Chapter VIII: Practical Hints for the Handy Man 118 (3)

OX-TAIL SOUP.—Joint the tail and place the pieces in a deep stone jar with peeled onions, say three or four, as many carrots, and some salt and pepper. Fill up the jar with water. One tail should make three or four pints of strong soup. Stew in a corner of the hearth or oven for four or five hours, and serve a few pieces of meat with the liquor. It is not necessary to thicken the soup, but if it is preferred so, it can have a little flour and dissolved butter rolled together and stirred into the hot liquor gradually, and boiled up once.

SHEEP’S HEAD BROTH.—Wash the head well and put on in a pan with cold water, a good spoonful of salt, a large cupful of well-washed barley, some onions and turnips, carrots and leeks if to be had, and a piece of celery likewise, and boil very gently for at least three hours. Add cold water always, say two quarts to one head. A little fresh parsley chopped small will give a very nice flavour to the broth, put in when cooked.

SCOTCH BROTH.—The neck and other lean parts of mutton make the best broth, and should be cut small enough to serve a little meat in each plate. Turnips and onions are cut into small pieces and put in with the meat in liberal quantity. A little salt and pepper, and some fresh green peas when in season are added when the rest of the broth has boiled, and pearl barley, previously washed and soaked in cold water, is put in with the first vegetables as it takes long to cook. Boil two hours.

GRAVY SOUP.—Parts of lean beef, such as the shin and tougher pieces of the leg, with any large bones broken in pieces, make the best gravy soup. The meat should be cut into pieces and put into a deep jar with the bones, and just enough water to cover well. Put in a spoonful of salt and a few peppercorns and leaves of any sweet herbs available, but no vegetables save one or two onions. Cook very slowly indeed, never allowing it to boil hard. After cooking about six hours, strain off, let it get cold to enable any fat to be skimmed off, then warm up as wanted. It should be a rather deep colour and very strong and clear.

RABBIT OR HARE SOUP.—The bones and larger joints, heads, and so on, without any blood, of course, are put on to cook in cold water, and with them put onions and carrots. Cook a long time, then strain and pick off any nice bits of meat to return to the stock. Mix a large spoonful of flour with cold water, also a teaspoonful of salt and half one of pepper, and same of sharp sauce if available. Stir into the hot liquor and boil up for five minutes.

BEEF BOUILLON.—Take a nice piece of fresh beef, say two or three pounds weight; put it on in a pan with warm water rather more than enough to cover it. Bring it up to the boil quickly, and as soon as it boils add pared carrots and parsnips—no turnips—onions, leeks and celery, as many as the pan will hold, then let all boil _very gently_ for three hours or so. The beef and vegetables can be eaten as a dish after the soup has been taken off clear. The latter is most reviving and appetising as well as wholesome. The point is not to let it boil hard, and to keep the broth clear and well-flavoured.

FISH SOUP.—The water in which a large fish has been boiled will make a foundation for good fish soup, straining it clear then returning to it flakes of fish carefully picked from skin and bone, and a little minced onion and parsley. Melt a small pat of butter and stir into it some white flour till quite smooth, then a little cold milk, and pour into the stock. Add pepper and salt at discretion, and bring to boiling-point. Small fresh white fish are sometimes boiled in the stock till quite soft and the whole strained through a colander, then finished off as indicated.

POTATO SOUP.—Boil three or four large potatoes after peeling, and when done mash them down to a pulp; chop finely a large onion and fry it in butter or lard, but do not let it brown. Dredge a little flour on to this, then add a teaspoonful of salt and a little pepper and stir up with the mashed potato, and thin down with milk to make it like cream, stir well till it boils and serve.

Soak white haricot beans for twelve hours, and then boil them until they will mash down smoothly, and treat exactly as above, and an excellent white soup will result.

ONION BROTH.—Peel, slice thinly and boil, several white onions, using a deep saucepan and enough water to cover them well. When quite tender and soft stir in half as much milk, and a large spoonful of cornflour or barley meal, with butter, pepper and salt enough to season well, let it boil up a minute or two and serve.

Or bone stock can be used instead of water, leaving out the milk.

The water in which ham or bacon has been boiled will make excellent foundation for peas or lentil soup. Pea flour is less trouble and quite as satisfactory as using dried peas, but if the latter are preferred let them soak at least twelve hours before boiling in this liquor. Boil till soft, then crush through a colander with wooden spoon and season the puree well, adding a little butter also. If too thick, thin down with either milk or water, put in a spoonful of fresh mint chopped or of dried and sifted herbs.

Treat lentils in just the same way, except that they will not need the previous soaking that dried peas do.

