HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1191, 26 September 1874, Page 21

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Creaking Boots.— Stand them in salt and water over the soles for 24 hours. Mustard Plaister. — In making a mustard plaister no water whatever should be used, but the mustard mixed with the white of an egg ; the result will be a plaister which will "draw" perfectly, but will not produce a blister even upon the skin of an infant, no, matter how long it is allowed to romain upon the part. AxtrM water applied hot is said to destroy red and black cockroaches, spiders, and all the crawling pests that infest our houses. The alum water should be applied with a brush to all wood- work where insects are suspected. Powdered alum or borax is useful for travellers to carry with them, to scatter where they suspect there may be troublesome visitors.' Shortbread.— Take lib. of fresh butter, and rub it into 21b. best flour. When completely mixed add lib. crushed or powdered sugar, and half a teaspoonful of essence' of bitter almonds. When these ingredients are properly mixed, they must be put, dry and crumbling as they are, into tin sheets an inch thick, neither wetted nor pressed down in any way. When slowly baked mark each into, squares with a knife, and do not remove them until cold. A Cheap Pudding. — Peel and core four or five apples, according to fheir size, cut them in slices, and lay them in a pie dish; sprinkle them with sugar (pounded), then put a thin layer of apricot or other jam. Take 2oz. of arrowroot, mix it with a pint of milk, a little sugar, and a small piece of butter ; stir it over the fire until it boils, then ' pour it into the pie dish with the' apples and jam, and bake it until done. . To Clean Kid Gloves,— Lay the

gloves on a clean folded towel. Dip a piece of clean flannel into some milk, and rub well with brown soap, and scour the glove towards the fingers. When thoroughly rubbed lay them on the grass to dry. A Remedy for Chilblains. — One ounce of tannic acid is to be dissolved in about a pint of water, and four scruples of iodine in a sufficiency of concentrated alcohol. The two solutions are then mixed together, and enough water is added to make two pints of fluid. The best time for using the remedy, says the Repertoire de Pharmacie, is on going to bed. The solution is placed on a slow fire in an earthen or china vessel ; the part affected with chilblains is then introduced into the fluid, and is to be kept there until the liquid becomes too hot to be borne. The part is then to be withdrawn, and to be dried by being kept near the fire. When the chilblains are ulcerated it is best to diminish the quantity of iodine. Figs (to Cook). — Put into a copper pan 4oz. of sugar, the thin rind of a large lemon, and one pint of cold water. When the sugar is dissolved, add lib of best figs, and place the pan on a stove so that the fruit may swell gently and stew very slowly. When quite tender, add two glasses of poz't wine and the strained juice of a lemon. Arrange in a glass dish, and serve cold. Eggs (to Preserve). — Eggs will keep for months quite good if buttered while warm from the nest, and placed in a jar upright in common kitchen salt. No eggs must touch each other, and the salt must be tightly pressed between and over the eggs. When the jar is full, wax the cork, or tie a thick cloth over it to exclude the air, and keep in a cool place. The salt is good for use afterwards. Beetroot. — Beetroot is better baked than boiled, unless too large, as then in baking, the outside gets burnt before the I inside is done. To boil a large one will i take two hours. The creamy sauce is i simply salad sauce or mayonnaise — yiz., bruise a hard-boiled yolk of egg, add to it I a little -flour of mustard and salt, then add a little oil and vinegar, sufficient to make it the thickness of cream. The great point is to mix it very gradually. To Wash Woollen Articles. — A strong lather should be made, and knitted articles be washed in it, squeezing them to get out the dirt ; then rool them tightly in a cloth to dry. No soap should ever be rubbed on woollen goods, and they ought not to be rinsed. " Night socks" never shrink nor become hard if treated this way. Ranoio Butter. — Let the butter be melted and skimmed as for clarifying ; then put into it a pieoe of bread, well i toasted all over. In a minute or 'two the butter will lose its offensive .'tfmell and taste. : ',' .?;, ' > - i: - Hair WASH.-^Take of <sil oJrrosemary |oz. ; spirits of wine or bay rum \oz.]' t mix i these intimately, either in a mortar or by shaking them in a bottle ; then add fat I glycerine Shake jwelluntil completely j mixed ; then add one-gallon of rain water. | To Clean Goloshes. — Set the goloshes to dry in a cool place ; when .quite dry wipe them with a<dry cloth, amfctake off any extra dirt carefully with a^hffe ;j then sponge them with wafmVater,' the "water preserves their gloss. ' - Don't wipe them, but set them up to dry in a cool place. Kid boots may be treated in""the ; same way. A little milk may also -be used ; but warm water is sufficient. To Wash Braided Frocks. — The frock should be washed in the usual way in a lather (the soap not rubbed on it), then I well rinse all the soap out of it, put it into strong salt and water, and let it remain I for about half an hour, and dry it in the open air if possible. Cleaning Marble. — Take a basin, filled with cold water, a clean flannel cloth dipped into the water, and common brown soap rubbed on the wet cloth, and then dip into coarse whitening, and rub this on I the white marble. After it is thoroughly rubbed, wash off with clean water, dry, and then rub and polish" with a dry cloth or chamois. This process will take out the discoloured smoke. Butter (to Pot). — Fresh butter :to be potted should be well washed when ."taken from the churn, well worked, and freed from butter-milk. Work in sufficient fine salt to taste, put it into a glazed earthenware jar, press it down tightly with the hand, and cover it over with a layer of fine salt, and so on until the jar is full. A layer may be added each butter-making or otherwise ; but the jar must be tied down each time, to prevent the air getting to it. When the butter is used, it will require two hours' soaking in fresh water ; it will then eat like fresh-made butter, Butter potted in this way will keep good through the winter, if kept in a cold place. Orange Jelly. — Pick four cases of oranges ; peel, leave no white pith ; take out the seeds or pulps if sweet jelly is desired ; if- not, leave in the pips, which is preferable ; boil and skim for an hour, with just enough water to cover the pulp, strain through a hair sieve;, then through a flannel bag ; and to every pint of juice put a pound of white sugar ; boil for three-quarters of an hour, skimming constantly; when the liquor is l ,"set," which is known by putting a spoonful on a cold plate, and as it cools thickens, pour the liquor into jugs, then into bottles ; when cold tie or seal up. Summer fruit the same, except no peeling. The orange skins make nice marmalade. Meat Jellles for Pies and Sauces. — A very firm meat jelly is easily made by stewing slowly down equal parts, of a shin of beef and knuckle or neck of veal, with a pint of cold water to' each pound of meat ; but to give it a flavoui some thick ' Slices of- lean, unboiled ham should be

