Hints from Heloise

No More Sassy Sausages
Here's how to keep link sausages from spluttering and spattering over the stove when frying:
Cut the sausages apart and put them in a cooking pot big enough so that they can be covered with cold water. Place this over the burner on medium heat and just barely bring to a boil.

Take pot from the fire, place in the kitchen sink and run cold water over the sausages until they are completely cold. Then place in a colander and let drain until they are completely dry.

Put sausages in your refrigerator until ready for use. When ready to cook, place as many link sausages as you want to use in a cold frying pan. Turn on the heat and cook until they are brown on one side. Turn over on the other side and brown again. There will be no splatter or grease. When brown and hot clear through (avoid overcooking as this makes them tough) serve with a smile!

You can buy a few pounds of sausages at a time and prepare them this way. Then put as many links as you will need for one meal on a piece of foil, wrap tightly and put in your deep freeze. When you are ready to fry sausage for breakfast, you can take out one package at a time.

Hints from Heloise

Stocking Sandwiches

From a woman in Pennsylvania: "Our house is stocked with children of all ages - from 6 to 17. All are in school and take their lunches. By the time I feed nine children breakfast and each comes to the kitchen to make his own lunch, it is an eternal mess! I finally figured out the answer to this after all these years.

After the family is off to school, I make up a big supply of sandwiches, put them in small plastic bags and store them in the deep freeze. I do this at my convenience.

Now, when it comes time for school, each child goes to the freezer, picks out his frozen sandwiches and plops them in his lunch bag. The sandwiches are frozen when the children leave the house, and by noon, are completely thawed.

Hints from Heloise

More Hamburger Hints!
From Washington: "Here is a neat trick for those who want a new taste in hamburger and meat loaf. For each two pounds of ground hamburger meat, add one can of tomato aspic! For the hamburgers, no egg is necessary. For the meatloaf, add your eggs and other condiments as usual. Use a little less liquid in the mixture as the aspic suffices for some of it."

If your family is not fond of vegetables, save any bits of leftover peas, carrots, etc., and mash them up fine when you mix your meatloaf, or fix hamburger patties, and add the vegetables to the hamburger mixture.

To make juicy hamburger and meat loaf...whip one egg white until it is stiff and add to each pound of ground beef. Fold this into the beef mixture and you will find the hamburgers will be light and juicy even when well done.

Hints from Heloise

Hamburger Hints, continued
For meat patties, use the closed end of a No. 2 1/2 can to mash the patties flat and the open end to trim around the patties so they will be perfectly round. (Just as one uses a biscuit cutter.) Patties look better, cook better, and will have no frayed edges.

From Denver: "Want a good way to make lots of hamburgers for the crowd? Place the meat patties in a baking pan which has been lined with foil, place another piece of foil over them, put more patties in, place another piece of foil, add more patties and stack them up four deep with a sheet of foil separating each layer. The heat conducts so well that all of the patties will be cooked completely through in about 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Frankfurters may be done the same way, except that it takes only fifteen minutes."

Hints from Heloise

Introducing a new "feature": Hints from Heloise! These hints are from a book that was in a box of cookbooks from Steven's grandmother's house. The book is Heloise's Kitchen Hints by Heloise, copyright 1963. The excerpts from this book are not nearly as amusing as the sandwiches, but they are eminently more practical.

Hamburger Hints
From Philadelphia: "When making hamburgers in my hamburger press, I keep the meat from sticking to the press by using paper cup cak cups. These are espeially nice both fro freezing and carrying hamburgers to the broiler. They are round and very inexpensive. (By the way, a hamburger press is a wonderful gadget to own.)"

Here's another good use for your ice-cream dipper: Use the diper to make uniform meat balls or meat patties. If you like the deluxe-size burgers, use two dippers full of meat and pat them out separately. Then mash the edges of the two patties together.