If pea flour is used, mix it well with cold water first, boil the stock and stir in the paste when it is hot and boil well, stirring frequently; season and add the herbs or mint as before.

If fresh green peas are used, they need no soaking, only boiling till very soft, mashing and thinning down with stock.

PUMPKIN OR VEGETABLE MARROW SOUP.—Pare, split down and take out the seeds from large marrows or from portions of ripe pumpkin. Boil in enough water to cover well until quite tender, then rub through a colander. Melt some butter and mix with it a large spoonful of flour, and stir this into the marrow, thinning down with a little boiling milk, adding salt and pepper and a spoonful of sugar, a little spice if liked, and boil till all is smooth as a custard.

TOMATO SOUP.—Cook half a dozen large tomatoes in a little butter, after cutting them in slices and some slices of peeled onion. Cook till tender, and rub down with wooden spoon or pass through a colander. Add enough clear bone stock to make the required quantity of soup, and salt and pepper, with a teaspoonful of sugar also. Then finally stir in some butter and flour mixed together to a smooth paste, boil well and serve.

Mixtures of vegetables like turnips, parsnips, artichokes and potatoes, with onion to make a savoury flavour, make an excellent white soup. Carrots and tomatoes and onion go well together for a soup that is made up with bone stock.

It is an improvement in all these soups to use _baked_ flour where flour is mentioned, as this gives the soup a richer flavour. To make it, spread a little white flour on a sheet of paper and bake very slowly in a cool oven, then keep in a tin.

Boiled, Baked and Fried Fish

BOILED FISH (which is never really _boiled_ but is cooked just under the boiling-point) is done after much the same method, no matter what the kind of fish. It is better when boiling large fish to wrap them in a piece of clean calico or muslin as the thinner parts get cooked before the thicker are done, and with a wrapping it is easier to lift the fish out without breaking it. Cook in water that is well salted, and if the fish is a white one, like cod, add a little vinegar to the water.

Another way of boiling fish is to lay it in a dish with just sufficient stock—fish stock by preference—to cover it, with a few small onions round it and a little wine or vinegar added.

After boiling, drain the fish well and serve plenty of nice sauce separately, and boiled potatoes left whole. A large cod, boiled whole, with plenty of mealy potatoes and a dishful of parsley or egg sauce will make an excellent meal.

In boiling portions of fish, like middle cuts, it is better after draining to take away skin and all bones and then serve it in flakes masked under a sauce. It is a neater and more appetising way than to have each one leave a mess of skin and bones on their plate, and a very pretty dish can be made by sprinkling a little grated cheese or parsley on the top and browning the dish before serving.

Watch fish carefully while it is boiling, and as soon as it shows signs of parting from the bone it should be drained. If boiled too long all its flavour is gone, and if boiled too fast it will be raggy and yet tough. Small fish like fresh herrings and mackerel, likewise soles and plaice, all of which are very nice when carefully boiled, should rather be _poached_, much as one would poach an egg.

BAKED FISH.—The best way of baking any fish is to do it in a paper wrapping. If the right kind of paper bag is not to be had, wrap it in white notepaper, having buttered this first and put a little pat of butter inside with a sprinkle of pepper and salt. Close up tightly and bake in a rather hot oven and serve in its paper case if possible. If a large piece of fish is baked in a paper bag the wrapping can be pulled away when it is safely landed on the dish. Small fish are delicious when baked in a paper case, and all the flavour is kept in and the natural juice of the fish as well. This is a clean way of cooking when the oven is nothing but a flat hearthstone, only care must be taken that the paper wrapping cannot catch alight.

FRIED FISH.—A clear hot fire is the first consideration when frying anything, then a clean hot pan, some good fat such as rendered suet or lard, and not too much of it, and the fish must have been well dried after cleaning, then rubbed with flour. If cleaned an hour or two before they will be cooked, the fish should be dipped in milk and coated with flour, then left to dry, in this way a crust forms on them which browns quickly when fried, and is little if at all inferior to the more troublesome method of frying what has been coated with beaten egg and dipped in crumbs of bread. The rough and ready way of flouring fish after drying and then frying in hot fat is quite satisfactory when flavour counts for more than appearance, but you cannot fry fish _without_ first coating them with dry flour.

Another way is to make a batter with an egg, a little flour, salt and milk, making it rather thick, and dipping the fish into this, then putting them at once into hot fat. This, too, is an easy method and a nice crust forms on the outside of the fish which keeps in all the flavour.

Flat fish, like soles, flounders and plaice, are the best for frying, or slices cut across a large fish.

The fat in the pan must be very hot indeed, which is told by a faint blue smoke rising from it.

