HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10418, 23 March 1912, Page 4

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

If milk is used instead of water when mixing mustard for the table, it will look fresh for several days. Knives not in daily -use should be well polished and buried in a box of sawdust until required for use. Always empty out any water left befora filling tho kettle. Very frequently the flat tasto of tea is caused by using water that has already been boiled. . If a strong brine oi salt and water is thrown over the coals, less soot will collect in tho flues and chimneys. Tho fire, too, will burn clear and bright. When boiiing a pudding, place a piece of grease-proof paper between the pudding and cloth. This will prevent the goodness boiling out of the pudding, and save labour when washing the cloth. Very light matting is best cleaned with weak borax water. If there are any grease spots, cover them with prepared chalk damped with turpentine. Sweep ordinary matting twice, first with a stiff broom, working along tho grain of the straw, then crosswise with a soft broom dipped in warm water, rinsing with clean water. Dried Apple Kings.—A quarter of n. pound will make a nice-sized tart. Place them in a basin, and rinse thoroughly in cold water quickly. Pick ihe slices apart. Place in a quart basin, add sufficient water to cover, and soak for twenty-four hours, turning the fruit over onco or twice. When tho apples havo soaked thoroughly tho water will b« absorbed. Use as fresh fruit. Potato Cake. —Well beat the yolks of six eggs with six ounces of sugar. Add ono pound of potatoes which have been boiled and rubbed through a sieve and the grated rind cf one lemon. Beat the mixture well for half an hour, always in the same direction. Then add the whites of the eggs beaten stifliy, and put it on a buttered tin

sprinkled with fine bread-crumbs,, and bake it for one hour.

Quaker Pudding.—lngredients: Jib flour, loz suet, two tablcspoonfuls Quaker oats, two tablespoonfuls sugar, pinch of salt. Method: Chop the suet, and mix it with the flour, Quaker oats, sugar and Bait; moisten with a little milk or water, and pour into a greased pudding hasin. Cover with a well-floured cloth and. boil for three hours.

Stained Knifo Handles.—Stains on ivory knife handles give an old and damaged look to knives that are otherwise in good condition. They can be cleaned by mixing equal parts of ammonia and olive oil added to enough prepared chalk to make a paste. Kub the ivory with this, and let it dry before wiping it off. Do not bo discouraged if this does not at once remove the stains, as several applications of the paste may bo necessary.

Shepherd's Pie.—Chop finely Jib of cooked meat, and, after seasoning with pepper and salt, mix in a teaspoonful of flour. Add a small teacupful of slock, gravy or water, and stir the over the firo until it boils. Then pour the ingredients into a pie-dish. Take six or eight freshly-boiled potatoes, and mash them well, adding a shake of popper and a table3pocinful of milk. Spread tho Potatoes over the meat with a knife dipped in milk. Ornament the top neatly with a fork, and then bake to a, nice brown in a hot oven.

Orange and Date Jelly.—Pour into a saucepan 1| pints of cold water, the juice of a lemon, the grated rind cf two oranges, and the fruit divided into quarters, a stick of cinnamon, six good dates, and a little grated nutmeg. Simmer altogether for fifteen minutes after it has begun io boil. Then take loz of gelatine, which has been dissolved in half a pint of water, as well as n large cupful cf sugar and the juice of two oranges, stir till the gelatine is quite disrobed, and then strain this mixture. Now put the orange quarters and the dates, etc.. at the bottom of a mould, add a layer of the jelly, then moro of the. orange, and so on in layers. Cocoanut Caramels.—Ecquired, a small cocoanut, a pound of white granulated sugar, and a teaspoonful and a half of vanilla essence. Take the railk of tho nut and make it up to a gill and a half of liquid with water or cow's milk. Place in a sauoepan with tho sugar, and boil, without stirring, from ten to fifteen minutes. When the sugar will form a soft ball, if a little is placed incold water, it is ready. Add tho meat of the nut grated finely, with ail the brown skin removed, then the vanilla, and turn out on to a buttered dish or tin. Mark in small squares, and cut out before the caramel is quite hard. If liked, part can be coloured a pole pink with a few drops of cochineal. Almond Gingerbread.—Beat the yolks of ten eggs and Sib of white pounded sugar till quite light; then add one nutmeg, well grated, Joz of ground ginger, half a teaspoonful cf ground cinnamon, eight cloves well pounded, 6oz candied peel cut into small squares, Jib of blanched almonds, and stir all well; then dissolve Joz of carbenate of soda in a wineglassful of milk a-nd stir into tho mixture. Butter a cake-tin, line it with buttered paper, drop in the mixture, smooth the top over with sweet milk, and then dust the top with finely-chopped, blanched- almonds or walnuts, and bake in a moderately hot oven for Vine hour and a quarter. Then turn the oako out and cut it into fancy pieces. An Invalid Tart.—Half fill a small piedish with stewed apple. Slice one penny spongo cake, placing the slices on tho top of tho apples. Next take the yolk of an egg and add to it a pinch of salt, a teaspoonful of sugar, and a teacupful of boiling milk, stirring all the time. Put the custard into a small saucepan and sfir for a minute or two until it is slightly thick, but tho custard must on no account be allowod to boil. If desired, there may be added a tiny grate of nutmeg or a single drop of lemon essence.' After the custard has been poured over the contents in the piedish, beat the white of the egg stiffly and mix in a teaspoonful of fine sugar. This having boen piled neatly* on the top of tho custard, the dish is put into a slow oven for a few minutes until tho whito of the egg firms.