Cookery and housekeeping

Take small sardines, or if too large split them ; but the small ones make a neater dish ; let the oil drain away ; remove the skin and the tip of the tail, and give them a thin coating of Parmesan, grated very fine. Prepare strips of toast a size larger than the sardine. Butter the surface, place the sardine on it, and put the whole in the oven to warm, taking care that the toast does not get too crisp. Sardines en Papillote. Scrape, dry, and bone the sardines. Fill them with cold brown sauce, chopped mushrooms, and fine herbs, MACARONI. 263 and wrap in paper ; taking care to pinch over the ends of the paper, so that the sauce may not run out. Warm them through in the oven. Cheese Canapes. Cut into any form thin sHces of stale bread ; fry lightly in butter ; cover each canape (or cushion) with some grated Parmesan cheese which has been stirred with mustard and pepper ; set them before a hot fire till the cheese is dissolved. Dish up on a folded napkin ; serve hot, as all dishes in which there is cheese are ruined by being served tepid. Macaroni. The preliminary process is in all cases to break the macaroni into pieces of a moderate length, about two inches, and to stew it in salted boiling water for twenty minutes, or till it is tender, but not split open. It must then be allow^ed to drain, and as each piece has water in the inside of the tube, the draining must be very carefully attended to. In dressing macaroni it should be first boiled till tender, which is ascertained by trying if the paste breaks with its own weight. If a simple dish is desired, re-warm the macaroni with a small quantity of butter, which must not be allowed to do more than melt. Sprinkle some chopped parsley and serve hot. This is a useful breakfast dish. 264 MACARONI AU GRATIN, Macaroni au Gratin. Have ready a cream sauce, to which add grated Parmesan and Gruyere cheese ; the proportion being \ lb. cheese to i lb. macaroni, and milk or cream sauce enough to dilute. Warm the macaroni in this mixture, and then pour the whole into a shallow dish, cither china which will stand the oven or metal. Strew the surface with breadcrumbs and grated cheese and a very little melted butter ; finish in the oven or before the fire ; send up in its own dish on a dish the same shape but just a size larger. White or cayenne pepper, according to taste, may be mixed in the sauce. Macaroni and Tomatoes. Make a puree with fresh tomatoes, or with tomatoes preserved in tins, adding a small quantity of onion. Dilute the puree with stock, and work in a pat of butter ; re-warm the macaroni in this mixture and serve in a deep dish with fried croutons round. Chopped ham or tongue may be added. Macaroni Timbale. Line a plain mould with paste. Fill it with macaroni prepared in sauce as before, adding small dice of chicken and tongue, or veal and tongue. Fasten the paste cover neatly and tightly on at the TAGLIARINI. 265 edge, and bake in an oven for an hour. Serve on a napkin. The timbale will stand on what was the bottom of the mould, and the top must be scored round just inside the edge, so as to form a lid, which is lifted back when the spoon is inserted. Tagliarini. (Italian Recipe.)