Ladies’ Column.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 37, 15 May 1917, Page 2

Ladies’ Column.

MAKING THE BEST OF A LEG OP MUTTON, Buy a big leg of matt on, as the bigger the cheaper, and ask the batcher to cut a nice thick steak or catlet right out of the centre.

This, gently stewed with carrots, turnips, and onions, with a nice brown, thickened gravy, and walled round with either mashed swedes, mashed potatoes, or plain boiled rice, makes a delicious dinner for four persons.

Or it may be plainly grilled like a steak, or cut into small cutlets like veal, and battered with seasoned flour-and-water, breadcrumbed, and fried a golden brown ; no egg need he used. Pried potatoes, haricot beans, and tomato sauce go well with this. The knuckle part can be stewed with half a teacupful of rice or pearl barley, and smothered with either parsley, onion, or caper sauce. Remember pickled nasturtium seeds answer as well as capers. This knuckle is the part that is shamefully wasted when roasted, as it is “done to nothing” long before , the thicker end is cooked. By stewing it, you also have a delicious broth, and a light supper dish may he made by allowing a piece of baked stale bread to swell in the liquor, ' The best Mid gives you a nice hot roast joint, and after one cold meal the remainder can be made into a tasty mince or hash if the bones are well, simmered and ( the gravy from them is used in its preparation.

WHAT TO DRINK T Personally—if tea, coflee, and cocoa were debarred —I would prefer thin barley water as “cleaner” to the palate than any preparation of broth. It is besides ■ very nourishing, and whether served hot or cold it is an equally pleasant drink. This recipe makes a most pleasant beverage. Ingredients : Two ounces of pearl barley, two or three lumps of sugar, the rind of half a small lemon, and a pint of boiling water. Method : Cover the barley with cold water, and boil for two minutes, then strain. Place.sugar,.barley, and lemon-rind in a jug, pour in boiling water, and cover closely. When cold, strain and use. It may he diluted with milk. This combination cannot be bettered if a light nourishing drink is required or desired.

GINGER BEER. Slice four lemons, and crush two ounces of ginger ; add to them half a pound of lump sugar, two ounces of cream of tartar, and the same quantity of lemon juice. Pour over these ingredients two gallons of boiling water, and when nearly cold add a tablespoonful of barm. Bottle next morning, and tie down the corks. It will be fit to drink in two days. It improves the liquor to strain it before bottling.

EFFERVESCING LEMONADE ' POWDERS. Required, one pound of white sugar, a quarter of a pound of bicarbonate of soda, and one and a half drachms of essence of lemon. Mix these ingredients very thoroughly. Sift (them and divide them between six dozen papers. Then take five ounces of tartaric, or of citric acid, and divide it between the same number of white papers. Those previously made should be wrapped in blue paper. To use : Dissolve one packet of each colour in about half a glass of water. Mix together, and drink while effervescing.

FADING IN THE WASH. To prevent colours running, and to revive them, use a teaspoonful of common vinegar to every quart of cold rinsing water.

Alum similarly used will stop green from fading. A handful of salt put in the water will set blue.

Ox-gall is good to use for grey and brown. Hay-water, made by pouring boiling water over bay, is excellent for washing tan or brown linen.

A tablespoonful of black pepper will prevent colours running in cottons. Every article so treated should be hung in a shady place —not in the sun—to dry.

KITCHEN NOTES. When carbolic acid is wanted for use as a disinfectant, see that you mix it with boiled, not cold, water. Clean plaster of Paris ornaments with wet starch, to be brushed off when quite dry. Coarse oatmeal, instead of tea leaves, although expensive, is the expert method of cleansing and making water-bottles like new.

Over-salting of food can be put right by using a teaspoonful of vinegar and one of sugar. Windows can easily be kept bright and clean by rubbing with a flannel wrung out of a little alcohol. Sugar forms about seventy per cent, of honey ; it is derived from natural sugars by inversion, and is more easily digested in this form than cane sugar.

Whipped cream goes much farther if the white of an egg is added before whipping. Add a pinch of salt to the whites to make them froth easily, and take care that the beater is thoroughly dry. Three-cornered tears are frequent in mackintoshes made of rubber material. To mend these cut two pieces of the rubber you use for tyre-mend-ing purposes and stick them over the tear, using the rubber solution for mending punctures, and finally rubbing a little French chalk over the mend. This will scarcely show on the right side of the mackintosh, any article made of this rubber material should be doctored in this way —rubber gloves, sponge bags, etc,