Macaroni Soup.
- ¼ lb. macaroni, broken into short pieces.
- The stock set aside yesterday.
- A heaping tablespoonful of corn-starch, wet up with cold water.
- 1 tablespoonful of butter.
- 1 onion sliced.
- A little salt.
Boil the onion five minutes in a pint of salted water. Strain it out, and when the water again boils, put in the macaroni with the butter. Boil very gently until quite tender. Drain off the water, and spread the macaroni out to cool somewhat. Meanwhile, take the fat from the top of your cold soup; thin the latter with a cup of boiling water, and strain into the soup pot. Heat to a boil, skim, season, stir in the corn-starch, and when this has thickened it, put in the macaroni. Simmer ten minutes, and it can be put into the tureen.
Roast Mutton.
The breast, fore leg, and saddle are best for this purpose. A nice way of cooking the breast is to sew it up in stout tarlatan and boil it eight minutes for each pound. Then take it out (saving the liquor), wipe as clean as possible, and put it into a dripping-pan; score the skin with a sharp knife, rub in pepper and salt; wash with beaten egg, strew thickly with bread-crumbs, and bake half an hour in a good oven. Baste twice with melted butter. Make a gravy of a cupful of the broth, thickened with a tablespoonful of butter, rolled in flour. When it has boiled, stir into it a little chopped parsley; a teaspoonful of minced onion, and three times as much chopped pickled cucumber, with the pounded yolks of two hard-boiled eggs. Stew three minutes; pour part of it over the mutton; the rest into a gravy-boat.
N. B.—Test your mutton with a skewer before taking it from the oven. If not done, leave it in a while longer.
Potato Rissoles.
Work into cold mashed potato, a beaten egg, a little butter, pepper and salt. Make into egg-shaped balls; roll in beaten egg, then in pounded cracker, and fry in hot lard, or dripping, to a light brown. Drain well in a colander, and serve in a hot napkin-lined dish.
Lettuce Salad.
One-third as much oil as you have vinegar; pepper and salt at discretion. Cut up the young lettuces with a sharp knife; pile in a salad-bowl; sprinkle with powdered sugar, and pour the rest of the ingredients mixed together over the salad. Toss up with a silver fork, to mix all well.
Spinach à la Reine.
Boil the spinach in salted water twenty minutes. Drain very thoroughly. Chop fine; return to the saucepan with a teaspoonful of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of butter, three tablespoonfuls of cream, a little nutmeg, pepper and salt. Stir constantly until almost dry. Have ready an egg-cup dipped in boiling water. Fill it with spinach, press hard and turn out upon a hot dish. Do this until all is moulded. Put a slice of egg upon the top of each.
Transparent Puddings.
- ½ lb. butter.
- 1 lb. of sugar.
- 6 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately.
- Juice of 1 lemon and grated rind of two.
- ½ teaspoonful of nutmeg.
- ½ glass of brandy.
Cream butter and sugar, beat in all the yolks and the whites of three eggs, the lemon, spice and brandy. Bake in open shells of good paste. (Add another “baste” of butter to the crust made for your pigeon pie; roll out and line paté-pans with it.) When nearly done, spread each with a méringue made of the reserved whites, whipped up with a little powdered sugar. Color very lightly.
As they are to be eaten cold make them on Saturday.
Coffee,
Hot and strong, should be handed at the close of dinner particularly if you attend afternoon service!