INFORMATION EXCHANGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22714, 28 April 1937, Page 5

INFORMATION EXCHANGED

QUERIES AND ANSWERS BY I'EM IN" A To Readers. —It is advisable that questions anil answers for this column should bo sent in addressed to "Femina." Dalmatian Recipes .A.N. asks if a reader can supply her with some Dalmatian recipes. To Remove Scorch Stains B.M. asks if a reader can tell her how to remove scorch stains from a woollen frock. Herbal Beer Mrs. B.S.G. asks for a recipe for making Javehe water and another for making an old-fashioned herbal beer. Feijoa Jam or Jelly K.L. will be grateful, for a recipe (jelly or jam), in which feijoas aro used. M.B. also writes asking for recipes for cooking feijoas. The ordinary method of stewing them, she considers, leaves them rather tasteless. Salt Water Stains To remove salt water stains from a black coat, M.H. advises sponging the marks well with boiling water or else placing the marked part over a basin and pouring some very hot water through it. This should remove a great deal of the marking. If this is not successful, mix a little acetic acid with 20 times as much water and sponge the marks well until they are removed. Then rinse in or sponge well with clean water. To Clean Aluminium To clean aluminium, a correspondent advises getting some whiting moistened with a little ammonia and applying it with a cloth to the article to be cleaned. Another method is to mix each of whiting, rotten stone and soft soap with half a cupful of vinegar and as much water as will make a thick paste. Let this boil 10 minutes. Then let it cool and when nearly cold mix in quarter of a pint of turpentine and apply to tho aluminium on a cloth, rubbing hard. Brands on Flour Bags To remove brands from flour bags, M.C. advises the following treatment in answer to a correspondent's request: "Soak the bag in warm water, in which has been dissolved a little soap powder, for a few minutes, then spread across the wash-board. Rub the soap oil letters and scrub lightly with a nail or scrubbing brush. When the letters are beginning to loosen well boil in the ordinary way." She adds: ''l oven put my scrubbed bags in the boiling copper with the tea towels and I have never had any towels marked with the dye." To Clean Seagrass Mat To clean a seagrass mat, M.H. gives the following directions:—Make up a tubfull of warm soapsuds and water, adding one tablespoon borax to every gallon. When well mixed, put in the mats, or one at a time, if too big, and leave to soak for three to four hours. Then rinse and work about in the water a little. Hin.se out in two or three waters and hang out to dry. If the mat is too big to do this, put one to two tablespoons of ammonia to a gallon of tepid water and with a mop or a soft broom go all over it till it is j brightened and cleaned by the applied liquid. The same may be done with some boiling water in every gallon of which two tablespoons of borax have been dissolved. This will clean the mats very well. Coconut Macaroons "Interested." —A recipe for coconut macaroons has been sent in by I.H.G. j (Maimgatautare). She writes: —Take the whites of . two hen eggs, one cup coconut (desiccated), one cup icing sugar. Beat the egg whites until very stiff and light. Koll out icing sugar so as to free it of lumps and stir in briskly. Add the coconut and put teaspoonful of mixture on to cold greased oven tray. Bake in a slow oven for '2O minutes until slightly brown and •firm. A.H.L. (To Puke) has forwarded this recipe:—Take a pinch of salt, the whites of two eggs beaten stiff._ Add gradually 2oz. castor sugar. Mix in sufficient desiccated coconut to make j a fairly stiff paste, and add a few drops of flavouring if wished. Place in teaspoonful lots on wafer paper, or greased and floured butter paper, and cook in very moderate oven for about 2o minutes. • Soup That Will Keep In reply to a request from a correspondent for a tomato soup that will keep, R.H. (Pukekohe) has sent the following:—Well grease the pan with fresh butter, cut up tomatoes and add salt and pepper to taste, with a dessertspoonful of sugar to every lb. of fruit. Boil the pulp well and strain through a sieve. After straining, put on to boil arjai'i for about five minutes, then bottle. This second boiling is important if the soup is to keep. Bottle quickly in screw-top jars. Use small jars for a small family, as the soup must be used once opened. As the puree is thick, it is necessary to use water or milk with it as in tinned soup. Another recipe forwarded by P.G. is as follows: —Wash and cut up the ripe tomatoes and put in a saucepan with a little water, to start the tomatoes cooking. Cook until solt and rub through a sieve. Return the pulp to the saucepan, season to taste, and cook five minutes. Warm the bottles, put in the boiling soup and cork tightly. Wax the tops of the bottles. This soup will keep indefinitely and has an excellent flavour when made up with milk when required. When making with milk it is advisable to make a thin milk sauce and add tho hot tomato to the milk. Do not add milk to the tomato as it will curdle.

"Mine" (Tatuanui) also sends in directions. She writes:—Perhaps your correspondent will find this recipe lor tomato soup useful. The only way to ensure its keeping is to have everything absolutely clean, the fruit dry —not picked in the rain—and the bottles, lids and rubbers boiled for 20 minutes. Take 41b. tomatoes, one small onion, sliced, one stalk celery, two teaspoonsful salt, one tablespoonful sugar, six peppercorns. Cook the mixture till tho tomatoes are tender and put through a strainer. Boil the pulp till it is reduced to one-half of its original volume. Seal it in hot jars.