HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1189, 12 September 1874, Page 21

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

To Make Traoinq-Paper.— -Castor-oil is mixed with three or four parts of absolute alcohol, and the homogeneous mixture spread over the paper with a brush. After the drawing is made, the paper may be washed with alcohol, and will return to its original condition. Inverness Eggs. — Boil eggs hard, take off shells, make forcemeat, with, parsley, thyme, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, dripping, or butter, chopped anchovy, and a beat-up egg ; cover the hard eggs with this; forcemeat, roll in flour, fry light brown, and serve with gravy. Disagreeable Medicines. — Liquorice held in the mouth will almost immediately dispel the bitter taste of quinine, colocynth, aloes, quassia, and any other disagreeable medicine. To Cube Sleeplessness. — Lei the full meal come' in the middle of the day. Two hours after it has been taken walk three or four! miles, or ride that number. Eat a light, easily digested supper, and pass the succeeding hours till bed time in a way agreeable but not exciting. Avoid causes of worry, and sleep in a fresh bed and a well ventilated apartment. Cold in the Head. — Mix carbolic acid, ten drops, with tincture of iodine and chloroform, each 7.5 drops. Ten drops of the mixture is poured into a test-tube and heated ovor a spirit-lamp. "When it begins to evaporate it is placed under the nostrils. Two minutes afterwards the operation is repeated. Sneezing at first results, but relief soon follows. Damp Walls. — It is said that a solution of two^thirds of a pound of Castile-soap to a gallon of water laid on a damp wall as a wash, and next day followed by another wash of alum water — two ounces dissolved in a gallon — will cure the inconvenience and prevent any further recurrence of it. It is so simple a thing that housekeepers troubled with damp places in the dwellings will be glad to try it for themselves. To Take Grease out of Boards and Stone. — Make a strong ley of pearl-ash and soft water and as much unslacked lime as it will take up ; stir it together and then let it settle a few minutes ; bottle it, and stop close ; have ready some water to lower it as used, and scour the part 1 with it. If the liquor should lie long on the boards, it will draw out the coloxir of them ; do it therefore, with care and expedition. Fowl Saute, with Peas. — The remains of cold roast fowl may be used for this dish. Cut the fowl into nice pieces ; put some butter into a stew-pan, fry the fowl a nice brown colour, previously sprinkling it with pepper, salt, and pounded mace. Dredge in the flour, shake the ingredients well round, then add half a pint of weak stock, one pint of peas, and stew' till the latter are tender, which will be in about twenty minutes ; put in one tea-spoonful of pounded sugar, and serve, placing the chicken- round and the peas in the middle 'of the dish. When liked, mushrooms may be substituted for the peas. Stewed Breast of Lajib. — Skin the lamb, cut it into pieces, and season them with pepper and salt ; lay these in a stewpan, pour in sufficient stock or gravy to cover them, and stew very gently till tender, which will be in about an hour and a half. Just before serving, thicken some more stock with a little butter and flour ; add one glass of sherry, give it one boil, and pour it over the meat. Green peas or mushrooms may be strewed OA r er the meat, and will be found a very great improvement. A lettuce cut small and stewed with it is very nice.

Elder Wine. — To every quart of berries put two quarts of water, boil half an hour,

run the liquor, and break the fruit through a hair sieve. Then to every quart of juice put -| lb. Lisbon sugar, coarse, but not the coarsest. Boil all together for a quarter of an hour with some Jamaica peppers, ginger, and a few* cloves. Pour it into a tub, and, when of proper warmth, into a barrel with toast and yeast to work, which there is more difficulty to make it do than any other liquor. "When it ceases to hiss, put a quart of brandy to eight gallons of wine, and stop it. Bottle in the autumn or at Christmas. The liquor must be kept in a warm place to make it work.

