My Paper Google

I rushed to my laptop in a panic while cooking something complicated, to look up "blanching." I ended up very annoyed because I got onion peel on my precious keyboard. Much later, I remembered that I've had a sort of paper Google for years, which tells me all I could possibly want to know... and it's survived a lot worse than onion peel.

My mother got this battered blue book when it was new, a present from her cousin in the early years of her marriage. It is called A Guide to Efficient Housekeeping and Good Cooking and was published in 1973 (a month before I was born) by the YWCA-Chennai for a fundraiser. When I left home and country to set up a kitchen of my own, my mother passed it on to me.

It's a combination of old-fashioned recipe book and surprisingly modern how-to manual on setting up a new life. In the section called "Basic Kitchen Aids" - which I read six months after I needed it - I recognized my mother's organized kitchen and therefore the things I had unconsciously bought anyway.

There is also crucial cooking-for-dummies information:

* The ounce to tablespoon conversion rate, for example (1 oz = 2 level tablespoons).

* How to tell a "moderate oven" from the other kinds (when a sheet of white unglazed paper placed in the heated oven turns medium brown).

* What to do if you've over-salted a curry (add a teaspoon of sugar or boil with slices of raw potato for a few minutes and then discard the potato).

* How to rescue something that is burnt at the bottom (transfer the good portion immediately to another dish, leaving behind at least half an inch at the bottom).

It has fascinating tit-bits (of purely academic interest until very recently), such as:

* Citrus fruits dipped in warm water are easier to juice.

* An egg-shell added to boiling bones helps produce clear stock without skimming.

* A wet knife slices hard-boiled eggs more easily.