Evening star., 1946-03-08
Readers Clearing House
ANSWERS TO QUERIES

ANSWERS TO QUERIES.
from Mrs. r. v. c., Siluer Sprino. }
To Mrs. F. H. H.: About 80 years
ago when my mother married. she
received a set of aluminium. When
I married IL years ago, she divided
with me, and we both continued to
use it. 1t is kept cleaning by a
method I devised that is easier than
scrubbing with special cleansers.
Use wide-mouthed jar and put all
your soap scraps in the jar, keeping
enough water to make LIQUID. In
this keep steel wool. Every time
you wash a pan, go over it with
the steel wool and rinse well. It
is not hard if you do it every time.
and the pans are always a joy
to use. Real burns will, of course.
require more drastic treatment. but
this IS Just routine washing. The
water in this area leaves a film
that will dull your pans if you
do not keep them we'll polished.
The best book I have ever seen on
cooking for two is entitled, Work
ing Girls Must Eat"
To Miss j. T. w.: Don't feel too
bad about overlooking the salt and
pepper. Most cooks do occasional
ly. Salt is better cooked in the
food, but pepper loses rather than
gains flavor by being cooked. 1t
is better added after cooking and
no real harm is done if the salt
is added then. You might set
large salt and pepper container in
a conspicuous place when you are
cooking. When making a compli-
Gated recipe I always gather all my
ingredients on the left side of the
bowl and as I use them set them
down on the right side. This pro-
vides an accurate check and they
are easily put away by being all
together.
Now an item of interest to all
mothers using condensed milk: I
have just found a gadget at the
dime store, made of stainless steel
which is used to open the can, then
forms a clean, sanitary pouring
spout. If some of the milk is left
in the can, there is cork provided
and you cork up the spout until
the rest of the milk is needed. 1t
is easily removed and cleaned, and
is the first really practical thing l
have found of this kind. 1 never
liked to leave milk in the can after
1t had been opened, nor did I like
having the milk run across the top
of the can, no matter how hard I
had scrubbed it. This gadget takes
care of all that. Hope you can find
them.
COOKING FOR TWO.
(From Mrs. X. S. E., SilUer Spring.
To Mrs. F. H. H., Washington:
There is a fairly large cook book
called Cooking for Two" do not
recall the author. Also in the
american Women'S Cook Book"
there is a chapter containing Sug-
gestionS for cooking for two. ANY
large book store will have these and
a fascinating array of others.
AS a bride of not quite years
who is still cooking mostly for two,
I am very close to the problem. My
biggest difficulty has been, think
that of avoiding waste and spoilage
in fresh items. I have found that
frozen foods are a wonderful help.
One half of the package can be used
at a time separate with an ice
pickD, leaving the rest frozen. The
dehydrated parsley, celery and onion
flakes are invaluable and so is the
canned lemon juice. This will keep
for quite while in the refrigerator
after being opened. (The lemon is
bit stronger than the fresh, SO
use scant measurements unless
recipe calls for rind, too)
I seldom buy hams or large reasts
except for company. However, I
frequently buy enough of one kind
of meat for two meals, cook it all
at once, but serve it differently the
second time. For instance, lamb
shoulder can be cooked as for stew,
but half the meat removed before
adding vegetables. The leftover
meat can form the basis of a de-
licious curry day or so later. This
is time saver too, since the long
cooking need be done only once.
The Cook Book of Leftovers" (by
Newman, 1 think gives many eX-
cellent suggestions for using already
cooked foods (as well as odd egg
whites or yolks) 1t is extremely
we'll indeXed by the ingredient left
over. There is no stigma to left
overs prepared by these recipes!
General methods are given too, SO
that the cook with imagination can
go on to make her own recipes.
Don't overlook the dishes which
taste better when heated the sec
ond time, or even the third. The
Mystery Chefs Cook Book" spe-
cializes in such things.
Pastries are a different problem.
Special recipes might be the best
solution. However, try mixing the
full pie crust recipe, all but the wa
ter, then putting it in the refrig-
orator in a covered jar to keep. Fin
ish mixing and rolling of just a
little at a time. Use it to make
tarts or tiny pies, or as crust on a
meat or vegetable pie. And of course
there are various prepared mixes
which can be used bit at time.
Biscuit mix makes good shortcake
and dumplings too. Cakes are even