One lb. No. 1 "Nutton," minced through a food chopper, 3/4 lb. zweiback bread crumbs, 2 ozs. macaroni, cooked and finely chopped, pepper and salt to taste. Mix with egg and form into chops; use a piece of uncooked macaroni for the bone; brush with egg and bread crumbs and bake, or fry, with nutbut--this quantity should make 8 chops.
1-1/2 c. macaroni 3 qt. boiling water 3 tsp. salt 1/4 c. crumbs
CREAM SAUCE
2 Tb. butter 2 Tb. flour 1 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. pepper 1 1/2 c. milk
Break the macaroni into inch lengths, add it to the salted boiling water, and cook it until it is tender. To prepare the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, salt, and pepper, stir until smooth, and gradually add the milk, which must be hot, stirring rapidly so that no lumps form. Cook the cream sauce until it thickens and then add it to the macaroni. Pour all into a baking dish, sprinkle the bread or cracker crumbs over the top, dot with butter, and bake until the crumbs are brown. Serve hot.
This is very similar to sparghetti, only ordinary pipe macaroni is used. Take, say, a teacupful of macaroni, wash it, break it up into two-inch pieces, and throw it into boiling water that has been salted. Strain it of off, put it in the stew-pan for a few minutes, with a little piece of butter and some pepper and salt. Add a tablespoonful of tomato conserve, and serve it with some grated Parmesan cheese, served separate in a dish. Some rub the stew-pan with a head of garlic. This gives it what may be called a more foreign flavour, but this should not be done unless you know your guests like garlic. Unfortunately, the proper use of garlic is very little understood in this country. MACARONI CHEESE.--Some years back this was almost the only form in which macaroni was served in this country. Macaroni cheese used to be served at the finish of dinner in a dried-up state, and was perhaps one of the most indigestible dishes which the skill, or want of skill, of our English cooks was able to produce. Wash and then boil a quarter of a pound of macaroni in a little milk till it is quite tender, then put into a well-buttered oval tin a layer of macaroni, and cover this with a layer of bread-crumbs, mixed with grated cheese, and add a few little lumps of butter; then put another layer of macaroni and another layer of bread-crumbs and cheese. Continue alternate layers till you pile up the dish, taking care to have a layer of dried bread-crumbs at the top. Warm some butter, but do not oil it, and pour some of this warm butter over the top of the dish to moisten them; put the dish in the oven till it is hot through, then take it out and brown the top quickly with a red-hot salamander. If you leave the macaroni cheese in the oven too long the dish will taste oily and the cheese get so hard as to become absolutely indigestible. Any kind of grated cheese will do for this dish, but to the English palate it is best when made from a moist cheese similar to that which would be used in making Welsh rabbit.
Among the various pulse foods, of which there are fifty or sixty different kinds, though only some half-dozen are at all well-known, German lentils are one of the most valuable. In this country they are but little used, but they only need be known to be heartily appreciated. As far as my experience goes, every one who has once sampled them is loud in their praises. Even in those households where meat is used they might come as a change and variety, and help to solve the problem of that typical, much-to-be-pitied housekeeper who so pathetically wished there might be "a new animal" discovered! Well, "to return to our"--ahem--lentils. These German or Prussian lentils are quite different from the ordinary yellow kind. They are green or olive coloured, much larger, and of a flat tabloid shape. They are exceedingly savoury, and--if that is any recommendation--so "meaty" in flavour that it is almost impossible to convince people that they are quite innocent in that respect. They are usually sold at about double the price of yellow lentils, and even then are very cheap; but this is a fancy price, charged because of their being a novelty, and I may say that I get the very finest quality, perfectly clean and free from grit, at the extremely low price of 2d. per lb. To make a stew, which is the basis of a number of other dishes, take 1/2 lb. German lentils and scald for a minute or two in boiling water to make sure that they are thoroughly clean. Drain, and put in good-sized saucepan with plenty of fresh boiling water, and allow to simmer very gently for an hour. In another stewpan melt 1 oz. butter, and into that shred very finely two or three onions. Cover, and cook 10 to 15 minutes to bring out the flavour. They may brown or not as preferred, but there must not be the least suspicion of burning. Turn the lentils into this pan, add some chopped celery if at hand--it is very good without, but to my taste most dishes are improved by celery--and allow to simmer an hour longer. See that there is plenty of water--there should be a rich brown gravy. Add seasoning to taste of salt, pepper, Jamaica pepper, parsley, &c. A few tomatoes may be added, or carrots, turnips, &c. A few ozs. macaroni, par-boiled in salted boiling water and added an hour or less before, will make one of the many pleasing varieties of this dish. Serve like a mince, garnished with sippets of toast or fried bread, or toasted Triscuits.
Mince up the meat, or any remains of cold hash or mince will do. If there is any cold macaroni it can be used; if not, boil some by directions given, and slice up the tomatoes. Butter a dish in which it can be cooked and served. Place at the bottom a layer of meat, then one of macaroni, then one of tomatoes, season with pepper and salt, and continue this in layers until all the materials are used up. Sprinkle a few bread crumbs on the top, put into the oven, and bake for half an hour. Serve hot.
