HOME INTERESTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1874, 21 October 1887, Page 34

HOME INTERESTS.

To cleanse a serge gown which has become soiled and "glazed," sponge with unsweetened gin, soft soap, and honey. Rinse well ; iron on wrong side while still damp. Strawberry Shortcake. — To two teacups of sour milk add one teaspoon ful carbonate of soda. When thoroughly dissolved, mix with a small teacup of butter or lard, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll into thin cakes large enough to fill the pan you are to bake them in. Dust a clean fryingpan with flour, put in the cake, and bake over the fire, turning as soon as the under side is done. Split the cakes while hot, butter well, put one half on a plate, coTer with small strawberries well sugared, place another half on that, then more strawberries, and so on until there are five or six layers, and then serve. It is eaten warm or cold, but never hot. Yeast. — Most housekeepers who make their bread at home make their own yeast. The following recipe I used for years in the country, viz. : -Boil 2oz hops in four quarts of water for half an hour ; strain it through a fine sieve, and let it cool to milk heat ; then add a little salt (a tablespoonf ul) and £lb 3ugar. Let it stand for a day ; then add 31b of potatoes, boiled and mashed. Let it stand another day ; strain it again, and put it into bottles. It must be stirred frequently when making, and kept near the lire. Before using, shake it well. If kept in a cool place it will keep for two months. This yeast ferments spontaneously, and if it is allowed to ferment well in the earthen bowl in which it is made, it can be corked tightly when bottled. A Favourite Dish. — French toast is a favourite dish with children and many grown people. It is made of thin slices cut from a stale loaf and moistened in milk and eggs, two eggs to a pint of milk, and then fried on a griddle with a mixture of butter and lard, or butter and beef drippings. It is eaten with sugar or syrup, like griddle cakes. Beef Cake. — Cold beefsteak— that bet noire, of housekeepers — may, if slightly underdone, be nicely prepared by chopping fine with a little thyme or parsley, well seasoned, mixed with a tablespoonful of bread and crumbs and another of thick gravy or stock. Lastly, add one egg. Grease a small cake tin and sprinkle with bread crumbs, Press the meat mixture firmly in ' and co\ er with more crumbs. Bake quickly for 20 minutes and turn. Roast beef, veal, lamb, or mutton may be utilised in the same way. Cheese Fritters.— Grate about two tabiespoonfuls of Parmesan cheese (or any rather strong cheese will do) into a basin, and mix with it a tablespoonful of finely grated bread crumb and a little pepper and salt. Break a couple of eggs into another basin and beat them well; add to them gradually the cheese and bread crumb, and beat all well together. Have ready a fryingpan, with a large lump of butter in it, and as soon as the butter boils, drop in the mixture from a dessertspoon in small cakes or fritters. Fry them a nice brown on both sides and serve very hot. Boiled Ham. — At the London ham-and-beef shops the following method of boiling hams is said to be adopted with excellent results:— The hams are alwajs placed in cold water in a copper, under which a small lire is made, which raises the water very slowly to the boiling point. The moment this is accomplished the fire is raked out, the 'jopper covered over, and the hams are allowed to remain in the water until ifc is nearly cold. By this means the flesh is rendered tender and juicy, and the loss of fat is guarded against. Madras Curry. — Put 3oz of butter into a fryingpan with two medium-seized onions cut into slices, and fry until the onions commence to brown ; then add a dessertspoonful of curry powder, the same quantity of curry paste, and a teaspoonf ul of rice flour ; mix the ingredients smoothly with the butter and season them with a saltspoonf ul of salt, adding three-quarters of a pint of good gravy. Now take lib of either beef or chicken meat and cut it into small pieces. Put them in a pan witfh the liquor, and let all simmer gently for half an hour or until the meat becomes tender, being careful to stir the contents ever few minutes ; just before taking up, squeeze in the strained juice of a lemon, then place on a hot dish and serve with a border of rice around it. Chicken a l'Americaine. — Take one or more chickens, dressed and trussed as for roasting, except that no stuffing will be required. Tie thin slices of bacon over the breasts, with stout thread, and place in a convient sized saucepan with a small carrot, a medium sized onion stuck with two cloves I and a sprig of parsley ; add any kind of broth, or failing that, hot water enough to half cover the contents. Cover the saucepan closely, and simmer very slowly until tender, which should be in 40 minutes, if the fowls were young. Remove them to a baking pan, baste* with melted butter, dredge with flour, and set in the oven five minutes to brown. Have ready some rice croquettes, put the chickens on a hot dish, garnish with the croquettes, and serve with the broth in which they were stewed, strained and thickened. How to have Good Milk fob Infants. —Simoris, a Netherland physician, recommends cleansing the nursing apparatus of artificially fed infants by soaking it in lukewarm water, boiling the whole apparatus for a quarter of a hour, and then allowing it to cool off gradually, He says that the rubber

tubing stands this process very well, so that about a yard of it will last for a year. _ By this means Ho has almost always avoided causing dyspepsia. He calls attention to the careless practice of some mothers or nurses who add fresh milk to what is left over from a previous feeding. The attempt to sterilise milk by boiling it, Simoris thinks rather harmful than beneficial, since it makes the coaguia of casein in cow's milk much harder to digest. Fresh milk from healthy cows is not dangerous, and a good condensed milk comes next to this in value.