GRILLED OR BROILED FISH.—This is the camp ready way of cooking freshly-caught fish, and very good it is. After cleaning and emptying, the fish is split down the back, rubbed lightly with oil and laid on a grid and held over the coals. It wants a little skill to grill well, and not to burn the fish, but if quickly cooked in this way, turning frequently on both sides, the result is excellent. Herrings and mackerel broil well, so do trout and some of the small river fish. A pat of butter, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and a few drops of vinegar are all the sauce that is needed.

Sufficient directions for roasting, boiling or braising meat have already been given, so that we may pass on to savoury dishes, among the best of which are—

Hotpots

For a LANCASHIRE HOT-POT take about a couple of pounds of lean beef and as many potatoes and several onions. Cut the beef into small pieces about an inch square and roll these in flour that has been liberally seasoned with salt and pepper. Pare the potatoes and cut them in very thick slices; peel the onions and chop roughly. Make a layer of beef, onions and potato alternately in a stewpan just large enough to hold the whole quantity comfortably without leaving much space. Pour in enough water to barely cover, then put on the lid and set in a moderate oven for quite two hours, to simmer well but not boil. It should be very tender and lightly browned on the top. Serve in the same pan. The flouring of the meat keeps that more tender and makes the gravy richer.

For a HUNTER’S HOT-POT take any game or rabbits, and after cleaning and skinning, joint them and roll in seasoned flour, then form layers of rabbit, onion, whole potatoes or pieces of turnip or other sweet roots, and fill up with warm water, closing tightly and stewing for two to three hours or even longer. Venison would be good stewed in this way. Game birds are better stewed without vegetable additions, but with a little pork or bacon cut in strips and put with them. Flour well all the same.

For IRISH STEW take the neck and breast of mutton and cut in convenient sized pieces, flouring well in seasoned flour as before, and lay in a deep stewpan with whole onions and potatoes, as many as the stewpan will accommodate. Put in less water, only enough to cover the bottom well, then lay a plate face downwards on the top before putting on the cover of the pan, and cook in good oven for three hours. The plate helps to keep in the steam and to keep the top of the stew from browning.

For making a Hot-Pot with breast of veal or lamb, as sometimes it is possible to do in the spring or summer time, the meat is cut in strips and across in short lengths, is floured and put in a deep jar with a few very young onions, some herbs like mint and parsley, plenty of seasoning and a spoonful of vinegar, as well as sufficient water to just barely cover the whole. The vegetable additions are cooked separately, although a few boiled green peas might be put into the pot just before serving.

A VEGETARIAN HOT-POT is very savoury when no meat is procurable, and a mixture of vegetables, such as carrots, onions, potatoes, turnips and so on, should be pared, cut into neat rounds and fried well in clear fat till all are lightly browned, then sprinkle with pepper and salt and dredge flour over very lightly, put the vegetables in the stew pan, rinse out the frying-pan with hot water, add just a tablespoonful of vinegar or sharp sauce, and pour over the rest. Cover down closely and stew for an hour in the oven. A little American green corn taken from the husk and put into a vegetable stew makes it very nice.

A bottle of curry powder would be of great assistance to a camp cook, as a spoonful of this stirred into a stew or a sauce would make a wonderful difference to the savouriness of the dish, to stews of mutton especially, and of vegetables without meat. After frying the vegetables, let the curry powder be stirred into the fat in the frying-pan and mixed with that and the flour, then a little hot water or stock added, and just cooked a little before pouring it into the stewpan. The addition of an apple or a ripe tomato, or failing everything else a spoonful of vinegar, will give the desirable flavour of acidity which a curry should have.

Fried Steak and Onions

In making this very favourite dish it is well to remember that the best results are gained by combining frying and stewing, that is, frying first and stewing for a short time afterwards. Only so do you get the mellow flavour and the full savour which frying should give. Thus, cut the steak into small squares and flour well, then fry in a little, not much, hot fat, on both sides, rather quickly, so as to brown well. Then lay the pieces of steak as they are done at the bottom of the stewpan. While these are being fried a quantity of onions can be peeled and sliced up, and with a little more fat added they are put into the frying-pan after the meat is finished. Toss them frequently to brown lightly all over, and to make them thoroughly tender cover for five or ten minutes with a plate large enough to fit the frying-pan, and so let them steam through. Then add to the steak, rinse out the pan with warm water, add pepper and salt to it, and pour over the onions, cover the stewpan down closely and set in a corner of the fireplace to simmer for an hour or so. Then the dish will be found both appetizing and digestible.

Calf’s Liver, Pig’s Fry, etc.