Vendor, or Milk Punch. — Pare six oranges and six lemons as thin as you can, grate them after with sugar to get the flavour. Steep the peels into a bottle of rum or brandy, stopped close, for twenty-four hours. Squeeze the fruit on 2 lb. white sugar, add to it four quarts of water and one of new milk, boiling hot ; stir the rum or brandy into the above, and run it through a jelly-bag till perfectly clear! Bottle and cork close immediately. To Dress Collars. — For this purpose use the best starch, say 2 lbs. , and 4 oz. of wax and 6£ pints of water ; first dissolve the wax in the boiling water, take the vessel off the fire and allow it to stand for h've minutes ; during this time dissolve the starch in the smallest possible quantity of cold water, then pour it gradually into the vessel and boil for 25 minutes — keep stirring all the time ; this starch can be used quite cold ; rub it well into the collars, wring as tight as you can, finish by wringing in a cloth, then iron ; thus you will have them stiff without being hard, and when well dressed will have that beautiful elastic finish so much admired in new collars. Orange Paste. — Steep the oranges in water for two or three days, then boil them until quite tender. Cut them in halves, and take out the insides. To every pound of orange peel add a pound of white sugar, and beat it all well in a mortar. Then take out the skins and seeds from the pulp ; odd to it its own weight in sugar, and pound it well. Then add all the ingredients together, thoroughly beat and mix, and put into pots i'or use. Two dozen oranges will make a large jar of paste. To make a pudding with orange paste melt a quarter of a poixnd of butter in a large teacupful of hot water, and set it to cool. Take two spoonfuls of the paste, three eggs, and two ounces of sifted sugar, mix all together, and thicken by stirring in two teapsoontuls of flour. Put a good puff paste at the bottom of the dish, and fill with the orange paste, as with an open jam tart. This sweet is most excellent eaten hot or cold. Inbrasible Marking-Ink for Linen. — The following formula is given by Professor Bottger, who ' maintains that it is entirely unaffected by chloride of lime, cyanide of potassium, caustic potash, or acids : — Digest coarsely-powdered Cashew nuts for some time at a moderate temperature, in a closed flask, with petroleum naphtha ; then allow the exceedingly volatile solvent to evaporate. After marking the articles with the resulting syrupy liquid, moisten the place with aqua-am-monia, or lime water, and the marks will instantly assume a deep permanent black colour.

Chicken Salad. — Boil or roast a pair of chickens, mince fine all the tender meat, white and dark, chop the white part of a large head of celery with a couple of young heads of lettuce and mix them with the chicken. Boil half-a-dozen eggs twenty minutes, nib the yolks smooth with a spoon and mix with them two teaspoonsful of made English mustard, a teaspoonful of salt, two tablespoonsful of salad oil or melted butter, a dessert spoonful of white sugar, and half-a-pint of strong vinegar. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery in a salad-bowl, and garnish with the white of eggs cut in rings.

Preservation of Honey. — After the honey is passed from the comb, strain it through a sieve, so as to get out all the wax ; gently boil it, and skim ofl'the whitish foam which rises to the surface, and then the honey will become perfectly clear. The vessel for boiling should be earthen, brass, or tin. The honey should be put in jars when cool, and tightly covered. To keep honey in the comb, select combs free from pollen, pack them edgwise in jars or cans, and pour in a sufficient quantity of the boiled and strained honey (as above) to cover the combs. The jars or cans should be tightly tied over with thick cloth or leather.

Almond Macaroons. — The day before they are wanted, prepare three qiiarters of a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and a quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds, by scalding, blanching, and pounding them to a smooth paste in a marble mortar (one or two at a time) ; adding, as you proceed, rose-water to prevent their oiling, and becoming dark and heavy. Having beaten to a stiff froth the whites of six eggs, and prepared a pound of powdered loaf sugar, beat the sugar into the egg a spoonful at a time. Then mix in gradually the pounded almonds, and add a grated nutmeg. Stir the whole very hard, and form the mixture into small round balls. Then flatten slightly the surface of each. Butter slightly some shallow tin pans. Place the macaroons not so close as to be in danger of touching, and glaze them lightly with a little beaten white of egg. Put them into a brisk oven, and bake them a light brown. Polishinu Shirts. — Put a little common white wax in your starch, say two ounces to the pound ; then ii you use any thin patent starch, be sure you use it warm, otherwise the wax will become cold and gritty, and spot your linen, giving it the appearance of being stained with

grease. Now then, about polishing Bhirts : starch the fronts and wristbands as stifl'as you can. Always starch twice, that is, starch and dry, then starch again. Iron your shirt in the usual way, making the linen nice and firm, but without any attempt at a good finish ; don't lift the plaits ; your shirt is now ready for polishing, but you ought to have a board the same size as a common shirt board, made of hard wood, and covered with only one ply of cotton cloth. Put this board into the breast of your shii't, damp the front very lightly with a wet sponge, then take a polishing iron, which is flat and bevelled a little at one end — polish gently with the bevelled part, taking care not to drivothe linen up into wave-like blisters ; of course, this requires a little practice, but if you are careful and persevere, in a short time you will be able to give that enamel-like finish which seems to be so much wanted.