Jane Hamilton's recipes

Rub a little flour and fresh butter together, add a little salt and pepper and one pint of cream, and one fried onion and parsley, cut up and stewed together two or three minutes. Take twelve hard-boiled eggs and cut in slices ; grate some stale bread, a little over a pint when grated ; put in a deep dish, taking a layer of crumbs and a layer of eggs until all are in the dish, a layer of crumbs on the top; season with pepper and salt; pour in on each layer the stewed cream; bake in the oven with a quick heat until a light brown. HOMINY, BOILED. Take two quarts of hominy and pour on it four quarts of cold water the night before you intend boiling it, and let it soak until the next morning; or put it in soak six or eight hours before boiling it. Put it on to boil in an iron pot in the same water in which it has been soaked, adding eight quarts of cold water. When it commences to boil, or after it has boiled a few minutes, skim off the foam that rises to the top. Let the hominy boil for three and a half hours in a covered vessel. If it boils over and it should be necessary to add more water, the water that is added must be boiling. The above quantity of water is sufficient for boiling the hominy unless it boils over or the pot is left uncovered. It must not be allowed to stop boiling for one moment, or it will take longer than three hours and a (62) half; when the hominy is done it is almost dry. It should be taken out of the pot and beaten in a wooden tray with a strong wooden beater. It may be served up hot with an abundance of butter, or it may be put away to get cold for frying. When it is to be fried put it in an iron vessel and make hot; put in a slice of butter and salt sufficient to season; have a frying-pan heated with a sufficient quantity of lard in it, put in the hominy and fry to a light brown. Boiled hominy should be kept in a cool place. It will keep for four or five days in cool weather. Before the hominy is put to soak preparatory to boiling, it must be well washed in cold water. If allowed to stand for a few minutes in the water in which it is washed, the impurities will rise to the top, and may be easily poured off with the water. If the hominy is rather too stiff or dry, when you fry it put in some cream instead of butter. Cream put in the boiled hominy with the butter is very good. (63) MACARONI. Take half a pound of macaroni and soak it in cold water for half an hour. Boil it for about an hour, not longer. Then spread layers of macaroni in the dish with butter and grated cheese between. Also put in a little mustard and season highly with salt and black pepper. Put half a pound of cheese and six ounces of butter to half a pound of macaroni. Bake for about half an hour. Macaroni may be boiled in milk and served up without baking. MUSHROOMS. Take the fresh-gathered mushrooms, remove the stems, and peel off the top skin. Wash them and put them on to stew in a stewpan either brass- or porcelain-lined. Put very little water with them; let them stew for an hour or until they are entirely done, season with salt and black pepper, and put in plenty of butter. Another way of cooking mushrooms is to broil them. For (64)