HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1190, 19 September 1874, Page 21

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Lemon Cheesecakes. —An excellent mixture for the above is as follows : £lb. fresh butter, lib. loaf sugar pounded, 6 eggs well beaten, the juice and rind of two large lemons, three-pennyworth of ratafias', crumbled. Put all together in a saucepan over the fire, gently stirring it, until it is a thick cream. Put it in jars, and keep it in a dry place. Washing.— Cold water starch very thin, and a little borax, and plenty of polishing with a hot iron, will get the cuffs and collars to look like new. Put two-penny-worth of borax to a 61b. packet of starch ; more for dresses and petticoats. Wash for Freckles, &c— Dissolve in \oz. of lemon juice, loz. of Venice soap, add £oz. of oil of bitter almonds and deliquated oil of tartar. Place the mixture in the sun till it becomes like ointment, add three drops of oil of rhodium, apply it to the face and hands as follows : Wash at night with elder flower water, then rub on the ointment In the morning, cleanse the skin from the oily adhesion by washing in rose water. Rabbit Pie.— Skin two rabbits, wash them thoroughly, and cut them into small joints. Have ready some lean bacon and lib. of rump or beef steak ; cut both into small pieces, place them on a large dish, or on a chopping board, sprinkle them with salt, pepper, chopped parsley and thyme, mix all well together, and put them in the pie dish, adding force meat balls, or the yolks of hard boiled eggs. Fill the dish with water, cover the whole with a light paste, beat up an egg with a pinch of salt, glaze the pie with it, and bake in a hot oven two hours. Diplomatic Pudding. — Decorate the mould with currants and pistachio nuts, and fill it with jelly (this must be done in a plain mould with a lining) ; when the jelly is set, remove the lining by putting a little warm water in it ; make a custard with a piut of milk and four yolks of eggs, flavour the milk with vanilla, add half-an-ounce of isinglass, stir it into the custard when hot ; break up one or two sponge cakes and macaroons, put up a few dried fruits, put a layer of each until the mould is full, pour in the custard, leave it in a coolj place until^wanted, then dip

