SILHOUETTE PORTRAITS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1931, Page 7 (Supplement)

SILHOUETTE PORTRAITS.

THE STORY OF THEIR ORIGIN*. • (By C. Romanne-James.) The origin of the silhouette portrait —which is again 'becoming fashionable, by the way—is very interesting. Tradition tells us that Korinthea, daughter of Di'butades, who lived about 600 8.C., noticed that the affections of her lover were waning and realised that she would soon 'be left alone. One day, as he sat by her side, she traced the outline of his shadow against the white marble, thus seeking to keep his image before her sight after he had gone, poets and painter® alike have immortalised the pretty story, and Benjamin West, Le Brun, and many other®, have employed the subject in their pictures. For a long time silhouettes were called "‘shades’ 5 or “shadowgraphs.” How the name silhouette came to be attached to shadow pictures is also interesting to note. Etienne de Silhouette was a French Minister of State, born in 1709. He was secretary to the Due d’Orleans and was one of the Commissioners appointed to settle the Franco-British frontiers in Acadia in 1749. That was before his appointment as Controleur General—in face of great opposition, as his economical traits were not relished 'by t’hd extravagant nobility. In the (first twenty-four hours of Silhouette’s ministry, it is said, economies to the extent of seventy-two million francs were effected. And very soon those opposed to him bitterly denounced his economies, calling him the Miser of France, Prince of Penuty, and so on. He persisted, however, and, as a result, the Word Silhouette came to be applied for a time to all cheap things. When the fashion for cutting “portrait shades’’ was at its height in England about 1525, the art was given the name of the French Minister, Silhouette, who had died over fifty years before. And the name has clung.

CARE OF METAL VESSELS.

BRIGHT AND SHINING. If you want your metal vessels, pots and. pans, to be really bright, do not try to cledn them all with end kind of polish. Nickel may be kept bright by washing with hot soapsuds. If it need? polishing .after drying, use. a paste made by mixing whiting with ammonia to about the consistency of milk; apply it with a flannel and rub it well into The crevices. WRen dry, rub Ofi the whiting, and polish with a woollen clothBadly stained, nickel can be cleaned bjr rubbing with a. vinegar and alum mixture until atajpa begin to disappear, and polishing it afterwards. To make vinegar alum mixture, boil a quart of add two ounces of powdered alum, and stjir until the powder is dissolved; Apply hot. If tbe nickel is badly stained, it may be boiled in the cleapser until the stains begin to disappear. Th® mixture should be kept in a tightly-corked bottle. In cleaning brass, copper and tin rub the surface first with a cloth dipped in vinegar or lemtui-juice. Then rub thoroughly with a paste made of rotten, stone and oil. Polish with a dry cloth. The acid application is used to remove the tarnish, and the rotten-stone takes up th® superfluous acid and complete* the polishing process. If this second process is not carried out thoroughly, the brass will soon tarnish again. If aluminium is not used for vegetables containing a strong acid, or for ■boiling eggs, it will not discolour, and needs very little care. Before using any polish, fill the utensjl with water and bring to boiling point on the stove. Silver-sand will keep it sufficiently bright.

SANE USE OF DISINFECTANTS. WAR AGAINST GERMS. (By, H. C. Aylen.) Why do we use disinfectants? To kill, or render ineffective the germs of disease which otherwise one person may catch from another. Suppose you are nursing an infectious case in yotir house. It is your duty to the rest of your household and your neighbours to see that everything which has been used in the patient’s room' is disinfected, washed in 'boiling water, or thoroughly ■boiled. No germs can stand boiling for half an hour. It is also a very good plan to hang over t'he door of the siok room a Sheet saturated in disinfectant.

When the illness is over and the doctor has pronounced the patient free from infection, see that she has a disinfectant 'bath before joining ilm rest of the family. Be sure also that bedding and clothing from tfae sick-room are sent away to be properly disinfectOne of the best disinfectants is Carbolic acid. It is, of course, a poison, ahd will burn the skin when not diluted with water. It is best to get it from a chemist in a solution known as 1 in 20, for washing sick room utensils. One in 40—that is, one part Acid to 40 of water—is a solution suitable for washing the hands. Eucalyptus oil is a strong non-poisorious disinfectant, which will mix with water.

