ALL ROUND THE HOUSE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 17, 23 April 1892, Page 434

ALL ROUND THE HOUSE.

USEFUL HINTS. V EVER, on any consideration, use brass, copper, or bellmetal kettles for pickling ; the verdigris produced in them by the vinegar being of a most poisonous nature. Kettles lined with porcelain are the best. When it is necessary to boil vinegar, do so in a stone jar on the fire. Use also wooden spoons and forks. A small Jump of alum added to the vinegar in which pickles are sealed renders them crisp and tender, and if covered with cabbage or grape leaves a fresh green colour will be imparted. In making pickles, cider vinegar is best, but very nice, strong vinegar may be made of sorghum, as follows : One pint of sorghum to each gallon of sott water (hard water will do, but soft is best), add a cake of yeast and some good ‘ mother,’ if you have it. Tie a cloth tightly over the jar or keg and place it in the sun. It will be good in three or four weeks. Stir it well every few days. See that pickles are always completely covered with vinegar. It is a good rule to have one third of the jar filled with vinegar and two thirds filled with pickles. Vinegar should only boil five or six minutes. Too much boiling takes away the strength. Pickles will keep best by being bottled, sealed while hot, and set in a cool place. Bits of horse-radish and spices, with a handful of sugar to each gallon of pickles, assist in preserving its strength as well as greatly improving its flavour. Ginger is the most wholesome spice for pickles ; cloves are the strongest, then allspice, cinnamon and mace. Mustard seed is also very nice. If pickles are raised and prepared at home in brine, an oaken cask should be used, and they should be kept well covered, with plenty of salt at the bottom of the cask. In making brine for pickles, it should be sufficiently strong to bear an egg. A pint of salt to every gallon of water is the usual proportion. CHEAP TABLETS. THOSE housekeepers who deal with grocers who do not send out ‘ peg boards,’ will find it convenient to keep a cheap tablet, or pad, hung in a convenient place upon which to make a note of groceries, or other articles needed, when the need is first discovered ; else in making out the list at the last moment, or in giving orders to the groceryman, small, but essential articles are apt to be forgotten. A handy article for this, or any temporary memoranda, may be quickly made from unsealed envelopes, such as have contained circulars, etc. Place the envelope in the tablet with the addressed side down, cut the ends and open the envelope. You now have a blank, oblong sheet pointed at the upper end, on which is the mucilage. Lay the next one, cut in the same way, upon this ; moisten the mucilage on the flap of the first and press the back of th- flap of the second upon it. Add as few or as many as you choose, always keeping the blank side uppeinmst; and in tearing off the leaves after dhey are filled, tear below the gummed flap, leaving that, so that more may be added at any time. Many housekeepers find it a help to write out at night a list of the next day’s duties. This is a help to memory, and one finds considerable satisfaction in crossing out the items, one after another, as the work is done. A USEFUL PRESENT. AN extremely useful present, to give someone who is very fond of reading, is a book cover. It may be made of a bit of old brocade, lined with silk and its edges outlined with gold braid. It is wisest to choose a piece of brocade that looks as if it might have belonged to one’s great grandmamma’s brocaded petticoat. There are sold book covers, ready made, of undressed kid, lined with silk, having a strap for the paper knife to go under, and a long ribbon for the book-mark. The woman who is able to use the brush and paint even a little, can put a monogram in one corner of the cover on the outside, and paint a motto or a name on the ribbon book-mark.