In frying liver follow the same method as just described for steak, only cut the liver or the pig’s fry into slices, not too thick, and flour very thoroughly, frying till just lightly browned. Fry some bacon afterwards which has been cut into strips, and add to the liver; then fry the onions as before, season them and add with a little stock to rinse out the pan, and cover the stewpan and cook for an hour or more in the corner of oven or fireplace.

When frying Mutton Chops coat them with flour first, as this keeps the outside from getting dry. Make a nice gravy to go with fried chops by adding a very little flour to take up the fat in the frying-pan, some spoonfuls of sharp sauce, salt and pepper and a little stock or water, boiling this and serving it with them. It takes but a minute or two to make gravy, and it makes a great deal of difference to the dish and its value.

After frying anything like bacon or ham it is an improvement just before it is quite finished to cover it over in the pan with a plate and let it steam through for five minutes, thus making it very tender.

Toad-in-the-Hole

Beat four tablespoonfuls of flour and two eggs, and a saltspoonful of salt, together with a little cold milk, adding more milk when the batter is perfectly smooth, enough to make it like thick cream. Cut about a pound of beefsteak and one or two kidneys into small pieces, lay them at the bottom of a well buttered baking dish or pie-dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then pour over them the batter. Set the dish in a hot oven, but shield the top to keep from scorching before the meat is done through. Mutton chops or sausages can be substituted for the beef and kidney, and mushrooms help to give a nice flavour. Australian tinned mutton or American corned beef may be used this way also and make a very savoury dish, though less savoury than fresh meat, of course, and therefore where cooked meat is used a little gravy should be made separately and poured over the portions as they are served. Fresh meat can be lightly fried before covering it with the batter, to make it more savoury.

Beefsteak, Kidney and Mushroom Pudding

A plain suet crust made with half a pound of beef suet chopped, a pound of flour and teaspoonful of salt, rubbed together and mixed rather dry with cold water, then rolled out twice before lining the mould with it, is the first step towards making this pudding. Grease the mould well, line it with crust rolled to about half an inch thick, and cut out a piece for the top to fit exactly. Then proceed to fill with steak cut into small squares, each one rolled in flour mixed with salt and pepper, and add a few pieces of ox kidney cut small, and mix with the meat some peeled mushrooms if these are to be had, or oysters if these are available, and failing either the pudding will be very good without them. Fill level with the top, wet the edges of the crust and pinch down the covering piece, after pouring in sufficient cold water to nearly but not quite cover the meat. Then tie down with a cloth, or screw on the cover of the mould, whichever kind of mould is used, and plunge it into a deep pan of boiling water, and keep boiling very fast for four hours—certainly not less than three. If making a larger pudding give it still longer time to boil. The moulds with screw on covers are much to be recommended, as when using a cloth, however carefully this is tied over, some of the gravy and goodness of the pudding is apt to ooze through into the water. Take off the cover, bind a clean cloth round the mould, and serve, or turn it out into a deep dish if preferred.

Where mutton is more plentiful than beef, lean parts, chops trimmed from all fat, and kidneys cut in half, with mushrooms, or without them, would make another delicious pudding.

Mushrooms alone, plenty of them, liberally sprinkled with pepper and salt and floured, might be packed inside a mould lined with suet crust, and a few strips of bacon or salt pork put with them, then boiled for a couple of hours, and a very savoury pudding would result.

When boiling beef or mutton with vegetables, as before directed, small balls of this plain suet crust dropped into the broth when it boils and cooked for an hour or so, are, in the opinion of many people, a great addition to the dish and certainly help to make it a little more substantial.

The same crust lines the mould when sliced apples, plums, berries and wild fruits are used for the filling, with sugar added, and when boiled this turns out an excellent pudding. Boil always two hours. A suet crust improves with long boiling, but is not at all good when too little done.

For a JAM ROLL make the crust in the same way, rolling it out to about a quarter of an inch thick, in a long strip of ten or twelve inches wide. Spread with jam, or treacle, with chopped fruits, soaked dried fruits and syrup, or anything that is available, and then begin at one end and roll up, not too tightly, pinching down the edges to keep it compact. Take a cloth, wring it out of hot water, sprinkle lightly with flour, and place your roll pudding across one corner, fold over the sides towards the middle, then roll up neatly and securely, but again not too tightly, as the pudding wants room to swell, fasten securely, and plunge into fast boiling water, and keep boiling without intermission for two hours. Unroll from the cloth and serve on hot dish.

A plain boiled suet pudding may be boiled in a cloth, or in a greased mould tied down, and served with hot treacle or cane syrup, or white sauce in which some spoonfuls of jam have been boiled, sweet sauce with wine, and so on, or with the gravy from meat.

The plain pudding may be made richer by adding currants or a liberal quantity of stoned raisins to it, or mixing with it treacle, marmalade or jam, and then boiling and serving with sauce.

