Cookery and housekeeping

Polenta is made of Indian corn meal ; the grain of Indian corn is so hard that some well-ripened kinds are called ' flint corn.' The mill stones used for grinding other grain may be used for Indian corn. The grain being larger than wheat, it is necessary that the stones should be kept wider apart and not driven too rapidly, for when the motion of the stones is too rapid, the meal becomes heated and injured : the cause of injury to the meal is its being ground too fine ; ' it kills or deadens the meal.' Polenta of Indian meal is made exactly like Scotch porridge. While the water is boiling, drop the flour in with one hand, stirring incessantly with the other with a wooden stick, until a stiff paste is formed, which takes about a quarter of an hour. Salt should also be added as it boils. Polenta should be more solid than porridge, and ought to cut into POLENTA. 341 firm slices with a knife or thread. These slices cut into small squares or lozenges, and fried in butter or oil, are sometimes served with toasted cheese, or brown gravy, when they form a substitute for a vegetable. They may be also used to garnish roast meat like Yorkshire pudding. Toasted crisply they are good as a garnish for dishes like stewed pigeons, or any other with which toasted bread is generally used. Polenta No. 2. Stir a quart of Indian corn meal into a quart of boiling water, add a little butter and some salt, boil it and stir without ceasing till it inclines to stick to the bottom of the saucepan ; now pour the polenta on to a round dish, and thence on to the proper dish, to serve with either meat or fruit. It may also when nearly cold be cut into thin slices, and laid on a tin thickly buttered ; between the successive layers strew some grated Parmesan cheese and some small pieces of butter. Bake for an hour in a moderately hot oven. In serving, carefully remove the fat. Polenta No. 3. To each pound of Indian meal add three tumblers of water (about i^ pints). The water must be boiling, and mixed gradually with the meal, stirring it all the time it is on the fire, lest it should form lumps. Add a little salt, and let it boil ten minutes. When cooked it may be eaten with milk. HOMINY. Indian Corn Porridge. (American Recipe.) To make a soup-plate full of porridge, put 2\ pints of water and a teaspoonful of salt in a saucepan on the fire ; when it boils scatter in with one hand about a pint of the Indian corn meal, stirring all the time with the other ; let it boil for nearly half an hour ; stir all the time. It makes a substantial breakfast or supper if boiled in milk or broth instead of water. 3^ lbs. of the meal make porridge for ten persons. If cooked in either milk or water, cold milk should be eaten with it. Hominy. (American Recipe.) Hominy is made of the broken grain of the Indian corn. It should be soaked overnight in warm water, changed in the morning to clean cold water and boiled gently for an hour and a half. When cold, warm it over, eat with milk, molasses, bacon, salt, or alone. Observe : that Indian corn requires thorough cooking in all its preparations, as if not sufficiently boiled or baked it loses its flavour and becomes indigestible. Boiled Hominy. (American Recipe.) If the large kind, soak overnight in cold water. HOMINY. 343