KR

Macaroni au gratin.

Break two ounces of best Italian macaroni into a pint of highly seasoned stock, let it simmer until very tender. When done, toss it up with a small piece of butter, and add pepper and salt to taste; put on a dish. Sift over it some fried bread-crumbs and serve. If the macaroni is kept well covered with the stock, it will take about an hour to cook, but it should be tried from time to time, and never allowed to get pulpy.

Macaroni with Bacon.

Boil two ounces of streaked bacon, cut into dice, or chop it, and add it to macaroni prepared as above.

Macaroni with Onions.

Prepare macaroni as for au gratin. Fry two or three onions a delicate brown, boil them in gravy until tender, and mix with the macaroni. The onions may be plain boiled if preferred.

Savoury Macaroni Pudding.

Prepare macaroni as above, and finish as savoury rice pudding.

Macaroni with Cheese.

Boil two ounces of macaroni in half a pint of water, with an ounce of butter, until perfectly tender. If the water evaporates add a little more, taking care that the macaroni does not stick to the stewpan or become broken. When it is done, drain away the water, and stir in two ounces of good cheese grated, cayenne pepper, and salt to taste. Keep stirring until the cheese is dissolved; pour on to a hot dish and serve. A little butter may be stirred into the macaroni before the cheese, and is an improvement.

Savoury Rice Pudding.

Boil a teacupful of rice in a pint of good stock with an onion. Make a custard with half a pint of milk and one egg, season with pepper and salt, a little chopped parsley, and a shalot minced fine. Mix with the rice and bake in a slow oven.

Savoury Oatmeal Pudding.

Mix two ounces of fine Scotch oatmeal in a quarter of a pint of milk, add to it a pint of boiling milk, and stir over the fire for ten minutes. Then put in two ounces of sifted bread-crumbs, or as much as will make the mixture rather stiff. Take it off the fire and mix with it two ounces of suet, an onion minced finely, two eggs, and a teaspoonful of chopped marjoram and sage. Butter a Yorkshire pudding pan, put in the pudding, and bake for an hour in a moderate oven. Turn it out on to a hot dish, and have a little good gravy in a boat.

Savoury Tapioca.

Put two ounces of tapioca into a slow oven with a pint of stock, let it swell for an hour. Then mix with it two onions-boiled and rubbed to a purée-and half a pint of any kind of soup or gravy. Let it bake slowly for an hour. Serve with fried bread stuck round the dish.

Savoury Rice.

To prepare this in an economical manner, instead of using slices of streaked bacon, take the bones from which it has been cut, and on which very little meat remains. Scrape the under side of the bones, wash, and put them

into a saucepan with plenty of water, two or three onions,

When the bacon is done, mince it up very finely, add a breakfast-cupful of

and a carrot cut in rounds. take it off the bones, and return it to the liquor, and rice to each quart of water. Boil the rice until it has properly swelled, and has absorbed all the liquor ; add a little pepper and salt if necessary. This is generally much liked.

Savoury Bread Pudding.

Scald a French roll in half a pint of well seasoned gravy or milk in which two onions have been boiled. Beat it up and remove any lumps. Rub the onions to a purée and mix with the bread. A little potted meat, ham, or fish may be added, if convenient. Season the pudding; well beat up two eggs and mix with it. Bake in a quick oven.

A little gravy served with this is an improvement.

Fried Bread.

Considering how simple and delicious a thing this is, it is wonderful how seldom it appears on the tables of the middle classes. Poor people are well aware of its value, and with them it largely supplies the place of animal diet. The objection generally made to it is that it is rich, but if properly done it absorbs very little fat, and

may be eaten by delicate children, who are usually very fond of it. The first essential is to have plenty of boiling fat in a stewpan deep enough to hold a wire basket; the next that the bread shall not be too thick. When the fat is a proper temperature, lay as many pieces of bread, cut in neat shapes, half an inch thick or rather less, in the wire basket as will cover the bottom, and plunge it in; keep moving, and in less than a minute the bread will have assumed a rich golden colour-be just crisp, without being hard. Withdraw from the fat, and put the bread on paper to absorb any superfluous fat, and repeat the process of frying until you have enough sippets.

Fried Bread Crumbs.

Crumbs for this purpose, as well as for most others, should be passed through a fine wire sieve, and then dried in the oven. Put a quarter of pound of crumbs, with an ounce of butter, into a clean frying-pan; stir about with a spoon over the fire until they assume a golden colour. When done, turn them on to a sheet of paper, to free them from grease. Then season them with salt and cayenne pepper if to be eaten with game, or with salt alone if for gratins. These fried crumbs may be kept ready for use, and when required should be put into the oven to freshen them.

An easy way of preparing the

crumbs is to melt a little butter on a tin dish, mix the