LONDON HOUSEWIVES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21896, 24 February 1941, Page 8

LONDON HOUSEWIVES

MUCH INGENUITY SHOWN London housewives are showing ingenuity in coping with the gas shortage which has been one of the minor inconveniences of the bombing attacks, a London correspondent writes. Oil stoves, open fires, even braziers on the pavement have been used to cook the family’s dinner. I heard of one woman who had the brilliant idea of using her electric iron to cook her breakfast. She turned the current on, secured the iron upside down on the table, and placed a frying pan on top of it. In a short time she had a dish of well-cooked bacon and eggs. The Ministry of Food has its hint too for cooking, with a small supply of gas. Their suggestion is jam jar cookery, which offers a simple way of cooking a meal even when there is only a glimmer of gas in the stove. The only equipment heeded is two or three stone jam jars and a saucepan large enough and deep enough to hold them. The pan should be half filled with water and brought to the boil. A stew goes into one jar, vegetables in another, roly-poly pudding in a third. The jars are put into the boiling water, the whole covered with a tightly fitting lid, and left to simmer until cooked. Potatoes pan be put straight into the boiling water in the spaces left by the jars. This meal can be left cooking for several hours on the low heat without spoiling. All that is necessary is to replenish the water as required.