The profession of cookery, from a French point of view

A very savoury hot dish is a Pate of Macaroni. For this half a dozen lengths of macaroni should be broken into small pieces and gently simmered in a pint of boiling water in which an onion and a little salt has boiled. Drain well, in about twenty minutes' time. Place a layer of macaroni at the bottom of a buttered pie-dish, sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over and a few bits of butter; then cover with pieces of beefsteak which has been previously stewed tender, the gravy thickened and browned and highly seasoned. Fricasseed chicken, veal cut small, or sweetbreads cut into dice, may take the place of beef, but should all have been previously stewed in good gravy. Another layer of macaroni and a covering of cheese should form a crust at the top ; then bake this pate for about ten minutes in the oven. Serve at once. Sweetbreads, either fried in eggs and breadcrumbs, fricasseed, or stewed in a brown sauce, are excellent at supper time, and are very suitable for persons of weak digestion. They should always be parboiled in salt and water, then thrown into cold water before being further dressed. Boiled fish is scarcely a dish for the suppertable, but small fish broiled over the fire with sauce, or '^ au gratin,'^ or even fried, are all acceptable. Pork meat and sausages should be avoided at this hour by the wise and prudent. Eggs are thought to be indigestible at night by many people, but if cooked with care they need not be feared. If done a la Maitre d' Hotel they are very savoury. A Spanish onion should be sliced thinly, frizzled slightly in butter, a little flour added, some hot milk, seasoning and chopped parsley; let this thicken. Take some eggs and lightly poach them ; then lay on toast, and pour this sauce over them. Eggs may be fricasseed by first boiling them hard ; then cutting them into slices and tossing tliein in tlie saute pan with butter, parsley, seasoning, etc., and adding a little cream, or, if preferred, a little gravy. Amongst Frencli people omelettes are much favoured as a supper dish. Cheese has rather a bad reputation with many people. If they would take the trouble to grate it and ^' sandwich '^ it between bread and butter, they would find it as harmless as it is tasty, and the recommendation given in Chap. IX. is worthy of attention. ^' Cheese fondue '' is a capital way of using up stale crusts of cheese, besides being another hot and savoury dish. — See Chap. IX. Cheese and cauliflowers, cheese and macaroni, cheese pates and cheese straws, are all muchliked dishes at the supper table. Where pastry is objected to, its place may be substituted by a light mixture of eggs, flour, butter, with a pinch of baking powder j the former ingredients in the proportion of a spoonful of flour and half one of butter to each Qgg, and a spoonful of milk. This may be baked in small buttered cups, or it may be poured on to two buttered plates and baked, jam or jelly being spread upon one while the other forms a cover, or it may be baked in one tin as a flat sheet; then spread with jam or marmalade^ and rolled up as for a Genoese roll. Sponge biscuits spread with jelly, placed in a glass dish, and a sweet custard or egg cream poured over, makes a very nice cold sweet dish. CHAPTER XX.