Take an onion, carrot, a small head of celery and a very small quantity of turnip; cut them up and boil them in a very small quantity of water for about an hour. Then rub the whole through a wire sieve, add a quart or more of boiling milk, throw in the macaroni, after breaking it up into pieces two inches long, and let the macaroni simmer in this till it is perfectly tender. The soup should be thickened with a very little white roux, a bay-leaf can be boiled in the soup; a small quantity of cream is a great improvement. Fried or toasted bread should be served with it.
1/4 lb. macaroni, 1-1/2 ozs. cheese, 1/2 pint milk, 1 teaspoon flour, butter, pepper. The curled macaroni is the best among the ordinary kinds. Better still, however, is the macaroni made with fine wholemeal flour which is stocked by some food-reform stores. Parmesan cheese is nicest for this dish. Stale cheese spoils it. Wash the macaroni. Put it into fast-boiling water and keep boiling until very tender. Drain off the water and replace it with the 1/2 pint of milk. Bring to the boil and stir in the flour mixed to a thin paste with cold milk or water. Simmer for 5 minutes. Grate the cheese finely. Butter a shallow pie-dish. Put the thickened milk and macaroni in alternate layers with the grated cheese. Dust each layer with pepper, if liked. Top with grated cheese. Put some small pieces of butter on top of the grated cheese. Put in a very hot oven until nicely browned.
This is a somewhat expensive dish. You have first to decorate a plain mould with what is called nouilles paste, which is made by mixing half a pound of flour with five yolks of eggs. The mould is then lined with ordinary short paste, made with half a pound of flour, a quarter of a pound of butter, and one yolk of egg, mixed in the ordinary way. When the mould is lined, you have to fill it up with flour, and bake it in a moderate oven for about an hour. You then take it out, empty out the flour and brush it well out with an ordinary brush and dry the mould in a very slack oven. The mould is then filled with some macaroni that has been boiled tender in milk and flavoured with vanilla and sugar and Parmesan cheese. The macaroni must be so managed that it absorbs the moisture. The mould is filled, made hot, and then turned out. It is customary to shake some powdered sugar over the mould, and then glaze it with a red-hot salamander. N.B.--Very few kitchens possess a proper salamander, but if you make the kitchen shovel red-hot it will be found to answer the same purpose.
Take ten fresh tomatoes, remove the skins, cut them up; put them into a saucepan and boil them until soft. Then pass them through a sieve. Put their juice into a saucepan with one heaping tablespoon of butter or one-half tablespoon of good lard, salt and pepper, and boil again, adding water if the sauce becomes too thick. This sauce can be kept in a bottle for several days. It can be used for macaroni, etc., in place of the tomato paste.
One quart of canned tomatoes, two table-spoonfuls of butter, two of flour, eight cloves and a small slice of onion. Cook the tomato, onion and cloves ten minutes. Heat the butter in a small frying-pan, and add the flour. Stir over the fire until smooth and brown, and then stir into the tomatoes. Cook two minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and rub through a strainer fine enough to keep back the seeds. This sauce is nice for fish, meat and macaroni.
Dilute one can of concentrated tomato sauce with one quart of water; mince two medium-sized onions very fine and fry slowly in olive oil or drippings until they are a golden brown, and add to tomatoes. Fry one and one-half pounds of lean neck of lamb in a little drippings until the meat is nicely browned all over and add to the tomatoes, season with one clove of garlic, two bay leaves, two teaspoons of sugar, pepper and salt, and let it simmer for about one and one-half hours, or until the meat is tender and the sauce has become the consistency of thick cream. Have ready some boiled macaroni, put in with the meat and stir well. Serve hot. Short ribs of beef may be cooked in the same manner.
Eight pounds of a shin of veal, eight pounds of the lower part of the round of beef, half a cupful of butter, twelve quarts of cold water, half a small carrot, two large onions, half a head of celery, thirty pepper-corns, six whole cloves, a small piece each of mace and cinnamon, four sprigs each of parsley, sweet marjoram, summer savory and thyme, four leaves of sage, four bay leaves, about one ounce of ham. Put half of the butter in the soup pot and then put in the meat, which has been cut into very small pieces. Stir over a hot fire until the meat begins to brown; then add one quart of the water, and cook until there is a thick glaze on the bottom of the kettle (this will be about an hour). Add the remainder of the water and let it come to a boil. Skim carefully, and set back where it will simmer for six hours. Fry the vegetables, which have been cut very small, in the remaining butter for half an hour, being careful not to burn them. When done, turn into the soup pot, and at the same time add the herbs and spice. Cook one hour longer; salt to taste and strain. Set in a very cold place until morning, when skim off all the fat. Turn the soup into the pot, being careful not to turn in the sediment, and set on the fire. Beat the whites and shells of two eggs with one cup of cold water. Stir into the soup, and when it comes to a boil, set back where it will simmer for twenty minutes. Strain through a napkin, and if not ready to use, put away in a cold place. This will keep a week in winter, but not more than three days in summer. It is a particularly nicely-flavored soup, and is the foundation for any clear soup, the soup taking the name of the solid used with it, as Consommé au Ris, Consommé with Macaroni, etc.
One-and-half lbs. "Nutton," [Footnote: A very fine Nut Meat, put up by R. Winter, City Arcades, Birmingham.] cut in dice, 1/2 lb. tomatoes, 1/4 lb. cooked macaroni, 1-1/2 lbs. cooked potatoes, sliced. Dust with pepper and salt, pour in stock to within 1/2 inch of top; cover with good whole-meal crust, made with Winter's cooking "Nutbut"; bake.
Take one-half pound of beef without fat. Prepare the ham fat as in the preceding receipt, chopped up with onion, celery, and parsley. Cut the meat into several pieces, put it with the fat, etc., into a frying-pan. Add salt and pepper. Cook until the meat is colored, then add two tablespoons of wine, white or red. When the wine is absorbed add two tablespoons of tomato paste dissolved in hot water. (Or tomato sauce as in preceding.) Boil all together for five minutes, with cover on the saucepan, then add one cup of boiling water, and allow it to simmer until the meat is thoroughly cooked--about one-half an hour. Boil and strain the macaroni as before, and pour over it the sauce from the meat. Mix well, and serve with the meat in the middle and the macaroni around it, with cheese (grated Parmesan) sprinkled over it.
This dish can be made with veal or mutton instead of the beef.
Take a small chicken; clean and prepare it. Take a slice of ham fat four fingers wide and one finger long (or one tablespoon of good lard). Chop up very fine with a chopping knife, and put into a good-sized saucepan. Take one-half an onion, a small carrot, a piece of celery, and cut all into very small pieces and add them all to the fat. Then put in the chicken, the salt, pepper, and a pinch of allspice, and cover the saucepan. Cook until the chicken is covered, basting with the grease, and turning the chicken until it is brown on all sides; then add one-third of a glass of red or white wine. When the wine has become absorbed, add one tablespoon of the tomato paste, dissolved in a cup of hot water (or a cup of tomato sauce not too thick). Cook for a few moments more--until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.
Prepare the Indian meal as in receipt for Indian meal, and serve the chicken surrounded by the Indian meal, with the sauce poured over all and grated cheese sprinkled over the Indian meal.
Pigeon may be prepared in the same way as the chicken and served with the Indian meal; or either one may be served instead of the Indian meal with rice, as in receipt for Risotto alla Nostrale; Macaroni, as in receipt for Macaroni with Butter, or Ribbon Macaroni, as in receipt given.