For fumigating the room, blankets, rugs, etc., after infectious illness, : fise a “sulphur candle,” obtainable from the chemist. Make the room air-tight, sealing up chimney, key hole, door, etc., blit leaving a window unlatched so that it may be opened from the outside when the twenty-four hour.? necessary for fumigation are over. Then open the windows and free the chimney to let the smell of the sulphur escape.

ODDMENTS FROM THE BREADBIN-

NOTIONS WHICH AVOID WASTE., " '('By M.L.) The housewife is lucky who doe? nbt have to cope with her maid’s faculty for accumulating crusts and oddments of bread in the breadpan. There always seems to be some reason why the pan cannot be kept clear. There is a limit to the quantity of raspings the average household can use for the boiled ham, game, and so forth. And there is also a limit to its appetite for bread puddings. So the really thrifty woman must use her wits to cir? cum vent in some other fashion the waste represented by those pieces of bread.

She will find that a “bed” of sieved breadcrumbs, nicely heated through before being laid on tl.e serving pldte, will add greatly to the flavour, as well as to the economy, of many a fish apd meat dish. For example, stewed shrimps or prawns, served with a savoury white sauce made from the liquor, gain very much by being placed oh sieved breadcrumbs, for t)ie flavour of the'fish sinks through to them by mean? of the sauce, and thus is emphasised. A savoury mince goes mupli further when it is placed on a “'bed” papered with breadcrumbs, heated and mixed with fried onions. Drain the ipince quite dry before adding it, for the from the onions svill provide all the moisture necessary. Then there is always the cheese pudding to be made from sieved stale breadcrumbs, a beaten egg and some grated parmesan. This is so delicious, if carefully baked in a moderate oven, that most people don’t care how frequently it appears on the menu.

WORTH THE PRICE.” DINNER AT £2OO A HEAD. It is a question whether any meal prepared under the directions of Lucullus, the Roman epicure, can compare with that served by Rene Black, maitre d’hotel of the Casino, for San Francisco dinner party in New York recently (states an English exchange). Rene Black says that members of an English polo team, playing in the West, were present. The dinner cost £2OO a head, and was as follows; — Hors D’Oeuvres. Designed as a “full house” in poker, with every card and pip an edible. Soup. The juice of game fowl, 25 birds to a plate. Fish. / Fighting trout, imported from Egypt. . Entree. • Imported quail, especially fattened. - Salad. Curly endive, dipped in wine. Vegetables. A special variety of French peas, of which only 100 gallons are produced yearly. "Singer’s Midget” string beans. Savoury. Pate de foie gras and puree of wild cherries. Dessert. Miniature Swiss village, complete with mountains, lakes, and churches, made of nougat; assisted by 200 baskets of giant strawberries. - The dinner took a month to prepare, six men working for a fortnight on the dessert tableaux. The task was undertaken by Rene Black for a £5 bet that he could not produce a £2OO-a-plate meal which Would satisfy all present that the dinner was Worth the price. He won his bet. RECOMMENDED RECIPES. Marrow Rechauffe: Vegetable marrow left over from a previous meal will ■be 4.S good as when freshly cooked if it is put into boiling water until hot through. To give extra flavour drain, cover with grated cheese, and put in the oven for a few minutes before serving- * * * #

Fudge: Mix lib. of granulated sugar, 6 tablespoons of cocoa, a pinch of salt, and half a pint of fresh milk, and stir thoroughly. Cook slowly until a soft ball that can be lifted with the finger is formed in cold water, or until a thread spins from the spoon. Remove from the fire, and add a piece of butter (walriut size) and half a teaspoon of essence. When the mixture has stopped ■ bubbling, beat it steadily. When it is too still to stir longer, turn on to a buttered plate. When it is firm cut it into squares, if desired; chopped nuts may be added when the fudge begins to thicken.

