Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1875 — HOUSEHOLD HINTS. [ARTICLE]

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Delicate Muffins. —One pint of milk, one pint of flour, two eggs, and one pinch of salt. Fill small tin cups or iron corn-cake pans and bake in a hot oven. A Hop-Vine.— This beautiful vine makes a delightful shade for porches and windows, and can be utilized for domestic purposes, one vine yielding enough hops to make into yeast to supply any ordinary family a year. Green Beans.— Select those which shell easily; it is a great waste of both time and beans to shell those which are very young and small, and the product is not rich nor sweet. Have them as nearly alike in size as possible, otherwise the very young beans will be cooked so much as to lose their flavor before the older ones are done. They should be picked by a person of some judgment. Cook gently until all are done, the time depending entirely upon the age of the bean. Serve them in their own juice, which should fill them nearly full when done. —Science of Health. - Currant Catsup.— This is a favorite preparation to eat with meats, and is made of five pounds of mashed currants, three pounds of sugar, one pint of vinegar, two tablespoonfuls of finely-ground cinnamon, one of cloves, one of allspice, one of black pepper, one nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Cook one-half hour. A great improvement on the above is to add the same proportion of spices to the juice, boil, and finish as jelly, Then the useless seeds and skins are rejected, and, more than all, -it always retains its first fresh, delicate flavor, which is lost after a time under the regular recipe soy catsup. Tar and pitclf produce stains easily removed by successive applications of spirits of turpentine, coal-tar, naphtha and benzine. If they are very old and hard it is well to soften them by lightly rubbing with a pledget of wool dipped inegood olive oil. The softened mass will then easily yield to the action of the other solvents. Resins, varnishes and sealingwax may be removed by warming and applying strong alcohol. Care must always be taken that, in rubbing the material to remove the stains, the friction shall be applied the way of the stuff, and not indifferently backward and forward . —Joumal of Applied Chemistry. Currant Jelly.—ls the fruit is gathered before dead ripe it will make firmer jelly, and it is not necessary to pick it from the stems, only remove all leaves or sticks. Put the fruit in a pail, or pan, over a kettle of boiling water, and heat enough for the skins to break easily, then dip into a hag made of flannel, and squeeze till dry. Measure the juice, allowing for every pint one pound of white sugar, but do not add the sugar to the liquor till it has been allowed to gently boil over the fire for twenty minutes or more, removing any scum that may arise. The sugar is now to be added in the proportions mentioned, when the process of coagulation is so rapid that lumps of jelly are often formed before it is all dissolved; while in color it glows with all the richness and transparency of the garnet. The secret of making all fruit jellies is to boil the juice before and hut little after adding the sugar; if boiled together, the product is apt to be soft, dark and gummy, if it ever becomes jelly at all. Use a pound of sugar for a pound of fruit in preserving currants, and if all the necessary boiling has taken place before the sugar is adjled the juice will become a tender, beautiful jelly