Golden Pudding is of the same type, but may be called the Sunday edition of the weekday variety. It is made by mixing the same plain ingredients with eggs instead of milk or water, adding a little baking-powder to the dry flour first, then a spoonful of orange marmalade and two of clear sugar syrup, and after mixing and putting into a buttered mould this is boiled for two hours and served with a sweet sauce containing a suspicion of something spirituous—whatever Sunday rations permit of!

While on the subject of boiled puddings, it will not do to leave out a recipe for Christmas Pudding, as there may be occasion for the colonist to make his own some day.

Equal quantities (whatever the weight, this depending upon the size of pudding required), say, half a pound each of stale crumb of bread grated finely, flour, suet minced, currants and stoned raisins and sugar; mix these together first, then add two ounces of candied fruit shred small, half a packet of mixed spice and teaspoonful of ginger, a teaspoonful of salt, four eggs and quarter of a pint of brandy or rum. Mix thoroughly and keep for two or three days before boiling, then put into moulds and tie over closely, and boil five hours.

To simplify this, leave out the candied fruits and spices, using only the plainer ingredients and all raisins can be used instead of currants if preferred. A pound of figs cut very small might take the place of any other fruit, and the spirituous liquor can be omitted altogether, using milk in place of it.

Equal quantities, say half a pound, of stoned and chopped raisins, suet and flour, mixed together with cold milk, and boiled for four or five hours, make a very excellent substitute for a rich plum-pudding.

Baked Milk Puddings

It is a mistake to put eggs in baked milk puddings, except it be when a custard is required. A deep dish makes the best puddings of this type, and the heat at which they are cooked must be only moderate; they do exceedingly well on the flat stones in front of a fire or in the hearth after a fire has been swept away, or at the bottom of a clay oven as mentioned in the early chapters of this book.

Wash whole rice and barley very thoroughly before using, then allow three large tablespoonfuls of either to each pint of milk used. Roughly speaking, it is sufficient to cover well the bottom of the dish that is used. Add sugar and a little salt and spice if liked, then pour in the milk—cold—and stir up well and set to cook.

Tapioca is done the same way, but is not washed before using. Tapioca is more nourishing than either rice or barley. Sago makes another change, and is also very nourishing, and hominy is likewise good, though it is improved by preparing as ground rice, namely, by boiling in a saucepan with the milk first, till stiff, and when cool one or two eggs and a little spice are beaten in and the mixture is poured into a buttered dish and baked till just brown on the surface.

Macaroni is broken into inch lengths and thrown into boiling salted water and cooked till just tender, then drained, mixed with one or two beaten eggs and a little milk, with grated cheese, pepper and salt, or instead with a little sugar and spice, poured into a buttered dish and cooked till firmly set.

Or, after boiling till tender, and draining from water, it can be returned to the saucepan with plenty of butter and grated cheese, pepper and salt, with either a little cream or some tomato sauce, and after tossing with a fork cover down and leave to simmer for ten minutes, then turn out into a dish and eat with a fork.

Batter Puddings

To make a light batter, good either for baking as a Yorkshire pudding, for boiling to eat with sauce, or for frying as Pancakes, allow to every egg two large tablespoonfuls of flour, half a saltspoonful of salt and a breakfast-cupful of milk.

When mixing, break the egg first into a basin, add the salt, then the flour and a quarter of the milk, then beat well and briskly, so as to work out all traces of lumps, and gradually beat in the rest of the milk. A little water as well as the milk makes the batter lighter than one made with all milk. Increase the proportions according to the size of pudding or the number of pancakes required.

This batter can be poured into a shallow baking tin containing some hot fat—for a Yorkshire pudding—and baked rather quickly in hot oven, or poured into a buttered mould which it will three-parts fill, tied down and boiled or steamed for two hours, or taken by small cupfuls and poured into a well-greased frying-pan and turned over as it sets and browns.

Omelettes

For an omelet the freshest of eggs will be needed, and they are broken on to a plate, salt and pepper added and not more than a tablespoonful of milk; this is lightly beaten with the blade of a knife until just mixed, then poured into the pan, which contains butter that is on the point of turning brown. Leave to set, then pass a knife round the edge and underneath, fold one half over the other and slip on to a hot dish.

If a cheese omelet is wanted, add some spoonfuls of grated cheese to the mixture and cook as just directed.

If minced herbs or mushrooms are added, put the herbs with the eggs, but cook the mushrooms in a separate pan with some butter, and just before folding the omelet over slip in the cooked mushrooms between. Fried giblets and livers and strips of bacon are introduced in the same way to make another variation.