Ginger Marzipan: Jib. of ground almonds, 2oz. castor sugar, 2oz. icing sugar, 1 white of egg, a few drops of ginger essence, a few pieces of preserved ginger. Pass the icing sugar through a hair sieve, and mix it with the castor sugar and the ground almonds. Slightly beat the egg white, and add to the other ingredient?, kneadihg the whole' until a smooth, firm dough is obtained- ‘The white of egg varies much in size, so should the mixture be too soft to handle comfortably, add more sugar, but if the mixture should be dry, and crack badly, a few drops of tepid water may be addedDust the pastry board and rolling pin with castor sugar, and roll out the mixture to about a quarter of an inch in thickness. Cut in rounds with a small fluted cutter, one to one and a half inches ip diameter. Put a small piece of preserved ginger in t'he middle of each, and set aside on grease-proof paper to harden for twenty-four hours.

Chocolate Pudding: Rutter a mould; mix a quarter of a pound of plain.grated chocolate with a quarter of a pint of milk; boil together to make the chocolate smooth. Beat to a cream a quarter of a pound of castor sugar with three ounces of butter, then stir in the yolks of two eggs and six ounces of fresh white breadcrumbs. Pour on the milk and chocolate and add a few drops of vanilla. Beat the whites of two eggs very stiffly and stir in lightly with, the other ingredients. Put the mixture into a mould, and steam for one hour, or bake it in a buttered pie dish for the same time in a slow oven.

St. Leonard’s Custard Pudding: Put two dunces of butter and one tablespoonful of flour into a stewpan, stir this over a gentle fire till quite smooth, add half a pint of new milk, two ounces of sugar rubbed on*a lemon; stir all Over the fire till it becomes thick; it must not bojl. Turn into a basin till pearly cold, add yolks of three eggs. Line a dish with puff paste and put a layer of jam in the bottom; pour the custard on the jam and bake for one hour.

Steamed Fish Pudding: Quarter of a pound of cold cooked fish, two ounces of bread crumbs, one ounce of butter, onp gill of milk, one egg, one teaspoonful of chopped parsley—pepper and salt tp Boil milk and butter and pour over dry ingredients; spt aside for a little to cool; add one egg well beaten. Grease a small bowl; mince the parsley vary fine and shake into a shape to form a lining; put in the pudding, and cover with buttered paper; steam for 10 or 15 minutes; turn out and serve with butter sauce.

SPANISH ROYALTY.

DINNER AT THE EMBASSY.

The dancing that followed the dinner party given by the Spanish Ambassador for the Queen of Spain and* her daughters was for the special benefit of the"young Spanish Infantab, who are both as keen on dancing as they are on tennis, states the Daily Mail. Their mother is a beautiful dancer, but she usually prefers to watch rather than to take part, now that her girls are grown-up. The Spanish Ambassador and the Marquesa Merry del Vai invariably arrange some festivity for the Queen and her daughters when they are in London, and it usually takes the form, as on this occasion, of a dinner party followed by a smiill dance. The fact that “coveto” for all the guests, including the Prince of Wales, were laid at one table helped to make the dinner a particularly cheerful one, with lovely red and golden flowers to gladden the eye, and marvellous and delicious dishes to tempt the palate. The Spanish Embassy, which the Ambassador and his clever wife have made as Complete as possible, is already known to both the Queen and. the Princesses. They never tire, however, of .dmiring the exquisite tapestries and hangings and the pictures, all by famous Spanish artists, which make the Embassy one of the very finest of all the diplomatic residences in London. As partners for the young people there were such interesting bearers of famous names as the young Duke of Norfolk, Lord Dumfries, heir to the Marquis of Bute, and Lord Sefton, just lately the successor to his father’s title and great possessions. Don Pablo Merry del Vai did the honours of the house for his parents, and an exceptionally interesting young Spanish guest was Lieut. Don Alvaro de Ruzaiz, son of the Comtessa del Puerto, who was also at the dinner. A brilliant young naval officer, he is attached tb the Spanish Naval Commission attending the International Signals Code Committee.

Lord and Lady Carisbrooke were included in the dinner-list, whilst others to be noted in the lovely court salon, where coffee was served after dinner, included Lady Louis Mountbatten, Lord Winchilsea and his charming American wife, and Lord and Lady Londonderry#