Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1879 — HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. [ARTICLE]

HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY.

Good Coffee. —Warm three tablespoonfuls of coffee in the tin coffee-pot, which must be dry; when well heated, pour on a pint of boiling water; stir with a wooden ladle for three minutes without boiling; then add a pint and a half of boiling water, and set the whole back on the stove to steep for ten minutes. Oat Meal.—To each cup of coarse oat meal have four of cold water and one teaspoonful of salt; put this in an earthen saucepan and let it simmer slowly for one hour; stir it often, as it burns very easily. Should an early breakfast be required, this can be cooked the day before and warmed over, as it cannot be cooked quickly. To Wash a Flannel Skirt.—A flannel skirt, embroidered with blue (or other colors), to set the color should be soaked for ten minutes in a pail of cold water containing a teaspoonful of sugar of lead. Then wash it in tepid water made soft with borax. Use very little soap —it hardens the wool. Rinse well, shake well and hang where it will dry quickly. Non-Explosive Lead.—Many mechanics have been sorely tried when pouring lead around a damp or wet joint to find it explode, blow out or scatter, from the effects of steam generated by the heat of the lead. The whole trouble may be stopped by putting a piece of resin, the size of the end of a man’s thumb, into the ladle and allowing it to melt before pouring. Knotted Mats. Make a frame as large as you want your mat (I took an old slate frame); put small tacks around the frame at intervals of half an inch; then wind zephyr across the frame and around each tack; you will need thirty threads around each tack; then tie in squares with strong thread and cut all but two threads, allowing the others to drop in knots; draw out the tacks and tie in fringe. Indestructible Writing Ink.-An ink that cannot be erased even with acids is obtained by the following process. To good gall ink, add a strong solution of fine soluble Prussian blue in distilled water. This addition makes the ink, which was previously proof against alkalies, equally proof against acids, and forms a writing fluid which cannot be erased without destruction to the paper. The ink writes a greenish blue, but afterward turns black. Magic Lantern Slides.—Excellent slides can be made by any photographer, at very light cost, and they show up in strong resemblance to steel engravings. In painted slides transparent colors only are used, such as lakes, sap green, ultramarine, verdigris, gamboge, asphaltum, etc., mixed in oil and tempered with light-colored white

damar-varnish. Draw on the paper the design desired, and stick it on the glass with mucilage; then with a fine pencil put the outlines on the opposite side of the glass with the proper colors; then shade nr fill up with black or Vandyke brown, as you may deem best. The outline must be done very neatly, as the least defect is greatly magnified on the screen. Boiled Apples. —A friend who knows about good things to eat writes us that, “About the nicest morsel that ever tickled the palate is a boiled apple —not boiled like a potato, nor steamed like a pudding, but as follows: Place a layer of fair-skinned Baldwins—or any nice variety—in the stewpan, with about a quarter of an inch of water. Throw on about one-half cup sugar to six good-sized apples, and boil until the apples are thoroughly cooked and the sirup nearly thick enough for jelly. After one trial, no one would, few any have fairskinned aoples peeled. The skins contain a very large share of the pictous —jelly-making—substances, and impart a flavor impossible to obtain otherwise.” He also says that “A wise housekeeper instead of throwing away the skins and cores of sound pie-apples, would use them for jelly. A tumblerful of the richest sort can thus be obtained from a dozen apples. Boil the skins, etc., a few minutes, and strain. Add a little sugar to the liquid, and boil until right to turn into the tumbler.”