Boil the macaroni in stock or water. Mince the meat finely, and season with parsley, pepper, and salt. Rub a pudding basin or mould with butter, put the macaroni and meat in in layers, and season nicely. Beat up the eggs and milk and pour them over, cover with buttered paper, and steam for one hour. Turn out of the basin carefully, and pour round it a little nice brown gravy or white sauce.
Boil the water until it makes big bubbles. Add salt, then break the macaroni and put it in. Cover the saucepan and boil for fifteen minutes. The saucepan should not be too small, otherwise the macaroni will stick to the bottom.
Prepare the sauce as follows:
Take a good slice of ham fat, and chop very fine with it a piece of onion, a piece of celery, and some parsley. Then put this into a frying-pan and cook until the grease is colored. (If desired, add a small lump of butter.) When well colored add two tablespoons of tomato paste dissolved in a little hot water. Boil all together for fifteen minutes.
Drain the macaroni, and put it into the frying-pan with the sauce, mix well with fork and spoon over the fire, so that the macaroni will be thoroughly seasoned, then add three tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese, mix again, and serve.
If no tomato paste is available make the tomato sauce as follows:
Chop up fine one-quarter of an onion, a piece of celery the length of a finger, two or three basil-leaves, and a small bunch of parsley. Slice seven or eight tomatoes (fresh or canned), add salt and pepper, and put all on together to cook in four tablespoons of good olive-oil. Stir occasionally, and when it becomes as thick as cream, strain, and add the macaroni as before directed.
3 oz. macaroni, which should be boiled in milk until quite tender, place in a buttered pie-dish, and pour over a pint of custard made with Allinson custard powder, bake for 1/2 hour and serve either hot or cold.
Take some flour and water, and with the addition of a little salt make a paste which can be rolled out quite thin; cut this into shapes of the breadth of half a finger. Throw them into boiling water and let them boil a few minutes. Then remove them to cold water; drain them on a sieve and use them as macaroni; place at the bottom of a dish some butter and grated cheese, then a layer of tagliatelli seasoned with pepper, another layer of butter and cheese, and then one of tagliatelli, until the whole is used; pour over it a glass of cream, add a layer of cheese, and finish like macaroni cheese, browning it in the oven.
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.
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.
Break three ounces of macaroni--noodles or spaghetti answer equally well--into small pieces, boil in rapidly boiling salted water; when tender drain off the water and add half a pint of milk; cook slowly till the macaroni has absorbed most of the milk. To half a pint of thick white sauce add two ounces of grated cheese and mix with the macaroni; last of all add two well-beaten eggs. Butter a pudding mold, sprinkle it with browned bread crumbs and pour in the macaroni mixture; steam gently for about half an hour, turn out and fill the centre with stewed tomatoes and mushrooms.
Boil half a pound of pipe macaroni. Meanwhile warm slowly in a saucepan three-quarters of a pint of cream, and slice into it half a pound of Stilton or other white cheese, add two ounces of good fresh butter, two blades of mace, pounded, a good pinch of cayenne and a little salt. Stir until the cheese is melted and the whole is free from lumps, when put in the macaroni and move it gently round the pan until mixed and hot, or put the macaroni on a hot dish and pour the sauce over. It may be covered with fried bread-crumbs of a pale colour and browned in a Dutch oven.
4 oz. of macaroni, 2 pints of milk, butter, sugar, 2 eggs. Break the macaroni in small pieces and boil it for 20 minutes. Drain off all the water, pour in the milk, sugar, and a piece of butter. Boil until the macaroni is quite tender. Let it cool, then add the eggs well beaten up, and a little grated nutmeg. Put the pudding into a pie-dish and bake for 1/2 hour.
Macaroni is sometimes used to ornament the outside of puddings, either savoury or sweet. Suppose the pudding has to be made in a small round mould or basin. Some pipe macaroni is boiled in water till it is tender, and then cut up into little pieces a quarter of an inch in length. The inside of the mould is first thickly buttered, and then these little quarter-inch tubes are stuck in the butter close together; the pudding, for instance a custard pudding, is then poured into the mould and the mould steamed. When the pudding is turned out the outside of the pudding has the appearance of a honey-comb, and looks extremely pretty. The process is not difficult, but rather troublesome, as it requires time and patience.
