Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management

Cheese crusts and cheese straws make an acceptable accompaniment for any green salad, or for celery. To prepare cheese straws, sift six ounces of flour on the pastryboard, make a hole in the centre, into which put the yolk of a raw egg or two tablespoonfuls of cream, three heaping tablespoonfuls of any dry rich cheese, grated, an equal quantity of butter, half a level teaspoonful of salt, quarter of a saltspoonful of white pepper, a dust of cayenne, and a very little grated nutmeg. Mix these ingredients with the tips of the fingers to a smooth paste, which can be rolled out an eighth of an inch thick. If the cream and butter do not furnish moisture enough to form the paste, add a very little cold milk or water. When the paste is rolled out, cut it in small strips about six inches long, with a sharp knife or with the pastry-wheel; lay the strips or RELISHES (HORS-D'ŒUVRES). 253 Straws on a buttered baking-pan, in straight rows, a little apart, and set the pan in a moderate oven ; the straws will cook within a few minutes, and must be watched carefully, because, if they are allowed to brown, their flavor will be spoiled ; they need to bake only long enough to slightly harden them, but not to become at all brown. When they are done, let them cool on the pan, and then transfer them to the dish on which they are to be served, taking care to lift them by slipping under them the flexible blade of a long, thin knife, for they are very brittle. Cheese crusts are small slices of bread covered with grated cheese, seasoned with salt and pepper, and browned in a hot oven. CHEESE PUFFS. Grate half a pound of any dry, rich cheese. Butter a dozen small paper cases, or little boxes of stiff writing-paper, like those shown farther on in the picture of souffle cases. Put over the fire a thick saucepan containing a gill of water ; add two tablespoonfuls of butter, and, when the water boils, stir in one heaping tablespoonful of flour, and beat the mixture until it cleaves away from the sides of the saucepan ; then stir in the grated cheese ; remove the paste thus made from the fire, and let it partly cool ; meantime separate the yolks from the whites of three eggs, and beat them until the yolks foam and the whites make a stiff froth ; then first stir the yolks with the paste, and next lightly mix in the whites ; put the mixture at once into the buttered paper cases, filling them only half full, as they rise very high while being baked ; and bake them in a moderate oven for about fifteen minutes : as soon as the puffs are done, put the cases on a hot dish covered with a folded napkin, and serve them very hot. Served with celery they will make a course at a regular dinner, after the game ; or they may replace a sweet dessert at a plain dinner. POTTED CHEESE. Grate two pounds of old cheese : pound it in a mortar to a smooth paste with a quarter of a pound of butter, a saltspoonful of powdered mace, a teaspoonful of salt, and a glass of sherry ; pack the cheese in earthen jars, cover it with clarified butter, ^ which is butter melted at a gentle heat, and poured carefully away from the sediment, — and keep it in a cool place. EASTER EGGS.