added to it, two or three carrots, spice, a bu'noh of parsley, a mild onion, and a moderate quantity of salt ; or part of the meat may be omitted, and a calf's head very advantageously substituted for it, though the flavouring must then be heightened, because, though very gelatinous, these are in themselves exceedingly insipid. If rapidly boiled, the jelly will not be clear, and it will be difficult to render it so withoiit clarifying it with the whites of eggs, which it ought never to require if very gently stewed ; on the contrary, it will only need to be passed through a fine sieve or cloth. The fat must be carefully removed after it is quite cold. The shin of beef should be from the middle of the leg of a young heifer, not that which is large and coarse. Stains in Black Clothes.— lt is sometimes difficult to remove stains from mourning dresses, but this may be done by using a decoction of fig leaves. To make this, boil a large handful of fig leaves in two quarts of water until it is reduced to a pint j remove the leaves and bottle the liquor. With a sponge dipped in the liquor, rub the crape or cloth, and the stains will disappear. Crape may be made like new by a simple process. It should first be thoroughly shaken and brushed to remove all dust from it, then held over a steaming kettle or laid out on the grass in the dew. Then it must be folded and laid between the lids of a large book or newspaper file, and a heavy weight placed over it until it is dry. When by any mischance one is caught in a shower, and has a crape veil or other covering wet, if it is removed as soon as taken from the person, folded, and dried under a heavy weight, it will look as well as new. Mourning calicoes may be washed repeatedly without losing colour if they are first placed in boiling hot suds, left there until the water is lukewarm, and then washed in the usual way. Starch used in stiffening them should be mixed with an infusion of coffee rather than of clean water, and, like other calicoes, they should be ironed on the wrong side.