Fowlers Household Helps | Page 8

from watering.
Hint When Baking Bread--When baking bread or rolls, put a saucepan
full of boiling water into the oven. The steam rising from it will keep
the crust smooth and tender.
To Make Meat Tender--A tablespoonful of vinegar added to tough
meat while it is boiling or roasting will make it more tender.
To Keep the Lid on a Boiling Pot--A teaspoonful of butter dropped into
the water in which you are boiling dry beans, or other starchy
vegetables, will stop the annoyance of having the lid of the pot jump
off, as it will otherwise do. The butter acts the same as oil on troubled

waters and keeps it calm and manageable.
To Take Fish Taste from Forks and Spoons--To remove the taste and
smell of fish from forks and spoons, rub them with a small piece of
butter before washing. All taste and smell will thus be entirely
removed.
How to Judge Mushrooms--Sprinkle a little salt on the gills of
mushrooms to judge their fitness to eat. If the gills turn black the
mushrooms are fit for food; if they turn yellow, the mushrooms are
poisonous.
Orange Peel for Cake Flavoring--Do not throw away orange peel, but
dry in the oven. Grate the yellow part and use for flavoring cakes. It
will give a delicious orange taste.
How to Prevent Fish from Breaking Up When Frying--When frying
fish, if the pieces are put in the hot fat with the skin side uppermost,
and allowed to brown well before turning, there will be no possibility
of the fish breaking up.
To Remove Cake from Tin--When taking a cake from the oven, place
the cake tin on a damp cloth for a moment and the cake will turn out of
the tin quite easily.
Lemon Juice for Boiling Rice--A few drops of lemon juice added to
boiling rice will help to keep the grains separate and will make them
white.
Onion for Boston Baked Beans--Bake a small onion with your Boston
baked beans to prevent indigestion and add to their fine flavor.
Hint for Baking Gems--When filling gem pans with batter leave one
pan without batter and fill with water. This will prevent the gems from
burning on top.
Sandpaper for Cleaning Pots--Always keep a piece of fine sandpaper
by the sink with which to clean pots.

To Prevent Cake from Sticking to Tins after baking, first grease the tins
and then dust them with flour. Lightly beat out the loose flour, leaving
only that which sticks to the grease. This does away with the
old-fashioned method of lining the pans with greased paper.
To Peel Apples Easily--Pour boiling water over the cooking apples and
they will be much easier to peel. This will be found a considerable
saving of time when busy.
When Bread is Too Brown--When bread is baked in too hot an oven
and the outside crust gets too brown, do not attempt to cut it off, but as
soon as the bread gets cold rub it over with a coarse tin grater and
remove all the dark-brown crust.
Mustard for Removing Odors from the Hands--Ground mustard is
excellent for cleaning the hands after handling onions and other things
with disagreeable odors.
Economy in Use of Candles--A candle which has burned too low to
remain in the candlestick can be used to the very end if removed from
the stick and placed on a penny or other small, flat piece of metal.
To Get Rid of Spiders--A good way to rid the house of spiders is to
take pieces of cotton wool, saturate them with oil of pennyroyal and
place them in their haunts.
To Rid the Kitchen of Flies--Take a cup of vinegar and place it on the
stove where it will simmer enough to make an odor.
To Clear Beetles Out of Cupboards and larders, sprinkle a little benzine
over the boards. This method will kill the eggs as well as the insects.
To Drive Cockroaches Away--Powdered gum camphor will drive
cockroaches away if sprinkled about their haunts.
To Remove Egg Stains from Silver--Egg stains can be removed from
silver by rubbing it with table salt on a wet rag.

To Polish Faucets--Nothing is better for scouring a faucet than the half
of a lemon after the juice has been squeezed out. After scouring, wash
it and it will shine like new. An orange peel will also give good results.
For Scorched Vegetables or Other Food--When vegetables or other
foods become scorched, remove the kettle at once from the stove and
put it into a pan of cold water. In a quarter of an hour the suggestion of
scorch will be nearly if not entirely gone.
When Cake is Scorched--If a cake is scorched on the top or bottom,
grate over it lightly with a nutmeg-grater instead