Cheese and Stale Bread

By grating the bread and cheese and mixing these with an egg, salt and pepper and just a little milk, the mixture can make a kind of pancake in the ordinary way, or be baked in a buttered pie-dish in the oven as a savoury pudding.

Supposing there are some stale crusts and a bit of dry cheese, but no eggs or butter. Pour a little boiling water, or better still a little boiling milk, over the crusts in a dish and leave to soften, then put a little ale or cider into a frying-pan, slice up the cheese very thinly, lay it in the hot liquor, and while it is getting hot through beat up the soaked bread with a fork, add a sprinkle of salt and then put all into the frying-pan and toss up till the whole is thoroughly light and hot through.

Another way is to pour milk over broken crusts and set these in a dish inside the oven and when hot to cover thickly with grated or sliced cheese, salt and pepper enough to season well, and return until just browned on the surface.

If very dry crusts of bread are dipped in milk and baked between two plates, then spread with butter and toasted cheese, they make a very relishable supper.

Using Tinned Provisions

In place of fresh milk condensed milk makes excellent milk puddings, batter puddings, bread, and so forth. If using the sweetened milk leave out sugar mentioned in the recipes. Do not add too much water to the milk.

Corned Beef can be cut into small squares and lightly fried, then served inside a wall of mashed potato, with a tomato gravy made and poured over. Or served inside a batter baked in dish as mentioned in Toad-in-the-Hole.

Make a curry sauce by using some bone stock, or stock made by dissolving a soup square, adding to it a good spoonful of curry powder or paste, a little salt and pepper and tomato or Worcester sauce, and a spoonful of baked flour mixed smooth with dissolved butter. Boil up and allow to simmer. Fry till very brown some thinly sliced onions, dredge with seasoning, and fry also slices of corned beef in same pan after the onions are done. Place all in the curry sauce and leave to simmer for half an hour, then serve with boiled rice or mashed potato.

Tinned Australian mutton chops can be added to a stew of onions and potatoes when these have partly cooked, and with plenty of seasoning make a very palatable Irish Stew.

Tinned Rabbit is improved by having a little curry added to the gravy after it has been made hot and by cooking it gently to mix the flavours. Some boiled onions and white sauce accompany tinned rabbit excellently well.

Tinned Fruits and Vegetables can be made hot and served with cooked rice or custard sauce, according to what they are, and whether sweet or savoury. Tinned peas, for instance, and tinned mushrooms, go well with rice and a curry sauce; tinned tomatoes, cheese, pepper and salt, are tossed together and fried for a few minutes.

Kitchen Wrinkles

Fill all saucepans with cold water as soon as done with and set aside; when ready to wash them heat the water and it will be easy to scour them with soda and sand. Never leave a pan to be dry before washing, as it will be ten times harder to clean and probably require scraping.

Pour all fat that has been used for frying or baking into a jar containing a few spoonfuls of boiling water; this clarifies the fat and causes all crumbs and sediment to fall to the bottom. The fat can then be lifted off in a cake and used over and over again.

Soup that has been over-salted can be corrected to some extent by putting in raw potatoes and bringing up to the boiling-point again—not letting the potatoes break up and spoil the colour of the soup.

Raw potatoes are one of the best preventives of scurvy, and can be eaten if they are grated, while plain boiled potatoes, eaten hot or cold, are the best corrective in a diet that contains too much salt meat.

Sliced raw onions placed about in saucers are excellent disinfectants where there is infectious sickness about; change at least every day and substitute fresh onions. Small-pox and other fevers have been kept away by having onions hanging in the room. Saucers of slaked lime are also good disinfectants, particularly where there is any damp or bad smell about.

To take the stains from steel knives clean first with damp earth, then rub with a cork and some emery powder and methylated spirit, or with powdered wood ash.

To Boil Rice

Rice is so often badly-cooked that the Black Man’s way of boiling it may be worth quoting. He says—

“Wash him well; much wash in cold water; rice-flour make him stick. Water boil all ready, very fast. Shove him in; rice not burn, water shake him too much. Boil twenty minutes. Rub one rice in thumb and finger; if all rub away him quite done. Put rice in colander, hot water run away through; put cold water through him, then put back in pan, cover him and keep hot, then soon rice all ready. Eat him up.”

* * * * *

Vegetables which have strong flavours, such as green cabbage, nettles, turnip-tops, and so on, should be drained from the first water, then returned to the pan with fresh boiling water. They will be much more easily digested if this is done.

