Modern cookery, in all its branches

a half-teaspoonful of cayenne, and twice as much pounded mace ; clarify from two to three ounces of fresh butter, and put a small quantity into the basin, strew in a little of the cheese, and then lay in the first slice of the semoulina, on this put a thick layer of the cheese, moisten it with some drops of butter, and place the second slice upon it ; then more cheese and butter, and continue thus until all the semoulina is replaced in the basin ; put plenty of cheese upon the top, add the remainder of the clarified butter, and bake the mixture for about half an hour in a gentle oven. It should be of a fine golden colour when served. Turn it carefully into a dish, and send it instantly to table. A little rich brown gravy poured round might, to some tastes, improve it, but it is excellent without, and may be substituted for maccaroni, which it much resembles in flavour. It may be enriched by adding butter to the milk, or by mixing with it a portion of cream ; and it may be browned in a Dutch oven, when no other is in use. In Italy the flour of Indian corn, which is much grown there, and eaten by all ranks of people, is used for this dish ; but the semoulina is perhaps rather better suited to English taste and habits of diet, from being somewhat lighter and more delicate. The maize-flour imported from Italy is sold at the foreign warehouses here under the name of polenta * though that properly speaking is, we believe, a boiled or stewed preparation of it, which forms the most common food of the poorer classes of the inhabitants of many of the Italian states. It seems to us superior in quality to the Indian corn flour grown in America. New milk (or milk mixed with cream), 1 quart; salt, large t teaspoonful ; semoulina, 5 oz. : 10 minutes. Grated cheese, 6 to 8 oz. cayenne, \ teaspoonful ; mace, 1 small teaspoonful ; butter, 2 to 3 oz. baked \ hour, gentle oven. Obs. — A plain mould can be used instead of the basin. FOR VARIOUS MODES OF DRESSING EGGS, SEE CHAPTER XXII. * This was vended at a sufficiently high price in this country before the maize meal was so largely imported here from America. CHAPTER XX. §mlelr f oitMnp. GENERAL DIRECTIONS. All the ingredients for puddings should be fresh and of good quality. It is a false economy to use for them such as have been too long stored, as the slightest degree of mustiness or taint in any one of the articles of which they are composed will spoil all that are combined with it. Eggs should always be broken separately into a cup before they are thrown together in the same basin, as a single very bad one will occasion the loss of many when this precaution is neglected. They should also be cleared from the specks with scrupulous attention, either with the point of a small three-pronged fork while they are in the cup, or by straining the whole through a fine hair-sieve after they are beaten. The perfect sweetness of suet and milk should be especially attended to before they are mixed into a pudding, as nothing can be more offensive than the first when it is over-kept, nor worse in its effect than the curdling of the milk, which is the certain result of its being ever so slightly soured Pudding Mould [chap. xx.