the mould into tepid water a second, turn it out on a cold dish, and serve. Tarragon Vinegar. — Gather fullgrown shoots of tarragon the day before they are wanted. Fill a half-gallon jar with as many as it will hold without pressing them down ; add three cloves and the thin rind of one lemon, and fill up the jar with white- wine vinegar ; leave it tightly corked, exposed to the sun for two or three weeks, then strain off the vinegar, wringing the tarragon in a cloth, filter through paper and bottle it, Dripping (Use for). — An eminent physician recommended a person who was in delicate health to eat beef dripping on bread or toast instead of butter, aa being more nutritious. He did so, and found benefit from it. It ia very good and more wholesome for children than butter, and if they only have it twice or three times a week they prefer it to butter. Cucumber Sauce. — Take two goodsized fresh cucumbers, peel and cut lengthwise into four or five pieces, and each piece into two ; put them into a quart of water, with a tablespoonful of salt in it, and let them lie half an hour ; drain them, take out the seeds, and put them into a stewpan witli a little sugar and butter ; set it on the fire, and stir in some brown gravy, and simmer until the cucumbers are tender ; then take them out and thicken the sauce, To Remove Photographs.— The cards should be floated on water, and allowed to remain till the photographs come oft' of their own accord, looking at them occasionally that they may not remain too long; sometimes it takes four or five hours. Take them carefully out of the water, and when partly dry place them between clean blotting paper in a book, to make them smooth and flat. Marking-Ink Stains. — The stain of marking-ink may be taken out of linen by applying a saturated solution of cyanuret of potassium with a camel's hair brush. After the marking-ink has disappeared, the part ahould be well washed in cold water to prevent injury to the material. To Keep Fresh Butter for Winter Use. — Wash, beat, and salt the butter in the usual way, taking care that it is entirely free from buttermilk. This clone, put aside any quantity of butter not required for present use into a common , glazed pan in layers an inch and a half thick, and on each layer put a thin layer of fine salt, press it down tightly, place a cloth on the top until the jar is full, which may be in a few weeks, as a layer may be added each butter-making day until the jar is full ; then place a dry cloth on the top, and tie it down with thick paper or bladder until wanted. The pan or jar most used for this purpose has a cover, is brown outside and yellow inside. Breakages. — The man who invented " stone china" should have a statue in his own enduring materials. Nothing short of malice -prepense will break a stone china plate. The stewards of ocean steamers throw them about in a gale of wind as coolly aa a landsman playa with quoita. They may chip and turn colour, but they will not break. They are the Old Guard ; they may be hacked in pieces, but they will not surrender. All that is needed with atone china is an exterior more inviting. With stout glass, stone china, and a stern discipline, housewives may do much to alleviate the ills of breakage. To Renovate Black Silk. — Sew into a small muslin bag two ounces of tea ; place it in a clean saucepan, and pour over it about a quart of boiling water ; add a little dissolved gum arabic, and let it boil for a short time. Sponge the silk thoroughly with the liquid, hang it on a clothes-horse to drain j roll it up smoothly, and iron it while damp. It is well to mark the silk (before wetting it) on the side on which it is to be ironed with a cross of fine white thread, as when wet it is difficult to know the right side, and the ironing leaves a glaze. This process makes old silk look almost new. Curtains. — Printed white dimity as a material for bedroom curtains is recommended. A bright mauve pattern is very pretty, and washes extremely well, as soda, with which laundresses generally ruin coloured things, only fixes and improves thie colour. There is a duller lilac that also washes well, and pink ; they are bound with the usual white dimity binding ; and whenever they come home from the wash they look like new, and give the room a very light and almost country-like ' appearance. Treacle Candy. — Take three quarts of the best treacle. Put it into a block-tin kettle, and atir in a pound and a half of the best and cleanest brown sugar. Boil slowly and skim it well (stirring it always after skimming), and taking care that it does not burn. Prepare the grated rind and the juice of three large lemons or oranges, and stir them in after the molasses and sugar have boiled long enough to become very thick. Continue to boil and stir till it will boil no longer, and the spoon will no longer move. Try some in a saucer, and let it get cold. If it is brittle, it is done. Then take it from the fire, and transfer it immediately to shallow square tin pans, that have been well greased with nice fresh butter or sweet oil. Spread it evenly, and set it to cool. Fomentation. — Hippocrates recommends hot fomentations for the relief of chest, abdominal, and other pains. From his time down to the present, hot fomentations have been the favourite remedy for a great variety of affections. If I were asked to select all possible methods of treatment, one, and one alone, with which I woxild undertake to combat human suffering, without a moment's hesitation I should select hot fomentation. For pains in the spine and shoulders, for pains in

the head, for paina in the chest, stomach, and abdomen, for pains in the limbs, for painß in any and every part of the body, hot fomentations constitute the beat single remedy. The old-fashioned method, with flannels wrung out of hot water is, perhaps the best method. A happy way of protecting the nurse's hands is to dip the flannel in boiling water ; then lay it upon a towel, roll the towel, and wring it. The nurse who understands the hot fomentation art and applies it industriously, will accomplish ten times as much as the doctor witli all his drugs. In addition to the benefits resulting from this remedy, it is one of the pleasanteat imaginable in its application. Coffee. — If the best coffee is used, and proper means and quantity be used to make it good, it cannot fail. There are several good ways, but the best is as follows : Have an earthenware or china pot, with a ring fitted inside, to which is attached a small bag of stout calico or flannel; put in one heaped teaspoonful of coffee to each person ; pour on it aboiit one-third pint boiling water for each teaspoonful of coffee, and let the water filter through, then remove the bag or not. Fill the breakfast cups quarter full with good cream, or, failing that, with hot water ; add sugar to taste. By this means the coffee is made strong and clear and with very little trouble. It can be poured out into a silver pot, or the china pot can be used for the table. The bag must be kept thoroughly sweet and clean by washing in hot water and exposing to the air ; before putting in the coffee, rinse it out with the boiling water, Cream is obtained (which ao greatly improves the ooffee) very cheaply, by taking morning and evening a pint of new milk ; this is set for cream, and skimmed morning mid evening, the milk left being used for the kiothen or puddings,