HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7506, 13 September 1902, Page 3

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

When boiling dried peas and beans, sugar, with a little sultless tat, has a, veiy softening efiect, especially in the early stage of the process. Ihe stains of iron rust on stone may he partially removed by washing the stone with ' hydrochloric acid diluted with four parts of i. water, then washing with clean water. In the | case of maxble, use oxalic acid in solution of j water. | The white of an egg has proved a most effil caoioua" remedy for 'burns. Seven* or eight successive applications of this substance soothe pain and effectually exclude the burned parts from the air. This simple remedy ia quite inexpensive, and is always at hand. Oyster Stuffing for Turkey.— Make a stuffing for turkey in the ordinary way of dried breadcrumbs seasoned with parsley, thyme and sweet marjoram, and moistened with melted butter. To thi* add twenty small oysters chopped fine, and' with thia stuff the turkey. Sweet Potato BaJla.— Mash and pass through a sieve three or four large, mealy potatoes. Mix with them a beaten egg and its weight in caßter sugar, flavour with nutmeg and grated lemon-rind. Make into balle, dip into beaten egg and breadcrumbs, and fry in deep fat till a golden colour. Serve very hot. . Duohess Soup.— Three pounds shin of beef, four carrots (one grated), four onions, one bead of celery, three quarts of water, and a little seasoning. Cut everything up fine, and put on in cold water in a saucepan with a small cup of pearl barley. Boil gently for two i hours. Pepper and salt to taste. I Banana Fritters. — Peel* the fruit and cut in two lengthwise; eet in a dish with caster sugar, dredge and aqueeae over tbe juice of a lemon and let them lie some time. Dip into a nice frying batter aud cook in deep fat to a 'light yellow colour. Serve piled on a napkin, strewn plentifully with caster sugar. A Very Pleasant Perfume, and also Preventive against Moths. — Take of cloves, caraway seeds, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon and Tonquin beans, of e*oh loz; then add as much Florentine orris-root aa will equal the other ingredients put together. Grind the whole well to powder, and then put it in little bags among your clothes, eto. Fillets of Fish, Jewish Fashion. — Lay the fillets in slightly salted water for fifteen minutes, drain, let lie in the fold* of a clean, dry cloth, and lightly dredge with flour. Bring: the frying oil to the boil in a fryingpan, dip the fillets into beaten egg, and plunge each separately into the boiling oil and cook.

Drain thoroughly on kitchen paper and serve. Treacle Pudding. — Sift a teaspoonful of baking powder into a short lib of flour, and mix it with a tabkspoonful of moist sugar, 4oz of shred baef suet, a good grate of nutmeg, and j lastly three tablespoonfuls of golden syrup and J half a pint of warm milk; three parts, fill a j buttered basin with the mixture, and boil i without interruption for two full hours. Serve i plain or with sweet sauce. | Chestnut Pudding. — Boil 21b chestnuts till ' soft, dry them in the oven, remove the shell • and ekin, then pound the chestnuts; mix with j them 2oz butter, 2oz caster sugar, two eggs ! and half a pint of milk, and flavour with a little vanilla or grated lemon peel ; beat up the mixture for three or four minutes, then put . into a buttered pie-dish and bake. \ Oil Spots on Muslin.— The unsightly yellow ' Bpots so frequently left on white goods by con-: tact with sewing machine oil may be effaced by rubbing each stain well with household ammonia before washing the article in soap and water. Sometimes the me of a good washing I powder is equally effective, hut almost always soap has the effect of "setting" the stain one wishes to eradicate instead of removing it. Chicken Curry. — Fine-grained poultry do not make good curry, as the curry powder is unable to permeate the centre bf the flesh. ' A coarse-grained bird will be found the best ior this purpose. Boil the chicken in the usual manner, saving the broth. When cold cut it neatly, and rub the curry powder into the meat. Cut up one large sour apple and half an onion, fry these in butter; add the meat, toss it about a moment, and add half a pint of the chicken broth and a tableipoonful of chutney, simmer until thoroughly amalgamated and serve with rice or shredded maize. A little sugar is an improvement, and may thicken the sauce, bnt it ia better without flour. An Excellent Home-made Soap. — White Castile soap — the best quality— is about as pure as soap oan be, hut it is too drying for the skin of many people. This drawback will vanish if the following preparation is made, with it aa a component part: To an ordinary < cake of the Oastile, shaved fine and melted, add a cupful of oatmeal which has been cooked until it is a pulp, and mix thoroughly, using a silver or a wooden spoon. liet the mixture stand on the back part of the stove, where it will just keep warm, hut not boil, nor even simmer, for half an hour; then add a few drops of any preferred perfume, and pack away in glass or porcelain jars. I* should not be used under a month, and if it is allowed to dry for Another month it will be just -so much, better. This is an excellent SOW) for whitening and softening the skin. Insects in cage birds are often the cause of their illness and death. They may generally be detected by the bird's restlessness at night, . iand .also by the way it plucks at ita feathers during the day. To exterminate the parasites, remove the bird into another cage and blow a little insect powder into its feathers. This treatment may have to be repeated several times. To purify the cage, baking is reoommended; but if that be not possible, eorub it well with carbolio soap and hot water, and when dry paint overa ll the wire holes and crevices in the woodwork with paraffin oil. When the smell has gone off, the bird ma/ go back to its oage, but, to avoid a recurrence of the trouble, the paraffin treatment should be repeated occasionally, as the cracks and holes in the woodwork are the favourite haunts of the parasites.