, and screw the tops on. A Stone Jar In answer to an inquiry from " Coral " as to means of enlarging the hole in a stone jar. A correspondent advises the following treatment: — If you have a lathe handy it is easy to cut a larger hole thus: Mark out the lino of the new hole you wish to cut, set a disk or wheel of soft iron on your lathe, and work over the traced line with this disk, keeping plenty of emery powder and water on the disk until it cuts through the stone. This does the work quickly, but if no lathe is to hand, work round the traced out line of your new hole with the edge of an old file, keeping it well smeared with emery powder and water, and the same in the furrow you are cutting. It will not take very long to get through the stone and you then have a new hole made. Yorkshire Pudding V.M.B. (Onehunga) sends the following directions for a Yorkshire pudding. which are excellent: —One level cup Hour, one large cup milk, two eggs, salt and pepper. Put flour in basin, break in the eggs, add pepper and salt, and beat thoroughly under a dripping water tap. (I use a table fork to beat with). Now add very gradually, beating all the time, half of the milk. Continue to beat well for a few minutes. Stand aside for an hour or more, and just before preparing for the oven add the remaining half cup of milk —very gradually. Take two or three tablespoons of dripping from a, roast tin, put this into a small roast tin, heat it well until sizzling and pour in the mixture. Use a hot oven for the first 10 minutes, then slower, and bake 20 minutes to half an hour. If the pudding is not rising satisfactorily during the first five or ten minutes, increase the heat. A Rusty Stove N.S. (Huntly) advises the following treatment for restoring a rusty stove in answer to K.M.B.'s request: —Hub over the stove with kerosene and leave all night. Next day mix equal parts of Milestone and powdered black lead to a paste with water and paint on 'stove. Do not brush off for a few days. The stove will not need to be blackleaded again for a while iis although it looks dull it will brush up quite brightly. The heat from the fire hardens the paste and tills up the cracks.. It is not too pleasant to uso but quite successful. Further directions have been sent in by M.H. (Auckland) and are as follows: —If possible take the stove apart and rub over well with emery cloth, finishing off with some fine emery powder and oil on a rag. The mouldings may be treated in the same way, if damaged, but give them a final polish (after using the emery powder and oil) with some putty powder. After this treatment the stove should lie very nearly as good as new, but a thorough polishing is necessary with the various substances for success. Use very coarso emery cloth to begin with if the damage is deep seated.