INFORMATION EXCHANGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22259, 6 November 1935, Page 7

INFORMATION EXCHANGED

QUERIES AND ANSWERS BY FEMINA To Readers.—lt is advisable that questions and answers for this column should be sent in addressed to " Femina." Rolled Oat Biscuits A.B.C. asks for a recipe for rolled oat biscuits. (Must be crisp.) Saloon Biscuits "Pakotai" will bo very glad of a recipe for making saloon biscuits. To Make a " Humpy.'* Directions for making a fireside scat or "humpy" will be greatly appreciated by "Humpty Dumpty." To Mark China C.L.M. (Te Puke). —To mark the underside of china cups and saucers so that the mark will resist washing in hot water dab them with hot sealingwax. Whpn cold the wax resists hot water or washing. To Coat Waterproof B.N.W. (Avondale) has a problem to face. How to renovate an oilskin coat that has been coated with a nondrying varnish is the question. She will be grateful to a reader who can tell her how to remove the varnish, which is sticky, and then renovate the coat with a waterproof varnish. Down-proof Eiders

J.J.McK. (Tauranga) suggests to M.E.P. that she should cover her eiderdown quilt with down-proof material. It can be obtained either plain or printed in very pretty patterns. The fluff does not escape from it as it does with other material. She states that she covered a cushion with it and not a feather dared push its way through. Good Hand Lotion A recipe for a hand lotion containing turpentine, camphor and some other ingredients which she cannot remember is asked for by "Gardener." She says she found the recipe in a paper some time ago and had it made up, but now cannot remember the ingredients. The lotion was excellent for preventing roughness of the hands after gardening. Household Soap Mrs. M.P. (Devonport).-y-A good recipe for household soap is as follows: —Take 10 pints of water, 41b. jat, jib. resin, Jib. caustic soda, ilb. powdered borax. 'Clarify the fat the day before you make the soap. Boil all the ingredients together, except the borax, being careful to watch that the mixture does not boil over. \Vhen_ it comes to the boil draw it to one side and let simmer for one hour. Remove from fire and stir in borax until dissolved, then let stand to harden for three or four days. Cut in bars and keep for a few weeks before using. Tho best thing to make the soap in is a kerosene tin cut longways. Iron Rust Marks

R.N.G. —To remove iron rust from a white .towel, use salts of lemon and boiling water. Make a solution, using half a teaspoouful of salts of lemon to half a pint of boiling water and steep the stain in it. If there is only a single stain, stretch the material over a small basin, pouring boiling water through, then put on a little salts of lemon and rub gently with a bone spoon. Repeat if necessary. Put out into sunlight as soon as the salts of lemon are used and leave for some time. As to the other question it will be more easily answered if you will state whether you will be living in the town or country and whether you intend doing all your own housework. To Make a Tennis Net In reply to the inquiry from R.M.M. (Rawene) as to how to make a tennis not, B.P. (Arney Crescent, Remuera) fives the following directions: —Begin y working two stitches on to the stirrup. Turn the work. Increase at end of every row by working two stitches into the last loop. When you have the required width, increase a 6titch at the end'of one row and decrease at the end of the next row. The increase should be made on the longer side. When the longer side is the desired length, net two loops together at the end of every row till the corner is brought to a point of two stitches only, when finish off. One and a-half pounds of No. 12 fishing line will make a tennis net 24in. wide and 42ft. long. If a flat mesh, ljin. is used and 19 squares worked. Pot Roast E.B. (Whakatane) has sent in directions for cooking meat on a kerosene stove. She has used the following method, which she calls pot-cooking, for the past nino years, and has no fault to find with it. Put plenty of dripping in a pot, she writes, and then put the meat on top of the cold dripping. Be suro to keep the lid of the pot on all the time. The burner should be fairly high for the first half hour after the dripping is boiling. Then put an asbestos mat underneath the pot and turn the burner low for an hour or an hour and a-half until the meat is about done. Turn tho burner high again and drop potatoes, cut in halves or quarters, pumpkin and parsnip in tho boiling fat. Place the meat on top of the potatoes to finish off, if not done. Leave the lid on the not for about 15 minutes, then take tho lid off and leave the potatoes about 15 minutes longer to brown. To cook chops put them in the pot and cook the same way, but first score down the back of each chop. Meats should cook as tender as a chicken. They always did with us, adds the writer. We have had electricity a year now, and still I cook all our meat this way. Tho meat does not dry up and is juicy and tender.

Raisin Sherry Wine G.M. —To make raisin sherry wine, M.H. advises the following:—lake as many raisins as you wish and place them to soak in some cold water (just sufficient to cover them) for about six to eight hours. By that time they will have absorbed a large part of the water and be soft and swollen. Then place them, with the remaining water or juice, in a tub or other convenient vessel and pulp them up well till reduced to a thorough mash. Drain the liquor and juico off through a cloth, using a 'little pressure. Place juice in an open tub, floating a piece of toast on its surface, spread with one small spoonful of yeast on its lower side. Leave in a warmish place to ferment. When the first force of the fermentation is over, draw off into a barrel from the lees. Leave the bunghole open, and lot fermentation continue till it is entirely finished. As soon as this occurs, close tho bunghole closely, and let tho wine stand untouched for preferably two or three vears, though after six months it mny he drawn off and bottled or used if wished. The flavour, however, will not, he found so rich as after long keeping. Urisulphured raisins are the best to use for this purpose if obtainable. Tho sulphured raisins will not tend to ferment so well. It is a more natural practice, too, if possible, to put with the raisins when crushing them Jib. fresh grapes for each 101b. of raisins. This will induce a more natural fermentation and if it is done there is no need to put in any yeast. To still further bring out tho old sherry flavour, add to the grapes and raisins, or to the raisins alone, when crushing them, not more than one-tenth ounce of lime sulphate for each 101b. of fruit.