HELPFUL HINTS

DEAR HELOISE: A while back you printed a recipe for marinade that was wonderful for beef or lamb. Would you repeat that recipe?

— Lynda in Virginia DEAR READER: This my favorite marinade for beef, veal or lamb. Enjoy. You’ll need: 1 cup dry white or red wine ¼ cup cider vinegar

1 cup salad oil 2 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon black pepper 1/8 teaspoon dry tarragon

1 bay leaf, crushed in small

pieces

½ teaspoon thyme or

marjoram

1 large clove garlic, finely

chopped

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and use as you would a commercial marinade.

This is a great way to enhance the flavor of an inexpensive cut of meat and make it tender.

By the way, use a marinade only once then discard to avoid cross-contamination of bacteria.

DEAR HELOISE: I inherited my grandmother’s old cookbook with so many wonderful recipes and her notes in the margins. However, some of the recipes call for “scalded” milk, and I really have no idea what that means or how to do it. Why scald milk?

— Joan in Alaska DEAR READER: Scalding milk means to heat the milk to just below the boiling point, or 180 degrees, then cool it to 110 degrees before adding it with the other ingredients. But since milk is now pasteurized, you don’t have to scald it. Scalding was originally done to kill bacteria and an enzyme that prevented the thickening process in recipes. It also helped to dissolve yeast and melt butter in bread recipes.

DEAR HELOISE: Is blackstrap molasses and regular molasses one and the same? I have a bet going with my sister-in-law that they are not.

— Joyce in Texas DEAR READER: No they are not the same. Molasses comes from the juice of sugar cane or sugar beets that have been boiled to remove the sugar crystals. The type of molasses depends on how many times the juices are boiled. Light or regular molasses is produced from the first boiling; dark molasses comes from the second boiling; and blackstrap molasses is what is left after the third boiling, and it has a bitter taste.

Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or email