Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/95

HERBS, Etc.

Mixed Herbs.—When herbs are in season and plentiful, the thrifty housekeeper should lay in a supply for the time when there are none to be got. If picked and dried in a hot oven, they can be crushed, pounded in a mortar, or rubbed quite fine between the hands, and each herb bottled separately. Sage, thyme, parsley, and marjoram can be so treated. A bottle of mixed herbs is also very useful for savoury stews, hashes, minces, etc., etc. It is the absence of herbs in cookery that makes it, as a rule, so tasteless. The hardest piece of salt junk can be transformed into a savoury and delicious dish with a few herbs and condiments judiciously introduced. Eschalots are the most useful of all herbs, and the most easily grown. Yet how seldom one sees more than a small bed of them, even in a large garden.

Dried Herbs.—Here is another means of turning an honest penny, to those not too proud to turn it. And herbs can be grown on a verandah if there is no room for them elsewhere. One old dame I knew once told me she made half the rent of her room, viz.

2s. 6d. per week (her daughter paying the other half) by the sale of herbs which she grew in a few boxes, on her verandah. Sage, thyme and mint dry best and are used most in the powder. You want to pick the sprigs of thyme, and the sage leaves, put them into paper bags, and hang in the sun till they are quite dry and will powder, then fill small olive bottles with them, cork and label. If you notice what a small bunch of herbs you get for 1d. you will not be surprised to hear of 1s. 6d. being given for a small bottle of finely powdered sage, thyme, or mint which will last a month or more in most kitchens.

To Fry Parsley.

Ingredients: Parsley and oil or dripping.

Mode: Gather some fresh curley sprigs of parsley and put them into cold water. Half fill the pan with the oil or dripping and let it bubble and boil. Dry the parsley in a cloth, cut off the longest stalks and just drop the green head into the boiling fat. Directly it is done, remove to blotting paper and then garnish.

DRINKS.

ONE may safely say a few words on the matter of pleasant drinks. Most people like ginger beer, and as it is so cheap and so simply made few households need be without it. If the housekeeper has no time to make it, one of the young children can. My boy of ten years old made a brew yesterday, and as I sit here writing, I can hear some corks popping one after the other, he did not trouble to tie them down.