VIII

PRACTICAL HINTS FOR THE HANDY MAN

Mosquitos, Gnats and Wasp Stings

When camping out, these troublesome insects can inflict much torture, and one way of keeping them out of a tent is to hang up a piece of raw meat outside it for them to settle upon. To paint freely woodwork and canvas with petroleum and ordinary oil mixed together is another way of keeping insects at a distance. For the stings themselves, a mixture of common soda and salad oil mixed together is a great means of allaying the irritation. Pull out the sting if it is still visible and bathe with warm water and common salt, then with oil and soda. Rubbing the body freely with oil or fat is a preventive of insect bites, and it is said that those who will eat spices freely, particularly cinnamon, will never be bitten.

Screening Sun-Rays

Where light is wanted yet the sun’s rays must be kept out, of cellar or room, the best way is to mix whitewash and ordinary blue, coating the window with this inside. When afraid of sun-rays on the head remember not only to protect the head itself but also the nape of the neck and the spine. A thick pleat of something in the lining of the coat or shirt and high collar are very necessary in order to guard these nerve centres both from excessive cold and heat.

Roof-Fire Risks

Roofs, more especially those covered with shingles, boards, tarred felt or any form of thatch, are a source of danger from fire. An excellent and simple way of protecting them is to run a fairly large pipe, with small perforations all along its course, along the ridge pole, connecting it with the house water supply if in town or with the water cistern in the country. By turning a tap, which should be controlled from a place easily got at, the pipe is filled with water which escapes through the perforations and covers the whole roof with a thin sheet of water. This will extinguish sparks from passing locomotives or a forest conflagration, and prevent fire from both internal or external heat. In hot climates the system can be employed for cooling the roof.

Waterproof Putty

A plastic waterproof paste is often useful. It can be prepared by almost anyone anywhere by taking a piece of ordinary cheese, steeping it in water until quite soft, then rubbing and kneading it well with about half its weight of quicklime. With this you can put in panes of glass, stop up cracks, and make wooden cases waterproof.

Cutting Glass

When without a glazier’s diamond make a stout wire or thin iron rod red hot and draw a line with it, very lightly, where you want the glass cut; unless it is very thick glass it will snap off quite easily. And for opening a bottle that is too tightly corked, instead of breaking the neck and splintering the glass, take a piece of string and soak it in turpentine, tie it tightly round the neck of the bottle where you wish it broken off, then set fire to the string, and the glass will snap off easily at the heated line.

Rust on Tools

It is not an easy matter to remove rust from tools without damaging them. Better by far is to preserve your tools from rust. Professor Olmstead, of Yale College, gave the following recipe for keeping tools from rusting, which deserves to be more widely known: Melt together six to eight parts of lard to one of resin and stir till cool. It will remain semi-liquid. Rub on tools or any polished surface in a very thin film. It will protect the metal from damp and can easily be rubbed off again when the article is wanted. The resin prevents the oil or lard from becoming rancid. When too thick, thin down with benzine.

Re-sharpening Files

Files that are constantly in use soon become clogged and will not work properly. The material that clogs them should be washed or dissolved out. Sawdust can be got out by steeping in hot soap-suds. For iron filings use a very dilute solution of sulphate of copper. For copper use dilute nitric acid. For zinc dilute sulphuric acid. Use all acids very weak, then wash well and dry thoroughly.

Nailing Boards

Many people in putting up boards will nail one after the other, making a complete job of each board. But this is not the right way. First nail the board down on one side, the starting side, let us say the left. Next place the second board in position and nail down the left. This done, nail down the right side of the first board. Now place board three in position, nail down its left side, then the right side of board number two, and so on right along. The object of this is to get the boards close together and so make a compact job of it. They are practically wedged in close to each other. To obtain the best results do not drive the nails straight down but at a slight angle, right and left. Boards nailed thus cannot be shaken loose. But in nailing up cases that have to be opened again, drive the nails straight in as that makes lifting up with a screwdriver much easier. To rub nails and screws with vaseline, a tin of which should always be kept in the tool-box, makes them much easier to drive in and prevents rusting.

Gates Without Hinges

Hinges are one of the weak points in gates of all kinds, especially heavy wooden ones that have to undergo much hard wear and tear; they are apt to break and cannot always be replaced. Say you have a three or four-barred gate, with vertical bars longer than the horizontal. The top and lowest bars of the gate must project beyond the horizontal and should be pierced with round holes. The gate is hung by having its end post passed through the hole in the lower bar; the top bar is then placed in position and the top of the gate post passed through its hole. The intermediate bars are nailed to shorter posts which do not come higher than the level of the top of the gate. A gate of this kind will swing easily provided the holes are made large enough.

