The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c

Macaroni makes a most nutritious and delicious pudding, and it can be strongly recommended for families - where the children require light but nourishing food. Take a pound of macaroni, wash it, and boil it in milk till tender. As far as possible, so regulate the quantity of milk that the macaroni, when boiled, will nearly absorb the whole of it. Next take a pie-dish, and, although it is not necessary, it is a great improvement to the appearance of the dish to surround the edge with puff paste. Next put the macaroni in the middle with some sugar ; add two or three eggs, according as the dish is required very rich ; take a little of the milk from the macaroni and beat the eggs up thoroughly, adding hot milk to the eggs, and then mix the whole well together. With regard to flavour, puddings of this kind may be flavoured in a variety of ways. For instance, I will mention essence of vanilla or lemonpeel. When the pudding is flavoured i with lemon-peel the best plan is to take a dozen or half a dozen lumps of sugar, rub them on the outside skin of the lemon, and then simply add the sugar which is thus flavoured with lemon-peel to the pudding, taking care that the sugar is thoroughly dissolved and mixed with the whole, otherwise one part will be more flavoured than another, and those parts most flavoured will be very bitter owing to the lemonpeel being concentrated. A very great improvement when lemon-peel is added in this way is to flavour the pudding with a small quantity of rum. Two tablespoonfuls of nun added to a macaroni pudding will give it a very rich and delicious flavour. The rum, lemon-peel, sugar, and egg together supply a cheap but most delicious dish. A little nutmeg should then be grated over the top, but avoid using too much. Macaroni pudding can also be flavoured with ginger, mace, or cinnamon ; but mace is very inferior to nutmeg. Orange-peel can also be used instead of lemon-peel. The sugar should be rubbed on the outside of the orange, but avoid using the juice of the orange or the juice of the lemon, as it will be apt to curdle the milk. When the pudding is properly flavoured let it be baked in the oven till the edges of the pastry are done. By this means the whole pudding will set, according to the quantity of eggs put in, more or less firmly, and it will some what resemble baked custard pudding, with the macaroni in the middle. This pudding is extremely nourishing. Another form is as follows The macaroni must be boiled in milk or water, sweetened and flavoured. An ordinary pudding-basin can now be lined with suetpaste, and the interior of the pudding filled with sweet-flavoured macaroni, exactly as if it were currants and raspberries, and the pudding tied up in a cloth and boiled in the ordinary way. Macaroni is sometimes used as an ornament for making a small dish of mince. Take, say, a cup or a very small basin. Suppose we have before us a rich dish of mince made from chicken or veal, -with mushrooms, etc. First butter the basin i somewhat thickly ; take a little macaroni, parboil it, and take it out of the water when it is sufficiently moist to be cut but still is somewhat hard. Now take the pipe macaroni and cut it into I little pieces about an eighth of an inch in length. This will make, of course, some minute rings.