Miscellaneous Cooking, Kitchen and Other Tips
A teaspoon of baking powder in the water in which meat or vegetables are cooked will help to make them tender.
A piece of charcoal placed in the refrigerator will absorb odors and keep the refrigerator smelling sweet.
A little lemon added to the water in which rice is boiled will whiten it and help keep the grains separated.
To freeze pecans, first soak in salt water, crack and sort the same as for canning. Then spread out to dry in a warm place, such as the oven at 150 degrees with the oven door ajar. Do not scorch the pecan meats. Allow to cool, then pack in moisture proof containers. No head space is needed. Press out air, heat seal and freeze at once.
To soften brown sugar that has hardened and become lumpy, empty brown sugar into a pan and put in the oven set at a very low temperature for a few minutes. Then put in a container that can be sealed airtight.
Keep household sponges fresh by soaking them in cold salt water from time to time.
Brighten dulled aluminum pans by boiling some apple parings in them.
A crust of bread held in the mouth with the end projecting will keep you from weeping while peeling an onion.
When almost all the ketchup in the bottle has been used, add a half bottle of water and shake well. Set in refrigerator and use for soups, gravies, or stews.
Use your potato smasher to separate ground beef when browning.
A fresh cut piece of apple left in a cake box will help keep the cake fresh.
To prevent unpleasant odors when cooking shrimp, place leaves from celery stalks on top of the water in saucepans.
Never use a knife for cutting angel food cake: use a fork.
Boil rhubarb in discolored aluminum ware and notice the brightness.
To remove rust from the corners of a cake tins that have been in use for a long time, dip a raw potato in cleaning powder and scour.
Stick a garlic clove on a toothpick before dropping it into sauce or stew. It is easily found and removed when desired.
Little plastic bottles in which the druggist puts your pills make fine containers for storing flower and vegetable seeds.
Save those big plastic bottles and make flower pots with them by punching a few tiny holes in the bottom and trimming off the top as you please.
Your hoe can also serve as a measuring stick if you paint stripes on it to indicate 1ft., 2ft., and 3ft. lengths
To make fertilizer for plants, save egg shells and let them stand in water for several days, then use the water on plants.
Ferns will grow much faster and look much greener if they are fed a pint or so of sweet milk once every two weeks.
To revive drooping green plants, sprinkle cigarette ashes on the ground around them.
Flowerpots made of eggshells. Start seedlings in eggshell halves filled with loam. Shells can be stored in egg cartons and moved easily to any sunny spot. Later transplant them, shell and all. Roots will break through and be supplied with fertilizer as shell decomposes.
To stop leaks in vases, pour paraffin over the leaky spot and let harden.
Keep cut flowers fresh by adding a lump of sugar to the water.
To guard against rusting gardening tools, wipe metal parts with a rag saturated with a light machine oil.
Empty wax milk cartons stuffed loosely with newspapers make quick kindling for the fireplace.
To anchor screws securely, dip the threads into thinned shellac just before using them. The shellac also prevents rust.
A dollar bill is one- sixteenth of an inch less than six inches long. Knowing this can be handy if there is nothing else to measure with.
A paste of vinegar and salt will remove stains on brass or copper. Follow this application with a good sudsing.
When painting woodwork, coat the door knobs, locks and other hardware with vaseline. If the paint splashes where it shouldn’t, it can be wiped off easily.