Another gate is more like the swinging section of a fence, and is intended to block watercourses which run dry, at certain seasons. On the other hand if the fence is brought down too low or made too solid it may be swept away when the water rises. The method is to construct a string hurdle, planned so as to stop gaps, with a strong and long top bar. This top bar just rests in bifurcated posts on each bank or side, the posts forming a sort of V-shaped rest. If necessary, this top bar can be rivetted to the posts and the bottom of the hurdle weighted with stones. If not weighted, however, the result is that the watercourse is fenced over but the hurdle swings when the water rushes through without being carried away and falls back into position as the stream subsides.

Watches as Compasses

All watches are compasses, and this fact may help any one out of a difficulty when uncertain of their bearings. All that has to be done is to point the hour hand to the sun. The south lies exactly between that point and the hour twelve; thus at six o’clock the exact south will be found at the point marked three on the dial.

If the way has been lost and bearings cannot be taken either from an elevation or by a compass or watch, and a watercourse can be found, follow that downwards; it will at least prevent travelling in a circle, and most likely lead to some habitation.

Substitute for Coffee

The grains of corn, such as wheat or oats, make an excellent substitute for coffee if dried and browned on tins over a fire and then bruised or ground up. So do small beans of the haricot variety. They may be crushed between stones and then roasted in a pan over the fire, and boiled with water, the liquor being poured off clear. All raw fruits and root vegetables like potatoes are preventives of scurvy, and dried fruits like peaches and apples are excellent sustaining food on a march, while dried raisins are better than all.

To Make Limewash

Mix quicklime in a bucket with hot water and glue. If for disinfecting purposes add a little carbolic solution. Care must be taken not to let a splash get into the eyes, and if by accident it does so, bathe the eyes at once with warm water and vinegar. The acid neutralises the lime.

To Make Whitewash

Put some whiting into a pail and add powdered dry size. Pour on boiling water till the mixture is as thick as cream, and to keep it white add a little common washing blue. A tint of salmon pink or terra-cotta is obtained by mixing some Venetian red with the whiting. Whiting is easier and safer to apply than limewash, but is no use for disinfectant purposes.

Suggestions

Agates are sold for sixpence by tobacconists and can be kept with a piece of tinder in a little tin box, to use instead of a flint for procuring a spark from steel.

The burning-glass taken from a telescope and held over tinder in hot sunshine will cause it to ignite.

Firewood should be looked for under bushes, as the driest and easiest to light is always found there. Old tree roots make excellent firewood. Large logs make the best fire when placed transversely and built in with smaller wood.

When obliged to sleep on the ground scrape a hollow for the hip bone to rest in and another for the shoulder, then much better rest is obtained.

A piece of mackintosh should always be taken with any rugs, but failing mackintosh a piece of tarred or painted canvas is excellent for keeping out damp. Brown paper is an excellent non-conductor of heat, and if placed between rugs and blankets makes one worth two in warmth. A bag filled with grass or dry earth makes a good pillow. Thick quilts or rugs with sheets of wadding quilted in between them are better for bed-coverings than blankets when camping out, and are lighter to carry.

Take care to keep the extremities warm when in cold climate. Increase the warmth of knitted woollens by lining them with thin flannel or silk, and cut the legs from stockings that are worn out at the feet and use these for covering the arms. Keep the mouth covered if you would keep warm in keen frosty weather, as this prevents rapid evaporation of the heat of the body. The Red Indians knew this, and one of them seeing a white man suffering from cold once remarked to him, “You no keep your breath warm and so, you cold.”

Much sugar should be consumed in cold climates, and eating sweets freely is much to be commended. Toffee can be made easily over a camp fire at night, and is wholesome faring for anyone. Chocolate is excellent food likewise, and peppermint candies are good for stimulating digestion and warming the stomach.

A thick dressing-gown is a great comfort in either hot or cold climates; it can be worn while day clothes are airing or drying and is a better sleeping dress than night clothes when travelling.

During cold weather, after washing the body, rub well with oil to help to keep the skin soft and free from sores. A horse-hair flesh glove to use for a vigorous dry rub is better than too frequent washing in water.

Grease the soles of shoes when much walking has to be done, and a layer of grease between the foot and shoe is a great preventive of foot sores. The harder the ground the thicker the socks or stockings should be.

A Summary of Useful Things

A mincing machine, a small sewing machine, English-made steel knives (plated knives are in common use in Canada, but they are apt to be very blunt). Kitchen tools, horn spoons and enamelled plates and cups. Small pair of bellows. A leather roll containing chisel, gouge, files, nippers, screwdrivers, gimlet and hand saw, with a few nails and screws—this is as indispensable as a “Housewife,” although the latter article must not be left behind. A can-opener and strong clasp-knife, some strong glue, a shoemaker’s reel of thread and some cobbler’s wax, and tin of vaseline, are all excellent if not absolutely indispensable.

_Printed by_ BUTLER & TANNER, _Frome and London_.