HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1197, 7 November 1874, Page 21

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Tame Ducks Roasted. — Season them with sage and onion shred, pepper, and salt ; half an hour will roast them. Gravysauce or onion-sauce. Always stew the sage and onion in a little water, as it prevents its eating strong, and takes off the rawness. Tomato Sauce in the Feench Manner. — Simmer the fruit with a little broth, salt, and pepper, until it forms a pulp. If too thin, reduce it by boiling. A minute or two before serving add a little veloute, and a bit of butter, give it one boil. Sugar Biscuits. — One pound of flour, a pound of powdered sugar, a few almonds, blanched and pounded, mixed with six spoonfuls of rosewater and the yolks and whites of eight eggs that have been beat a full hour ; when well mixed, put it in small tins of various fashions, and bake them only with the heat of an oven after the bread is drawn. Stop the oven very close. To Clean Marble.— Take two parts of common soda, one part of pumice-stone, and one part of finely powdered chalk ; sift it through a fine sieve, and mix it with water ; then rub it well over the marble, and the stains will be removed ; then wash the marble over with soap and water, and it will be as clean as it was at first. Turkey and Chicken Patties. — Take the white part of some cold turkey or chicken, and mince it very fine. Mince also some cold boiled ham or smoked tongue, and then mix the turkey and ham together. Add the yolks of some hardboiled eggs, grated or minced ; a very little cayenne ; and some powdered mace and nutmeg. Moisten the whole with cream or fresh butter. Have ready some puff-paste shells, that have been baked empty in patty-pans. Place them on a large dish, and fill them with the mixture. Peach Marmalade. — Pare and slice the peaches very thin ; to a pound of peaches put three quarters of a pound of sugar ; wet the sugar with a very little water, and stir it over the fire till t is dissolved ; then put in the peaches, and let them boil gently over a slow ' fire till they are done enough ; then fill the pots ; when cold, paper them tip. Pokk Olives. — Cut slices from a fillet or leg of cold fresh pork. Make a forcemeat in the usual manner, only substituting for sweet herbs some sage-leaves, chopped fine. When the slicea are cover-

ed with the forcemeat, and rolled up and tied round, stew them slowly either in cold gravy left of the pork, or in fresh lard, Drain them well before they go the table. Serve them up on a bed of mashed turnips or potatoes. Fig Marmalade. — Take fine fresh figs that are perfectly ripe. Weigh them, and to every two pounds of figs allow a pound and a half of sugar, and the grated yellow rind of a large orange or lemon. Cut up the figs, and put them into a preserving keetle with the sugar, and orange or lemon, adding the juice. Boil them till the whole is reduced to a thick, smooth mass, frequently stirring it up from the bottom. When done, put it warm into jars, and cover it closely. Pigs Feet Fried. — Pigs' feet are frequently used for jelly, instead of calves' feet. They are very good for this purpose, but a larger number is required (from eight to ten or twelve) to make the jelly sufficiently firm. After they have been boiled for jelly, extract the bones, and put the meat into a deep dish ; cover it with some good vinegar seasoned with sugar, and a little salt and cayenne. Then cover the dish, and set it away for the night. Next morning, take out the meat, and having drained it well from the vinegar, put it into a frying-pan, in which some lard has just come to a boil, and fry it for a breakfast dish. Chicken Rice Pudding. — Parboil a fine fowl, and cut it up. Boil, till soft and dry a pint of rice ; and while warm, mix with it a large tablespoonful of fresh butter. Beat four eggs very light ; and then mix them gradually with the rice. Spread a coating of fresh butter, &c, ovei' the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Place on it the pieces of parboiled fowl, with a little of the liquid in which it was boiled, seasoned with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour and a little cream. Cover the dish closely with the remainder of the rice ; set the pudding immediately into the oven and bake it brown. Magnum- bon um Plums.— Set them over a slow fire in soring water till they will peel ; keep them under the water ; peel them, put them into a thin syrup in a jar, keep them under the syrup, that they may not bo discoloured ; the next day .boil the syrup, put them in, give them a gentle boil, let them stand to be cold, then repeat it, turn them in the syrup till near cold ; take out the plums, strain the syrup ; put to it more sugar, boil and skim it, put in the plums, boil them till clear ; when cold, put brandy paper. Cream Trout. — Having prepared the troufvery nicely, and cut off the heads and tails, put the fish into boiling water that has been slightly salted, and simmer them for five minutes. Then take them out, and lay them to drain. Put them into a stew-pan, and season them well with powdered mace, nutmeg, and a little cayenne, all mixed together. Put in as much rich cream as will cover the fish, adding the fresh yellow rind of a small lemon, grated. Keep the pan covered, and let the fish stew for about ten minutes after it has begun to simmer. Then dish the fish, and keep them hot till you have finished the sauce. Mix, very smoothly, a small tablespoonful of arrowroot, the juice of the lemon, and two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and stir it into the cream. Pour the sauce over the fish, and then send them to table. Lemonade. — Pare two dozen of goodsized lemons as thin as possible, put eight of the rinds into three quarts of hot, not boiling, water, and cover it over for three or four hours. Rub some fine sugar on to the lemons to obtain the essence, and put it into a china bowl, into which squeeze the juice of the lemons ; add to it one pound and a half of fine sugar, then put the water to the above, and three quarts of milk made boiling hot ; mix it well together, and pour through a jelly bag till perfectly clear. It should be made a day before it is wanted. Currant Jelly. — Take ripe, freshly gathered currants, and fill up a gallon jar with them, and set it in boiling water, for an hour ; then turn out the juice carefully, not letting the berries fall into it. To each pint of juice take three quarters of a pound of the best lump sugar ; boil altogether for twenty minutes ; strain through a jelly strainer into cups or glasses which have been dipped into cold water. When perfectly stiff, dip a thin paper the size of the glass into the white of an egg, and lay over the jelly ; then paste over the glass a piece of stiff brown paper, and write the kind of jelly and the date upon it. — Cultivator. Excellent Ground Rice Pudding. — Take half a pint from a quart of rich milk, and boil in it a large handful of bitter almonds or peach kernels blanched and broken up ; also half a dozen blades of mace, keeping the saucepan closely covered. When the milk is highly flavoiired and reduced to one half the quantity, take it off and strain it. Stir, gradually, into the remaining pint and a half of milk, five heaping tablespoonfuls of ground rice ; set it over the fire in a saucepan, and let it come to aboil. Then take it off, and while it is warm, mix in gradually a quarter of a pound of fresh butter and a quarter of a pound of white sugar. Afterwards, beat eight eggs as light as possible, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Add some grated nutmeg. Stir the whole very hard ; put it into •'' deep dish, and put it immediately into the oven. Keep it baking steadily for an hour. It should then be done. Eat it cool, having sifted sugar over it. Stewed Fish. — Take any nice fresh fish of moderate size, and when it is drawn and washed cut it into three or four pieces, and put them into a stew-pan with amply

sufficient liot water to keep them from burning. Season them with a little salt and cayenne. After it has simmered steadily for half an hour, and been skimmed, have ready a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, mixed in a smooth paste with a heaped table-spoonful of flour. Add this to the stew, with a bunch of sweet marjoram chopped fine, and a sprig of chopped parsley. If approved, add a small onion pared and sliced very thin, Cover it closely, and let it stew another half hoxu 1 . Then send it to table.