Domestic

New Zealand Tablet, 30 September 1915, Page 57

Domestic

(By Maureen.)

Icing a Cake. x •- Beat up the whites of two eggs; then add Jib castor sugar, and the juice of a lemon or a few drops of orange-flower water. Beat the mixture until it hangs upon the fork in flakes, then spread over the cake, dipping the knife in cold water occasionally. Stand it before the fire, and keep turning the cake constantly, or the sugar will catch and turn brown. As soon as it begins to harden it may be removed. The icing must not be put on until the cake itself is cold, otherwise it will not set. A few drops of cochineal will color if desired. To Give Pork Chops a Delicious Flavor. Pork chops are hard to digest, but most people like them. It is well to serve them with apples in some form, as the fruit serves as a corrective for the richness of the pork and aids the process of assimilation. A new idea is to fry the apples and use them as a garnishing for the dish of chops. This is very easily done in the fat left in the pan after the meat is cooked. The apples should be cut into quarters and the cores taken out. Then they may be fried a. light goldenbrown, well drained and laid all around the edge of the dish. A few sprays of parsley will add to the appearance of the dish. Ratafia. Pudding. Flavor a pint and a-half of new milk rather highly with bitter almonds, blanched and bruised, or, should their use be objected to, with three or four bay leaves and a little cinnamon. Add a few grains of salt, and from four to six ounces of sugar in lumps, according to the taste. When the whole has simmered gently for some minutes, strain off the milk through a fine sieve, put it into a. clean saucepan, and when it again boils

stir it gradually and quickly into six well-beaten eggs which have been likewise strained; let the mixture cool. Lay a half-paste , round a well-buttered dish) and sprinkle into it an ounce of ratafias finely crumbled, grate the rind of a lemon over, and place three ounces of whole ratafias upon them. Pour in sufficient of the custard to soak them. An hour afterwards add the remainder, and send the pudding to a gentle oven; half an hour will bake it. , Mint Sauce. Some people believe in using, cold vinegar to make mint sauce, and in using the sauce before the mint wilts. In this way not half of the strength is got'out. A quick and excellent way is to use three.tablespoonfuls of as young and freshly gathered mint as you can get, a large tablespoonful of sugar, and half a cupful of freshly boiled vinegar. Some people prefer white wine to cider vinegar for this sauce. Butter Scotch. Take 11b brown sugar, lb butter, six drops essence of lemon. Put the sugar into an enamelled pan and dissolve slowly over gentle heat, beat the butter to a cream, and when the sugar is dissolved, add the butter, and keep stirring over the fire until the butter scotch sets; add the essence of lemon just before removing from the fire. Butter a dish or tin and pour the mixture on it. When cool, it will easily separate from the dish. Chow Chow. This is made as follows:—Curry powder, 4oz; mustard powder, 6oz ; ginger, powdered, 3oz ; turmeric, 2nz : cayenne pepper, 2 drachms; coriander, 1 drachm; allspice, 1 drachm; mace, 30 grains: savoury, 30 grains; celery seed, in powder, 2 drachms; cider or white vinegar, 2 gallons. Mix all together, and let simmer over a slow fire for three hours. The pickles should be scalded or slightly parboiled with boiling salt water, and the spiced vinegar poured over them while still warm.