HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18940, 10 December 1929, Page 12

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

To prevent a mincer from slipping while in use, place a flat pickle-cork between the cap of the lower clamping screw and the table. When saving marrow and pumpkin seeds, collect them from the stem end of the vegetable. An eating-apple cut up and served raw with cold meat is delicious. To improve the flavour of beetroot, add a few cloves to the water the beet is cooked in. When using a carpet-sweeper on any carpet, run it along the way of the pile and it will last longer. To prevent onions turning dark when they are pickled, throw them for a minute or two into boiling milk when they are freshly peeled. The milk can be used afterwards for soup or breadsauce or for stewing rabbits. To avoid streakiness in butter, churn as usual and wash the butter until the last \vater is clear, then work salt (allowing a little more than is necessary) evenly through the butter. Wash again and make up into pats, working well and beating the water out. To cure an obstinate cough, mix a tablespoon of treacle with a scant teaspoon of mustard and take sips at short intervals. If you are making jam and have no jam covers handy, just melt a candle in a tin cup and pour the liquid wax over the top of your jam jars. This makes them air-tight. All you need to do then is to tie paper over the tops to keep dust off the wax. Have You Tried— Cutting a boiled pudding with a hot knife to avoid making the pudding heavy? Or dipping a knife into hot water before cutting new bread for the same reason? Painting a rusty-looking wire mattress with some aluminium paint to improve its appearance? Worn-look-ing baths are so quickly renovated by the use of this quick-drying paint. Placing a jam-jar, half filled with cold water, in your gas oven when cooking meat? The steam from the water rises and keeps the meat tender and juicy.

Laying a hot poker on a piece of camphor to rid a room of flies? The fumes rise and quickly disperse the flies.

Making your own camphorated oil at home? Grate sixpenny worth of camphor into the same amount of sweet oil. Stand in a basin of hot water, cork loosely, and shake occasionally until the camphor has wholly dissolved. Mixing hearthstone with a small quantity of thin starch before using, to prevent rain washing the whitening off the iront door steps? , Erasing gravy stains on a tablecloth with French chalk? Leave the chalked spots for a few hours and the grease will be absorbed and the cloth spotless.

Massaging your hands with paraffin oil when very dirty? Wash afterwards with a good superfatted soap and warm water, anci note how soft and white the hands will be.

Dusting a small quantity of dry flour over the top of a cake before commencing to ice it? The icing will then be less likely to run down the sides of the cake.

Adding a piece of dripping to the water in which green vegetables are boiling and so prevent it from boiling over ?