Household Helps.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXV, Issue 13, 30 September 1905, Page 60

Household Helps.

To pour drops from a bottle moisten the edge. Milk keeps sweeter when placed in a shallow bowl instead of a jug. To elean enamel rub wi h salt moistened with vinegar. Milk, used instead of water, makes puddings and pastry light. Vinegar placed in boiling water prevents poached eggs breaking. Flour will put out the Hames caused by the upsetting of a paraffin lamp. To cut hot bread dip the knife in warm water. Corks can be made sound and air-tight by boiling. Lettuce-leaves strewn about the floor will attract and destroy beetles. When chopping suet, sprinkle with a little ground riee; it will not then stick to the knife. When baking cakes place a layer of salt under the mould. This prevents burning. In turning steak do not use a fork, as the holes which it makes in the meat causes the blood to run out. Crease spots on silk can be removed by splitting a visiting card and rubbing the spots with the soft in'ernal parts. Suet that has become hard and stale can be made fresh and useable by placing in boiling water for a few minutes. Salt sprinkled on any substance that is burning on a stove will s op the smoke and smell. When maching hard materials, such as serge or holland, oil the thread. This will prevent it constantly snapping. An old bath loofah answers the purpose for cleaning linoleum better than a brush. Prevent mustard from drying or caking by adding a pinch of salt to the mustard, which should always be made with boiling water. New potatoes are given a delicate flavour if a few leaves of mint are placed in the water in which the potatoes are boiled. Old incafldescent gas mantles make a splendid polish for silverware. Crush a little on a soft duster and rub on the silver. Asbestos mats only cost about 2d. each, and they are most serviceable.

Placed under a saucepan or milk-pud-ding, it prevents boiling over. If sherbet is used instead of bakingpowder when making madeira, seed, or other plain cakes, they will be much lighter and of a delicious flavour. Two pads, the size and shape of kettle holders, and sewn to a piece of tape, are useful for lifting hot dishes out of an oven. Clean windows with a flannel dipped in paraffin, and polish with a clean duster. It imparts a fine polish, and warns off flies. Lemon coffee is delicious. Rub each side of a lump of sugar on the rind of a lemon, and pour on the coffee in the ordinary way. Imitation frosted glass is made by dissolving in a little ho water as much Epsom salts as it will absorb. Paint the glass with the water while it is warm. Serge or cloth may be thoroughly cleaned by rubbing with water in which about twenty young laurel-leaves have been steeped for three hours. Boiling water should be poured over the leaves. To sterilise milk, place it in a bottle and close the neck with a plug of cottonwool. Put the bottle in a large saucepan, fill the latter with cold water, and bring it to boiling point. Set it aside to cool slowly. "Poverty Cake’’: Mix well one cupful of raisins, half a cupful of butter, one cupful of sugar, one of flour, one of sour milk, one teaspoonful of carbona'e of soda, one egg, a little nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground cloves. Bake in a flat meat tin for half an hour. A cheap safe for meat and other perishables can be made from a wooden box, obtainable for a few pence from a grocer. Nail a piece of perforated zine over one side of the box after taking away the wood, and fix a small door with leather for hinges. Stoning cherries may be much lightened by a very simple device. Take a new package of rather long, ordinary wire hairpins. Dip one of these into boilingwater for a few moments to absolutely sterilise it. Put the loop end of the hairpin into the cherry. You will find that it pulls out the stone with very little injury to the fruit. A cooling drink may be made with the following ingredients: Epsom salts, tartaric acid, ci rate of magnesia, carbonate of soda and cream of tartar (quarter of a pound of each), and castor sugar (half a pound). Place the Epsom salts on a plate in the oven for about two hours to expel the moisture, then bottle the whole, and shake well. A teaspoonful in a glass of water makes a refreshing drink.